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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Google markets how a feature "drives engagement." Apple talks about how it "help users quickly accomplish tasks."

You're comparing developer marketing materials which should show the reason devs would want this vs human marketing materials?

I get apple is for developers too but they word things in the most utopian way it's almost like they believe they're in a Utopia.

They're both "developer marketing materials." And Apple's marketing materials aren't "utopian." They're how developer marketing materials have always been written--in a user-centric way because the point of computers is to help humans do things.

Even Balmer-era Microsoft never put out developer materials with anything as user-hostile as saying that a feature "drives engagement." It's a Freudian slip revealing that in the Google ecosystem, the user is the product, not the customer.

Google speaks marketing speak, which isn't a strike against them. They worded it honestly, it's an opportunity for apps to be useful and have more activity for developers. Apple only focuses on it's vision of a power user on Apple having flexibility. It a nice vision but it's not the reality I see on iOS. On Android at least this was already a thing for years since notifications can be app slices.

It's all dependent on frame of reference. Nobody reads Google's developer blog looking for user centric stuff, it's being pitched to devs and their metrics

Some devs. My metrics are about helping the user achieve their goal, not fishing for engagement.

I'm with you. Google writes it like they're trying to exploit the user. Apple writes it like they're working to help the user. They're both working toward the same goal, but it definitely speaks to how they're designing Android (for the app ecosystem, not the user).

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