[version_five]

> provide the best user experience was through a mobile app

Having to install an app is always a bad user experience. It's a dealbreaker for me for just about every case, and in general it's got to add a lot of friction when you're trying to get people to sign up.

It would be interesting to hear some honest discussion of the tradeoffs. I assume most companies prefer me using an app because it lets them run arbitrary code on my phone, access contacts and whatnot, and send me notifications. Is it also materially easier to write the code for apps? Is that a legit reason why companies prefer it? And is whatever companies are getting out of forcing their users onto an app worth the potential users they lose because of it?