News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App. Parent comment

Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by phs2501 on Friday January 04, 2019 @01:04PM (#18826150)
> Indeed, right now we're seeing a big uptick in Instant Apps on Android -- go to a webpage and it actually loads a native app -- and I fully expect the same to appear on iOS.

I'd never heard of this but I can guarantee I will immediately quit and never install an app that gets forced upon me via this method. This is like the terrible "Try our app!" web popups, only 10x worse.

I realize like most people on HN I'm hardly the norm when it comes to mobile users, but UGH.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by endorphone on Friday January 04, 2019 @01:12PM (#18826230)
Instant apps aren't installed, per se. They don't have homescreen icons, can't send notifications, access protected data, run background services, etc. However if you have an app that has a rich interface for some need, Google slices off the pertinent parts and can serve it up transparently.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by dec0dedab0de on Friday January 04, 2019 @01:10PM (#18826211)
I saw it for the first time last night. I think it was Vimeo. It was actually much better than the "try our app" popup, because it was android asking if i wanted to use the instant app, and when i said no it just went away.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by phs2501 on Friday January 04, 2019 @01:21PM (#18826307)
That's more reasonable. I wonder if these work via Firefox? Maybe that's why I've never seen them.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by dec0dedab0de on Friday January 04, 2019 @02:02PM (#18826693)
I normally use firefox too, maybe I accidentally opened the link in chrome last night. I don't have my phone around to test. I just remember thinking "ahh that's kind of neat" before clicking no.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by phs2501 on Friday January 04, 2019 @05:41PM (#18828429)
As long as it remembers no locally and just lets me use the web app forever after it's a godsend.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App by modwilliam on Friday January 04, 2019 @04:02PM (#18827578)
They should't be available via Firefox, just chrome/google search
[ Parent | on HN ]