Ask HN: Could the web disappear due to mobile apps and AI?

6 points·amichail··7 comments

Of course, the internet will remain, but maybe not websites?

I don't think so. It might get smaller and nerdier, yeah. But I'm on Mastodon, and there's a strong anti-AI and app (not in principle, I believe, but in practice; they tend to be more privacy-invasive than an equivalent website, whichh is a major part of their appeal for companies) bias. I don't think indie/small/whatever-you-want-to-call-them websites are hopping aboard the bandwagon either.

I could see the feel changing and it becoming less "oh, of course you've visited a website" thing and somewhat more of a conscious choice, but vanishing? No.

Really? I think it will get vastly larger--filled with AI generated garbage.

I don't think websites are going anywhere.

Mobile apps break frequently and you can't deep link to them. AI is bad and won't last.

The experience varies a lot between platforms.

Facebook seems to have deliberately made m.facebook.com unusable even on a flagship handset, whereas Tinder embraced the web, and launched a PWA[1] better than its native apps.

[1] https://www.tigren.com/blog/tinder-pwa/

There are a lot of mobile apps that are webviews pointing to an already public website/web app.

It disappeared already because apps now have the biggest share of users attention.

Did they? For example I tried to use the Reddit app and it's aweful. I can't block ads like in the web browser, I can't switch between mobile and desktop mode, I can't zoom wherever I want, I can't open threads or images in tabs.

I see apps as "work", unless ofc they are games.

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