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Mobile App, Progressive Web App (PWA) For IPB


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When Steve Jobs returned to Apple and saw them going down the old/wrong path....

the first thing he did was get rid of 95% of their product lineup.

 

My point being that IF lots of plugins etc... are inhibiting real progress..... guess what painful thing HAS to be done?

@breatheheavy  This doesn't have to be rocket science.... a PWA could handle most of these websites as just a framework.

 

The current push toward native apps 7+ years too late is just a distraction.

That would be like Intel deciding it's going to go into the spinning HDD business in 2020.

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4 hours ago, TheWorldNewsMedia.org said:

My point being that IF lots of plugins etc... are inhibiting real progress..... guess what painful thing HAS to be done?

Hmmm to be honest I think the majority of apps on the marketplace offer real value to many. 

I'm not trying to be argumentative. To be honest, I would prefer my website run as an app instead. 

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On 6/20/2020 at 10:45 AM, TheWorldNewsMedia.org said:

The current push toward native apps 7+ years too late is just a distraction.

That would be like Intel deciding it's going to go into the spinning HDD business in 2020.

What specifically do you want them to do? Not just a buzzword like PWA - PWA is just a descriptor for numerous frameworks and web technologies, some of which are already supported. What do you specifically want them to work on next?

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Nobody cares about a "mobile app" just to access a website. It's not 2007, mobile is not interesting or novel. Nobidy cares. This sounds like the same bullfaeces we heard in the game industry like "the world is moving to mobile, if you don't go mobile you're dead!" and everyone who did waste time on a mobile product got slaughtered.

It's a constantly changing, extremely unstable platform with extremely complicated development methods and zero users. I'm surprised anyone is even still trying to push the whole "mobile is killing the PC!" nonsense.

Edited by Interferon
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9 minutes ago, Interferon said:

Nobody cares about a "mobile app" just to access a website.

Except the billions who use the apps for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on—every single day. Those are all just “websites”. 

I also don’t understand why you point out that it’s not “novel” anymore. Things aren’t used just because they are new. They are used because they remain to be useful. Does nobody care about cars anymore because they are so 19th century?

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2 minutes ago, Interferon said:

People use the Facebook app because it's Facebook, not because it's an app. 

Which makes no point whatsoever.

But here is one: People have a choice to use Facebook on their phone/tablet as app OR in their mobile browser. Which do most prefer? Which makes them come back to Facebook more often? 

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On 6/20/2020 at 4:48 PM, TheWorldNewsMedia.org said:

This is 2020.

The app argument was settled years ago.

Good luck getting any market penetration now.

 

The truly funny part is Invision now insisting on the old native apps rather than the future PWA's.... SMH.

Good thing I don't use Invision to run a real business. Hobby is about where it will always stay.

 

That would be similar to Sears saying right now: "We've decided to try selling stuff online like Amazon instead of through our Catalog"

 

This statement is so inaccurate, Snopes just went bankrupt writing its response.

 

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Just thought I'd nip in and have a read of this thread to see what people thought about apps and Invision.

I have to say I'm really shocked at people dismissing the 'app' side of invision so quickly.

It seems strange to me.

For example - would more people use my forum if it was an app on the app stores?

Without a doubt YES - massively. It would make such a massive difference to how many people used my forums. More people would find my forums, more people would visit. More people would revisit definitely because having an app on their device is the way people go about things these days.

I think dismissing the app side of internet life isn't just foolhardy, it's really strange to me.

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6 minutes ago, Sheffielder said:

Just thought I'd nip in and have a read of this thread to see what people thought about apps and Invision.

I have to say I'm really shocked at people dismissing the 'app' side of invision so quickly.

It seems strange to me.

For example - would more people use my forum if it was an app on the app stores?

Without a doubt YES - massively. It would make such a massive difference to how many people used my forums. More people would find my forums, more people would visit. More people would revisit definitely because having an app on their device is the way people go about things these days.

I think dismissing the app side of internet life isn't just foolhardy, it's really strange to me.

We all view the world through our own filters and biases. Some communities are frustrated that we are not moving PWA forwards because their 90% Android user base could benefit.

Some people hate downloading apps and use the PWA option where available.

It's natural to see the world through your own eyes and assume we all think alike and all have the same experiences.

The reality is that we have tens of thousands of customers who have billions of combined members, so we get a good overview of all needs and wants.

I'm not against doing more with PWA in a future version, it's just that we do not think that Apple will invest much time in their PWA system anytime soon, so for a fully mobile experience the only logical choice is a native app so that is where we have put our development resources.

But of course, everything is reduced to a binary argument. You either do or do not. You are either on one team or the other. The nuances are lost.

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1 minute ago, Matt said:

We all view the world through our own filters and biases. Some communities are frustrated that we are not moving PWA forwards because their 90% Android user base could benefit.

Some people hate downloading apps and use the PWA option where available.

It's natural to see the world through your own eyes and assume we all think alike and all have the same experiences.

The reality is that we have tens of thousands of customers who have billions of combined members, so we get a good overview of all needs and wants.

I'm not against doing more with PWA in a future version, it's just that we do not think that Apple will invest much time in their PWA system anytime soon, so for a fully mobile experience the only logical choice is a native app so that is where we have put our development resources.

But of course, everything is reduced to a binary argument. You either do or do not. You are either on one team or the other. The nuances are lost.

 

I totally get that different communities have different needs

In all honesty I don't understand what PWA is, what the technicalities of it are.

I just know that if the app store had a shiny icon in it for my forum, that my readers would most definitely download and use it on one my forums (the football forum I run).

The other forum I have that is based on my city's history would also get used as an app but maybe not as much 

I guess when I say that I think an app would benefit my community what I'm really saying is that I'd love my forum to be on the app stores, have an app downloadable, where you click into it and the same features and usability of my current forum is there for users. 

I see all sides of this argument for sure.

I'd get an 'app' developed for my forums so it could sit in the app stores if I knew how.

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1 hour ago, Sheffielder said:

Just thought I'd nip in and have a read of this thread to see what people thought about apps and Invision.

I have to say I'm really shocked at people dismissing the 'app' side of invision so quickly.

It seems strange to me.

For example - would more people use my forum if it was an app on the app stores?

Without a doubt YES - massively. It would make such a massive difference to how many people used my forums. More people would find my forums, more people would visit. More people would revisit definitely because having an app on their device is the way people go about things these days.

I think dismissing the app side of internet life isn't just foolhardy, it's really strange to me.

There is something in the startup world called the MVP, or minimum viable product. The idea is to put something out there as soon as possible, and then improve it if there is a response from the market, and discontinue it if there isn't. This can save a lot of time because you don't end up building a product there is no real demand for.

It's not that hard to create a simple app that just wraps a web page. Try this and release it in the iOS App Store. If you get 10,000 installs, then yes, maybe you have a good point about apps. But I bet you won't even get 20 installs. Your app will get absolutely buried. You're about 13 years late to the app party.

This is coming from someone who actually has done mobile development on both iOS and Android and has been through the process of submitting an app to the store. I even gave a talk about mobile development.

This should really be a first step before you demand that IPB skew things in a weird direction. If you want this you should provide evidence, not just say "the market is moving this way".

Edited by Interferon
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On 6/23/2020 at 2:02 AM, Matt said:

We all view the world through our own filters and biases. Some communities are frustrated that we are not moving PWA forwards because their 90% Android user base could benefit.

Some people hate downloading apps and use the PWA option where available.

It's natural to see the world through your own eyes and assume we all think alike and all have the same experiences.

The reality is that we have tens of thousands of customers who have billions of combined members, so we get a good overview of all needs and wants.

I'm not against doing more with PWA in a future version, it's just that we do not think that Apple will invest much time in their PWA system anytime soon, so for a fully mobile experience the only logical choice is a native app so that is where we have put our development resources.

But of course, everything is reduced to a binary argument. You either do or do not. You are either on one team or the other. The nuances are lost.

My biggest fear with an app (and why I won't offer it to my users) is as follows:

- it breaks the site wide experience since I have many elements of our site beyond the forums. I want them to have the full experience. Not just chat. If they used the app they would probably not use the mobile site much (which has tons of other content) and when they did click on links to those areas of the site it would be a jarring experience swapping to the browser and back. 

- there is no way to monetize the app well.  Def not as well as the web. 

My expectation is that I'll stick with the mobile responsive view of the site which works just fine. 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Fast Lane! said:

My biggest fear with an app (and why I won't offer it to my users) is as follows:

- it breaks the site wide experience since I have many elements of our site beyond the forums. I want them to have the full experience. Not just chat. If they used the app they would probably not use the mobile site much (which has tons of other content) and when they did click on links to those areas of the site it would be a jarring experience swapping to the browser and back. 

- there is no way to monetize the app well.  Def not as well as the web. 

My expectation is that I'll stick with the mobile responsive view of the site which works just fine. 

And both of these fears are relevant only for native applications, while PWA does not add any risks at all, but gives only benefits.

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