I'm sad about web apps that don't work on mobile

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Posted by yosemite
Apr 5, 2019 at 03:33 AM

It’s frustrating to me that there are great web apps and desktop apps that have terrible or not complete mobile apps, or they work much worse, or are much slower at scale, or a hundred other problems. (two examples: dynalist and moo.do on android)

Why can’t I just use the web apps on mobile? Why can’t I get the moo.do web app in any android browser? Alternate browsers that claim to be able to get desktop versions, don’t work. They send me to the app (which sucks) or I get a desktop web page but without a “login” button (so, useless).

I wish I could get a phone-sized Windows 7 tablet with an HD screen…sigh.

Posted by Luhmann
Apr 5, 2019 at 06:13 AM

I agree. Even though Dynalist is now “usable” on iOS, the lousy web app often gets in the way of doing real work with it.

I don’t know about Android, but I have read that Apple is working hard to make web apps work better on iOS. Considering how much they depend on the App store for revenue, this is rather surprising, but it seems to be a very real initiative. It was announced a year ago, but it seems it is still a work in progress. Read more about it here:

https://medium.com/@firt/pwas-on-ios-12-2-beta-the-good-the-bad-and-the-not-sure-yet-if-good-a37b6fa6afbf

Hopefully as these tools get better those who refuse to make native apps will be able to create experiences that feel more like native apps…

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