App for the forum

[Murilo_A]

I would be good to have an app for the forum (with notifications), the web interface works fine, but apps are usually better

[mpsparrow]

6 minutes ago, Murilo_A said:

I would be good to have an app for the forum (with notifications), the web interface works fine, but apps are usually better

This has come up before and every time it comes up it gets shot down. The website is mobile responsive which makes it ok for mobile devices.

[Murilo_A]

7 minutes ago, mpsparrow said:

This has come up before and every time it comes up it gets shot down. The website is mobile responsive which makes it ok for mobile devices.

I know, but apps are better than the web browser

[mpsparrow]

1 hour ago, Murilo_A said:

I know, but apps are better than the web browser

I would agree. All that I am saying is that making more forum posts asking for an LTT app probably won't help. It isn't super easy to just up and create an Android and iOS app.

[Murilo_A]

4 minutes ago, mpsparrow said:

I would agree. All that I am saying is that making more forum posts asking for an LTT app probably won't help. It isn't super easy to just up and create an Android and iOS app.

True. They would probably have to spend unnecessary money and time, but it would be cool to have

[mpsparrow]

1 minute ago, Murilo_A said:

True. They would probably have to spend unnecessary money and time, but it would be cool to have

Indeed it would. I would love it if they made one. Perhaps if a few app developers in the LTT community got together they could help build an app (dreaming).

[Guest]

It's hard and been requested tooooo much. There should be a notification or sticky somewhere by now

[Guest]

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.

[xmx1024]

Tapatalk? But it's kinda shit so I don't suggest using it and if i recall correctly LTT forums didn't even work in the app.

[AlTech]

8 hours ago, mpsparrow said:

The website is mobile responsive which makes it ok for mobile devices.

No. It only makes not having an "excusable" at best.

[Bouzoo]

5 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

There should be a notification or sticky somewhere by now

Actually, to hopefully prevent the 674578 threads that will come next year, this might not be a bad idea. @colonel_mortis @Windspeed36

[Bouzoo]

2 hours ago, Asterisk said:

Tapatalk? But it's kinda shit so I don't suggest using it and if i recall correctly LTT forums didn't even work in the app.

It did work before the LTT 2.0 upgrade. But the experience was mediocre at best. 

[LogicalDrm]

As you may have noticed, this isn't first time it has been suggested. In fact, I made listing of all the threads I could/can find about it. The previous one is very interesting as it seems some of our members are working on something that could one day be unofficial app.

 

!!!WARNING!!! Very heavy to load link:

I'll add this one later when I get on my desktop. Plus I really should format that to little less heavy to load.

 

2 hours ago, 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.

 

Thanks for latest quote. Last one I could found was from Feb this year.

[Murilo_A]

10 hours ago, 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.

I've never realized there was a search tool lol

[Sniperfox47]

On 17/12/2016 at 7:05 PM, mpsparrow said:

It isn't super easy to just up and create an Android and iOS app.

Actually on Android it kind of is... Create a blank project, give it a WebView window, point said WebView window to the LTT website. There you go you have an app.

 

And on that note, anyone on Android can just download "Hermit: Lite Apps" and do exactly that by thsmselves with a whole bunch of customizable features...

[colonel_mortis]

3 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Actually on Android it kind of is... Create a blank project, give it a WebView window, point said WebView window to the LTT website. There you go you have an app.

 

And on that note, anyone on Android can just download "Hermit: Lite Apps" and do exactly that by thsmselves with a whole bunch of customizable features...

And what is the point of doing that? You don't get native notifications, but it means you need a whole new app installed on your phone, and it would almost certainly cause no end of issues for us.

[Sniperfox47]

25 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

And what is the point of doing that? You don't get native notifications, but it means you need a whole new app installed on your phone, and it would almost certainly cause no end of issues for us.

The Hermit way? I do it mostly so I don't have to load up bloated chrome every time I want to view this forum. It also gives me a nice link right on my launcher that quickly takes me here. It also makes it easier to tab back and forth between this site and another task, since it shows up on my overview.

 

The fact that you guys could make an app by doing that, there wouldn't be much point. I was mostly being facetious in order to build my point about Hermit.

 

The only thing I do really wish you provided an app for, is native notifications, but that doesn't even need an app... Support for the HTML5 push API would be more than enough and would work across Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and WebView on Android, Chrome and Firefox on Windows/Linux/Mac (Opera didn't work last I checked due to a bug on desktop), and possibly even Safari and Edge (I haven't checked them recently).

 

Edit: Opera now works with them fine, and Edge doesn't but it has a flag for it so it'll probably be enabled during the Windows Creative Update.

 

Safari is the only major browser that has no support for them.

[Slick]

On 12/17/2016 at 11:01 PM, Asterisk said:

Tapatalk? But it's kinda shit so I don't suggest using it and if i recall correctly LTT forums didn't even work in the app.

It's pretty bad and also an issue for security and performance.
 

On 12/18/2016 at 0:36 AM, AluminiumTech said:

No. It only makes not having an "excusable" at best.

lol.

[NTDaws]

for the 900000th time, we don't need a app. The website is easier to use.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

for the 900000th time, we don't need a app. The website is easier to use.

You need grammar

 

*an

[NTDaws]

1 minute ago, deXxterlab97 said:

You need grammar

 

*an

this is the internet, not a essay

[Megah3rtz]

3 minutes ago, Dawson Wehage said:

this is the internet, not a essay

not an essay* 

[B3H1NDu]

As an actual web and app developer, I feel I may have something to contribute here.

 

First of all, smartphone users are moving away from downloading apps, and prefer web apps, like the forums here. In fact, most smartphone users download less than 5 apps a month. I personally barely ever download apps. This is something interesting to keep in mind as it would limit the potential user base for such an app.

 

Secondly, most apps are in fact web apps which can operate offline. While yes these apps have the ability to send notifications, so can websites nowadays. In fact, making the forum into a web app which you can click a button to download so you get things like notifications would not take very long, especially as the forums seem to meet the prerequisites of such an app. However, the end result would be clutter for users to get the same user experience plus push notifications, so really it would be a few hours of effort for next to no benefit. And with the way that browsers are moving, I am sure that you will soon be able to accept push notifications from websites, regardless of your platform.

 

The biggest barrier for such an app is currently the way which iOS handles apps. They use safari WebKit for everything, so even the chrome app is literally a reskin for safari, and since iOS does not let you get push notifications from websites it is this which is the limiting factor here. Also, if you wanted the app on the app store (you could always just host a download on the forums) you'd have to go and jump through all of Apple's hoops.

 

In my mind, if you want push notifications, you should just wait. There is next to no point to spending any time at all making an app for the forum, as you will get the same experience as if you visited it on a browser. Just my two cents.

 

**EDIT** Just posting a link to a great article on medium.com about web apps which I ran into a while back and is a great read, and I'm sure that even if you have no previous experience you'll get the gist: https://medium.com/javascript-scene/native-apps-are-doomed-ac397148a2c0

Edited December 19, 2016 by B3H1NDu

[Murilo_A]

14 minutes ago, B3H1NDu said:

As an actual web and app developer, I feel I may have something to contribute here.

 

First of all, smartphone users are moving away from downloading apps, and prefer web apps, like the forums here. In fact, most smartphone users download less than 5 apps a month. I personally barely ever download apps. This is something interesting to keep in mind as it would limit the potential user base for such an app.

 

Secondly, most apps are in fact web apps which can operate offline. While yes these apps have the ability to send notifications, so can websites nowadays. In fact, making the forum into a web app which you can click a button to download so you get things like notifications would not take very long, especially as the forums seem to meet the prerequisites of such an app. However, the end result would be clutter for users to get the same user experience plus push notifications, so really it would be a few hours of effort for next to no benefit. And with the way that browsers are moving, I am sure that you will soon be able to accept push notifications from websites, regardless of your platform.

 

The biggest barrier for such an app is currently the way which iOS handles apps. They use safari WebKit for everything, so even the chrome app is literally a reskin for safari, and since iOS does not let you get push notifications from websites it is this which is the limiting factor here. Also, if you wanted the app on the app store (you could always just host a download on the forums) you'd have to go and jump through all of Apple's hoops.

 

In my mind, if you want push notifications, you should just wait. There is next to no point to spending any time at all making an app for the forum, as you will get the same experience as if you visited it on a browser. Just my two cents.

 

**EDIT** Just posting a link to a great article on medium.com about web apps which I ran into a while back and is a great read, and I'm sure that even if you have no previous experience you'll get the gist: https://medium.com/javascript-scene/native-apps-are-doomed-ac397148a2c0

Chrome supports push notifications. Although the only website the I've seen using it is Facebook

[AlTech]

2 hours ago, Dawson Wehage said:

for the 900000th time, we don't need a app. The website is easier to use.

are you high?

 

An app will always be easier to use on Mobile than a website.