--- title: They Prefer the App | daily.dev description: A developer reflects on the cultural shift where most users prefer native apps over websites, even when those apps are just bloated wrappers around web... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/they-prefer-the-app-coifvvvfa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: They Prefer the App | daily.dev og:description: A developer reflects on the cultural shift where most users prefer native apps over websites, even when those apps are just bloated wrappers around web... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/they-prefer-the-app-coifvvvfa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CoifvvVFA.png og:image:alt: They Prefer the App og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # They Prefer the App **[Ibrahim Diallo](https://daily.dev/sources/idiallo)** · 3 min read · 17 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary A developer reflects on the cultural shift where most users prefer native apps over websites, even when those apps are just bloated wrappers around web content. The post argues that major platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, and Instagram push users toward apps primarily for better data harvesting, not because apps offer superior functionality. The author acknowledges being in the minority — developers and power users who prefer websites and PWAs — while the general population happily downloads hundreds of apps without questioning the trade-offs in privacy, storage, and usability. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akashskypatel** · 1 upvotes > So many site purposely make mobile website experience terrible so people are forced to use the app. Can't tell you hoe many times I've had a website not work properly but magically works perfectly fine on the app. I swear this is on purpose too. **@deepjoshi\_dev** · 0 upvotes > I've seen this a lot where app works flow less but on the other hand web-app works like crap despite being the api route pretty much same for all requests. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [No, I Won't Download Your App. The Web Version is A-OK.](https://daily.dev/posts/no-i-won-t-download-your-app-the-web-version-is-a-ok--8at5ncomu) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - [Why don’t more developers “use the platform”?](https://daily.dev/posts/why-don-t-more-developers-use-the-platform--oagqrhfde) · Read the Tea Leaves · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [PWAs: Personal Web Apps](https://daily.dev/posts/pwas-personal-web-apps-vhff8kdkt) · Mattias Geniar · 40 upvotes · 4 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#mobile](https://daily.dev/tags/mobile), [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/they-prefer-the-app-coifvvvfa) ```json 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