Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by joeyspn on Sunday June 12, 2016 @01:34PM (#11889208)

> janky, animations aren't fluid, UI doesn't accurately respond directly to their input, screens "flash funny"...

Those were problems in 2013 and 2014. It's not the current state of things. Our users can't tell the difference from Native apps and we have conducted quite a bit of research... Nowadays those problems simply signal that "you're a mediocre dev" (probably in all platforms).

> If you want to trade user experience away to reduce development work, that's fine.

This is the reason why some people help to perpetuate "the myth". UX, if you know how to build an app properly, is not affected anymore. Don't believe it? Check apps like this one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlykw4Z73sA

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitpay.che...

Arguably the best UX for bitcoin payments. Not a single complain about flashiness, clunkiness, etc... And the impact in the battery is orders of magnitude smaller than native apps like facebook. It uses cordova like many great bitcoin apps...

PS: I'm not affiliated with Bitpay in any way, just very thankful and impressed with their cordova projects.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by galistoca on Sunday June 12, 2016 @01:52PM (#11889298)

Using "WebView" doesn't just mean performance issues. It's a matter of choosing the very stack itself. You're starting out with browser as your base. There are many things that come with that decision.

Also that Bitcoin app is a bad example because it's a very simple app.

To be clear, I have programmed in both native ios, ionic and native android. I'm primarily a iOS developer so had no idea how Android worked when I first tried building an android app, so when I first tried my "cross platform" app on an android phone I was shocked to find out there are so many details that make it feel NOT native. iOS and Android have very different UI and you need to build for those experiences if you want to really optimize for user experience. It's not just a matter of performance. That's why I learned java to build natively.

Lastly, in this and age, why not just learn react native instead of boasting about how still using web browser is good enough? You really have no excuse here if your reasoning is that you want to use web technology to build native apps.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by joeyspn on Sunday June 12, 2016 @02:09PM (#11889383)

> You're starting out with browser as your base. There are many things that come with that decision. [...] why not just learn react native instead of boasting about how still using web browser is good enough?

Because for instance I can use native HTML APIs like WebRTC without 3rd party libraries and I can reuse many great JS libs, which I'm familiar with.

> Also that Bitcoin app is a bad example because it's a very simple app.

It's the perfect example because it reflects that it all depends on the use case, and that are use cases that will better fit your company stack. In bitpay's case, they're heavily invested in JS/Node. So it just makes sense (like in many other cases/companies).

A good lead (tech, manager, etc) will always pick the proper tool for the task, taking into account many aspects of the project: business decisions, UX, costs, current work force, current stack, available libs, etc...

What I'm trying to say is that Hybrid has it's place. It's not all hybrid or all native. It depends.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by ryanwaggoner on Sunday June 12, 2016 @02:24PM (#11889468)

This is such nonsense. I just went to phonegap.com and installed the top showcase app (Localeur). You've got to be kidding If you're going to tell me it's impossible to tell it's not native. Scrolling is janky, taps don't feel as responsive on some elements, weird UI glitches, etc.

It's a fine app if you don't care deeply about UX, but certainly not indistinguishable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by joeyspn on Sunday June 12, 2016 @02:40PM (#11889574)

> This is such nonsense.

Not going to discuss why picking a random app from a listing doesn't make all the apps built with a similar technology equally bad.

Next time, before shouting "nonsense" try something built with Angular2/Ionic2.

http://ionicframework.com/docs/v2/components/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by ryanwaggoner on Sunday June 12, 2016 @03:07PM (#11889716)

I'm sorry, it's not fair to evaluate the technology based on the top app from their official showcase page?

I did the same thing with Ionic; the top app on their showcase page is ChefSteps. It's definitely better, but sorry, not indistinguishable. Not even close.

I stand by my claim that saying that "2016 hybrid" apps look and feel 100% native is nonsense. It's fine to use those technologies, but be honest about your reasons.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by weego on Sunday June 12, 2016 @02:56PM (#11889652)

Having finished an app using Ionic2 I can tell you that the performance on Android is appalling (outside of like the current Samsung/HTC top of the line or its predecessor). IOS is pretty indistinguishable though baring the odd touch problem that I deemed not worth the trade off in time investment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by galistoca on Sunday June 12, 2016 @03:14PM (#11889764)

I agree, but I think that's Android's problem. I found that it's janky no matter what you use. I first thought it was the webview thing and built a native java program, but it isn't so much better. I honestly don't understand how most Android users cope with this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by germanier on Sunday June 12, 2016 @03:01PM (#11889682)

I just downloaded the first two featured apps on that site to my iPhone, Chefsteps and Sworkit. Both are not bad but it's still fairly noticeable even to a non-developer that they don't behave like native apps. Controls look a bit off, animations are different, and some UI bugs here and there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by mikestew on Sunday June 12, 2016 @03:40PM (#11889884)

Parent didn't pick a random app, they picked the "top showcase app". Since you don't want to discuss it, despite parent's attempt to select the best example, let's pick something you might discuss: what is your choice of showcase app that few would know it's not native? If it's $5 or less, I'll go download it even if it doesn't interest me. I'll state ahead of time that I've yet to see a non-native app on Android or iOS that wasn't obviously non-native, so I'll be viewing the chosen app with some degree of bias that I would try to keep to minimum. And, hey, if it's any good I'll be happy to rethink my stance, and probably go learn a new framework.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by joshka on Sunday June 12, 2016 @02:37PM (#11889552)

In your first link at 0:02, take a look at how the cursor lags behind the screen moving as the keyboard pops up. I'm not saying that this is a huge bug, but to suggest that UX is never affected is incorrect. Or perhaps this is just an android bug that always happens?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Myth debunking: WebViews suck, everything should be native by msie on Sunday June 12, 2016 @03:32PM (#11889850)

> Nowadays those problems simply signal that "you're a mediocre dev" (probably in all platforms).

That's not a good way to sell a platform if you have to be a really good developer to use it.

[ Parent | on HN ]