Something I’m always disappointed by in apps is them not gracefully dealing with intermittent internet.
So many feel like they’ve never been tested on slow/patchy connections.
Why not let me:
🔹press like, cache it, and send it when I get internet?
🔹press send on a message, cache it, and send it when I get internet? (WhatsApp handles this one well IMO.)
🔹open the message notification and see as much text as the notif held, & load the rest on reconnect?
This was the case a decade ago too, and I implemented it in emoj.li because although a joke app it feels like a basic feature to me.
These posts haven’t been triggered by any app in particular. Just overall frustration while trying to mindlessly scroll the socials or message friends while on the tube (which mostly only has connectivity in stations when underground).
Got WiFi but no internet? Spotify won’t work at all! Instagram might not even show you its cached DMs.
@mattgrayyes I wish I could fave this more than once
I'd also add, what happens if you have "partial" internet -- your DNS works, but your packets don't go where they're supposed to
This can not only happen when your connections drops for a moment, but e.g. a "Captive Wi-Fi Portal" waiting for you to agree or pay their toll
I understand if your app doesn't work fully, but you shouldn't be in a half-connected bizarro state where you can't connect bc you're connected but can't disconnect either
@mattgrayyes Some of it is because it is a hard problem on how to manage conflicts. i.e. what happens if you send one message from your phone, one from your laptop and only then go on with both?
Often that is easy to answer for specific cases. But most apps use generic storage solutions, and answering it in general is hard.
Though TBC I fully agree with you (Germany is bad at internet) and indeed it's a problem I almost devoted my a career to.
@mattgrayyes@25kV This was me yesterday. One app sent three copies of a message (I only hit send once) because the Shinkansen WiFi was patchy. Duolingo had a button to extend my streak but said “go online to do a lesson”, which would have been great had I not been in international waters. (I get that their content is server side, but maybe cache one lesson in case of travel?)
@h0m54r the ridiculous thing is that I paid for duo premium when learning Arabic because it gave me offline lessons (it’d cache one).
Switched to learning Japanese, which does not have an offline lesson feature‽ and bins me out of a lesson saving no progress if I lose connection!
I suspect it's a consequence of Silicon Valley brainrot. As devs keep consolidating to one specific part of the country, remembering the rest of us exist isn't a priority.
@mattgrayyes YouTube (have you heard of it?) lets me download video to play later, and reports back to the creator when it’s done so, but won’t let me press the like button without an internet connection. That seems a missed opportunity.
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