Slack app has 4 trackers, requests 21 permissions on Android. Harder to block trackers, while their more tech-oriented audience probably uses browser adblockers more often.

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.Slack/l...

Aha! This makes sense. So basically, on native, there's lessened ability to leverage browser extension ecosystems to block ads and tracker scripts?

As an engineering manager in an unrelated field... this could also be a way to not have to support a feature on X platform because I don't have the resources to make it work on every possible mobile browser. Or the mobile browsers don't support X feature and I don't want to (or can't) spend the resources to make it work there, QA it there etc. It's not something likely to be able to curb with regulations.

I do not think this is a dark pattern. I don't see any exploitation or misrepresentation.

I think we should be careful to distinguish between exploitation / malicious intent vs. airing of grievances of about UI/UX feature completeness.

I mean I personally keep Slack on my Dock since it's open pretty frequently. This integrates it even more into my workflow since I can quickly check and see if I have any unreads/etc. making it more grating to switch to another chat app. Maybe it's not a "dark pattern" but it certainly is a method to increase adoption.

You can do this with a browser like Chrome by creating a shortcut with "Open As Window".

One major benefit of native app over web app is their ability to send notifications to get the user's attention.

Web apps can send notifications just fine, even in the background.

This is not the case on iOS: https://caniuse.com/notifications

I don't know that they do, but they could potentially read your local files as part of telemetry, gps, nearby wifi network ssids and MAC addresses, etc.