On principle, I like control over what I see and how I see it. Apps are super limited; while in a browser, I can do a lot of very nifty things to improve usability.

A service lacks a dark mode? I can use any number of user scripts. Reddit introduced a gaming section in the sidebar? Two-second fix that I bundled into my extension [1]. Between userscripts, ad-blockers, and custom extensions, I’m basically a god, swaggering through my realm.

Source: No, I Won’t Download Your App. The Web Version is A-OK.

Sid hits at why I also prefer using most services using their web app - if at all available. I am also paranoid that tracking software just has far more runway to run when it’s running natively, even when secure inside most of the mobile sandboxes.

The web sandbox is far more contained. In fact, this is one of the biggest mysteries that privacy oriented people don’t use the web thinking that there’s more tracking there.

The web browser is still a “user-agent.” Unlike most of what is inside meta’s apps - which are truly - facebook’s agents. Agents that don’t honor the user’s choices on content blockers, scripts etc.

And if, like me, you also easily fall prey to the call of the feed, it’s yet another reason to switch to web apps and make sure you automatically log out upon close. That extra friction goes a long way to curb that call.

However, developers and service providers seem to work extra hard to make the web experience suck

While Sid says this about the native apps,

The result is often the uncanny valley of user interfaces. It’s not broken, but it is subtly different, sometimes janky. The scroll velocity doesn’t quite match the rest of the OS. The swipe back gesture hesitates for a few milliseconds.

I also think it holds true for the web. Sometimes the web experiences just don’t get the care that native apps do and there are not enough well paid web engineers supported to provide the best to the web - sadly.

However, there’s a resurgence. When companies also realized they can also abuse the “user” in the “user-agent,” they realized there is an opportunity to duck the gatekeeping by mobile-OSes. Desktop usage has also increased especially in the non developer community as a result of increased LLM usage, especially of the frontier models.

With the rise of typescript development - it’s fascinating that all of the terminal UI applications are being developed with TS - the underlying technologies that power the web are alive. Combined with WebASM and what services like figma have shown what the web is capable of, I am hopeful.

The indie web has stayed alive during the sleepy days of the web. Sites like mine continue to keep up to date and create content for people to read.

There’s still time to support this - get an RSS reader , and subscribe to sites like mine and use your large services on the web. We can do this.