Don't you get sick of looking at a web page on your phone only to get an intrusive message that says,
to continue, download our app? Why do so many sites do this
instead of just letting us use our web browser in peace?
It turns out that there are plenty of reasons for it, some of which actually benefit you,
while others are quite a bit more selfish on the part of the app developers.
Let's start out by talking about the good stuff. Apps can be coded to run more smoothly on your phone
than web pages often can. You see, whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone,
apps can use that phone's operating systems APIs.
In simple terms, this means apps have a more direct connection
with the phone's underlying features and hardware, making it much easier for the app to use the camera,
location services, positioning sensors, you name it.
Developers can therefore tailor their apps more effectively for a specific platform,
whereas web pages have to be more one-size-fits-all,
which typically means clunkier. This cleaner connection to the OS
means the experience isn't slowed down with poorly written scripts or advertisements
being loaded from some far away server, like you see on web pages.
Because phones are built more for efficiency in battery life rather than raw computing power,
a web page that isn't well written can consume much more of your phone's resources
than what you might see using a web browser on desktop.
Apps also often work more quickly because they can store vital information
and resources on your phone locally instead of having to wait around
to get them over the internet. But even though a correctly built app
can make a lot more sense than a web page, not all apps are coded very well.
And that's not the only reason you might want to avoid an app if you can help it.
Unsurprisingly, apps provide an easier way for the developers behind them to track your activity.
Instead of doing this through a web page, which you probably close once you're done with it,
an app that permanently lives on your phone can give the devs much more information
about your location, which can be pieced together with other data the app gathers,
sometimes even through other apps, to learn more about you, assuming you haven't opted out.
This information is typically used to serve you content
and ads to get you to, you guessed it,
spend more time on the app. It's kinda clingy.
Even if the app isn't keeping super close tabs on you,
apps make it easy for developers to keep users in their own little safe bubble.
Think about how shopping apps contain loyalty cards, how an app for sports tickets
might contain a link to buy team merch, or how a fast food app gives you personalized offers.
Being able to build out an app in this way is extremely valuable to the companies that publish them,
as studies have indicated that users are much more likely
to purchase something through an app than on a webpage.
And of course, apps have an oh so charming way
of nagging you via notifications to engage,
a buy, a consume, even when they're closed,
something you just can't do with a webpage. And even if you turn those off,
apps have another big benefit that really isn't high tech at all, brand awareness.
Every time you open your phone, you'll see that little brand logo
staring back at you in the form of an app icon. Of course, that won't automatically entice most people
to open up the app and click an ad and spend money, but if a developer releases an app
that reaches thousands or millions of people,
the revenue from the small percentage of folks that do think, you know what,
I could go for some Taco Bell right now,
really starts to add up. So unfortunately, you can expect to keep getting pestered
to install an app for the foreseeable future, but we'll never ask you to do that.
I mean, what could we possibly learn from your viewing habits, lttstore.com.
And thanks for learning from us by watching the whole video.
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