Critique of Tech Industry's Aggressive Push for Mobile Apps Over Web Versions
By
ssiddharth
1mo ago· 5 min readenOpinion
80/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
Hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, baked to perfection. Worth every minute at the bakery.
Score80TypeopinionSentimentnegative
Summary
The article expresses frustration with the tech industry's aggressive push for users to download mobile apps instead of using web versions of services. The author argues that web versions are often perfectly functional and that the constant pressure to install apps is intrusive and unnecessary. The piece critiques the business motivations behind this trend, including data collection and platform lock-in, while advocating for the web's open standards and user choice.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledAs someone who prefers using services via their websites, I've gotten terribly jaded lately. Almost everyone wants me, and by extension, you, to use their darn apps to consume content and off their web versions.
Whether it's the obvious social media apps or something as basic as parking, the app is the priority and the site the red-headed stepchild.
And they aren't too subtle in the push either. It might be a modal covering half the web version with links to the App Store, an immediate popup after a bit of scrolling, or a header screaming 'the app is 10x better'.
As someone who prefers using services via their websites, I’ve gotten terribly jaded lately. Almost everyone wants me, and by extension, you, to use their darn apps to consume content and off their web versions.
