I agree. Same with every business doesn’t need a freaking app. It’s why I’ve avoided the app development sector of programming in my career. I don’t want to crank out shitty apps for every local business for the rest of my life. talk about boring.
I rather have an app and a way to control the chicken coop offline that depend on the internet connection to whether my chicken coop works or not. That is in my opinion a right place for an app instead of a website.
Yeah my work just switched payroll companies and they want us to download an app to do timesheets and stuff. No way in hell that’s going on my phone. A least it works in desktop browsers too.
The chicken coop controller needs access to use whatever drivers (Bluetooth?) to connect. On the other hand, they could have used Wi-Fi instead. The financial app, however, definitely should be a website. However, apps are a way to increase the longevity of the login token because apps on a non-rooted phone supposedly cannot leak the login token and can be trusted to keep it safe on the device.
oh wow, that’s intricate but it probably works more reliably than something like a usb cable. Native apps probably have more control over framerate compared to webapps.
Bluetooth for example does work in web browsers though, and so does USB. There’s web sockets and webrtc for communication. I can’t think of a reasonable connection method that’s inaccessible, but maybe I’m forgetting one.
I’d rather choose the password manager I trust that can safely store my credentials and auto-fill, than being forced to use a specific banking app with unknown security features.
I have not tried out voyager, but just from looking at it’s GitHub, it’s essentially just a web browser packed in a native app anyways.
Performance shouldn’t really be different from browser app to local app this way unless something is done wrong, or there’s some specific functionality, like async I/o that’s still unsupported.
Notifications are also a thing in web browsers nowadays. Most device features that you can access in a separate app are actually supported by now.
Nah, Voyager is primarily a pwa that works entirely in your phone’s browser.
They recently packaged it with a browser into an APK because lots of users asked for a “native app” for some reason. But the pwa is still there, and is still the main way it is developed
But no front end for Lemmy should ever need to be an app.
Because not everybody likes the stock interface of Lemmy. Same thing with Reddit, and why people chose to use third-party apps there, as well. Web apps aren't always designed in the most intuitive ways for every user, and sometimes a native app can fill those UI/UX gaps, or add features that aren't possible through a PWA.
why PWA and not a plain web app? I think the only difference is that PWAs can ve turned into a pinned pop-up window (that acts a bit like an electron app) when using a chromium-based browser.
Even then, there's a lot of feature you end up missing out on. Even just basic navigation has to be done via the browser's default navigation options. Even simple things like long-pressing something on the page will typically only give you access to your browser's long-press menu (though that's not always the case, in my experience very few web apps handle this effectively).
Personally, I prefer the experience of a native app. But I get why it's not appealing to all people.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t use Bluetooth. It’s a light sensor on the door. The phone actually flashes the screen at the light sensor to program it. I’m sure by being a native app it gives them more control over the screen but still….
Does the app work when offline? In that case it kinda makes sense since farms tend to be in areas with no cell service and a web page won’t work with no service. The lack of Bluetooth maybe they just don’t want to troubleshoot with people who might not be able to call to troubleshoot while being near the device.
Totally agree. I’m hoping web apps make a comeback as well — a lot of apps in App Stores are just websites in an “app wrapper”. Start rejecting that shit and tell people to publish it as a web app.
I hate how all smart devices need their own apps. Lights, vacuum cleaners, doorbells, fans, etc. super annoying to go through my phone and see so many random apps.
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