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Comment by rustystump | Hacker News Reader

Very unpopular opinion but i like apps that ashew looking “native” for an original ux. Maybe it is my love for gamedev and all the crazy designs they come up with but i personally loath boring uninspired native apps esp when the native ux is terrible.

Apple wants everyone to conform because historically their ux is on point but the last update really reinforces my view.

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IMHO, Apps can look (and maybe even "feel") any way they want. But when it comes to integration into the system, they should be as native as possible. It'S 2025 and I can't drag and drop from/to the Gmail app on iOS - that's ridiculous (especially because I can't have real-time push notifications for IMAP in the mail app for Gmail account, which as far as I know is also a limitation by the Gmail servers, not by IMAP itself).

I would like to see an UX research of what is actually important to match to the platform for the users.

The matching of the look is, from my experience, pretty low on the list. It's usually some interaction that doesn't exist or match that people complain about.

The debate has been settled anyways, none of the top apps (Facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube, Tiktok..) uses the native design, users simply do not care.

For the big ones the consistent familiar design language of the app becomes more important, or at least they can argue/get away with that, for the random crap companion app to a £5 drop-shipped FYGUIO-'brand' gizmo, it's much nicer and better-working app if it just follows the platform.

I share your unpopular opinion.

While I understand that having identical UI elements across apps aids in discoverability, I just love it so much when an app has its own bespoke interface that was clearly made with love.

Like you, it might be my love of games that has given me this preference. Would StarCraft II have a better UX if its menus used the standard Windows widgets where applicable? I think certainly not. And I think the same can be true for many non-game apps.

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