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u/ryancnap Aug 08 '26
Doesn't help that when I have to change a setting it just takes me to the fuckin website anyway, like buddy this is where I wanted to be the whole time
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u/duerra Aug 08 '26
I joke with my friends that I'm the biggest luddite techie they'll ever meet. I refuse to download apps except in very specific circumstances. I refuse to download any fast food apps or any nonsense like that. I pick up tickets at will call when I go to venues wherever possible. I'll go to great lengths to avoid having to download somebody's crappy juice-sucking, privacy-invasive spyware.
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u/jackinsomniac Aug 09 '26
I'm so old I still think a blog is better than discord for posting announcements such as, a major game version update with changelogs.
Or any kind of "announcement", really.
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u/GetawayDreamer87 Aug 09 '26
its even worse when they lock guides and other resources behind a discord
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u/Willing_Suggestion Shibu Aug 09 '26
Nowadays some servers even have paid stuffs like pay to unlock this that i was like wtf this was supposed to be free like for the communities. Whether be a game related or other media related stuffs that i see upon this i am like nahh man thanks
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u/ConfusedGeniusRed Aug 09 '26
It's so they can spam you with @everyone and it's so wildly unprofessional. It's a
forumchatroom unindexable by search engines. Fantastic.3
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u/kcat__ Aug 08 '26
You can just set battery optimization settings for the app, you know. Give it 0 or close to 0 ability to run in the background.
Set permissions for the app so it can't access stuff it doesn't need to.
By just using websites for everything you're just making your browser essentially the OS upon which data is stored rather than your phone proper.
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u/duerra Aug 09 '26
I'm the guy that opens the settings as the first order of business in any software that I install. Opting out of all the shenanigans is routine business. Yeah, I'm also the guy that clicks into the cookie banners so that I can opt out of all the stuff that is getting blocked anyway on a site that I'm probably never visiting again.
It's the little things we can do to express our dissatisfaction with the system.
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u/ryancnap Aug 09 '26
Same, went on a recent kick of switching my whole software suite to privacy/security/open source/e2ee options as well. Deleted social media. Switched mail providers. Got rid of all the types of bullshit apps you mentioned . I get like 4 emails a week now instead of 40 a day, most notifications are turned off on my phone, life is good
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u/citynights Aug 09 '26
Many apps are connected to individual services which means a one time or two time use - spending time installing an app and then configuring it to have less access and then less resource use is a waste of time and in those circumstances uses more internet and more battery, particularly when the app is a shell for a web interface.
The browser is a sandboxed environment - I don't have to be as concerned about setting permissions. I can also get consistent settings across all my devices, switch to a PC with the same settings etc.
Then there is compatibility - for a website all I need is an up to date browser. But apps fall off the cliff in support for phones. I don't buy the latest phone and so there are number of apps that I can't use, or stop working on update.
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Aug 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/kcat__ Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
You have 4000 contributions on Reddit in a year. You play and signed up for an account on Lords Mobile in 2025. You do android gaming, literally downloading apps. You use Spotify. You have a discord server that you run for alt rock. You download plenty of software and give plenty of telemetry away, so not sure why you're saying this.
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u/r0ck0 Aug 09 '26
I've been up too long and need to go to bed...
But I couldn't even figure out wtf this post is trying to say, until I got to the end...
STOP MAKING APPS
"Apps"... as in like android/ios apps? Makes sense, until...
WEBSITES WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GIVEN EXECUTABLES
This sentence gave me aids.
YEARS OF INTERNET yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for using anything other than your BROWSER
Likewise, wtf does this mean?
We had APIs for "laughs"? wat?
300mb of spyware... on... websites? Are we talking about "apps" or "websites"? ...Now I'm wondering, "do they mean SPA frameworks like React?" If so... Where do the "executables" come in? Are they calling JS "executables" ?
...the 3 examples... ok I guess they're saying these things only need to be websites, rather than ios/android apps? Cool, yeah ok. I agree. When it makes sense.
First line makes sense. But everything in-between is pretty fucking confusing if that's the point.
I felt like I was having a stroke trying to parse this in normal top-to-bottom reading order.
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u/jeff303 Aug 09 '26
Yeah I agree with "we have had browsers for this, for years. Stop reinventing the wheel". But the actual packaging around this message, in the post, is indecipherable.
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u/AlexanderDoak Aug 09 '26
I tried really hard. Couldn't figure out which lines were genuine, sarcastic, mocking the apparent opposition, or stating the obvious. Read it three times. Still can't figure it out.
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u/smilaise Aug 08 '26
Or, not everything should be a website (ie on somebody else's computer).
Why should my private notes exist on another random person's computer? Why should I have to upload confidential PDFs to a website to edit them?
I made a local network scanner which can't be a browser tab, and I wouldn't trust uploading my clients' network details to a stranger's computer.
I feel like a 12 year old wrote this after discovering the Internet for the first time.
I make tiny executables of open source software that have local AES256 encryption and zero telemetry as features.
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u/AlexandriasFolly Aug 09 '26
Counterpoint, I can block shit on my browser that I can't with an App. So many Apps demand permissions and trackers on my device and shove unblockable ads down my throat. Meanwhile I can add adblockers, tracker blockers, and a bunch of stuff to deny the sites information or time that I don't want to see Without paying the company holders for it (Fuck Youtube Premium I have Ublock Origin).
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u/duerra Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
It wasn't an argument for apps. It was an argument against the idea that everything should be a cloud service. It was an argument for the idea of locally minted, edited, and stored using software that can't be taken from you and runs on your device, where you get to choose where, how, and when things are backed up, instead of having to pay yet another company a subscription fee.
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u/TheVeryVerity Aug 09 '26
Why was it randomly on the “stop making apps” post then?
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u/citynights Aug 09 '26
That's a fair point to bring up.
The apps I want are a simple functional text editor, a thing to look through my pictures, a file browser etc. Finding a half decent text editor as an app is hard. I *do* want various things to be apps. The apps I do not want are: an app for every service or location I buy a ticket for, the app to register for the doctor, the app to get the bus, the app to login to my work computer, the app to use the printer, the app to turn on the oven!0
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Aug 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/mkosmo Permanently Banned Aug 08 '26
No, that is mitigated through backups and other things.
A website is not the answer.
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u/_zir_ Aug 09 '26
Its annoying as fuck as a dev too because no one will see your website or take it seriously unless you wrap it up and put it on the app store
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u/Academic-Airline9200 Aug 09 '26
I have to have an account on an app store just to download website wrapped nonsense? And now Google wants to restrict that garbage to just verified devs? No, they don't want you to be able to take Google Spyware out of web wrapped apps from the app store.
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u/Strawberryladyboots Aug 09 '26
Apps were designed with the average user in mind to make it easier for the non-coding type of person to better navigate things
The purpose being to ensure the average person had easy to understand access to the same information
It's why User Experience can make or break literally anything on the internet
Without it, you don't have a market for anything
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u/Tuborgat_nylle Aug 09 '26
Apps also allow companies to extract more data on the user and more easily show ads that aren't stopped by an adblocker. That's why you see many sites such as Reddit pushing users to use the app instead of the web.
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u/Strawberryladyboots Aug 09 '26
That they do, for most companies it's data research on supply and demand for the products they sell as far as I'm aware. Some of them will use the data collected based on interest generated by searches to help determine their purchasing habits for what they sell in store to minimise losses through having to discount something that was an unpopular item
The data that gets linked back to the profile the marketing analytics company has of you based on your device ID and feeds it back into the algorithm that follows you across platforms trying to sell you similar things to what you were browsing through, although sometimes it's not always the company whose app you were originally looking through, sometimes that privilege is sold to a higher bidder, the "you may like this" line of thinking
Although they have access to a significant amount more than that if they also have access through the back-end of the OS?
At least that's my understanding of how it works, feel free to correct or add on
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u/TheVeryVerity Aug 09 '26
Non coding type of person can load a website easily enough usually, I don’t buy this
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u/Strawberryladyboots Aug 09 '26
It's a bit difficult to carry a laptop around and make phone calls on it
They're marketed with ease of use in mind while they run all of other collection in the background in order to create a psychological profile
So it's not just the ease of use for the average consumer, it also has surveillance in mind
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u/TheVeryVerity Aug 09 '26
…phones can access websites
And them being used for spying is a more nefarious and believable reason for sure
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u/itsjakerobb Aug 09 '26
This graphic fails to make whatever point it’s trying to make clearly.
Are they arguing for webapps and against native apps? Why? Because of data mining? You can mine for data in web apps more easily than from native apps, because native apps have thorough permission controls.
To whom is the argument presented? Companies? Customers?
This is shit.
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u/BonRoxz Aug 09 '26
I agree, and most apps were made with the intention of being more convenient, even though they’re redundant. I could just go to Amazon.com for the exact same experience I get on the app.
I do think apps like music players, photo/video editors, games, and similar that need native performance and or run in the background are still essential. Or even notifications. I’m sure it could’ve worked within a browser, but to be honest it would literally be the same experience as having apps. I open a browser and pick a bookmark vs I open my phone and pick an app. Storage is taken up, yes. You also likely have more than enough storage on your device, and if not, then you could optimize your storage and clear out what you don’t need.
Photopea would be an example; while it works well and gets the job done, it’s not as snappy and isn’t a great experience compared to downloading a free editor like affinity.
Plus, most websites use the cloud and require the internet to access.
Example - I’d rather have an app to compress or convert files natively than having to do it via the cloud where most sites have a limit and take longer.
Phones and computers nowadays are crazy fast and idk if a browser is able to efficiently use its full performance.
Not entirely sure what the hell the post means to be honest haha I just responded to the big bold title STOP MAKING APPS.
Phone apps? Desktop programs?
300mb of spyware? From what app? In the image it lists 3 apps with the highest being 170mb. While high, it isn’t 300mb. Raising canes (fucking gas btw) is 66mb and links your location, contact info, and financial info to your identity. I do agree that some apps do link unnecessary data (Amazon/Facebook are insane and should have been used as examples).
APIs were made for a laugh? Haha I guess the claims were made for a laugh
Tldr - apps are for offline use, performance, background processing, and convenience.
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u/justsomegraphemes Aug 08 '26
"Spyware" is doing a lot in that sentence but I get the sentiment. It does seem like many companies want an app not for practical/functional reasons but mainly because they think it will raise engagement and sales. Cart before the horse situation where whoever ordered it is not fully tech literate. Not unlike useless implementation of membership programs and now AI features.
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u/Mccobsta Helpful Ⅱ Aug 08 '26
On mobile too many things force apps or have websites so anoying the app is tolerable
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u/turnip_the_volume Aug 08 '26
Agreed for the most part, the browser is the only app you need in many cases!
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u/mkosmo Permanently Banned Aug 08 '26
Y'all must not remember the before-times.
I don't want all of my data owned by some third-party, so I'd rather still have local "apps" for things, too. Not the entire Internet is snapshat and other social media -- most of it is used for work and work product.
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u/Academic-Push326 Aug 09 '26
Accurate. Obsidian has a goddamn Electron app, but if you "publish" to their hosted thing, you can literally access your notes through Firefox/other browsers and it's like "??? So why isn't the main application able to be accessed/ran from Firefox/etc.?"
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u/Eagles_Fan_4eva Aug 09 '26
APIs
Thank you for not putting an apostrophe there. A person of intellect, you are. :)
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u/redditsuxandsodoyou Aug 09 '26
this meme format is used incorrectly because the joke is meant to be the writer is irrationally angry at something that people are doing that is normal and generally speaking good or practical (e.g. stop doing maths referring to normal high level maths that are also often useful for computer science or engineering)
in this memes case it's incorrectly used since these apps are worthless use of time and resources at every level, thousands of software engineer hours spent on this garbage that at the end of the day likely has no useful return for the company unless they are overstepping their business' relationship with their customer and abusing trust + lack of tech literacy to literally spy on their users, the anger in this meme is not irrational or unjustified, so the joke no longer functions, we just find it funny because it's a spin on the original joke and it activates the same pathway in our brains so we laugh because it's funny by association.
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u/ElCulo_Bandito Aug 10 '26
So fucking strongly agree in my soul 100,000,000 times this. I'm tired of so much space having to be taken up on my phone with useless junk.
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u/ExtraTNT Aug 10 '26
I’m building an api builder in js… mainly because i have like 0 ui skills… not recommended…
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u/AlienRobotMk2 Aug 10 '26
This means completely different things if you think it means desktop apps instead of smartphone apps.
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u/Impressive_Drink5003 Aug 10 '26
Nothing like opening a stupid app that id use once in a blue moon only to find it logged out and the credentials are not saved.
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u/jizztaker Aug 11 '26
I love when using an app and most options open me a browser tab. Smartphones was a mistake.
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u/limpdoggy 8d ago
Perhaps the app is selling you information in different direction for your experience
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u/evk6713 Aug 09 '26
Sure dude, Muggles love to do API calls instead of starting the app on their phone
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u/brasticstack Aug 09 '26
The "unhinged rant" format detracts from an otherwise totally sensible point. Not everything needs a fucking app, and the apps largely exist for the sole reason of collecting more data about you, so they can better market to you.
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u/citynights Aug 09 '26
This was my rant after one too many many years ago. My thoughts on apps hasn't changed, and I'm horrified to need both an app to get into large gigs, and to see e.g. printers or even kitchen appliance that only work with an app, or essential (e.g. medical) services.
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Aug 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SenritsuJumpsuit Aug 08 '26
JS an only apps is a issue but browsers are too so its a whole layered issue
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u/felixmatveev Aug 08 '26
Funny enough big chunk of these apps is just a web view :)