P. Martin Ortiz writing for Rogue Engine: Your App Should Have Been a Website

Some companies push for app installations because they gain access to more permissions than they would in the browser. Apps allow them to collect more data and track user activity, often under the pretense of a better experience.

There was great consternation a few months back about how Google had put a function in Chrome that let Google websites access some system information around what type of hardware the user was using. This was read as an outrage by some, and as evidence that the web wasn’t safe, but my takeaway was the exact opposite — this was a clear example of native apps have access to so much information about the user.

For example, search the App Store on your iPhone for something like “system information” and you’ll come up with a whole host of apps, all of which you can install, and without any permission prompts at all, these apps will tell you all the intimate details about your hardware.

The Chrome controversy wasn’t about how the web is unsafe, it was about how when websites get the access native apps have, people freak out.

It’s also very much worth noting that the web is the only platform that truly gives users any control over their data and their experience. If this blog was an app like Apple News, I could force you to see an ad (or many ads) whenever you read an article here and there would be nothing you could do about it. Or maybe I’d start using a font you literally couldn’t read or I didn’t localize the posts to your language. With an app you’d be stuck, but in the browser you can block ads, you can customize the font (and more) with plugins or your own custom stylesheets, and you can translate the whole site to whatever you want.

There’s certainly a place for native apps (I’m using one right now to write this post!), but I’ve definitely found myself more into web apps for many of the things I do on my devices these days.

Oh, and on the Chrome thing from a few months back, I think the bad thing about that was actually that Google was favoring their own sites in their browser. In my mind this goes against the inherent values a browser maker should have.