I get that, if things are not changed on the Apple side, websites can’t have proper notification so you are forced to have an app but on android PWA (Progressive Web Apps - basically websites on steroids) are a real thing and you can just “install” the lemmy website of your instance and avoid any bloated app. Are you looking for an app with some feature missing from the website? Are you just unaware of the possibility of installing the website itself? I don’t want to sound rude (English isn’t my first language) but I don’t get what to me looks like an obsession to have a bloated app installed on your phone
The experience on the website is awful on mobile, while it’s fairly good on desktop
To me, properly optimized native apps tend to be less-bloated than their web equivalents. Have you ever used “RIF is fun” for reddit? It is amazing, lots of tiny UI optimizations make it a pleasure to consume content much faster than scrolling up and down reddit’s UI for both links and comments
A lot of the people coming in right now are specifically protesting Reddit due to the shut down of their preferred third party apps, especially Apollo, an iOS exclusive. Android has Jerboa and PWAs, but on iOS we just have the site (and mlem, but it’s very early days there). I think that if/when old Reddit gets shut down, the resulting exodus from that will not care as much about app access, as they were using the web previously.
I’m an Android developer, I usually spot a non native app immediately and the flaws in the ui are really annoying. Web apps are even worse.
Are you just unaware of the possibility of installing the website itself?
I haven’t heard about this, and I suspect that plenty of people are in the same situation. How do you install a website?
It’s almost the same thing as creating a shortcut from your phone to the website but those websites are usually build with more features and can use notifications, can works offline, etc etc https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1
PWAs work for sure, but you can really tell its just a full screen mobile website in a vast majority of cases. I am in no way saying PWAs are bad, but with apps that hook into APIs you have much wider latitude for how the data is presented and design choices
Can’t you just write a new web frontend? without having to write an entire app?
That is a possability
so why do people asks for mobile apps instead of alternative web frontends (besides iOS users that are locked by apple)
man mobile apps are just a needless burden to carry around. instance owners are the ones who moderate them as well, like its a one-man band. instances that arent breaking down and that get to be quickly upgraded are the fittest to survive. we dont need to accomodate ios users and we dont need apps that uploads videos in 4k quality, and ones that include the rest of the bells and wisstles. i really hope that things stay this way and i hope we stay a minority, that way our communities stay healthy and sustainable. once quantity starts to be valued more over quality thats when the ends begins and things start to get worse for everyone. i am 💯% on ur side.
