4 ms·

The site that irks me the most here is New York Times. Opening an article in the mobile browser often has a toast over the bottom third of the article to open i

The site that irks me the most here is New York Times. Opening an article in the mobile browser often has a toast over the bottom third of the article to open it in their app for "a better experience". I struggle to think how nytimes isn't a perfect fit for a site over an app. The only frustrating experience I have with the web version that would be better in the app is not seeing that that pop-up.

cush 6mo ago
NYT occasionally uses fancy interactive articles. They have games, and other things that are better on the app. The NYT app is actually very good
- adzm 6mo ago
  Every time I end up trying an app for things like this, I end up missing tabs.
  - tcoff91 6mo ago
    There is no reason they can’t have a native tab navigator. It kills me that Google maps app doesn’t have tabs.
  - cush 6mo ago
    Yeah true. Tabs, history, etc on the browser are unparalleled.
- tuckerman 6mo ago
  For games I agree that an app makes sense (though I think at least the games I used to play were in a separate nyt games app). For interactive articles, I've not seen anything I couldn't use fine in my browser, but in theory I wouldn't mind covering up the interactive part with a "Open in the app for a better experience" button (similar to what YouTube does on the video portion of the page). Where I encounter this though is in standard, text-heavy articles that maybe include a photo or two. I assume the reason they are pushing me to the app is that it benefits them not me (longer dwell times, maybe easier tracking for behavior/ads), and that is precisely why I want to stay in the browser. Covering up a good portion of the article and preventing me from scrolling until I click the tiny link to decline is hostile and is the only thing degrading the experience on the website for most articles I read.
xixixao 6mo ago
Also they only have dark mode in the app, even though the app is (or was) clearly not native anyway.
ethagnawl 6mo ago
I recently signed up for a membership (you can now supposedly cancel without making a phone call; WaPo has officially died in darkness) and this has been driving me mad, too. If I'm paying for your service, you should not be degrading my experience using UX anti-patterns in any way, for any reason.
skybrian 6mo ago
Having signed up for the New York Times recently, they're surprisingly hostile towards new customers: - Autoplaying videos on the front page with no pause button. I expect video from CNN, but not a newspaper. That's not what I'm there for. - They send you many "introductory" emails with no way to unsubscribe. I mostly gave up on the front page, but it's marginally useful for reading the occasional article linked to from elsewhere.
Tangurena2 6mo ago
An HN post from last month discussed some of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390945 NYT is one of the worst offenders.

cush 6mo ago

NYT occasionally uses fancy interactive articles. They have games, and other things that are better on the app. The NYT app is actually very good

adzm 6mo ago
Every time I end up trying an app for things like this, I end up missing tabs.
- tcoff91 6mo ago
  There is no reason they can’t have a native tab navigator. It kills me that Google maps app doesn’t have tabs.
- cush 6mo ago
  Yeah true. Tabs, history, etc on the browser are unparalleled.
tuckerman 6mo ago
For games I agree that an app makes sense (though I think at least the games I used to play were in a separate nyt games app). For interactive articles, I've not seen anything I couldn't use fine in my browser, but in theory I wouldn't mind covering up the interactive part with a "Open in the app for a better experience" button (similar to what YouTube does on the video portion of the page). Where I encounter this though is in standard, text-heavy articles that maybe include a photo or two. I assume the reason they are pushing me to the app is that it benefits them not me (longer dwell times, maybe easier tracking for behavior/ads), and that is precisely why I want to stay in the browser. Covering up a good portion of the article and preventing me from scrolling until I click the tiny link to decline is hostile and is the only thing degrading the experience on the website for most articles I read.

xixixao 6mo ago

Also they only have dark mode in the app, even though the app is (or was) clearly not native anyway.

ethagnawl 6mo ago

I recently signed up for a membership (you can now supposedly cancel without making a phone call; WaPo has officially died in darkness) and this has been driving me mad, too. If I'm paying for your service, you should not be degrading my experience using UX anti-patterns in any way, for any reason.

skybrian 6mo ago

Having signed up for the New York Times recently, they're surprisingly hostile towards new customers: - Autoplaying videos on the front page with no pause button. I expect video from CNN, but not a newspaper. That's not what I'm there for. - They send you many "introductory" emails with no way to unsubscribe. I mostly gave up on the front page, but it's marginally useful for reading the occasional article linked to from elsewhere.

Tangurena2 6mo ago

An HN post from last month discussed some of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390945 NYT is one of the worst offenders.