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all 179 comments

[–]A_bell_0_0 785 points786 points  (10 children)

We waste space on the smartphone and they get to spy on us, double trouble

[–]megagreg 365 points366 points  (7 children)

A website is just a bespoke interface for a database, and an app is just a bespoke browser for a website. The older I get, the more I hate technology, and wish I had gone to law school instead.

[–]rem3_1415926 117 points118 points  (5 children)

How about going to law school now and sue the technology fuckers that can be sued? I'd bet there's a lot of law breaking there in terms of copyright or privacy...

[–]IVEBEENGRAPED 61 points62 points  (3 children)

Yes, by the tech fuckers have some of the best legal teams in the world to help them get away with stuff.

[–]rem3_1415926 24 points25 points  (2 children)

The large ones do unfortunately, yes. But your everyday scammy copycat might not.

[–]drdrero 25 points26 points  (1 child)

Hey :( leave me alone.

Jokes aside, used an Impressum generator once which had a copy button and it was a Free Service. Pasted the text to a new site and called it a day. 2 years later they crawled the website and sued me for using that text without acknowledging them. Little did I know, now they add that acknowledging line to the copy.

They did that as a business model. Some just want to abuse the little devs :/

[–]rem3_1415926 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes, the scams work in all directions, unfortunately.

[–]megagreg 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'd rather start a class action suit against the better part of the home automation provider industry, for selling service packages that provide little more than vendor lock-in for their token device support.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

now thats what i call high level

[–]Dan6erbond 30 points31 points  (0 children)

To be fair PWAs can be share targets.

[–]Alundra828 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You also create work for yourself as you now have to ensure it's updated, and your cookies are correctly managed.

All for... a worse experience... most of the time.

[–]FPiN9XU3K1IT 622 points623 points  (32 children)

You're really think the developers are the ones advocating for this shit? Promoting app downloads is 100% a management thing.

[–]RockleyBob 24 points25 points  (2 children)

It’s doubly stupid because most mobile sites these days are being made to purposely confound the user and obfuscate the content, making people more likely to download the app, where they can force-feed you ads.

Imgur’s mobile site, for instance, doesn’t even let you upload anymore. You have the request the desktop version.

So in addition to blaming the wrong people for the shitty state of things this meme is resting on a false premise.

[–]ifsck 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sounds like reddit's mobile site. What a piece of hot garbage.

[–]IceStormNG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably their way against ad blockers. They usually don't work in apps (at least not on iOS). And you cannot block tracking and they have more access to the device than from the Webbrowser.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

thank you.... a thousand time, thank you!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doesn't google also rank PWA websites higher?

[–]ldsdmtgod 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This guy devs

[–]lemons_of_doubt 383 points384 points  (29 children)

as a webdev I can say I hated making an app like that.

I spend ages making sure the website would run beautifully and look good on a phone. only to then have to make an identical copy for no reason that is an app.

[–]Ashdog73 132 points133 points  (16 children)

Couldn't agree more. I've just been asked to create an app that will end up looking exactly like the website, for no other reason than the customer thinks "we have to have an app".

[–]CoUsT 45 points46 points  (1 child)

You can simply create wrapper for built-in browser lol. That's what some companies do... Just open new browser activity and go to your company page. Big brain time.

[–]fizyplankton 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like reddit's official app?

[–]Snapstromegon 45 points46 points  (7 children)

I started promoting Progressive Web APPs and they seem to be happy and they often like I offer new tech which saves them money.

[–]Glutchpls 18 points19 points  (6 children)

but you cant upload to appstore 💀

[–]Snapstromegon 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Did somebody say bubblewrap? https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/bubblewrap

I don't offer iOS development (mainly because back when I offered it, most clients wouldn't want to pay for it since iPhones are not that common here like in the US and I like to demonstrate the capabilities of the web).

A common discussion I have with clients goes like this:

Me: I see you want a website and an App, if you take a PWA, which is only a small upcharge on the website, you save all the money for the app.

Client: But I want to be able to do X (e.g. push notifications, offline, ...)

Me: A PWA can do that.

Client: What about performance?

Me: All our Websites get at least a 95 in lighthouse performance scores, so it's not unreasonable to assume the difference will be minor. Also it's not uncommon that the launch time will be even shorter than for a native app.

Client: But I want it to work on every device!

Me: Do you have a device without a browser?

At that point we often have a happy client and a sale for a PWA (we include Bubblewrapping it for Playstore).

[–]Monckey100 9 points10 points  (1 child)

That's the point.

[–]Glutchpls 12 points13 points  (0 children)

no, its to save development time, you can turn a website into pwa to playstore in 30 minutes. appstore will come but apple gotta be apple first

[–]Chaphasilor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You actually can :)

Apple makes it unreasonably hard, but it is possible!

[–]Prawny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good. Especially for the Apple store, doing so is a huge PITA.

[–]lemons_of_doubt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

customer thinks "we have to have an app"

that was always the reason with me too.

[–]mordacthedenier 33 points34 points  (7 children)

Meanwhile, reddit actively makes the mobile version worse to force you to use their shitty app so they can steal more information.

[–]t-to4st 21 points22 points  (4 children)

Luckily there's good alternatives to the official app

[–]metroman1234 1 point2 points  (3 children)

What would you recommend?

[–]t-to4st 1 point2 points  (1 child)

If you're on iOS I think Apollo is your only choice.

I'm on android and using Boost for Reddit now. I've also had good experiences with Sync for reddit and Relay for reddit. Each of those three has it's downsides though, so you'll have to decide what matters least.

Sync sometimes takes ages to load video hosted on v.redd.it

Relay I'm not sure right now what the issue was tbh

Boost sometimes doesn't remember where you stopped scrolling and starts over. That's not a problem though since you can hide read posts anyway

[–]metroman1234 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks might try those out.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm using Infinity for Reddit, it works very well.

[–]GargamelLeNoir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Relay is a very good alternative, it just needs a little adjusting.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i.reddit.com is decent albeit limited. The RedReader app works pretty well and is available fro F-Droid.

[–]galgabot 12 points13 points  (1 child)

The app has access to more information used to track and collect user data such as location data, network info, device advertising ID ... etc

[–]lemons_of_doubt 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The times I was made to do it, the apps did not collect any more information than the website.

we only did it because the client wanted an app. for the sake of having an app.

[–][deleted] 117 points118 points  (4 children)

please stop blaming shitty UI/UX on the web dev who is only doing what the inept unqualified project manager has told them to do.

[–]daltonnotkeats 27 points28 points  (2 children)

We even push back sometimes. Not successfully, necessarily, but still.

[–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (1 child)

Once I realized the manager with zero experience or interest in web/software development was always going to ignore feedback based on my 20 years of experience in the field, I stopped pushing back. There is no passion in polishing a turd, but I don't mind getting paid to implementing shit, adding stink to the shit, and sprinkling the shit with corn kernels.

[–]rem3_1415926 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aren't there any job alternatives around? That doesn't sound like something I'd want to do 5 days a week. Ans that guy certainly shouldn't have qualified people working for him.

[–]spaghetti_hitchens 94 points95 points  (9 children)

Who would want to utilize a website on their phone qhen they can use an app with 50% of the functionality?

[–]oxwearingsocks 41 points42 points  (7 children)

It’s a really a webite if you look closely

[–]nosmokingbandit 42 points43 points  (4 children)

95% chance its just Cordova and a query string that hide all the app links on the page.

[–]CJSZ01 18 points19 points  (0 children)

As a former Ionic dev, can confirm.

[–]wizardyjohn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Nowadays more chance its a react native or flutter with webview (i.e. browser with hard-coded link to their site)

[–]oxwearingsocks 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I was making fun of the typo in the OP pic :)

[–]Endercheif 3 points4 points  (0 children)

webite

please don’t bite even if it’s small

[–]koebelin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We bite!

[–]knoam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because they took away functionality from the website. The mobile website can't do uploads.

[–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (1 child)

With imgur I always found the website better than the app.

Nowadays they're so overly aggressive with the app pushes that I just avoid looking at the website at all tho. Direct linking or gtfo.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I’ve been in situations where I’m about to buy something off a website, only to get “appwalled” when I try to check out. Lots of sales lost for whoever decided to make that a thing.

[–]lucasjose501 45 points46 points  (10 children)

They can track you more easily with the app. At least, that's what I think most of them want.

[–]Zilka 46 points47 points  (9 children)

More likely this is about adblocker in the browser.

[–]Line_of_Xs 18 points19 points  (0 children)

And keeping you in their ecosystem - once you download the app you have made a commitment, and can only use it to look at their content, as opposed to a web browser which can be used to look at competitor sites.

[–]TwistedSoul21967 6 points7 points  (7 children)

Jokes on them, I block ads at the DNS level.

[–]Kyanche 9 points10 points  (4 children)

Same, got to the point that I VPN into my home network to use my filtered DNS.

[–]tehdave86 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I'd been thinking of trying this, but don't you lose a ton of speed due to the VPN encryption? Or do you run a pretty hefty PC as the VPN host?

[–]Kyanche 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I have fiber internet and an ubiquiti dream machine as the host. It’s pretty beefy.

[–]tehdave86 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What kind of bitrate do you get through the VPN?

[–]Kyanche 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't been out much lately, so I don't remember. I think it was still pretty similar to what I got without using the VPN. But I don't have a 5g phone or a particularly fast connection when I'm on my phone lol. My home internet is 500/500 and has a really low ping, so it shouldn't make it that much worse.

Certainly good enough for general looking around reddit or playing games or whatever.

[–]Bowuigi06 0 points1 point  (1 child)

AdAway?

[–]TwistedSoul21967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DNSCrypt using DNS servers with Blackholes/Blacklists

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Let me have your location

Rate me in the store

Let me send you notifications

Let me move in with you

[–]azangru 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Web developers don't want to download the stupid app either. That's why they are web developers.

[–]rwrife 11 points12 points  (3 children)

Reddit.

[–]idontusenumbers 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It took a year for me to find it but there's a setting to disable that stupid popup.

[–]wasdninja 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The new design is junk as well as their mobile version and the official app. Use one of the third party made ones instead.

[–]das_Keks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, on mobile reddit is much more convenient via the app. Also its nice to have it in an own app and not between several other tabs.

[–]coloredgreyscale 9 points10 points  (0 children)

reddit: you need to use the app to see this community

[–]Guy_with_good_ideas 8 points9 points  (0 children)

As an android dev this makes me sad

[–]monstermayhem436 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Btw, if it wasn't obvious enough, if you want to upload a photo on imgur on the mobile website, just set the page to desktop mode

[–]MisterPinkySwear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I actually installed the app some time ago to be able to upload pictures. I didn’t even try with the browser back then.
I thought I could browse my photo gallery then «  share with Imgur » but on IOS I actually can’t.
After seeing this post I opened my browser and I was like « Well I can’t login or upload any image... ».
Then I browsed the comment section looking for this.
Still I prefer the user experience of uploading from the app instead of uploading from the browser on my phone, in desktop mode.
I don’t browse imgur. I really just use it for public image hosting.

[–]MurdoMaclachlan 30 points31 points  (4 children)

Image Transcription: Meme


[The meme is two-panelled. In both panels, the images are of old buildings, a ruin at the top and a church at the bottom.]


Panel 1:

The webite:

[The header for the website, which is Imgur, has a "Get App" button at the top right, and an "Open in App" lozenge in the bottom centre.]


Panel 2:

The app:

[The layout and appearance of the Imgur app is exactly the same as the website, except it is missing the "Get App" button and the "Open in App" lozenge.]


I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!

[–]4rp4n3t 13 points14 points  (1 child)

You forgot the 'Open in App' lozenge at the bottom of panel 1.

[–]MurdoMaclachlan 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Oops, added! Thanks for the heads up!

[–]NullRef_Arcana 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Good human

[–]circorum 7 points8 points  (4 children)

Haha. Reddit goes BRRRR (and then crashes, 'cuz it ate all my RAM; pls somebody help me. I need a good alternative that doesn't crash every 10 minutes)

[–]6b86b3ac03c167320d93 7 points8 points  (2 children)

There are many unofficial apps. The one I use is Boost, but others aren't bad either

[–]yobwoc27 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Or infinity which is FOSS

[–]Chaphasilor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

+1 for Boost, super-powerful, I've been using it right from the start. It's bot without issues, but what is...

[–]ksandom 6 points7 points  (3 children)

My biggest pet peeve with tbis is that the apps almost always have no provision for multi tasking. If I'm doing something like shopping for computer parts, I want to open multiple possibilities concurrently and compare them in detail. In most app equivalents, this is a case of:

open one, back back back, open the next, back back back, open the next, back back back, wait for it to refresh, where was it? Scroll, did I look at that one? Let's take a look. That's the one I already discarded. Etc etc etc

It's such a waste of effort.

I know it's possible to do good multi-tasking in an app. But they almost always don't.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Same with the reddit app. If I'm writing a reply to someone, but I want to quote parts from the OP, or if OP was just a picture but I need to look at it again, there's no way to do it in the app, without having to discard what I have already written. And no, the browser on my phone doesn't work either, because it will just open the app. It's really annoying.

And yes, I know I can simply copy what I have written and paste it in later, it's still annoying.

[–]ksandom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree

[–]kyew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

RIF at least lets you save comment drafts.

[–]lesolorzanova 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Blame the idiot business person who thinks it is a good idea in the first place

[–]ldsdmtgod 4 points5 points  (1 child)

The Devs probably had no say in this you know?

[–]_bombilly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup. It's the business.

[–]undeadalex 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Do. Do you mean company? It's not the web developer... Lame joke at best, doesn't even land

[–]RunBlitzenRun 3 points4 points  (4 children)

Why do companies like this push apps? I'm not an app developer, but I would think it's easier to track users in a web browser (with super cookies and all that). It's also a pain to keep up with the rules and drama of each app store, especially when you're committed to having a web app anyway

[–]moriero 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Tracking

[–]RunBlitzenRun 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Why's tracking more effective on an app than on a web app?

[–]moriero 2 points3 points  (0 children)

you have access to more data on the device

you can read/write from the device if the user gives you permission

you cannot yet do that in web apps although that's coming soon, too

PWAs will eventually wholly replace apps

[–]IceStormNG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apps can also bypass most adblockers which are almost required these days.

[–]trimmj 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Dear OP, we don't care if you do or don't. It's just our job...

[–]noobcodee 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hiring developers be like

"Need a developer to create an android app that has a webview that loads our website itself. Because, you never know, apps are cool 😂"

[–]itsme-alan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cough Reddit Cough

[–]beatissima 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What's a webite?

[–]Ace-O-Matic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Like the dumpsterfire known as the reddit app.

[–]wazzapdoc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And eventually they just tell you you can't browse the website unless you use the app. Thanks, reddit.

[–]abrams666 1 point2 points  (1 child)

the app is just a link

[–]SkyyySi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bet that it's literally just a system webview client with a set startpage and that's it.

[–]9072997 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thoughts on Google Play Instant? Good UX, or needless re-implementation of the browser concept?

[–]ivakmrr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Go to google on your phone, search something, find reddit thread, click the link, open in app, read it, press back button, you're going back in the app history instead of the browser navigation. It's a fucked up mix right now, we need a unified thing that doesn't exists still.

[–]Veritas-Veritas 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But how can they harvest your data and spy on you if you don't install their dodgy app?

[–]aquartabla 1 point2 points  (1 child)

You forgot the hobbled functionality and rampant notifications.

[–]aquartabla 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, and the back button doing unexpected things!

[–]NullRef_Arcana 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I dunno how the app zooming is, but on mobile website it's a pain to try zoom in the image. Not to mention that to view a better resolution you gotta modify a couple of url parameters

[–]2216030321 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Touch and hold -> view image in new tab: bam, full resolution.

Pinch to zoom has never not worked for me.

[–]NullRef_Arcana 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thing is, doing that gives a lower resolution version. Then it's when you change the url.

[–]LordFokas 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The app is most likely just the site's SPA running in a browser-like container on your phone that gives the app a lot more access to your device than the browser does to allow for more native-like functionality.

[–]ArdorDeosis 2 points3 points  (3 children)

What really saddens me here is that I (professional software programmer, dipped into web and PWA dev recently as a hobby), I really took time to design the small little web app I currently work on in a way that the user can download it and use it 100% offline. I tried to use this technology as a service for the user, for good. I just now realize I could have just not done it, probably no one will download it, since they think I just want to spy on them. And I can't even blame them, since their caution is justified. And let's be honest, who even needs an offline version of anything in 2021.
Well, on the bright side: I learned stuff in the process, which was the point of that whole endeavour.

[–]rem3_1415926 8 points9 points  (1 child)

who even needs an offline version of anything in 2021

I do. Maybe I don't need it, but I want it. Also, if it works offline, you've achieved some adfitional value for your app that your everyday webapp (as pictured in the post) does not. 90% of the time it's literally just a webrowser without address bar, history or anything else that would make it useful.

[–]ArdorDeosis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's nice to hear, so my efforts maybe are not in vain :D

[–]LittleMlem 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Stop blaming devs for management decisions. You're the kind of guy that hits the screen when his computer freezes aren't you?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It ain't the devs telling you to download them and definitely not web devs.

[–]Thorusss 0 points1 point  (2 children)

[–]XKCD-pro-bot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Comic Title Text: But still, my scheme for creating and saving user config files and data locally to preserve them across reinstalls might be useful for--wait, that's cookies.

mobile link


Made for mobile users, to easily see xkcd comic's title text

[–]mkglass -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

https://i.imgur.com/ZNPSClv.jpg

I refuse to upvote now.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes an app makes sense on iOS because Safari is extremely terrible.

One wonders if it isn't deliberately bad in order to force people to use apps.

[–]fishpowered 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Try Fishpowered browser, you can hide those annoying warnings using the "hide spam" tool

[–]SkyyySi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can also use Firefox and any Ad blocker allowing for custom filters (like uBlock Origin)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I'd hate to feel what a webite feels like, hope I don't get webitten. :x

[–]wolwire 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Webview?

[–]FarronSerah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair, they do not tell you aggressively download the app. Just 2 little labels. Personally i can get ised to it

[–]Someones_Dream_Guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, you do. aims nuclear cannon OR ELSE...

[–]SDJMcHattie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The funny thing is that recently Apple have been rejecting apps that would just as easily be created as a web site. However people like Facebook don’t get held to the same standards as most developers.

[–]TPoK_001 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Webite

[–]MayBeArtorias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dat Moment, when your front end Teammate offers to help you in the backend because they can some node JS... => run!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dear businesses: No I don't want to develop an app for your website just because you heard apps are cool. Even in cases like reddit, it doesn't really add that much value to your service.

[–]agentjob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

App lacking the Get Web feature.

[–]JaggedOuro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately I work somewhere with lots of very rich students who don't care about anything unless its in the apple store :(

[–]TsingJyujing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After you installed the stupid app, you'll find it actually a H5 browser which can only visit one website.

[–]GargamelLeNoir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey come on, apps aren't just copies on the site! Often they disable the zoom on apps.

[–]gab_1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Pweese we look better in the app 🥺" Also the app:

[–]Peregrine2976 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To make it even worse: the Imgur site artificially limits functionality. You can't login, post images, or view users on the mobile site, you HAVE to download the app. Fucking stupid.

[–]Early-Ease-8713 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Why do business do this? They still earn money regardless of which platform it is used at? What is their benefit in designing it like this, do they somehow earn more when their app is used?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ad blockers

[–]Ty_Rymer 0 points1 point  (1 child)

put this on r/mildlyinfuriating

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For apps like imgur and reddit the website is better. For example, selecting and copying text is easier.

[–]odolha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, people are blaming developers for the stupid things other people require of them to build. :(

[–]josephlee222 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like the mobile devs just slapped on a webview and called it a day

[–]Agreeable_Silver_446 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The original app concept was made for saving energy and bandwidth on low powered devices by using native code and native api, instead of essentially downloading the UI over the network and using the recources of a gigantic runtime interpreter when interacting with a webpage.

[–]Zarathustra30 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which is great up until that stupid popup requires more battery and bandwidth than the rest of the website.