5
votes
App?
I know that this is in an alpha stage so we can't really expect anytime soon, but is there any app which could, for the time being help everyone out regarding this
I know that this is in an alpha stage so we can't really expect anytime soon, but is there any app which could, for the time being help everyone out regarding this
@Demios has stated that he does not intend to make an app. However, the website works well on mobile, so it does not appear to be a problem.
But he does intend to have an API, so other people can make apps. While it does work well on mobile, I do generally prefer an app over a website.
Agree, app>browser
Why, specifically? What benefits from a dedicated app are important to you?
I'm pretty sure you can get notifications with mobile browsers.
You can, but Tildes doesn't support it yet.
I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure, at least for Firefox mobile, that you don't need the browser open to get notifications. Once you subscribe to the notification, it uses google cloud messaging to push them to your device: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/mobile/android/fennec/push.html
As an avowed privacy advocate, I'm surprised you would prefer an app to a website. One reason I prefer websites to apps is that apps have a higher level of data tracking: you have to give Apple/Google and a random developer your personal account information to install the app, and then the app itself requires permissions to scrape certain data from your device. Meanwhile, a website doesn't do these things.
Uh, just wrote this for another comment, I just post here
You don't make an app just because the mobile sites often load slower and lag. On mobile you want to exploit all your options for input as you use your small display for all of it. You want to have sliding sidebars on all sides, sliding individual posts, multi-column view in one setting, single-column in another, long-clicking on individual items.
You want interoperability with your system or other apps--share, notifications, caching, an easy way to delete browser history without loosing your settings, etc.
If you don't offer a progressive app and set it to full-screen, you can't use the borders for site-only features as the browser take precedence. The quality of gesture implementations only recently started to catch up, but even then, they might interfere with your browser.
I'm mobile-primarily for non-work things these days. For me, the big distinction is whether I'm consuming or creating content - media I'm reading is all browser-based, but if I'm signed in and interacting with something on a regular basis I strongly prefer an app.
Things apps provide that mobile websites don't:
About half of those should be covered by just using the PWA/"add to home screen" type of function (which you should already be able to do), or even using something like Hermit. The others are mostly very minor conveniences.
To be clear, it's not that I think apps have no benefits, of course they do. It's that I don't think the benefits are worth 2+ years of developer time to produce a quality app for a single platform, as well as requiring constant, heavy maintenance forever (which basically means investing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars into the apps).
I agree with your assessment re: cost benefit of maintaining an app.
It’d be nice to have (and I outlined why I like them elsewhere), but it’s only going drive people away if it’s not a really great app.
I never have to worry about apps reloading he page I’m on. I can pull up browser tabs and switch to my application to compose a comment, and never have to worry about accidentally closing the wrong browser window, or losing the page I was on, etc.
I don’t log into stuff on mobile often, it’s set to reset my user data as much as possible each time I close it. I have to use a password manager to log into the site via mobile. I wouldn’t in an app.
Have you tried using the "add to home screen" function (or whatever it's called on your platform/browser). That should effectively split the site into a separate "app" so that it's not mixed with your browser tabs. I'm not certain if it also maintains the login info separately, but it might do that as well.
Until Tildes serves a PWA manifest, I think Chrome users will just get a shortcut to open a new tab - that's certainly what's happened for me.
I added a PWA manifest a couple of weeks ago, is it not working for you still? I may not have included something I needed to.
Oops, I hadn't noticed that! As far as I can tell, you need to include
start_url(presumably just/) anddisplaytoo, although getting the browser to actually prompt users about it is more complicated. You probably wantbackground_colorand/ortheme_coloras well.Weirdly Chrome DevTools says it can't find a manifest at all, which is odd. I don't know if that's because it's a crap error message that's also triggered if there's not enough detail in the manifest, or because something else is wrong.
Weird, thanks. I see the same message in chrome devtools - I'll try adding a couple of the other settings and maybe renaming the file, and see if that gets it to pick it up.
Edit: ah, turns out it was related to the content security policy, I needed to set a
manifest-srcto allow it.It's always
DNSCSP :P All working fine now!Is this PWA for Android only?
Shouldn't be, I believe iPhone has a similar "add to home screen" function, but I don't know exactly how it works.
I have. And that’s what I do.
Probably because my browser resets every time I close the app I still have to log in. I’m not upset or concerned, and it’s totally worth it for me to use a site I like. It’s just a slight additional burden.
That can be made more comfortable (?) with a password manager.
When your database is unlocked, in the browser you share the login page with the pw manager. You should get an interface which pastes the data in the field you've selected.
I did but it just reopen Chrome with tildes in a tab.
Dedicated app : Maybe it's more convenient and user friendly for a user to browse the site which would definitely be helpful for the user to spend more time on the site without having a second thought. For example, swipe to switch the post/group, double tap to vote or something like that. I know that should be future project to focus on as of now that's like asking too much at a wrong time, as even the site is still in alpha stage.
App which i was asking because i know the above points : Opens a "Particular" site in a user friendly mode to navigate.
Edit: End up using "add the bookmark" to home screen from Chrome/Brave browser.
Mostly caching. Being able to quickly flip between a cached front page, tilde, or conversation is paramount to a smooth UX IMO, especially when you're in an area with spotty internet.
Get a better browser :-p
The documentation explicitly states that "...the primary interface for using the site on mobile should remain as the website."
The part of the quote you truncated is pretty relevant:
Also, I’d say that it’s not beyond the pale to discuss things that exist in the documentation. While it exists as a foundational document it’s not exactly a sacred or unquestionable text.
Apps are sort of important.
When you get multiple devs working on their own version of how they think it should be presented, you get innovations.
Those innovations may be purely cosmetic, or they can be a reason to use something like reddit or tilde.
For example, desktop Reddit is a hot mess even with RES most of the time. Once you're subscribed to a few dozen subs, navigation between them is cumbersome. Even multis only help a little. The same can be said of the mobile site, only without the advantages of RES.
But then you get the incredible array of Android apps. There are a solid dozen that provide anything from a nearly desktop interface to highly customized ones like slide, sync, boost, joey, etc.
Most of those shine in making using the service more fluid for a mobile device. Having markdown shortcuts in comment/post screens alone is a major time saver. Then you get things like tabbed views, built in media management, custom filters, improved search ability, etc, etc.
IOS has fewer stellar examples, but for both android and iOS, the integration into the rest of the device is so much smoother.
For myself, most of the apps also use fewer resources than browsers. That means better SOT during use. For amoled displays, having a proper true black theme can give a major advantage in battery use.
A lot of things that the internet offers is being used on mobile devices. Communication in particular should be mobile friendly.
That doesn't mean tilde itself needs to make an app, just that the API already planned is important.
What about PWA?
This is what I want.
Don't know if you've noticed, but Tildes is now a PWA - it doesn't work offline (yet), but if you do the "add to home screen" dance in Chrome for Android, you get a thing that looks a lot like a real application.
What is an app anyway? Just an API wrapper with some design on top?
I'd argue that Tildes should just make a killer mobile experience. (Which it does quite well right now).
I'm sick of every company feeling that they're entitled to system resources on my phone. Most of the times "apps" just churn in the background eating battery and mining data for ad related targeting later on.
Whenever possible I try to only use mobiles sites.