On 18.12.2016 at 8:40 AM, Windspeed36 said:

For the 573957th time, we are not at this stage looking to develop a mobile app for the site. In future please use the search tool before suggesting things.

On 12.12.2016 at 5:00 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

...

Then PM them? Nothing is preventing you from making unofficial app. You just need to make it clear it's unofficial. The main reason there isn't any official app is time and money. It would need to have complete tech support for users, like what mortis is doing with forums. LMG doesn't have money to hire full-time dev for that. Even now developing floatplane is done with volunteers.

 

If you are willing to put in hours to do it, I don't see why not. Just remember that like browser extensions, you need to make both Android and iOS versions, not just one.

On 15.11.2016 at 11:30 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

How would that be any different than mobile version of forums? Yes, there are some things mobile version can't do atm which would be nice. Like native push notifications. But any other reason for app has been nothing so special that it would be a good reason for using money and resources for developing.

 

nicklmg has said that if there would be app, it would need to be professionally developed and maintained. That costs money and needs full time dev. colonel_mortis is main forum dev and has no time for such task.

 

Biggest thing preventing any app development at this point is shutdown of Vessel and launching of Floatplane Club. Setting up that service with streaming video player takes time and money. So anything more special will be ahead after year or two.

 

This is third query for app within week. Now I will collect them all in one listing with my replies in each plus any official or semi-official reply. And will be linking to that list if anyone dares to ask this question again.

On 9.11.2016 at 0:42 PM, LoGiCalDrm said:

App for video content or something similar might be a thing of future. But not anywhere near future. Reason for it: Floatplane, which is also reason why it won't be near future thing. That service needs much work which is all away from developing full app. And as you might find in other threads talking about this, LMG isn't interested about any halfway solution. When it happens, it will be full feature thing. And that needs time and money, which neither they have atm.

On 28.10.2016 at 10:37 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

The thing with official app is that it needs to have continuous support. As in full or part-time dev. Another thing would be need for support on all three major mobile platforms. I don't know much about coding, but I know having qualifications for just two of those isn't common. Third thing would be that when it's done, it will be done properly. So not like paying some under minimum wage fee for a half-talented fan.

 

Fundraiser might be possible, but even then its done within current system. Having Kickstarter or rather someway failing it would hurt their image. And make rather funny episode on Kickfarted. Plus I think they would have much more interesting ideas on how to spend such moneys.

On 4.9.2016 at 7:42 PM, colonel_mortis said:

An app is an unreasonable amount of work to implement, and aside from push notifications it would bring very little benefit. In the future, following a lot of work (though still a lot less than a full app), push notifications may be supported here without an app (it is now supported by Chrome and Firefox), but it's not something that you can expect to see soon.

On 6.9.2016 at 1:59 PM, colonel_mortis said:

LMG makes money, but the forum certainly doesn't. Making an app that is actually worth having is very expensive, and there would be no return on that investment.

Aside from the editor, which is an issue, are there any other reasons that the mobile site is a joke?

All the major desktop browsers support notifications, but the site doesn't support push notifications, which don't require the site (and sometimes even the browser) to be open, and which work properly on mobile.

On 29.7.2016 at 6:50 PM, colonel_mortis said:

An app would either be far too much work, and therefore expensive, or it would be no better than the desktop site, while still being a reasonable amount of work. At this time, it is not something that we are planning to do.

On 28.7.2016 at 11:59 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

Tapatalk was disabled due issues it was causing.

 

Biggest reasons why there isn't app are money and time. LTT forums have some devs but they are doing this as side project. Not getting paid for it. Official app would need more support and time. Like one person full-time for long time after launch. Plus money to pay for 'em. Since LTT viewers tend to rage when they need to pay for something, paid app is out of the question.

 

What are some features you need and don't have with mobile forum? 

On 28.7.2016 at 3:28 PM, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

Then what good would app do that website and YT/Twitter/FB app don't? If you go about everything "It would be cool to have app for..." and then don't even know why it would be cool, it doesn't really make people in charge think that they should waste money on something. "Hi Linus! I want to develop mobile app for you. NOW PAY ME!!!!!" doesn't really work that way. Since they don't publish financial data of company, we don't know if they have money to employ full-time dev for job like this. And like @cluelessgenius said, they would need full time and fast. Since no one wants pay for project which takes same time from full-time that it would from part-time or side project. I mean they do employ other workers. But those works for things which bring money in. App for limited audience would maybe cover the expenses of developing.

 

 

Its somewhat slower, but nothing major. It loads quite nice with 3G on S5.

On 21.5.2016 at 4:29 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Provided that you make it clear both in the title of the app and in and descriptions that the app is unofficial, specific permission is not required, provided that you follow the rules described in https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/193630-complete-list-of-forum-addons-scripts-apps-etc/?do=findComment&comment=2624256.

However, I don't see the benefit of making an unofficial app - the only thing you can do is make the entire thing a webview, so it is exactly the same as using a web browser, except that you have to switch to a different app to do it. If it were official, there would be a couple more things that could be done that would require implementation on the back end, but even then it would still not be much better than using the browser version, but with a lot of work involved.

 

On 26.4.2016 at 8:55 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Making an app is expensive, and takes a lot of time. The site should work well on mobile, and I am currently looking at some more aggressive caching methods, which may be able to make the site load even faster, though I can't promise that they will work, nor give an ETA for when it will be coming (we're talking several months minimum though).

On 26.4.2016 at 9:05 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Why is it any more scrolling than an app?

It wouldn't be worth it in the long term though - making an app is expensive, and we don't have aggressive advertising to make lots of money on the website, so I doubt that we would make the experience poor with ads in an app to try and get back the large amount of money spent.

On 24.4.2016 at 10:16 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

Notifications would really be only benefit of mobile app vs just browsing. Maybe something small like RSS reader with notification feed. But even that would be unofficial since devs are centered into making forum better.

 

You can already set forum to send you push notifications while browser is running. Works really nicely with mobile Firefox. Another option is set a email spam. Which means that you set forum to send you email for every notification.

On 11.4.2016 at 3:57 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Making a mobile app would require a lot of time and cost a lot of money, and it wouldn't offer much benefit over just browsing the site using the browser on your phone (provided that you're using a recent, standards-compliant browser).

On 19.3.2016 at 9:50 PM, colonel_mortis said:

Making an app is a massive amount of work, and we would have to hire an external company to do it, making it expensive too. We would like it too, but it's just not viable. The mobile site isn't too bad though, so just use that.

On 20.3.2016 at 5:39 PM, colonel_mortis said:

That is a) not possible at this stage (do you have any idea how much work it would be to do that, which would just be removing features?) and b) not better, because then people with tablets have to pick between a poorly optimised desktop site and a poorly optimised mobile site.

On 8.3.2016 at 9:50 AM, LoGiCalDrm said:

Its rumored to be somewhere in features to come. Problem is that those who know about coding have their hands full with recent forum upgrade process and bugs still being there. An app would need few part-time or one full-time paid coder. LMG doesn't have money for that. Or really need as other services work for most people already.

On 14.2.2016 at 0:51 PM, Windspeed36 said:

At this stage we have no plans to develop a dedicated app for mobile. 

On 14.2.2016 at 1:13 PM, colonel_mortis said:

It would be easier for us to rewrite the tapatalk plugin to fix push notifications than it would be to make an entire app for the forums (but we aren't doing that). We do know what is preventing the push notifications from working, but the people who are able to fix it are incredibly busy at the moment, and they are not a top priority at the moment. It will be fixed in due course, but repeatedly asking for it won't make it be fixed any faster.