I know this community can be shy with its opinions, so I'd like to coax you out of your shells a bit. Sarcastic intro aside, I'd like to know your thoughts and experiences with apps that have been developed natively for iPhone using Apple's development tools versus apps that embed websites in the app. For this, I don't mean using a Safari shortcut on YOUR home screen. I'm talking about downloading an app from the App Store.
To guide the discussion, a few questions:
Can you tell the difference between a native app on iPhone versus an app that is essentially web technology? How can you tell?
What kinds of experiences do you have with companies that use web apps rather than native apps?
Which do you prefer using when accessibility is done properly?
If you're a developer, have you developed in one platform, but wished you'd developed in another?
Finally, any stories about experiences, good or bad, with using one version of an app that gets switched over? For example, a company's app going from native to web in an update or the opposite happening when an app switches from web to native.
Looking forward to your opinions and sharing a few of my own.
Comments
It's noticible
In a web app, Voiceover would certainly announce elements like heading levels, links, buttons etc. In a native app, all things are just there, may be buttons and sliders and dropdowns and such, but lot of HTML tags are not announced or simply not there.
That brings me to another thing, I really really wish if App-store had HTML tags, navigating app store with voiceover is a painful task.
The opposite.
Web apps, even with totally labeled links and buttons and stuff, have almost always sounded less accessible to me. Links that can't be activated when double-tapping, radio buttons problematic with the VoiceOver cursor, tables with row and column headings or numbers that either slow down navigation or have to be disabled for the particular app(s) etc. all make web apps less preferable to me.
Looking for More Comments
Curious to hear from more of you.
I'm going on the side with those web tag thingies!
Hello,
I'm on the side of the argument about the web apps and having those tags for the AppStore. Also, although I won't get too much into it here, I wish the AppStore had a wishlist feature for things you'd like to purchase but cannot afford right away--those things which aren't free/at low costs, say $99 without rounding first.
Responding to another off-topic and inaccurate statement
The wishlist feature already used to be there but was removed from the App Store long ago, with the release of iOS 11. And here's quite recent news: Apple has also removed the feature for TV shows and movies in iOS 17.2.
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/17/apple-removes-tv-show-movie-wishlists/#:~:text=It%20is%20not%20clear%20if,that%20feature%20did%20not%20return.
Back in the day. . .
Oh! I remember the Wishlist feature. I did not realize it was removed all the way back when in iOS 11.
A shame. I used to have a list. 😅
Regarding Web Apps, I always struggle with accessibility issues when trying to use them. Device-specific apps, at least accessible ones, seem to be more. . . consistent. 🤷🏼♂️
Native is best
Personally I prefer native apps. Web apps often feel clunky and less user friendly. A lot of items are marked up as links, which are generally not supposed to be in apps, and you tend to run into more items that you can’t select.
Overall, when I come across a web based app, I sigh and think they decided to cut corners rather than build a proper app.
Non web bassed apps are better.
Kindrid for example is web bassed and it's very clunky when it comes to deleting your character. I was able to do it but it wasn't easy and the devs refused to do it for me.
Hybrid Apps
I've run into experiences where I've signed up for an account on an app and the experience is native and works well with VoiceOver. Once I'm signed in however, the rest of the app is a junky HTML experience. Can anyone relate?
It Depends
There will be cases where the native app is usually better, and I think that's the most common case, honestly. Those of us using 1Password will remember the heartbreak of the v8 transition into an Electron monstrosity. They will also not have failed to notice that the iOS app, using SwiftUI, is still the most pleasant of all the apps, because we live in a mobile-first world and nobody gives a shit about desktop anymore.
But on the other hand, there are accessible websites and web apps, like most of the UK government websites and some food-ordering apps, where the alternative is clearly worse because you don't have the tools to navigate, e.g. turning off styles to uncover the hidden state of a switch control. Sometimes Screen Recognition can help with this, but it often can't, so having a web browser is the best tool for fighting your way to access. The experience can go from mediocre to great, but it's often not completely non-existent. Also, web apps can be self-hosted, so if you want to run an RSS feed reader or webmail interface on your network, you can. We should not dismiss web apps entirely, I think.
I notice differences
Some things I notice that make it obvious to me that I'm in an embedded web app and not native.
- Focus behaves erratically with VO on. My focus tends to jump to unexpected elements and not in the proper order.
- Invisible elements gain focus. Things like the skip to link and other elements that don't appear on screen.
- Modals do weird things, like trap focus improperly or fail to trap focus.
- Hamburger menus are sometimes too small
I can't think of more right now, but I know I've encountered other issues.