Bonus: the app is just an Electron wrapper to their website.
"It'S bEtTeR iN ThE aPp"
The app: Last updated January 2023
Side rant: I refuse to download the McDonald's app. That's the first question they ask (and increasingly, any fast food joint asks) when you roll through the drive through. "Are you using the app today?"
No I'm not fucking using the app today. I just want an ice cream cone. Ok!? I don't need or want to download another goddamned app and manage another set of credentials when it takes me less time to say, "Can I please have an ice cream cone?" And for you to respond with, "I'm sorry but our ice cream machine is broken." than it does for me to order a fucking ice cream cone on the stupid app.
I mean hells bells I'm a software engineer. I make my living designing [often unnecessary] software [which provides little tangible benefit]. But I'll be damned if I'm going to have an app to go through a fast food drive through or use household appliances. I will die on this hill. Ok, maybe not die, but I will be severely wounded on this hill.
My view as a sys admin is I'm not going to risk the security of my mobile device just so they can scour my personal information and collect marketing data on me and send it god knows where and claim its to "make ordering easier". I just want to order my fucking food, not have my fucking identity stolen because I wanted a cheeseburger.
Ironically, I find McDonald's has one of the better reward systems in their app. I also enjoy being able to punch in my order on a screen with any modifications I want such as extra pickle, no lettuce, etc.. instead of relying on the shitty speaker to pick it up only to hear a guy be like "Did you say cherry coke?" "No, diet coke" ugh
Also free fries on Friday.
Building a great mobile website is much harder than building a great mobile app, so I understand when they just don't build a great website to begin with, but taking away an existing website, yeah, that sucks.
You need one anyway for desktop users. A desktop-first website will usually be more accessible and easier to onboard, especially for infrequent users.
Example: To track a package, a certain store emailed me a button whose destination is this monster of a URL:
https://labia.page.link/?link=https://order.fart.cum/cz/history/%23/lookup?orderId%3D4206913372%26lid%3DAE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&apn=com.labia.fart.app&afl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&ibi=cum.labia.fart.app&ifl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&ofl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&imv=1.24.0&amv=2915(Numbers and some strings were changed but the gist and 604-character length remains.)
The main function of such a long URL is to redirect desktop users to
https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/to see the tracking info while mobile users get directed to the app store to get an app (or view the link in the app if they have it). These are (probably) Google Firebase links and they're absolutely terrible. While they make life slightly easier for existing app users (saves one click but only if they go through the email), this implementation makes it way harder for others to reach the content. Either you get the app, log in there and part with fucking 300 MB of storage, or if you have no mainstream App Store, storage or time, you are forced to do a workaround: Desktop Mode (that may or may not work), rewriting the URL (difficult because it’s so long and includeshttps:several times, may require hex-decoding), or finding a computer. All this just to check one order from a store you’ll forget about next week.I have demonstrated that instead of just getting sent the desktop-friendly URL (and perhaps seeing a floating “Open in app” button at the destination), most users are put through extra nuisance that took effort to implement. Sure, some customers are frequent enough to use the app while most are happy with a website but once the business invests in the app, they will absolutely make sure everyone is pushed there despite it being less convenient for both parties.
extra nuisance that took effort to implement
I think this point needs to be stressed more. It is dead simple to write a website that works well on mobile phones. In fact, the first ever website, without CSS, without any JS, without fancy HTML5 features, is mobile friendly: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
It’s only when you start adding useless bells and whistles like floating shit in from left and right, tons of animations, side-by-side displays, overlays and whatnot that you need to start being competent to make it work on mobile.
My doctor’s office has done this to me when I’ve called in to get help with a prescription issue I was having. Literally just gave me instructions for how to message my doctor through the app. 🫠 Mfer I’m calling because I don’t want to use it! It sucks ass too because it always takes like a week to get a one sentence reply that only addresses half of what I asked.
If all I did was inspire Lemmy meme community to make stock photo memes, I'm happy
We see you, and we're proud. o7
Awwwww
If you download the app anyway, make sure that the first thing you do is to disable the notifications. Many apps have that as their sole purpose.
Thankfully there aren't as many great mobile webpages left anymore that I would really care about if they made me use their app. Pre-Edit: I think thankfully is the wrong word.
Still, it’s storage and heckin' executables on your device. Everyone should get an option to use a website, even if just a poorly laid-out one, unless the vast majority of users only interact in a way that only works with local executables (like video calls). You should not need an app to check an IKEA order status on your phone (yes, they do that, see my other comment).
And I'm aware that video calls on some platforms can - and do - work in browsers but I won't blame anyone who rejects their boss's proposal to create a video call app in HTML/CSS/JS.
Agreed. My comment was more meant as an affront towards what mobile webpages are becoming in general. I only ever browse on my phone if there really is no other option at all.
Years of using the Links browser in my youth might have shaped my views though.
Most of us would probably just be fine with PWAs, but the marketing branch says no... They need everything possible about you, need the app to run at startup and send you notifications at least every 4 hours...
How can an android app get all the info about me if it has no permissions?
There's the info you are willingly sharing through the app, no permission for that. There are really a few apps that require no permissions, usually they always need access to something. E.g. the LG app for washing machines that will only run if you register and account AND give permission to make phone calls, when you only want to download washing programs...
Amazon
Ebay Kleinanzeigen
Splitwise
I am the head of a large banking app / web in Europe. We have about 40 MiO logins per month, 39 (edit: millions) are done with the app.
Personally I would prefer the web version of everything important like banking always - but the customers are all preferring apps. So yea guess where I allocate my budget.
It sucks but that's how people operate these days
It's not perfect but switching to Desktop Site on Firefox Mobile has been a lifesaver on more than a few occasions when online browsing
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
There's no minimum if you use our app
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
App takes up 300 mb despite being clearly just the mobile site wrapped in a webview.
For me the hierarchy goes something like this: Floss native app (dt & mobile) > floss electron app (dt & mobile) > website > non-floss app
What does the L stand for?
Free
?
Open
Source
SoftwareIs it Legal?
Libre
Imgur moment.
Glad imgchest is getting popular now
I despise Imgur. Can't upload an image on mobile unless I force desktop mode
They also use a trashy detection AI to auto delete images that are suspected to be NSFW.
Suspected that is, it's faulty as hell.
Ad the app is just an ugly wrapper around Chrome custom tab.
I'm having a decent experience with progressive web apps. Even posting now with a PWA for Lemmy. It's given me a bit more control over the bloat and background processes that might be there unwitting to me. Or requiring me to investigate . I don't enable background notifications or anything like that however. I also direct my DNS traffic thru PiHole but that's another conversation.
