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Comment by DavidPeiffer | Hacker News Reader

Facebook is the #1 offender in my opinion. I absolutely refuse to install any Facebook app. Back in the day, you could message people in the mobile browser without issue. Heck, it even loaded new messages without needing to refresh.

Then they decided you should need the app to message people.

Then they decided you should use a completely separate app to message people versus browse Facebook.

Now I have to use mbasic.facebook.com to message people. The quality of the experience dropped so much because, but I'm glad they don't have access to my contacts, text messages, location, etc. They get enough info about me from other sources.

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Yup, this exact timeline of degraded experience on Facebook led me to disable my account. I haven't reactivated it in over a year, and I'm happier for it.

What kills me is I recall the mobile browser experience being better in the 2012 era than 2021. We've moved from alright 3G to widely available 4G with populous areas having 5G, and with home internet connections generally being much faster. The same website code could provide a much better experience simply from more bandwidth availability. Instead we've regressed because everything needs an app now.

Some forum software allows the owners to create an app then prompts you to install their app. Not sure which it is, but it's super annoying.

Over the last couple, reddit has significantly limited their mobile website utility, requiring login (like Instagram) and nagging you to download the app.

Marketing metrics seem to have overcome usability in terms of relative importance. It's really frustrating to see what the movie computing environment has become.

I asked my dad to send me a picture of his shed recently. He asked if I have WhatsApp. I reminded him I don't use any social media. And he said, uh, it's going to be very hard for me to figure out how to send it without WhatsApp..

No shed picture. But no compromises here either.

Also I find it totally hilarious that I'm 42 and I have never even seen WhatsApp's interface yet my 80 year old father is a social media expert in a lot of ways.

I've been mostly trying to get my friends and family onto Signal. I really want to ditch FB messenger.

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