Love how every website now has a popup that tells you "our website is hot dogshit, download the app instead"

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@PavelASamsonov (I don’t think that would solve everything, of course. Or anything. But it’s frustrating.)

[jwd630@mastodon.social]

@PavelASamsonov ah, but once you have and use the app they can start adding “features” to monetize you, gradually change the privacy policy, sell you a premium subscription, wall out the browser visitors, …

[jackmexa4@mastodon.social]

@PavelASamsonov

But then they would have to pay a third party to track you.

[lucas@social.lol]

@PavelASamsonov My favorite is when you download the app, and they still show the same fucking “download our app” banner inside the app anyway!

[nf3xn@mastodon.social]

@PavelASamsonov Apps are clearly dual use and meant to bypass browser security controls, possibly to circumvent E2EE, but also for surveillance purposes both state and commercial. We should have privacy legislation mandating web access for users. This of course would really annoy every app store and every foreign intelligence service which is how you know it's a great idea.

[bytebro@mastodonapp.uk]

@PavelASamsonov

I've said here before, but when I buy anything from eBay, I get a popup about "10% discount if you use our app!"

Which obvs means "We make that back by selling all of your shit to other companies"

Nah fam. Not now, not ever.

[robparsons@mastodon.social]

@bytebro @PavelASamsonov ditto, and exactly.

[kf7ccc@mastodon.radio]

@PavelASamsonov A while back I saw the perfect response to "It's better in our app": "And whose fault is that then?"

[arcticulate@toot.community]

@jwd630 @PavelASamsonov Selling me a premium subscription with Electron poison would make me instantly ignore any dialog or button giving me that option. However, if that subscription gave me access to a properly native app experience (UIKit or SwiftUI, no web views embedded), then I would consider subscribing if I enjoy the content and unsubscribing is easy.

[semitones@tiny.tilde.website]

@PavelASamsonov what's that saying, an app is just a website with a wrapper that strips your rights? I think @pluralistic says it better

[timwardcam@c.im]

@PavelASamsonov On some web sites Chrome has an "Install ..." button. I have no idea what this means, even after reading the help. It says something about a "web app" but I've no idea what that means either. What does installing a web site mean, and why might I want to do it?

[krnlg@mastodon.social]

@mwichary
It isn't in their interests to do that, of course. If everyone used web and PWAs, people could - shock horror - get out of the Apple/Google duopoly!
@PavelASamsonov

[vt52@ioc.exchange]

@mwichary @PavelASamsonov this is intentional on the part of Apple: PWAs compete with apps that ship in their app store, and they can't get a cut of that sweet sweet app revenue if folks can just install the PWA for free...

and since they don't allow non-safari browser engines, they can keep their stranglehold over platform behavior and make sure that even if PWAs are like... legally required to be a first-class construct, Apple can continue to nerf them so they're not able to be as good.

see also: https://open-web-advocacy.org/

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@paddyduke @PavelASamsonov "Wouldn't it be better if we were tracking you more aggressively?"

[bearbob@hachyderm.io]

@BillySmith @PavelASamsonov Which is kind of wild, considering what they can get already out of you using one of the common browsers…

[kos@stolat.town]

@PavelASamsonov and then the app asks you to accept cookies

[ertain@mast.linuxgamecast.com]

You get it, @PavelASamsonov

[foobarsoft@mastodon.social]

@PavelASamsonov I use an app to order from a restaurant because they will not keep me signed in.

It’s a web view.

That view asks to track me, in their own app. It’s asks to use my location. In their app. It tells me to sign in. *I AM*.

And yet somehow that’s still the better experience than just their site.

[ranvel@hachyderm.io]

@PavelASamsonov this is my favorite post from the past week

[aho@ioc.exchange]

@PavelASamsonov it's just annoying that you need a single site browser for everything nowadays, even my bank app is like this