Linus Tech Tips App

[VDizzy]

Why doesnt LTT have an app for smartphones? 

 

[LienusLateTips]

Quote

• A forum app
  Due to limited resources available, and the functional mobile site, there are no plans to develop an app for the site at this time.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

As mentioned above, there's no need for a mobile app. The only real benefit would be push notifications if we were to implement one.

 

The development time and effort wouldn't be worth it, essentially. 

[Theguywhobea]

Did I miss the other ones, or did we get almost like two weeks or something without one of these posts?

[GoodBytes]

Please note that this is my personal opinion and view, and I don't represent Linus Media Group, nor leaking any information (I know nothing about nothing).

 

Maybe, just maybe, once Android Oreo and later becomes the most used Android version on people device, than MAYBE a Progressive Web App (PWA) can be done for those users, and those running Windows 10 devices (Starting with the April update coming in a few days, Windows 10 will support PWA apps).  This might be accelerated if Apple joins in, but I doubt they will any time soon. They might be doing their own special thing instead.

 

But as mentioned many times, the forum runs great on phone web browsers, and so there is no need for an app.

 

 

In summary, PWA apps are web wrapper apps, but can have access to the phone sensors, camera, microphone, gps (of course, be protected via privacy control options like any other  phone apps), and have push notification support, allowing notification to be received by your phone while the app is not running or running on the back. It also allows offline support for the apps that can operate in such mode (for example, a Mail app can do this, where the previous email and website is downloaded on the phone, so no internet needed, you only need the web to access newly received e-mails).

 

Being a forum using a forum system, maybe, just maybe, one day they themselves add the APIs for it, and Linus Media Group might just need to package it, and send it to the app to the respective stores. So we will see what can happen 5 years from now. But I won't hold my hopes up until Apple supports it, as I doubt Windows powered phone will take the market by storm in 5 years, and you need to wait for the majority of Android users to be on Oreo (or later).

 

Another factor that might block this, is the issue of support. LMG might not be willing to invest in support.

[Crunchy Dragon]

8 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

-snip-

Honestly, since this is such a commonly-requested topic, I'm surprised nobody's actually decided to make an app for this forum themselves.

[GoodBytes]

17 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Honestly, since this is such a commonly-requested topic, I'm surprised nobody's actually decided to make an app for this forum themselves.

Well, you have the trademark issue (LTT logos, name and such) to start with. Plus making an app for the forum is difficult, especially when you don't have direct access to the database or access to the forum APIs. So it is a lot of work.

 

Someone could make a Windows 10 / Android Oreo (or later) PWA app, but without forum support, it will act like a bookmark in Chrome/Edge. Not even have notification working as those APIs needs to be added to the website.

[colonel_mortis]

25 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Maybe, just maybe, once Android Oreo and later becomes the most used Android version on people device, than MAYBE a Progressive Web App (PWA) can be done for those users, and those running Windows 10 devices (Starting with the April update coming in a few days, Windows 10 will support PWA apps).  This might be accelerated if Apple joins in, but I doubt they will any time soon. They might be doing their own special thing instead.

PWAs don't even need Oreo - they are a browser feature rather than an Android feature, so using an up to date version of Chrome or Firefox on mobile (but on iOS, all browsers are actually Safari, and Safari doesn't support it) is all that is needed as far as I know.

36 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Being a forum using a forum system, maybe, just maybe, one day they themselves add the APIs for it, and Linus Media Group might just need to package it, and send it to the app to the respective stores

It has been made very clear by the forum software devs that they will not be creating a mobile app, so that isn't on the cards unfortunately. It's possible that they will add PWA support in the future though, which is considerably less complex, for the simplest implementation. However, it's still not something that we can really implement ourselves without them because it would involve major breaking changes to how notifications are currently handled.

26 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Honestly, since this is such a commonly-requested topic, I'm surprised nobody's actually decided to make an app for this forum themselves.

There is no forum API, nor can we just add one, so any app that was created would be very limited in what it can achieve, and very susceptible to being broken by forum updates.

[GoodBytes]

14 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

PWAs don't even need Oreo - they are a browser feature rather than an Android feature, so using an up to date version of Chrome or Firefox on mobile (but on iOS, all browsers are actually Safari, and Safari doesn't support it) is all that is needed as far as I know.

You need Oreo if you want notification and everything mentioned. I checked the doc.

In other words, to put is simply:

 > Pre-Oreo -> Web Wrapper that no one cares about, might as well be a bookmark in Chrome or wtv web browser you use.

 > Oreo and I assume post Oreo -> Actual PWA support.

 

[colonel_mortis]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

You need Oreo if you want notification and everything mentioned. I checked the doc.

 

You certainly don't need oreo for web push - I just tested it web push on marshmallow. I'm fairly sure the same is true for all of the PWA features. Which docs are you looking at?

[Kamjam21xx]

I have an LTT app on my phone, must not be official.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, colonel_mortis said:

There is no forum API, nor can we just add one, so any app that was created would be very limited in what it can achieve, and very susceptible to being broken by forum updates.

Quote

{
    "errorCode": "2S290\/6",
    "errorMessage": "NO_API_KEY"
}

You do have API function (I just don't have a key for it), maybe a hidden secret from even you?

https://invisioncommunity.com/developers/rest-api?endpoint=forums/forums/GETindex

https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/developing-plugins-and-applications/rest-api_370/sending-your-first-request-r167/

 

To what extent this stuff is able to function at, I have no idea. As they really are bad at providing examples on how to start... They do give a long list of options, but how to use them or at least the basics. Yea...

I've toyed around with API's mostly with php(on various sites, none for invision), but I know it would work in programs too.

[Canada EH]

If you need ltt app, i shake my head.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Canada EH said:

If you need ltt app, i shake my head.

I hate the mobile version of this site... Esp the replying part, it never works right, and I can't delete quotes unless I change to hackers keyboard and spend 30 seconds trying...

[Canada EH]

why

I dont get it

 

look at the birds, smell the dandilions

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Canada EH said:

why

I dont get it

 

look at the birds, smell the dandilions

When you're stuck on a bus in traffic and really don't want to talk to people... When I'm walking I'm rarely typing  If I'm typing its a text/messenger.

[GoodBytes]

3 hours ago, colonel_mortis said:

You certainly don't need oreo for web push - I just tested it web push on marshmallow. I'm fairly sure the same is true for all of the PWA features. Which docs are you looking at?

 

Oh. So then I miss understood.

[Canada EH]

2 hours ago, Egg-Roll said:

When you're stuck on a bus in traffic and really don't want to talk to people... When I'm walking I'm rarely typing  If I'm typing its a text/messenger.

Eye ball genetics will change, to a white glow pupil.

[colonel_mortis]

9 hours ago, Egg-Roll said:

You do have API function (I just don't have a key for it), maybe a hidden secret from even you?

https://invisioncommunity.com/developers/rest-api?endpoint=forums/forums/GETindex

https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/developing-plugins-and-applications/rest-api_370/sending-your-first-request-r167/

 

To what extent this stuff is able to function at, I have no idea. As they really are bad at providing examples on how to start... They do give a long list of options, but how to use them or at least the basics. Yea...

I've toyed around with API's mostly with php(on various sites, none for invision), but I know it would work in programs too.

That API isn't one that we can expose to you though - it's an administrative API, so it doesn't, in the current version, let you authenticate to the API and only make requests as that authenticated user. For example, it would allow you to post as anyone.

[GeekPower0]

11 hours ago, colonel_mortis said:

That API isn't one that we can expose to you though - it's an administrative API, so it doesn't, in the current version, let you authenticate to the API and only make requests as that authenticated user. For example, it would allow you to post as anyone.

Invision 4.3 and above support OAuth with the REST API so a user can only act as themselves. https://invisioncommunity.com/developers/rest-api