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Why are there so many apps that could be websites? (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by sir_pronoun@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Seriously. I don't want to install something on my phone when the dev is just using a WebView, if that's what it's called. When the app is basically just a website with the browser hidden.

What's the reason for that? To attach the customer? To sell the app for money? Is there more ad revenue that way? Do you reach more people?

(Are there any good reasons for it, too? Security, maybe?)

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[-] JackLSauce@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I worked at a company that wanted to kill their app (just a web view for the site anyway) but trying to convince all the users to move proved unfeasible

I suppose having a dedicated "launch this website" button has some level of convenience over typing out the URL

[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Someone needs to teach these people how to make a button on their phone that is linked to a bookmark

[-] havocpants@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

I've just gone through this pain with my company. It took 14 months to finally get rid of the app and the pushback from users was horrendous.

We eventually broke the app to the point that all it did in the end was show a page that made users open the site in their mobile browser and use the "Add to home page" feature present in mobile Safari, Chrome and Firefox to put an icon on the homepage like an app.

Absolutely worth it though to not have to deal with Apple's developer hostile and shitty app tools/ecosystem while paying for the privilege. I don't miss having to deal with the "moving target" nature of Android and iOS either where everything breaks or has a new API every 5 minutes. Mobile browsers are so capable now with javascript APIs to access most of the device hardware so apps really aren't as necessary as they once were.

this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024

460 points (97.3% liked)

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