Comment by derwiki

17 hours ago

Nobody wants to install an app?

I always avoid apps if I can.

But yeah, that comment is a bit disconnected to majority of the population.

We’re not normies, so take that with a grain of salt. Here’s mine: apps have access to significantly expanded capabilities which has privacy implications. If I can use the browser for a given app, I do it. Amazon for example.

  • As a native app writer, this has been my experience.

    Mentioning it here, though, tends to get pushback from folks that write Web apps. They don’t want to admit that native apps have more capabilities than Web apps; even if that’s a bad thing, because of security risks.

People say PWAs are good as apps now and feels like an app now, personally as ab armchair nobody I doubt the retention rate actually compare, even if the app was literally just a plain WebView.

Personally I'll only install FOSS apps on my phone and I go out of my way to actively discourage (to varying degrees of success) my relatives from installing arbitrary junk that they surely don't need on their phones.

  • Same here, if it's on F-Droid I'll install it, otherwise I'm using the mobile site on my browser.

I have a handful of 3rd party apps on my phone and none on my computer. Prefer to just use browser.