Hacker News Reader

Comment by rhacker | Hacker News Reader

We're definitely at the point in history where we have to get out of these app stores. I get it if you're doing a game or something that's fine, stay in the app store. But I don't know how many times I've been extremely frustrated with a website telling me to get their app.

* They break my in-browser password store

* They introduce extremely complicated "app-only" device links for Oauth

* Updating your UI for most apps shouldn't require an app-store push (don't talk to me about ionic)

This is the same fight but different players that we're currently facing in getting away from Social Platforms.

View on HN

Yep, I hear you. Unfortunately, the status quo today is, that's where the users are.

I love the free and opened web. I want it to win. I think it will win and eat native apps (PWAs are already making that happen.)

But the barriers to this right now are 1) app stores are where users are and 2) some mobile platforms (read: Apple) have a perverse incentive to cripple web apps so that submitting native apps to their store (and thus, paying them $99/year + 30% in-app purchases) is required to have a first-class experience.

Unfortunately, the status quo today is, that's where the users are.

I've seen a few people make this argument, but no real data. Does anyone have any relevant stats about web vs. app store sales, perhaps the ratios between customer numbers and/or revenues through different channels, that they'd be willing to share?

The number of registered users per day has tripled since I added my app to all 3 app stores. Most of the registrations come from Android.

Interesting, thanks. Would you mind sharing whether your revenues changed by about the same factor?

> 2) some mobile platforms (read: Apple)

You mean Google. Android webviews are VERY slow. Tha comnpound with the overall bad android OS (terrible privacy and security, terrible overal performance).

> Android webviews are VERY slow

Huh?

Since KitKat I think, WebView is updatable (and is on the App Store), plus browsers like Chrome and Firefox can provide their own WebView implementation. Most people with non-ancient phones are probably using Chrome's engine in all WebViews.

And also, old engine doesn't even mean "slow".

Only Apple used to an actual problem here, because for a long long time there was no JS JIT in WebViews.

That is the theory. Hold a iPhone and and android and run the same web-browser apps and look for yourself.

I have tested several demos by ionic, framework7, etc... is amazing how slow are androids...

My guess is that the difference in speed is mostly due to hardware, not the browser.

Apple hardware benchmarks well beats Android hardware: http://browser.geekbench.com/mobile-benchmarks

Given Safari can optimise for a single GPU target (which is also probably faster), it is likely the speed differences are not due to the browsers per se.

And that is the reality for a large section of users.

Android webviews are WAY better. Not only in terms of performance but specially in terms of standard behaviour.

I've been dealing with UIWebView and WKWebView problems for over 3 years now, but Android webviews have given me zero problems.

Does the free and open web have support for augmented reality? On device security? On device machine learning? Accurate GPS? Accelerometers? What about low level graphics?

The “web” is great for websites and CRUD— not so good if you’re trying to go beyond that.

FWIW with iOS 11 re: your 1st point, the Safari/iCloud Keychain password store is available to native apps as well.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-ios-11s-password-auto...

I've found it quite useful.

As is Lastpass/1Password

One of the ones I hate most is Reddit, which actually has a pretty good web interface. The worst part about their app is I can't search for words in threads.

I'm actually on the other side of this - it's really easy to use their app to browse posts and read comments, where it's a bit more involved using the web interface.

I browse the mobile reddit all the time and constant nagging to use the app was a real PITA until I discovered that I don't have to press the link to hide the "browse with the app overlay". You can simply scroll down and it will go away.

My experience with Reddit mobile web has been frustrating, because every page has a secondary loading period that is entirely unnecessary and seems to only be loading styling and JS libraries. The old Reddit mobile (i.reddit.com, I believe) was fairly simple HTML (though to be fair, it didn't look good) that loaded quickly and felt responsive.

> Updating your UI

This is what I hate with the current software development culture. It's not your UI once it's on my things, its MINE. You shouldn't be able to touch it once I have it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com