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Mobile Apps vs Responsive but laced with other plugins.
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Hi All
Whats people thoughts on apps vs responsiveness?
I love the thought of apps, Social Engine Addons and Hire Experts have made one, I assume others are making them too.
However with these Mobile Apps, they seem to only support their own plugins, which if as a buyer who wants to have a mobile ios android app, your forced to commit to one developer, and wipe out all your purchased plugins, and being as your not allowd to resell old plugins, i feel it's a bit unfair, even custom work isn't supported.
Will Social Engine themself invest in making a app that forces devs to support theirs, so that all apps work together?
Or will Devs support other 3rd party plugins into their apps.
Or is the app route completely pointless based on the above, and just go responsive.... can an app be made for ios and android that simply delivers the responsive site, but masks as an app. -
Our upcoming theme Atlas is responsive without needing the mobile plugin.
Regarding full blown mobile apps, my own site doesn't use mobile apps as the cost is too high for me when people can just bookmark to their mobile device and use the mobile site for now (until I get a responsive theme). I've made a mobile wrapper with free ones out there (I had posted links at my ScriptTechs site) and those are ok too but I then still had to pay those yearly fees to Google/Apple.
However, some clients do prefer to have a native mobile app (as opposed to app wrapper) and pay the cost for it plus the yearly fees to Google/Apple. It just depends on each webmaster as to what they want for their sites. With these, you can also get SMS messages and that can be a draw.
From what I recall, some devs will do custom work to support 3rd party plugins in whatever is current. Noting that updates would most likely require app updates at a cost.
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Insignia is responsive too without use of mobile plugin, isnt it?
The only reason I like apps, is because how lazy people have become.
Sad to address it like that, but its true.
I remember the days of wanting to access a site, and i would type ( w w w . e b a u m s w o r l d . c o m)
then came the days of typing it into google
then came the days of mistyping it into google as you would still find it
then comes the day of ughhhh cant they just have an app, and I click on it lol
even tho I know you can make bookmarks look like apps, but people have become so lazy in this world. lol -
Daniel said:
Insignia is responsive too without use of mobile plugin, isnt it?
The only reason I like apps, is because how lazy people have become.
Sad to address it like that, but its true.
I remember the days of wanting to access a site, and i would type ( w w w . e b a u m s w o r l d . c o m)
then came the days of typing it into google
then came the days of mistyping it into google as you would still find it
then comes the day of ughhhh cant they just have an app, and I click on it lol
even tho I know you can make bookmarks look like apps, but people have become so lazy in this world. lolNot fully, Insignia. It still needs mobile plugin for some things such as IM messages and a few other areas.
Well, as for lazy, if they are too lazy to type the URL, they will also be too lazy to post... lol
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Not fully, Insignia. It still needs mobile plugin for some things such as IM messages and a few other areas.
Well, as for lazy, if they are too lazy to type the URL, they will also be too lazy to post... lol
Arrr thats a shame, i really love insignia, I was going to change to it, but dont have to mobile plugin, as rather responsive
Too lazy to post, that is the fear nowadays, because its so true.
We are in the times where people go on facebook and type as a status or in a group..... "any cheap cab firms" "where can I buy a bike tyre" "Someone link my to page where I can connect ebay"
People have become to lazy, and its sad, they think their time is more valuable than those who they know will go out their way to find the info...... -
==>"However with these Mobile Apps, they seem to only support their own plugins, which if as a buyer who wants to have a mobile ios android app, your forced to commit to one developer, and wipe out all your purchased plugins, and being as your not allowd to resell old plugins, i feel it's a bit unfair, even custom work isn't supported."
My understanding (haven't tested it yet but can see this in their Demo) is that SEAO's Mobile Apps simply use Webview for non-integrated Apps, so you can still use other Plugins.
My gameplan (still in development, aiming for Live in a few months) is:
1. Use a truly VERY responsive Theme (such as SES' SpectroMedia) to handle Responsive (with absolutely no need for any mobile Plugin). Every other theme I've used (purchased 7-8 or so plus tested at least that many more) simply don't do Responsive well enough. Other Themes often display things very differently, or simply skip displaying certain widgets entirely - even for Plugins developed by the same Dev as the Theme. SpectroMedia provides a near-duplicate functional layout in Tablet form as to desktop browser (in Landscape mode it's basically identical; portrait is functionally the same, but Right falls under Left column which makes sense - but it's still phenomenal). I tried to work with SEAO and SE Mobile Plugins but gave up close to 2 years ago once I found what SpectroMedia could do - there was no turning back. Can you tell I like SpectroMedia? It's not only that I like it so much, but the reason I like it - it does what no other I've used can do, so a User has an almost identical site on Android/iOS Tablets as they do on desktop, and on phone it depends on the pixel/dimensions - but on many phone is also almost idential to desktop. Typically, on any device, once the browser's Desktop setting is enabled, it's identical to the desktop, requiring pinch-to-zoom on small displays.
2. I purchased the SEAO Mobile Apps but haven't yet got to that. My primary reason is for the 'younger' generation (not sure exactly how to define 'younger') who seem to always as about an App (i.e. they think in Apps not browser-URLs). Initially the functionality will be limited in App for (for many reasons - some technical others business related).
That's my 2 cents.
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Daniel said:
Hi All
Whats people thoughts on apps vs responsiveness?
I love the thought of apps, Social Engine Addons and Hire Experts have made one, I assume others are making them too.
However with these Mobile Apps, they seem to only support their own plugins, which if as a buyer who wants to have a mobile ios android app, your forced to commit to one developer, and wipe out all your purchased plugins, and being as your not allowd to resell old plugins, i feel it's a bit unfair, even custom work isn't supported.
Will Social Engine themself invest in making a app that forces devs to support theirs, so that all apps work together?
Or will Devs support other 3rd party plugins into their apps.
Or is the app route completely pointless based on the above, and just go responsive.... can an app be made for ios and android that simply delivers the responsive site, but masks as an app.Our iOS & Android apps has 'WebView' feature. Third party plugins (or some SocialEngineAddOns Plugins) that are not natively integrated with the app can also be very well made available in the app via WebView.
All the main features of your website can be made available in your iOS & Android App.
For more details, please read our article:https://www.socialengineaddons.com/page/enabling-socialengineaddons-3rd-party-plugins-ios-android-apps-webview
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