• Event_Horizon@lemmy.ml
        75·
        1 year ago

        App permissions required:

        • name
        • address
        • contacts
        • financials
        • life history
        • kinks
        • current relationship status
      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
        7·
        1 year ago

        I regularly use apps that haven’t been updated for longer, and 20-year-old PC programs. The worse thing is if old versions are purposefully deprecated too early, I don’t have Play Store.

        • killeronthecorner@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          This is fine for apps that don’t use remote APIs and aren’t actively having breaking changes made to them on a regular basis, but that doesn’t apply to most of these nagging “use our app!” companies.

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      33·
      1 year ago

      Side rant: I refuse to download the McDonald’s app. That’s the first question they ask (and increasingly, any fast food joint asks) when you roll through the drive through. “Are you using the app today?”

      No I’m not fucking using the app today. I just want an ice cream cone. Ok!? I don’t need or want to download another goddamned app and manage another set of credentials when it takes me less time to say, “Can I please have an ice cream cone?” And for you to respond with, “I’m sorry but our ice cream machine is broken.” than it does for me to order a fucking ice cream cone on the stupid app.

      I mean hells bells I’m a software engineer. I make my living designing [often unnecessary] software [which provides little tangible benefit]. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to have an app to go through a fast food drive through or use household appliances. I will die on this hill. Ok, maybe not die, but I will be severely wounded on this hill.

      • DragonAce@lemmy.world
        20·
        1 year ago

        My view as a sys admin is I’m not going to risk the security of my mobile device just so they can scour my personal information and collect marketing data on me and send it god knows where and claim its to “make ordering easier”. I just want to order my fucking food, not have my fucking identity stolen because I wanted a cheeseburger.

      • littlecolt@lemm.ee
        5·
        1 year ago

        Ironically, I find McDonald’s has one of the better reward systems in their app. I also enjoy being able to punch in my order on a screen with any modifications I want such as extra pickle, no lettuce, etc… instead of relying on the shitty speaker to pick it up only to hear a guy be like “Did you say cherry coke?” “No, diet coke” ugh

        Also free fries on Friday.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    37·
    1 year ago

    My doctor’s office has done this to me when I’ve called in to get help with a prescription issue I was having. Literally just gave me instructions for how to message my doctor through the app. 🫠 Mfer I’m calling because I don’t want to use it! It sucks ass too because it always takes like a week to get a one sentence reply that only addresses half of what I asked.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
    342·
    1 year ago

    Building a great mobile website is much harder than building a great mobile app, so I understand when they just don’t build a great website to begin with, but taking away an existing website, yeah, that sucks.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
      31·
      1 year ago

      You need one anyway for desktop users. A desktop-first website will usually be more accessible and easier to onboard, especially for infrequent users.

      Example: To track a package, a certain store emailed me a button whose destination is this monster of a URL:

      https://labia.page.link/?link=https://order.fart.cum/cz/history/%23/lookup?orderId%3D4206913372%26lid%3DAE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&apn=com.labia.fart.app&afl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&ibi=cum.labia.fart.app&ifl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&ofl=https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/?lid=AE91DCC0397DEADBEEF42069ACAB707BE6A1800B5ACEFAC3AAC3C14159265359&imv=1.24.0&amv=2915

      (Numbers and some strings were changed but the gist and 604-character length remains.)

      The main function of such a long URL is to redirect desktop users to https://order.fart.cum/cz/cs/purchases/4206913372/ to see the tracking info while mobile users get directed to the app store to get an app (or view the link in the app if they have it). These are (probably) Google Firebase links and they’re absolutely terrible. While they make life slightly easier for existing app users (saves one click but only if they go through the email), this implementation makes it way harder for others to reach the content. Either you get the app, log in there and part with fucking 300 MB of storage, or if you have no mainstream App Store, storage or time, you are forced to do a workaround: Desktop Mode (that may or may not work), rewriting the URL (difficult because it’s so long and includes https: several times, may require hex-decoding), or finding a computer. All this just to check one order from a store you’ll forget about next week.

      I have demonstrated that instead of just getting sent the desktop-friendly URL (and perhaps seeing a floating “Open in app” button at the destination), most users are put through extra nuisance that took effort to implement. Sure, some customers are frequent enough to use the app while most are happy with a website but once the business invests in the app, they will absolutely make sure everyone is pushed there despite it being less convenient for both parties.

      • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
        19·
        1 year ago

        extra nuisance that took effort to implement

        I think this point needs to be stressed more. It is dead simple to write a website that works well on mobile phones. In fact, the first ever website, without CSS, without any JS, without fancy HTML5 features, is mobile friendly: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

        It’s only when you start adding useless bells and whistles like floating shit in from left and right, tons of animations, side-by-side displays, overlays and whatnot that you need to start being competent to make it work on mobile.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
          1·
          1 year ago

          You are correct. I once tried to develop a multi-platform web app and getting the touch events right was a pain. But a somewhat basic ESP32 setup website worked on mobile without extra effort.

      • GeneralVincent@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        (Numbers and some strings were changed but the gist and 604-character length remains.)

        Sooooo… were “labia.fart.cum” parts that were changed, or…??

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
        37·
        1 year ago

        Most apps would do fine without a website. Most everyone has a phone, but a fair number of people don’t have a desktop or laptop. And pretty much everyone who has a desktop or laptop also has a phone.

        A number of currently popular apps don’t have a website, let alone a mobile friendly website.

        • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
          10·
          1 year ago

          You’re missing the main point: A web app works for both desktop and phone users. A mobile app doesn’t.

          And I, for one, don’t have a smart phone, though I’ll admit I’m lonely in this position.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            A webapp sometimes works fine for phone users. There are things that websites can’t do on mobile. For example, on iOS, only the latest OS version has support for push notifications from PWAs, and even then, they can’t make noise or vibrations. They are always delivered silently. PWAs are also always rendered with WebKit on iOS. WebKit doesn’t support a number of features.

            Yes, a mobile app doesn’t help desktop users, but there are waaaaaaaay more mobile users than desktop users.

            • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
              4·
              1 year ago

              on iOS, only the latest OS version has support for push notifications

              they can’t make noise or vibrations

                • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  Only if you absolutely need some crucial bit of information the moment it arrives, in which case, email isn’t for you, since messages can take up to 3 days to arrive.

          • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
            1·
            1 year ago

            You are not 100% alone. I technically have a smartphone but use it as a mini (5") tablet. My SIM is in a feature phone because greedy T-Mobile (Telekom in Deutschland) will not give me more than 1 MB/day for a decent price.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
          3·
          1 year ago

          That depends on what kind of service you provide.

          Games more complex than 2048, video calls? Sure.
          Short video platform? Maybe.
          Commerce? Absolutely not.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            Yes, that’s why I said most instead of all. And to be clear, I’m not a fan of apps without websites, that’s just how things are.

    • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
      71·
      1 year ago

      Building a great mobile website is much harder than building a great mobile app

      Are you a web developer and an equally good app developer to make such a statement?

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
          81·
          1 year ago

          I have doubts. Great website developers often make a half-assed app by wrapping the website in a crippled browser. The T-Mobile app is not even subtle about this, there was a URL bar in the version I last used.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            You’re talking about Cordova. Cordova can actually be pretty good, if it’s made well (for example, the Voyager Lemmy app is a Cordova app), but no, I make apps with native UIs.

  • kamen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    If you download the app anyway, make sure that the first thing you do is to disable the notifications. Many apps have that as their sole purpose.

  • genoxidedev1@kbin.social
    16·
    1 year ago

    Thankfully there aren’t as many great mobile webpages left anymore that I would really care about if they made me use their app. Pre-Edit: I think thankfully is the wrong word.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
      15·
      1 year ago

      Still, it’s storage and heckin’ executables on your device. Everyone should get an option to use a website, even if just a poorly laid-out one, unless the vast majority of users only interact in a way that only works with local executables (like video calls). You should not need an app to check an IKEA order status on your phone (yes, they do that, see my other comment).

      And I’m aware that video calls on some platforms can - and do - work in browsers but I won’t blame anyone who rejects their boss’s proposal to create a video call app in HTML/CSS/JS.

      • genoxidedev1@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        Agreed. My comment was more meant as an affront towards what mobile webpages are becoming in general. I only ever browse on my phone if there really is no other option at all.

        Years of using the Links browser in my youth might have shaped my views though.

  • ritchie@lemmy.world
    16·
    1 year ago

    Most of us would probably just be fine with PWAs, but the marketing branch says no… They need everything possible about you, need the app to run at startup and send you notifications at least every 4 hours…

      • ritchie@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        There’s the info you are willingly sharing through the app, no permission for that. There are really a few apps that require no permissions, usually they always need access to something. E.g. the LG app for washing machines that will only run if you register and account AND give permission to make phone calls, when you only want to download washing programs…

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
      6·
      1 year ago

      Idk Amazon web works fine, I usually use the app but I don’t remember having issues with the web.

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
        21·
        1 year ago

        They for sure dislike secure browsers. Also the UI in general is horrible, of the website on Desktop too. Its blurry? The App on the other hand looks good

        • interolivary@beehaw.org
          1·
          1 year ago

          They for sure dislike secure browsers

          What do you mean with this? I haven’t used Amazon in a while so I have no idea what shenanigans they’ve gotten up to

            • XTornado@lemmy.ml
              2·
              1 year ago

              Really? I haven’t seen that. No Captchas ever I think.

              The phone number could be for the 2FA but no idea, I don’t think I have seen it, for 2FA I have the usual authenticator, that said they have my phone for sure at least for shipping but maybe I did get asked for it and I don’t remember, they have it for shipping anyway so…

              But logged out… no issues there if anything it works like Facebook where not sure what they have but the session last forever…

              Of course I am using my Amazon from Spain there might be differences, like just due the laws alone I expect differences on the American one.

              • Pantherina@feddit.de
                1·
                1 year ago

                Delete all cookies but exceptions in the firefox privacy settings

                Set security mode to strict

                Use noscript and you know what they do, remove all the allowed ones and all scripts from default, disable “LAN” and “others” from “trusted” and opt-in manually

                Privacy is manual work. Noscript is great, but for sure takes getting used to.

  • crimsdings@lemmy.world
    183·
    1 year ago

    I am the head of a large banking app / web in Europe. We have about 40 MiO logins per month, 39 (edit: millions) are done with the app.

    Personally I would prefer the web version of everything important like banking always - but the customers are all preferring apps. So yea guess where I allocate my budget.

    It sucks but that’s how people operate these days

  • HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com
    8·
    1 year ago

    For me the hierarchy goes something like this: Floss native app (dt & mobile) > floss electron app (dt & mobile) > website > non-floss app