4 ms·
Most of this is the fault of apple and google. We could have native style apps that load in and out like webpages, and have them load in as parts that come in
by novok 2y ago
Most of this is the fault of apple and google. We could have native style apps that load in and out like webpages, and have them load in as parts that come in and out too! If we were using objective C, they might even be smaller to load than an equivalent web page.
But we don't due to the app model being profitable as a choke point for the os makers. Web GUIs are worse on mobile than the equivalent app, and there are many things that just gated off that you don't get in the web guis, and thus everything stays as an app, while many apps would work fine as this kind of dynamically loaded native app without any 'store' you would need to go to, just a url you load. The android activity model especially lends itself to acting this way too.
But app clips and google play features you may say. They are too restrictive and clunky, and google play features still need a base app to work.
- al_borland 2y agoTo be fair, it was the users and developers who asked for this when the original iPhone launched. Apple’s plan was to have web apps be the way forward for accessing anything outside of the pre-installed apps.
- HKH2 2y agoApp designers try too hard to be simple (or whatever it is they're trying to do), and the widgets are often useless or not the ones you want. I don't trust app developers to choose sane options, because they're trying to make an 'experience' or something. My homescreen has more links to webpages than apps, because they can give me info faster than apps/widgets. I don't have to see the news/ads/videos or 'what's new' modal windows like I usually have to with popular apps. (That said, open source apps tend to be far more sensible. F-Droid has got a lot of hidden gems.)