I tried looking at the reviews for a monitor, and when I clicked “see more reviews” I got redirected to a page asking me to login and to provide my mobile phone number (which I didn’t do for privacy reasons).
On Instagram I was confused at everyone else mentioning Instagram stories because I only have the option of uploading pictures and videos. Then I found out that it’s something you can only do if you use Instagram on a phone… I swear I’ve came across a few sites that wouldn’t even let you sign up if you were using a PC
I only ever browse social media on a PC and that’s the way it will always be. Sometimes I can’t help but feel like desktop/computer users are becoming an afterthought. Anyone else have similar feelings? 🫠
I have a feeling there are more mobile users than PC users now.
That’s not even in question. Mobile apps allow for greater snooping and data that can be used to push more product. There are a lot of mobile users who are entirely uncomfortable using a desktop machine.
Use RTINGS next time for electronics reviews. They’re so much more in-depth than any other review site; they test every single aspect of the products and lay out the info in a manner that’s easy to understand, while still providing all the technical jargon for geeks like me. And no mobile number needed, either. The site is well-optimized for desktop.
Hi sorry for my late reply! I just checked that site out and it’s so in depth and goes into detail about so many parameters that aren’t typically listed on the sites I buy them from, and I’ll be using this site to check reviews if I want to buy a new monitor. Thank you! 😃
I’m also frustrated. But at work the other day I learned that like 75% of our usage is from mobile phone users. Sometimes you just have to realize you’re in the minority; and that other people will make bad choices.
I think they get more data from your usage on mobile.
yep. tons of telemetry.
Even moreso for apps, you can still retain some control through Firefox and others on mobile, but it’s still limited.
They want to push people to apps because you have no control over how you view the site, unlike on a traditional web browser where you can tweak such things and block advertiser connections.
I think it’s also that just significantly more people own a phone than a laptop.
It’s like those demographics maps that are really just population maps.
If companies really designed sites and apps thinking on the majority of people they would make their software as lightweight as possible, so that they could run fine on cheaper hardware
Fucking seeeeeerrrioussslyyy dude I remember when GoogleTalk took 8 megabytes of RAM. Discord at minimum takes about 200mb.
Phones have web browsers. You can view websites easily from your phone.
Apps give them access to everything. You can request access to contact lists, even, and most people won’t even think twice to allowing access.
It’s because the apps work as black boxes stopping the end user from blocking their telemetry, advertising and tracking.
What I hate more is how companies deliberately add blocks to their websites if you’re on mobile so as to force the user to download the app.
Two of the most egregious samples I’ve seen so far is Microsoft teams that shows a banner saying “this browser is not supported”, but switching your user agent or enabling desktop mode from within your phone’s browser makes it work perfectly fine.
Another is Facebook (yuck) which displays a fake loading bar that never finishes unless you trick it the same way as with teams. Their mobile site prevents you from posting anything, commenting, viewing random posts, uploading files, or seeing notifications. If you don’t have the app installed, you’re essentially locked out of messenger because it is reluctant at opening any shared files or posts as that has to be opened through the facebook app (obviously). What’s worse is I’m prompted to log in to Facebook every time I open any link Facebook or not from within messenger.
I’d love to fully uninstall meta’s apps but I have family members that only use their apps (fuck the networking effect)
Another bad one is reddit. The amount it pushes the mobile interface while on mobile is painful, but switch to desktop mode and it all goes away.
I don’t go on it a lot anymore, but when I do it’s typically from my phone and its really gotten worse.
I feel this. I prefer desktop for almost all of my posting and reading online. I only use phone when I am out and about.
Prefering a system over another is just bad design. Probably more profitable, but they shouldn’t care if I upload from my self build phone, desktop, tablet or what ever.
Agreed.
Mobile traffic far outweighs desktop for most sites, so it makes sense to do so. It’s expensive to maintain two UIs, so most sites just go with a hybrid approach that works well for mobile and fine for desktop.
i dont buy it. modern frameworks allow you to maintain a single codebase for mobile and desktop
It’s okay. They are wrong for using their mobile phones for everything. PCMR brother. Never change.
I used to be upset by all the mobile shit and then I went to college for computer stuff and started hating looking at computers after working on them all day. Now I’m a help desk tech and I don’t own a working computer of my own because using them outside of work feels like work. If I can’t do something official on mobile, I just get permission to do it on my work computer. If something for fun doesn’t have a mobile version, I don’t do whatever that thing is.
I do not like all the requests for phone numbers and shit, though. Just let me look at the site without being bothered.
On Instagram
Funny you describe all the annoyances of web vs mobile, but visit this awful site. Instagram wont let me see anything at all, web, mobile or otherwise because I don’t and won’t have an account.
Maybe avoiding social media all together is a better idea.
I get frustrated with that with the fediverse. To see an image in a post at a proper size ends up taking 3 clicks
I’m more upset that RSS is dying off.
This shouldn’t really be surprising, I’d think most people’s internet usage is probably on their phone, and has been for some time.
People don’t want to sit at a desk or whatever and browse or do their socials stuff, they want to do it sat on the sofa while the TV is on or in between chores in the house.
I think the last two companies I’ve worked for, both B2C have had mobile web and app usage way higher than desktop web.
there is NO social media that’s worth getting frustrated over
the first time a site does something stupid (“enter your ph # to continue!” or “disable your adblocker to continue!”) i’m out and never going back. the internet exists to provide me with things, not the other way around
They don’t prioritize mobile users, they prioritize mobile apps - easier to track and gather telemetry, easier to show ads (harder to use adblock), easier to send notifications, you can expect the user to return if they already downloaded an app.
