Do not download the app, use the website

[rcjordan]

https://idiallo.com/blog/dont-download-apps

=============

It's time for modern CSS to kill the SPA - Jono Alderson

https://www.jonoalderson.com/conjecture/its-time-for-modern-css-to-kill-the-spa/

[Brad]

I've been using the websites instead of the apps wherever possible and it's worked real well as I find most mobile websites quite capable.

Of course you get exceptions like MSN News website which started out okay, then started nagging me to download the app and finally MSN crippled the website so badly it became nearly unusable, because they really want that data on users collected by the app.

So, yeah, always try the website first and see if that will work for you.

[buckworks]

Someone shared this advice a while ago (might have been you) and I have taken it to heart.

[rcjordan]

Wife: This app sucks!

RC: Get off your iphone & use your laptop, the site is not great but usable.

Wife: I am NOT going to open my laptop!! (It's right there beside her.)

_{This is on the weekly meal order site (cookunity.com), not just a one-time visit.  *sigh*}

[ergophobe]

So my approach is a bit different.

For me, with respect to the phone, the browser is the problem, not the apps. Before there ever was an internet, I was the kind of person who loved having dictionaries and encyclopedias and other reference works close at hand. Take that basic personality characteristic and throw gasoline on it: for my work, I have spent more time in the reference section of libraries than most humans who are not reference librarians.

With that in mind, I disabled the browser on my phone and removed any "infinite apps" (apps that have infinite scroll). I've never had Instagram on my phone (not an IG user at all), but that would be the ultimate infinite app.

For many people, email is effectively an infinite app since there is always unread or unprocessed email in their inbox.

But for me, I realized, it's not apps, it's the browser that sucks me into the phone, so I got rid of the browser.

That means that I can get a weather report, check Airbnb messages, listen to podcasts on my phone, but I can't go down Wikipedia rabbit holes, watch YouTube or TikTok, read any news site, check The Core anything like that from my phone.

So, my answer to Ibrahim Diallo's question in the first link: "What is it that the browser can't do?"

Answer: protect me from myself.

[ergophobe]

I could have said this much more easily if I had read things in a different order today:

"You have no idea how much a burden something was until you can set it down." --bsky via Quotes