what is the advantage to an 'app'?

I'm not even sure how to ask the question.

Many times when I am looking at a site that I would like to add to my home screen on this phone it will only offer to 'install an app'.
These aren't sites I am wary of but I don't see what an app would do for me when I can just as easily save the url link and connect without the app.

Will it use less data?
I have the storage space but don't see the need🤔

I don't use apps though a few have been installed on phone, etc.

I am sure someone more knowledgeable than me can explain.

I, personally would not install app from websites unless I knew they were trusted apps or website and might be useful to me.

I would be afraid a random website app might install something to scam me.

This:

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/mobile-payment-apps-how-avoid-scam-when-you-use-one

Often the app gives the company more insight into your activity (i.e. it's a corporate surveillance bug). Whereas through the browser they only know what you clicked on, what pages you looked at, and for how long, and maybe other stuff you've navigated to in your browser, with an app they can potentially see everything else you do on your phone and also where you go.  (Transmitting all this back to the mothership in realtime definitely doesn't use less data.)

They try to entice you to download the app by giving it more features, or a smoother customer experience, than the website. Most people fall for that.

Judith Browning wrote:I'm not even sure how to ask the question.

Many times when I am looking at a site that I would like to add to my home screen on this phone it will only offer to 'install an app'.
These aren't sites I am wary of but I don't see what an app would do for me when I can just as easily save the url link and connect without the app.

Will it use less data?
I have the storage space but don't see the need🤔

I don't use apps if there is a web page. I save links.   I don't feel the need for anything else.
I'm not the best one to explain them to you, but I am a vote for "I don't if I don't HAVE to"
I have installed 3 on mom's phone, and zero on mine. That's it. And lots and lots of bookmarks on them both.
(The three are X, Telegram, and a standalone program that doesn't exist on the net.)

My personal opinion is that in the vast majority of cases perhaps all of them there are no advantages to you or me but several disadvantages. The only advantages are to the people who made the app. What they are to me is just another little tendril of data collection for someone else's profit but not just that. They also lock up data storage, hog bandwidth and drain batteries on my devices. I didn't buy these things to host other people's software.

I did enjoy one from Cornel University for a bit that lets you identify birds but ended up uninstalling it too. There are others that I'm sure are useful and I have come across websites and such that I would like to see but that refuse access without installing something or scanning this or that QR. When that happens, I generally just take the loss of not engaging with that site.

thanks everyone!!!

That's kind of what I was wondering Ned...that it might be to the company's advantage and even more invasive.

I did uninstall a few apps that came on this phone that I thought I could get away without and would uninstall a few more if I was more confident.

We don't pay bills on line so no apps there.

It just seems more and more often it's offered and I realized I didn't have a clue why.

Mark,
It's interesting that you mention apps being data hogs as this phone uses way more data for the same type of use as our last phone and I've tried to find the culprit....it came with many more apps installed than on our other phone so maybe I need to be more ruthless uninstalling.....

Judith Browning wrote:These aren't sites I am wary of but I don't see what an app would do for me when I can just as easily save the url link and connect without the app.

An app is a program that runs on your smartphone, and "the normal rules don't apply here."

Seriously: companies collect more metadata from your phone through an app when compared to accessing their website. If this is a concern for you, I suggest you do not install the app.

Judith, I also suggest going through your phone’s settings and turning off background data and background permissions on most apps, though there are a few system apps you usually have to leave those things on for, in order for your phone to work properly. Certainly turn it off for any apps you personally downloaded unless you specifically know why it needs background data.

I also find that 90+% of the time, the apps wipe out my battery at about 2x the rate of using the website. In most cases, I see no personal advantage, and loads of disadvantages to the apps.

Just wanted to offer a slightly different perspective, although what everyone says about data farming is 100% true, and for many large companies is the sole objective for creating an app.

This is just from the perspective of someone who works in a company that currently has no app, but is considering developing one due to user demand.

Generally speaking apps "should" provide the most seamless browsing experience for a service, as they don't have to deal with all the inconsistent variables caused by outdated browsers/unpopular browsers, etc. It's far easier to curate a polished user interface when you don't have to account for these. Apps also pre-install a number of assets on your phone (images, etc), so that they don't need to be loaded every time you open the site (less to download, faster speeds) - a browser cache achieves the same objective, but many people install add-ons to prevent data being cached (to prevent tracking).

Large numbers of site bugs are caused by people having outdated browsers/unpopular browsers (E.g. Permies photo uploads not working on mobile when using Firefox). If Permies had an app this would still be a problem for those who didn't download it, but less people would encounter it overall.

It is totally valid to be suspicious of app data harvesting, so I'm in no way saying that you should suddenly start downloading apps from every site that prompts you, but I just wanted to say that there are tangible benefits to developing apps (in the world of permaculture, ethical app development could be its own field of discussion all together. I myself would love to fill my phone with open source app-based plant encyclopedias/planting cycle trackers, etc. if they existed!).

Very long winded comment, sorry about that! I hope this interests some people.

When I'm invited to install an app to use for something I can do on a web site, it has to pass through the filter of: "How would using this app improve my experience compared to using the website?" before I even consider installing. Most fail. What I'm usually offered is a broken browser. A browser that can only visit one website is broken, right?

T Melville wrote:What I'm usually offered is a broken browser. A browser that can only visit one website is broken, right?

I definitely agree with you here. There are a huge amount of apps out there which are just chromium browsers with the homepage set to the company's mobile site. These "apps" have no merit and are purely created to appease people who are begging the company for an app. Unless you feel like having multiple copies of Google Chrome on your device, then there is absolutely no point in downloading them.