The Delta iPhone app saved my ass and let me check in right before the cut-off for flight I needed to make, while I was stuck in traffic in a cab outside the airport. However, downloading the app was preceded by ten minutes of trying desperately to check in using the Delta web site on my iPhone. I was stymied by a combination of strangely sized fonts (which forced me to zoom way in on a huge page in order to locate and click on tiny menu titles at the bottom of the page), mysteriously placed menu pop-ups (as in I clicked a button to open a menu, and then had to pan around the page trying to find where the menu had appeared), and other problems that I never figured out.<p>I downloaded the app out of sheer desperation to check in on time for my flight. In any other circumstance, I would have given up, gone to a competitor, and filed the company and brand name in my brain under "fuck you." (Actually, I did that last part anyway.)<p>Nagging me to download an app is bad enough. If you took the time to build an iOS or Android app but didn't put any effort into mobile usability for your web site, then you presumed you could make me install your app. You presumed too much.
Worst part is, most of these apps are essentially browsers. There is no additional content or interesting extra functionality being offered... just same old content, only formatted differently.<p>So, this concept of installing a new browser every time I visit an unfamiliar site, really is ridiculous.<p>This is almost as bad as "here's a mobile version of our site, opened automatically for your convenience".<p>If your site is designed peoperly, my iOS device can browse your "full" site just fine, thank you.
+1 Right on. At least we should have something similar to a global opt out list for nagging to install apps. Most companies have become much better at making it easy to opt out of emails after you have done business with them. Web portals should learn the same lesson with nags for app installations.<p>I am firmly in the HTML5 camp on rich web apps instead of custom apps. A tangent, but: our purpose in life is to make life better for those we love and also the world in general. Assuming that you are producing good content, do you feel like you better serve people with a universal web + mobile HTML5 web app, or some custom Android and/or iOS app?<p>One of my projects for the new year is to take my old cookingspace.com hack and add "AI" for suggesting alternative recipes, generating recipes based on ingredients on hand, etc. Yesterday I started to flesh out a simple UI in an Android app, basically just having fun. This morning I had one of those "what was I thinking" moments, and then saw the linked article which I agree with.
I think there is a fascinating split personality to the internet these days. On the one hand, there is a big drive to move traditional desktop application functionality into the web browser (e.g. google and microsoft's office web apps, photo editing, and even some computation in the case of Wolfram Alpha.) On the other hand, there is a big drive to push traditional internet content into standalone apps, as this author outlines. Currently it seems that the vast majority of the apps in the Windows 8 store fall into this category.
The irritating part is that, even if I decide I want the app, I still have to use the website to see the particular piece of content I was linked to. Most sites just tell you to get their app, they don't deep link <i>into</i> the app when you do have it.
I avoid this problem by instantly boycotting any site that does this. They clearly have absolutely no interest in serving me content or helping me do what I want to do, and there is <i>always</i> an alternative.
I once had an idea for an "app-aggregating app."<p>I realized that a lot of apps that I get prompted to download have effectively one-off usage patterns and I'd delete them immediately after downloading and using them. This app would've essentially just allowed for very basic functionality for layouts, buttons, and form input from however many companies built these basic interfaces. That way I wouldn't have to download any more super-special apps, I could just load up the interface and work with that.<p>As I started thinking about this app more, I realized it was called a "web browser." I wish more companies put stronger emphasis on their mobile site.
I find this an unnecessary flame. That’s why Apple introduced Smart App Banners for iOS and they work just fine. The problem is just with those redirect you to a separate app download page. <a href="http://david-smith.org/blog/2012/09/20/implementing-smart-app-banners/" rel="nofollow">http://david-smith.org/blog/2012/09/20/implementing-smart-ap...</a>
The worst for me was a site (forget which one) which asked me to download the app, and then redirected me to their homepage when I declined (as opposed to the article I was trying to read). That was an unfortunate user experience.
My theory is that organizational politics are what's driving many media companies to push their 'app' over their website.<p>Building native apps means that new people with new training need to be hired, a new team with a new manager needs to be formed. And once the budget is there for the new shiny; it must be spent, to do otherwise would be wasteful!<p>Never underestimate the power of a bureaucracy to make things more complex so that actors on the inside can justify their existence.
I feel the same way about sites with special iPad interfaces. Every time I visit one I start to see/read the content as it loads and then the site goes blank while some heavy and slow annoying swipe theme finally comes up. when this happens I just leave.
Just an example of people thinking profit-first and value-to-users-second. Unfortunately very common, and while in many cases it could be justified, I still think many products would improve if their authors thought a little bit more about maximizing user value before their own profit.
I think Apple has recognised the problem and they are now supporting some HTML-meta-tag that will simply insert an App-Store banner when you visit a site that has it with iPhone's Safari.
I think the big reason for this is to unlock the engagement goldmine that is push notifications. I bet they've crunched the numbers and would prefer a few users having push notifications to more users not having them.
Yes! This frustrates me to no end. A surprising culprit is (or was, I stopped using them because of this) Hipmunk. I would think that a new, web-savvy company would have a reasonable web site. But they don't. Their web site is complete garbage on a mobile device and the solution is to download their app. Sorry guys, not gonna happen.
I blogged about that a while back. It's particularly bad on iOS since it seems more sites have iPhone apps. And many of them don't even just put a small link. Many, like Techcrunch, put a full page modal ad. Then there's sites who don't even ask you and redirect to an AppStore link. Stupid.
The idea of using an iPhone app to browse a particular website reminds me of AOL keywords like "www.cbs.com".<p>Every time I see an "Ask HN: what app do you use for HN?" I wonder why people don't just use the browser. What is the allure?
I noticed that coincidentally maybe to this, google news has stopped nagging me to save to the home screen with an annoying nag.<p>I'd like to say I would boycott a site for its a noting nag screens but I don't think that's a very mature way to handle it and all it hurts is me.<p>For me the most annoying thing is that sometimes I already do have the app and there's no good hand off. For example, I have the yelp app, but when google takes me to a yelp review and the nag screen says install the app, I would expect it to transition my current page view to th app equivalent. Sadly this is not the case. Ditto for LinkedIn
I don't think the easy answer is "all such things suck". You spend the time and money developing an app, and you want your visitors to know about the app. The prime candidates are those who visit your site on that device. So, the targeting is right, but the execution is what typically sucks.<p>From my own personal experience, if I'm visiting a specific article on the site, my immediate interest is getting the information from the article. Downloading an app is not going to take priority, even if I do ultimately want the app.<p>We had mocked up a "email me a link to this app" link for our site, in order to give the reader an option to email themselves an iTunes link for later, without taking them outside of the scope of reading the specific article they are looking at. In the end, we switched over to Apple's HTML banner thingy, which gives the opporutnity for people who have already installed the app the ability to open the specific article in the app itself.
Sadly this is probably a business decision and not a user experience decision. If I know I'm going to have my website there every time you tap to your homescreen or do a search on your phone I know that I'm probably more likely to convert you.
On Android, my personal pet peeve are apps that don't bother to handle their own links. Fine. You've made a special mobile app for your site and "convinced" (i.e. nagged) me to download it. If your app is so gosh-darn wonderful, why the fsck can't I use it whenever I'm using your site? Third-party app Twitter apps can figure this out. Why not you? Hint: The answer probably is that your app isn't nearly as wonderful as you think it is.
Believe it or not but there are heavy user on all of those websites who probably love those apps. They are the target audience for those apps (even if the app publishes don't realize that). Only because those websites are less famous than e.g. reddit or HN, it doesn't mean that they shouldn't offer their own app.<p>The real issue here is how they inform you about this app. The less intrusive and obnoxious they do this, the better, obviously.
This is especially problematic with companies like Quora, which coerce you into downloading their app. They literally obfuscate all answers and tell you to download the app, which is absurd.<p>Here is the actual wording:<p><a href="http://cl.ly/image/1n3P0e072m0F" rel="nofollow">http://cl.ly/image/1n3P0e072m0F</a>
Are there any web templates, frameworks, libraries, or whatever that are carefully crafted to look exactly like the native app UIs on major phone platforms? If more developers used them, more users might develop a preference for web apps over native apps as a default policy.
Most of the time I just visit a site from my phone because somebody posted a link on Twitter. I visit the site for the very first time and won't see it again. Why bothering me?<p>Make an ad in the sidebar but don't open a fucking confirm window!
A collection of bad mobile web experiences (app download blockers etc) are showcased here <a href="http://wtfmobileweb.com/" rel="nofollow">http://wtfmobileweb.com/</a>
Company X reads in a magazine they really really needs an app to keep up. Developer X sees money and ofcourse builds the app.<p>Just don't install the app and the hype will soon be gone.
Fscking Tapatalk. I will <i>never, ever, ever, ever, ever</i> install your app, even if it scratches my back. Ever; just because of your incessant, annoying spam on every god damn forum I ever go to. Give me a global opt-out.<p>I <i>can't wait</i> to get over this hard-on for native apps.<p>ABC, you too, for god's sake, I clicked on a random news story, I don't need your app.