I prefer native apps over web apps, but I’m honestly at the point now where I just want to make voice or chat commands and get an output, instead of learning some self-important UI/UX person’s custom UI controls aka “””design system”””

I understand the anger. But I wish I were better able to resist fixing the world with code in this way, as I really am supposed to be working.

Why not both? In Prepbook[0] (shameless plug) we created a web app, then used it to make a native app. You can use whatever you want. I like both. The native app though gives an objectively better experience - you can set timers on the OS level, open recipes in the app using the OS native share menu, etc.

We worked hard so you don't have to vibe code your way to get the experience you prefer.

[0] https://prepbook.app

This is awesome. I think the much bigger use case here is building web equivalents of apps that are only available on iOS/Android.

I was recently raving about how NYC's metro payment system OMNI doesn't require an app, so you can use whatever contactless payment device you already have to get around NYC. That characteristic makes it so easy to just slide into the metro without having to deal with unfamiliar apps and all the mental overhead that comes with them on top of all the mental stress and sensory overload that comes with traveling.

How can we collectively fix apps/websites that are so poorly built that they take 10 minutes and 100 taps on your smartphone just to do something that could have been done in a minute? Companies put out an app/website as the only way to interface with them, you just have to deal with it. I've daydreamed about starting an agency which scouts bad apps and offers to fix them, as a sort of public service.

I did something similar (though I used a slightly different method to intercept traffic) to make the US version of the Costco app better: www.97cost.co

I'm only surfacing two api requests that Costco's app is using, but even with a server as a middle man between the browser and Costo's backend this is way faster than the app.

Source: https://github.com/DavidZirinsky/costco-deals

> But at least I (and the rest of our group, whom I’ve shared it with) now get the choice about how we access this content.

What I want to know is: How many people actually used the website? How many people prefer the website?

It's easy to forget that many people use their computers (and phones) differently than the typical HNer.

Also: I wonder how easy/hard it is to do this with an LLM / vibecoding? Seems like there could be a Napster moment for bad apps where the LLM installs the app in a sandbox and makes educated guesses about how to turn it into a simple website.

Wait, the users password is part of the URL? What happens if the password contains a forward slash or a question mark? Wouldn't that break the whole endpoint?

The no copy paste of visible text(have to take a screenshot then select) and in app browsers fucking annoys me the most . These two are IMO the Worst UX pattern that affect me every day .