I have an app for programming my chicken coop. My 401k company just created an app for onboarding new participants.
These should have been mobile friendly webpages.
The chicken coop controller needs access to use whatever drivers (Bluetooth?) to connect. On the other hand, they could have used Wi-Fi instead. The financial app, however, definitely should be a website. However, apps are a way to increase the longevity of the login token because apps on a non-rooted phone supposedly cannot leak the login token and can be trusted to keep it safe on the device.
It’s actually flashing the screen to a photo sensor
oh wow, that’s intricate but it probably works more reliably than something like a usb cable. Native apps probably have more control over framerate compared to webapps.
Bluetooth for example does work in web browsers though, and so does USB. There’s web sockets and webrtc for communication. I can’t think of a reasonable connection method that’s inaccessible, but maybe I’m forgetting one.
I’d rather choose the password manager I trust that can safely store my credentials and auto-fill, than being forced to use a specific banking app with unknown security features.
I agree. It’s way more sus to download an app. The reason social media sites push apps over websites is because they can harvest a lot more data that way.
I have an app for programming my chicken coop
What kind of programming does a chicken coop need?
How much of a delay on the light sensor for the automatic door.
Often, the apps are there just to collect ad information for you in a way browsers don’t allow.
Is there a way to insulate apps in my phone from looking at stuff they shouldn’t? Kinda like Firefox Multi-Account Containers.
On iOS, in the App Store entry for each app there is a section called “App Privacy.” You can use that section to see what data the app will collect. I do not know how to prevent it from collecting that data once it is installed.
You could look into Shelter if you are on android.
Ding ding ding. It’s all about the tracking data. Also, notifications. They want to be able to buzz you with spam, to remind you that the app exists.
And send notifications
And collect email addresses, to send
important messagesspam
Programming your chicken coop?
I program my chicken coop from the touchscreen panel on the outside. I don’t need an app for it.
So… that’s actually my plan. But that’s just because I program industrial HMIs for a living. Totally unnecessary.
Probably setting times for the gate to lock
You are correct.
yeah right what does that even mean
I’m imagining it probably has temperature, humidity, maybe automatic feeding, water capacity and maybe the ability to turn on a heat lamp.
Mood lighting and music.
Get the chickens completely relaxed with smooth jazz, then steal their eggs.
Totally agree. I’m hoping web apps make a comeback as well — a lot of apps in App Stores are just websites in an “app wrapper”. Start rejecting that shit and tell people to publish it as a web app.
I make WebApps for exactly this reason! PWAs for the win!
I hate how all smart devices need their own apps. Lights, vacuum cleaners, doorbells, fans, etc. super annoying to go through my phone and see so many random apps.
And then they become unsupported and unavailable.
That’s so you feel locked into one brand so you can use all one app
Just use home assistant. Open source and can connect to lots of different devices
they should work through home/homekit
And not every program needs an installer.
Just because I downloaded a program to write ISOs to a USB drive, does not mean it needs to be installed on the system. Unless it’s something like MS Office, why does it need to be installed? Just give me a zip file, I will extract it and delete it when I don’t need it anymore.
Your problem here is you’re running windows
I can tell you’re a Linux user lol.
You can tell he’s not a FreeBSD user because he doesn’t have to dive in and alter the source to make it compatible.
Yeah, who needs an installer when you can just
./configure, then./makeand./make install, just stopping to fetch and build missing dependencies occasionally, upgrade some others, then retry.Or just download a standalone binary. Or don’t download anything because most things are in your package manager.
Windows doesn’t require you to install most things though. Developers just choose to do so unnecessarily sometimes.
Why hate windows for this of all things? Isn’t it normal to “install” packages in Linux as well?
Via your package manager. Not by downloading some random nonsense a random developer decides should write who knows what their system files
If you’re on Windows and looking for a portable ISO burner, Rufus works great and is a 1.4mb portable .exe for that. It works great for when I overwrite Windows with Linux.
my directory of ‘portable’ programs has about sixty different things in it. some of which are used daily and are either in the path or are windows’ default for something.
Is this actually unpopular? Give me web interface that works OK on mobile and I’m usually a happy camper.
I mean most of lemmys front page is usually promoting unnecessary apps
I once had to download an app to get my hair cut. Never walked out of a barber before so that was a first.
“Download our app to see our menu”
walks out
my company’s payroll management software just rolled out an app called “swag”
that’s not a joke
Not everything needs and app
But then they couldn’t scrape maximum personal data, collect your contacts, have access to your mic and camera, and track your every physical movement. Your so selfish!
Yea idk why everyone wants Lemmy Apps, the browser ui is fine.
Perfect application for PWA. Save it to your homepage and works just fine.
Because not everybody likes the stock interface of Lemmy. Same thing with Reddit, and why people chose to use third-party apps there, as well. Web apps aren’t always designed in the most intuitive ways for every user, and sometimes a native app can fill those UI/UX gaps, or add features that aren’t possible through a PWA.
There are a few different web apps for accessing Lemmy.
I’m not sure what browsers can’t do these days in terms of social media. With Web Bluetooth and everything from accelerometers to proximity sensors being exposed to web applications I’m also having a hard time imagining what features web apps lack for most use cases.
I hate working with Javascript and the performance of many Javascript frameworks is absolutely terrible, but a well constructed web app can more than make up for native apps these days.
Voyager is a pretty good Lemmy client, even better than Jerboa in my opinion, especially after installing it.
why PWA and not a plain web app? I think the only difference is that PWAs can ve turned into a pinned pop-up window (that acts a bit like an electron app) when using a chromium-based browser.
Even then, there’s a lot of feature you end up missing out on. Even just basic navigation has to be done via the browser’s default navigation options. Even simple things like long-pressing something on the page will typically only give you access to your browser’s long-press menu (though that’s not always the case, in my experience very few web apps handle this effectively).
Personally, I prefer the experience of a native app. But I get why it’s not appealing to all people.
features that aren’t possible through a PWA
That list is getting smaller every day.
Yeah… more than half of the demos ended up saying “This feature is not (yet) supported on your device.”
Huh, interesting. I only get that for 3 or 4.
The most useful PWA I have found is Voyager, and its app counterpart is way better IMHO.
Native android/iOS apps are way smoother for daily navigation, you also get some perks like notifications and that.
I have not tried out voyager, but just from looking at it’s GitHub, it’s essentially just a web browser packed in a native app anyways.
Performance shouldn’t really be different from browser app to local app this way unless something is done wrong, or there’s some specific functionality, like async I/o that’s still unsupported.
Notifications are also a thing in web browsers nowadays. Most device features that you can access in a separate app are actually supported by now.
Nah, Voyager is primarily a pwa that works entirely in your phone’s browser.
They recently packaged it with a browser into an APK because lots of users asked for a “native app” for some reason. But the pwa is still there, and is still the main way it is developed
But no front end for Lemmy should ever need to be an app.
My 401k company just created an app for onboarding new participants.
“If you’d like me to run company software, you’ll have to provide a company device for me to run it on.”
Never install work software on a personal device. Security, Privacy, Expectations (regarding personal resources).
Along with this, never use personal software/accounts/services with company devices. You can’t be sure who’s watching and can’t be sure you’ll have a chance to remove/collect your personal data before being locked out of said device.
100% this. I put my foot down at my last job after finding out their app demanded device location when it wasn’t being used.
I got the fuck out the next week. Place is already sliding downhill fast
That’s not their employer. It’s the company they have their 401k retirement plan with.
Empower, John Hancock, fidelity, vanguard, whoever.
I agree mostly but 401k does last after you leave a company. It’s more like a bank account setup for your employer to put money in.
It’s just used for onboarding and not managing or following your investments.
