Please Don’t Make Me Download Another App | Our phones are being overrun

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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/too-many-apps/680122/

Archive link: archive.ph/PgtUk

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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
You can do almost anything with a website that you could do with an app. The only reason they are pushing the apps so hard is because they can collect a lot more data than a website can.

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- ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  As Cory Doctorow put it, “An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to add an ad-blocker to it.”
  
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  - doctortran@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    
    The cloud is many things, but most of all, it’s a trap. When software is delivered as a service, when your data and the programs you use to read and write it live on computers that you don’t control, your switching costs skyrocket. Think of Adobe, which no longer lets you buy programs at all, but instead insists that you run its software via the cloud. Adobe used the fact that you no longer own the tools you rely upon to cancel its Pantone color-matching license. One day, every Adobe customer in the world woke up to discover that the colors in their career-spanning file collections had all turned black, and would remain black until they paid an upcharge:
    
    pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-t…
    
    The cloud allows the companies whose products you rely on to alter the functioning and cost of those products unilaterally. Like mobile apps – which can’t be reverse-engineered and modified without risking legal liability – cloud apps are built for enshittification. They are designed to shift power away from users to software companies. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to add an ad-blocker to it. A cloud app is some Javascript wrapped in enough terms of service clickthroughs to make it a felony to restore old features that the company now wants to upcharge you for.
    
    I legitimately want to scream sometimes as I feel the continual death of local computing and actual software, and it depresses me to no end how few businesses or users see it for what it is.
    
    And it’s exactly this: a trap. A trap users and businesses and racing into, and they have no idea, at all, how bad it’s going to get when the door close behind them.
    
    I swear, in like 10 years, Windows will mostly just be a kiosk for Edge.
    
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- ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  This is the main reason why I seldom install anyone’s “app”.
  
  Most of these apps aren’t true apps anyway, they’re just customized browsers that lead you to a website and are free to collect as much data from you and your phone as they want.
  
  I’ll go on your website first if I have to and 9 / 10 I get what I want. Besides, I’ll only ever visit the service once or twice so I don’t need to install a permanent app on my phone for that.
  
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  - Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Also desktop mode to circumvent those phone detection systems and trying to force an app.
    
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- RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I wish. Every fucking bank has their own shitty app for 2FA instead of just using standardized and proven TOTP, no way around that.
  
  Same about school apps the article mentioned since it’s connecting to their (one of many) proprietary system, no website for that.
  
  And recently got into the home automation rabbit hole. Lots of devices that require their fucking app, sometimes with mandatory cloud account, just to connect! And people in reviews even praise how easy it is, it’s infuriating! I don’t need light bulbs connecting to the internet, thank you very much.
  
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  - Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Ha, sucker, you think your non-Internet-connected lightbulbs make you safe? My Internet-connected lightbulbs have sent my online-car to wardrive your neighbourhood and sniff your Zigbee network!
    
    …if you see my car please tell it to come back to me, I need to go to the shops…
    
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  - wrekone@lemmyf.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I get emails from school, with a link that opens a 3rd party app, which only displays a link that opens in the default browser. I’ve asked the school to just send me direct links to the announcements, but they say they can’t. The site doesn’t require authentication, but the URLs have UUIDs so I can’t just guess what the link would be. The app is quite literally just a data exfiltration layer that does everything it can to make sure you can’t bypass it. Good luck getting any other parents to give a shit though.
    
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  - xthexder@l.sw0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I returned a bunch of smart outlets I got at Home Depot after I got fed up with waiting for the app to launch just to turn a light on or off.
    I also don’t want to have to talk to it, so switching to Home Assistant with Zigbee button remotes has made my experience so much better. And on the plus side, everything still works when the power or Internet goes out because I’ve got it on battery backup.
    
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  - RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    All of the banks I’ve used in the past utilize email or SMS for 2FA, which isn’t the must secure, but doesn’t require an app.
    
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- Zak@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  The number I remember seeing was that on average, app users are seven times more profitable than web users. Sorry, no citation.
  
  I suspect there’s some selection bias in that regular/loyal users of a particular product or service are more likely to install the app, but it also affords the company greater access to send notifications and collect data. On the rare occasion that I install some random company’s app for a specific benefit, I remove it when I’m done.
  
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- solrize@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Around here, Target (department store chain) will let you order stuff through their app and pick it up in the store parking lot. If you order through the web you have to wait around inside the store to get it. I still won’t install the app but this issue annoys me.
  
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  - Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    And then there’s guys like me. I don’t announce when I’m coming. I grab the items myself, and then I pay in cash. Nonsequential bills. I’m like a ninja! I can’t be traced! Shashasha!!! Pocket sand!
    
    Then on the way home, if I see someone following me home, I make 3 left turns. If they’re STILL following me? I turn around, and I shoot them…a dirty look!
    
    What? I’m not a psychopath. I just don’t like being followed.
    
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  - dirthawker0@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I recently ordered something from Walmart (I try to avoid it, but I could not find this one thing elsewhere) and you get a link in your email to notify them when you’re in the pickup bay. The link goes to their app. I tried going to the website through Chrome, to no avail. It kept sending me to try to download the app. I did not. I drove to the pickup bay and lo and behold, the sign had a phone number you could call; a very pleasant person answered, asked my name, and I had my order in a few minutes.
    
    I do have a couple grocery store apps for 2 reasons: 1 - there are some extremely low prices that you can only get by “clipping a coupon” within the app, and 2 - loyalty points do turn into cash back.
    
    Safeway (a west coast grocery chain) has implemented it in the worst way possible, though. They had a physical loyalty card which you scanned at checkout/self checkout, which let you access lower prices. But now they have even lower prices only through the app. The app, however, 1 - does not let you enter your old loyalty card number, combine points and cleanly separate from the old method and 2 - you cannot use the damn thing at self checkout. You have to have a checkout clerk scan your barcode in the app, which is insane. I’m just glad Safeway was not my main grocery, because if it were I would have to change to some other grocery.
    
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- kambusha@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  that’s two apps today
  
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- Sludgehammer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I was thinking about that a while back. There’s got to be some sort of upper limit to collecting data being useful. I mean at some point it becomes more economical to just buy the data from one other thousands of companies data mining phones rather then going to all the trouble of building and maintaining your own data mining app.
  
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  - BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    They just sell the data. If they need user data (beyond basics) they might buy it from a data mining company.
    
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- canadaduane@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  This is almost completely true, but I would add the caveat that PWAs (progressive web apps) are not as easy to discover and less familiar to install as an app in an app/play store. It might also be because it’s in Apple and Google’s best interest to not streamline that. But it’s still an obstacle nevertheless.
  
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doctortran@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

I recently re-downloaded the Michaels app while I was in the Michaels checkout line just so I could apply a $5 coupon that the register failed to read from the app anyway.

There’s your problem right there.

Does this author not understand how dumb this makes him look? You downloaded an entire app for a $5 coupon on something you probably were overcharged for in the first place?

Even when you’re lacking in a store-specific app, your apps will let you pay by app. You just need to figure out (or remember, if you ever knew) whether your gardener or your hair salon takes Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or one of the new bank-provided services such as Zelle and Paze.

If only there was a universal form of payment that you could keep in your pocket and pull out to use anytime with very minimal interaction. Maybe a card or something.

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- pemptago@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  People who are proud of getting a good deal via an app break my heart. Most folks I know like that are not strapped for cash. They just like the feeling of getting a bargain. They don’t consider that the prices are artificially inflated. They don’t need the sale item. And in the long run they’ll probably end up paying more when the stores know their purchasing habits and have A/B tested them enough to know how to provide as little as possible while charging as much as a customer can stomach.
  
  If a coupon requires an app, I don’t by that item. Especially when it comes to groceries. When it comes to store cards, most let you use a phone number instead of scanning the card. So plug in a random number at checkout. You can often get a hit on the first try. Then pay in cash. Dirty up someone else’s data and give these stores nothing on you. Seriously, if people keep giving in, it’s guaranteed to get worse. First the store card, then the app, what’s next?
  
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  - ilinamorato@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    
    Most folks I know like that are not strapped for cash.
    
    Whoa. What group do you run in? Literally everyone I talk to on a daily basis is.
    
    I actually just thought through an average day, and the people I talk to regularly. I’ve had conversations with each and every one of them over the past few months about how we’ve had to make major changes to our lifestyles in one way or another because the money is going out faster than it’s coming in. We’re all solidly middle-class, for whatever that means anymore.
    
    So what circles are you in where not everyone is looking for every possible discount they can get? Saving $5 on groceries means I can afford another gallon and a half of gas. I can’t afford to be principled about privacy when those are the stakes. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
    
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  - A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    
    People who are proud of getting a good deal via an app break my heart. Most folks I know like that are not strapped for cash. They just like the feeling of getting a bargain. They don’t consider that the prices are artificially inflated.
    
    Thats why Prime Day is such a big deal.
    
    People think they are getting awesome deals cause its 50% off, are not going and checking price trackers to see the item had a HUGE price spike a week before Prime Day.
    
    But they think they got 50% off and that gives them that massive dopamine rush, and that encourages more spending.
    
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  - OR3X@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    The Lowe’s app is actually really handy. You can look up any item and it will tell you the exact isle and bay it’s in for your store. No more wandering around or hunting for an employee to ask. It’s the only store app I actually keep on my phone.
    
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- tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Honestly, if there were a simpler way to sell their personal data to retailers for people who want to do so, that probably would be more appealing for the users.
  
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- kibiz0r@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  This just in: Author/professor/CEO whose books/classes/company are about manipulative technologies… voluntarily installs manipulative technologies.
  
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- nepenthes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I stopped reading the article after it just became a list of apps. Felt like a thinly veiled ad, and if not, annoying af.
  
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  - yamanii@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    tiktok brain
    
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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  
  Why the fucking hell do you need any of these?!
  
  Yup, I have none of them, and I still get a pretty good deal.
  
  Most of my spending is at Costco, and they send me a paper ad once/month, which I’ll go through and add relevant stuff to my list (in a separate app). But even if I don’t get a discount, their prices are still better than most (e.g. eggs are normally $2.50 or so per dozen, whereas the grocery sells them for $4+). If I’m going to spend more than normal, I’ll check a few sites before going out (or ordering online), and sometimes I’ll ask the store clerk to price match to avoid multiple stops. The one place I have an app for is on my old phone, and it’s for Target because they actually have decent sales sometimes. I don’t check very often, but I will when I’m going to go buy a bunch of gifts for birthdays or holidays or whatever (and again, I’ll check multiple sites first), and I use the 5% off w/ the Target debit card.
  
  I literally don’t bother with any loyalty programs. My grocery store’s loyalty program isn’t needed for discounts, it’s only for a discount on gas at some gas station I don’t go to (and isn’t even next to the store). There’s another with a better loyalty program (they have their own gas stations), but they’re further away and it would cost me more in gas to go there than I’d save.
  
  So if we need something, we’ll look for coupons or whatever before setting out, we don’t use an app or loyalty program. I’m pretty sure we end up wasting a lot less money this way.
  
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finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
TBH I dont use an app for anything that can be done in the browser, especially when mobile websites ask me tl get their app.

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- ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I’m the same way. The less apps there are on my phone, the better. Also, using the web app is the only way to block ads on certain sites such as Instagram or Twitter.
  
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- acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  then there are companies like yelp who make their mobile site as shitty as possible to force you to the app.
  
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  - MrOtherGuy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Doesn’t really sound like a company that I would want to do any business with then.
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Huh, is that why I haven’t used yelp in years?
    
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  - mindaika@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    What’s that other shitty company that constantly pesters you to download the app every time you average the site? Teddit?
    
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- corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I wish for a browser addon to just block those app download requests when it smells them. The answer’s only gonna be no for all that, dawg.~
  
  I only have the Starbucks app so my fancy Sunday coffee is done right and they don’t call me Corey Sangeetha or Coarse Kangaroo.
  
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frezik@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
A huge number of apps these days are web sites compiled into an app, and it shows. For example, an app should be able to remember your address and payment information without signing into an account, yet so many don’t. Almost like they want to force you into signing up. Why might that be?

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- Wogi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I have an app for my sprinkler system and it’s a fucking nightmare. Not only is it basically just a web API, it’s so transparently just a glorified browser with access to exactly one site that frequently my phone thinks that app will work for whatever else I’m trying to open.
  
  Document? Sprinkler app. Web Page? Sprinkler app. Installing from a source other than Google? Oh you better believe the sprinkler app can do that.
  
  Doing anything takes longer to load than it would take me to walk from anywhere on my property to the fucking box and hit whatever button I need to hit.
  
  It frequently forgets what I entered for preferences. I can tell it a week ahead what days I want it to skip but if I do that more than 24 hours on advance I might as well not have done it at all.
  
  Oh you want to make a payment online? Let your sprinklers do that for you. YouTube video? Sprinkler app. YouTube video about fixing your fucking sprinkler system? Sprinkler app.
  
  Apparently the one thing it can’t do is effectively manage my water usage. It’s ONE job
  
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  - nutsack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    shit that’s amazing
    
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  - dan@upvote.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    
    Document? Sprinkler app. Web Page? Sprinkler app. Installing from a source other than Google? Oh you better believe the sprinkler app can do that.
    
    They’ve misconfigured the app and are telling Android that it can open all URLs, not just the URLs it cares about. They probably read a tutorial and didn’t know what they were doing :)
    
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  - dullbananas@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Just request a copy of the source code! Oh wait
    
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  - x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I think all of this stuff is just a big fad. Many people have already been switching back to “dumb” devices.
    
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  - forrcaho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Is it actually opening up the Sprinkler app for all those other purposes, or giving you a choice dialog? If it’s actually opening up the app, maybe installing Intent Intercept would at least make it a choice dialog, as it also tries to open everything (just to show information about the request; it’s a dev tool).
    
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  - Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Can !homeassistant@lemmy.world help with that?
    
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- dan@upvote.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  
  Just give me a mobile web page if you’re going to do that shit.
  
  There’s some apps that just load a site, but the site refuses to load if you load it in a regular browser? Why?? Spoofing the user-agent would probably work around that, but I haven’t tried.
  
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narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
If the apps wouldn’t be slow React Native or whatever “multiplatform framework” crapware, then I’d actually say that well designed, native Swift UI (iOS) or Material (Android) apps can enhance the user experience for a lot of services that are otherwise offered via website. Native integrations with shortcuts, widgets, fully supporting accessibility features of the OS etc.

The problem is most apps are just low-effort web app conversions.

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A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I just go without.

the overwhelming majority of apps are nothing but websites wrapped in apps that strip away all the privacy and protections anyway, and demand far to many permissions for shit that are completely irrelevant to their purpose (because they want to syphon literally everything out of your phone and monetize the information).

I’d rather miss a deal, a sale, or whatever, than to deal with that shit.

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- iAvicenna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  well it is not just that, websites stopped working properly. I almost always run into a problem trying to book a ticket from an airline company’s website.
  
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  - pixelscript@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I recently had a rather baffling experience trying to preemptively avoid this by downloading the stupid app right away, only to discover I needed the website version anyway.
    
    I was attempting to add my Known Traveler Number to an already booked trip with Southwest Airlines, booked by someone else. I was able to link the trip to my account right away in the app, no issue. And I could see the KTN field for my ticket sitting there, empty, greyed-out, and not interactible. I opened up the moble version of their website, completely unsurprised to find it was identical to the app, except for the detail that the KTN field there was functional. Put in the information, changes reflected in the app instantly, and I was in the TAS-pre line that afternoon.
    
    Why did the two versions obviously built from the same codebase have two different sets of capabilities? Why was the website the more capable of the two this time? I have no clue. All I know is I never want to be a developer at a corporation where I’d have to be responsible for this flavor of trash.
    
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- yonder@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  When the app is prompting you to accept cookies
  
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JollyG@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Used get my haircut at one of those “no appointment needed” haircut chains. Then they got an app, and every time I went it was “Why aren’t you using the app? You need to use the app. Next time use the app. Download the app on your phone. It’s gonna be an hour wait because you didn’t use the app.”

Now I just go to a local place.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I just cut my own hair.
  
  But yeah, this trend is frustrating. When I get food from Jimmy Johns or a handful of other quick meal places, they bring up the app every single time. Yeah, I could get a free sandwich or whatever occasionally, but I really don’t want yet another app on my device. If that choice resulted in a worse experience, I’d find a different service.
  
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- toastal@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  This is what CalDAV is for. We don’t need apps. We don’t need Calendly or Google Calendar or some BS.
  
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  - Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    As someone who needs to let other people schedule time on my calendar without wanting to give them every detail about my personal life I find Calendly to be incredibly useful.
    
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dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Just yesterday, Mrs. Warp Core was trying to enroll with an online service. The self-service email confirmation link refused to function correctly in Firefox on a desktop operating system (Windows in this case). It worked flawlessly on Firefox+iOS. Said link also shuttled the user straight off to the phone app.

I’ll add that nearly ever other aspect of their public facing web, including the online chat support, worked flawlessly everywhere I tried it. This all just reeked of hostile design.

When asked about why this is, I simply said:

The browser provides good security and choice for the user. Apps provide good security and control for the vendor.

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CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I legitimately do not have enough space on my phone to install all the crappy bloatware of all the stores I go to. They quite literally ask the impossible of me.

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- GenosseFlosse@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I have yet to see an app that does something a website could not do…
  
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  - sheogorath@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Harvest data more efficiently for our corporate overlords :)
    
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  - A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    most apps are just containerized websites.
    
    You know why?
    
    Cause browsers do a lot to protect your data from invasive sniffing.
    
    but if you containerize it in an app, you can remove all those pesky safety measures Which lets you turn a customer into a product by siphoning up all their data and information.
    
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daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Open source social media app: 30MB full size.

Privative social media app: 300MB install + 500 MG data full size 700MG

Go figure. I could have thousand of apps. Id they were not packed with intrusive software to get all my data and to lock the company IP.

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- yonder@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I use the Voyager Web App lol, only gotta store browser cache and cookies. Take that private social media!
  
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kibiz0r@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Not sure anyone actually read the article, cuz yall are talkin about apps vs. web sites, and data collection. Two points which are briefly covered, but ultimately shrugged off in favor of the larger thesis:

Smartphones … meant [companies] could use their apps to off-load effort. … In other words, apps became bureaucratized. What started as a source of fun, efficiency, and convenience became enmeshed in daily life. Now it seems like every ordinary activity has been turned into an app, while the benefit of those apps has diminished.

I’d like to think that this hellscape is a temporary one. As the number of apps multiplies beyond all logic or utility, won’t people start resisting them? And if platform owners such as Apple ratchet up their privacy restrictions, won’t businesses adjust? Don’t count on it. Our app-ocalypse is much too far along already. Every crevice of contemporary life has been colonized. At every branch in your life, and with each new responsibility, apps will keep sprouting from your phone. You can’t escape them. You won’t escape them, not even as you die, because—of course—there’s an app for that too.

It’s not simply the code delivery mechanism, and it’s not whether the data exchange is safe from prying eyes… It’s the fact that a digital UX has invaded every aspect of human interaction, including mourning.

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- doctortran@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  
  At every branch in your life, and with each new responsibility, apps will keep sprouting from your phone. You can’t escape them. You won’t escape them, not even as you die, because—of course—there’s an app for that too.
  
  Except that’s just straight up not true. You can’t escape it? You can’t escape installing the Michaels app to get a $5 discount coupon?
  
  I’m absolutely flabbergasted by what I’m reading here because I have no idea what the hell any of these people are doing in their lives where they’re collecting this many apps out of necessity. This is entirely selection bias.
  
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  - PriorityMotif@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Some stores require you to use the app for order pickup. Why they have the Menards app installed I have no clue. They’ve always been way behind with e-commerce, but their website works perfectly fine.
    
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  - SemioticStandard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I think you’re presenting a terribly myopic viewpoint. A lot of companies make the process of interacting with them so painful if you don’t use their app, that you feel hounded, harassed, and yeah, in some cases, forced to use their app. Do you really think your idea here hasn’t been considered by the author? Of course it has, because like most older people (in their 30s and 40s), that’s how it always used to be. The author is complaining that the way it is today, it can be difficult or borderline impossible to do the very thing you seem confused about.
    
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  - tronx4002@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Yes, as annoying as apps for everything is, very few are necessary, or even useful. I have had no problem going though life with minimal apps.
    
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  - yamanii@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    5 USD is a lot.
    
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GhiLA@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

download our app

Nah

delete account…

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- Korbs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Literally me
  
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luciferofastora@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
One big supermarket chain here has an app where you get a few cents bonus discount on already discounted items with the app coupon. The in-store announcement praises it as the first place of some insitute’s supermarket app ranking. Even if that institute were legit, the ranking fair and the spot well-deserved, I always felt like that’s a competition with no winners.

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corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
This piece has no real point. No hidden info, no resolution, no exposé, no call-to-arms really.

It’s just “there are way too many apps”, which we already knew.

What a weak article.

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- Debs@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Yeah. The Atlantic kinda sucks.
  
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  - FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    It used to be a sort of second-rate New Yorker, except now The New Yorker is a second-rate New Yorker.
    
    Harper’s is still decent though. It’s pretty much how it’s been for years.
    
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- locuester@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  It’s behind a paywall for me. Good to hear I don’t have to bother with an archive link
  
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Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Do most people even know what a phone app is??!

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InFerNo@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Amount of store apps on my phone: zero.

My wife has an app that is basically a card holder. Instead of pulling out a loyalty card, she pulls up the one app that has all of them scanned/copied. It’s great.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Nice. I used to have a handful, and now I just don’t bother with the loyalty program at all. My local grocery’s program is mediocre at best (discount at a gas station I don’t use) and isn’t even required to get discounts, so I don’t bother. And they don’t even need an app, just a phone number, so I just refuse to tell them my number because I’m getting zero value from it.
  
  Likewise for pretty much everything. The only one I actually use is Target, and that’s because I get 5% off using their debit card, plus some random discounts through the app. I don’t go there very often, but when I do, I’ll generally time it when there are some good discounts to stack (usually it’s for birthdays or school, and I have a month or so leeway in when I go).
  
  So yeah, no store apps for me.
  
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dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
You know what else is overrun? Paywalls or other “requirements” where I need to signup and/or pay to access something that should be free.

Don’t get me started on those fulls term ad interstitials that force me to watch an ad I’m not interested in before I can continue either.

Let’s face it, the Internet today fucking sucks and it’s partly to do with these so-called news outlets like the Atlantic.

I miss the days when barely anyone heard of the web. Sure, it wasn’t as feature rich, but then again, those features are overly abused in the name of capitalism anyway. It’s like those strip malls that have nothing but shitty restaurants, nail salons, and tax preparers. Gone are the days of fun stores like hobby shops, comic book stores, local mom & pop toy stores.

They just sucked the fun out of it all. 😡

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- Croquette@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I have to look for datasheets quite ofen and every damn company requires you to log into their shitty login system to get them.
  
  It’s exhausting
  
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ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
And the app is just a glorified website (Electron app).

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samus12345@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Image

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Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Nobody makes your download any damn app. You can just not do it.

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- Zak@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I remember getting a boarding pass from an airline that was only offered in their app or printed at the airport, no email/download image/PDF option. I didn’t have to install their app, but I would have had to waste time at the airport otherwise. I removed it when I was done and left it a negative review.
  
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cows_are_underrated@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I actually often prefer using apps over websites, because my phone is quite slow and using a browser is often way slower than an app.

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DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
This…is a BATTERY SUCKING DATA HOG!!

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zarkanian@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
This is partly corporate greed and partly a failure of the Web. A website should be all you need. You shouldn’t need a separate app for every little thing.

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COASTER1921@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
This is why everything apps are so popular in many parts of the world. Using a mini-app from the internet running within another app is far preferable to downloading a whole app you may never need to use again. The way they do it in China is so seamless even if you’ve never visited the business before. There’s never any special account creation or entering of payment information.

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madjo@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I wish sites that do have PWAs would stop funneling people towards their app.
Especially Patreon, where patronages started using their app would be 30% more expensive for their users than patronages started through their website because of the Apple (and probably Google) tax. Patreon is aware of this tax but keeps advertising their fucking stupid app! You have a Progressive Web App that’s works perfectly! Stop it! Get some help!

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celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Don’t download the app then. You don’t need it. Whatever it is. You don’t need it. Whatever bullshit productivity promises someone made to you, it was a lie meant to trick you into installing their spyware. All smartphone apps are spyware. Period.

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sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I recently switched to GrapheneOS and decided to avoid the Google Play store entirely, and honestly, the inconveniences have been pretty limited. The only bank I’ve had trouble with is Citi, everything else (I’ve tried several others) work fine through the browser. Likewise for most services I use, the web version works fine, though occasionally I’ll need to use the “desktop” version.

Some services just don’t work properly on the web, but most of the ones I used to use through an app work just fine. Give it a try, maybe together we can send a signal that apps should only exist when they provide value.

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IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I like apps for stores I frequent. Most people do.

Having 150+ is a personal problem.

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Cataphract@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
The most ironic part…

Image

… an ad for an app for the article…

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forrcaho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
xkcd.com/1367/

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