There are times when the native app is great, but all the permissions that you have to give up have me fallback to the web version. There is a native phone app for a popular online course that has recently started asking for access to 'Phone Id/what not' on Android. Why? Just show me the videos of the courses I paid for. I refused to update and these days I just log in via Chrome and play the video on there. Not the best UX but that is what I will associate with that product going forward.

I wish Android would make something granular (and understandable) or at least let me disable permissions after the fact.

You can, starting form android 6.0. Adoption of the latest Android versions is as slow as ever, though.

But native applications use webviews more than you might expect. I've heard that the conversation view in the Messages app is a webview, and I know from first-hand experience (CSS not loading) the Instagram feed is one too.

I think that webviews get a bad rap because you only notice then when they're done badly.

Messages is definitely not a web view.

Searches and news are web applications. Not to mention Hacker News.

"The general distinction between an interactive web site of any kind and a 'web application' is unclear. Web sites most likely to be referred to as 'web applications' are those which have similar functionality to a desktop software application, or to a mobile app."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application

An easy distinction I use is: can the user alter the content? If so, it's an application. If not, it's a website.

I'm the opposite of you. I'd much prefer to do everything in a browser. I hate downloading new apps for every little link. I was really hoping the Firefox OS worked out.

I don't even have a lot of apps, though. And using an web application is just as much work: logging in, bookmarking, etc.