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by randomtwiddler 1450 days ago
> The majority of traffic is mobile and apps still rule that platform due to both a superior experience and better interfaces.

There is no evidence of your second claim in the link. Only that mobile, as a platform, is more popular than desktop. Nothing about "native apps" being the preferred way to interact with the platform. This is an oft proffered point with no solid backing. Rather the opposite. Users rarely, if ever, install apps, but they go to websites.
1 comments
Supermancho 1450 days ago
You're subtly conflating "native app" vs "app" by using slightly different terminology. For the purposes of being exact, I'll assume you mean "app" - regardless if it's a hybrid with a webview or pure native apis.

> Users rarely, if ever, install apps

My local car wash now has an app and my wife promptly installed it, because of some vague rewards tracking.

The vast majority of mobile usage is through apps. That's a fact. This is primarily because of the low bar to adoption (click a link from a QR code/click an icon) paired with the expectation that the experience will be better than a website. If the previous website experience was bad, it's almost an instant conversion (hence the prompts to "install the app" before the user might find the web UI too problematic).

Mobile users prefer apps (and probably trust them more) than the browser, on a mobile platform. You can say it's baseless supposition, but that's ignoring the existing evidence that companies have done (and continue to do) over the last decade. Find any company or data that contradicts that and a lot of people would be interested to see it, because nobody has for almost a decade. I can't be sure why you think that someone would consider the web to have a better experience/UI, but it doesn't matter.

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randomtwiddler 1450 days ago
> You're subtly conflating "native app" vs "app" by using slightly different terminology. For the purposes of being exact, I'll assume you mean "app" - regardless if it's a hybrid with a webview or pure native apis.

It's not a conflation, it's intentional because it is what the parent poster claimed. I agree that there is more to it.

> My local car wash now has an app and my wife promptly installed it, because of some vague rewards tracking.

Your wife's anecdote doesn't match industry trends

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/25/majority-of-u-s-consumers-...

I can also match with anecdotes of users intentionally avoiding the app in favor of the mobile site for linked in, Reddit, etc, despite the constant intentionally of crippling the mobile web experience simply because the app is so invasive. Can I have access to your contacts for no good reason? Btw, we also snoop your clipboard. Basically, I want to take over your phone so you can see a message...

App store conversion rates are low. If you do get it installed many users only use it once. Most people just won't pay for apps, various reasons but the race to the bottom and feeding off user data and eyeballs has pretty much had a full cycle now.

If you are a company trying to get off the ground with a software product these are tough trends to fight.

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Supermancho 1449 days ago
> It's not a conflation

It is. You used slightly different phrasing, trying to broaden the conversation to act like it's part of a refutation of points being brought by who you respond to.

> > Users rarely, if ever, install apps

> I can also match with anecdotes of users intentionally avoiding the app in favor of the mobile site for

This is derailing..again. I was bringing up an experience that is familiar to anyone who has friends & family (someone who install every app they can). Matching anecdotes adds nothing, as you just want to argue rather than try to understand how your perceptions are biased against reality.

App usage dwarfs web usage because someone installed the app. You're just wrong and I can't tell if it's disingenuous. This discussion is not worth working around your constant attempts to avoid the points at hand and I will have to assume you're just another unintentional luddite.

> The majority of traffic is mobile and apps still rule that platform due to both a superior experience and better interfaces.

To the point of UI superiority (you know, the original contention between us), it's trivial to account for trying to put a url in to a mobile device vs an icon for an app. That alone is a superior UI. The app gives a better experience, on average.

https://digitalmarketing.temple.edu/bpalestino/2019/07/17/mo...

Gl with whatever.

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