
Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen - mark_l_watson
I enjoy Quora but now it is unusable on mobile.<p>Why do companies do this?
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ezekg
This is also one of the reasons I refuse to use Reddit’s mobile site, and
instead choose to zoom and pan the desktop site on my phone. I’d imagine
mobile is more profitable, seeing as users cannot use an ad-blocker within the
native apps.

~~~
cm2012
It helps the reddit desktop site is 3x faster than the mobile site/app on
mobile.

~~~
godot
Wow, I didn't believe you, and had to try it myself. You are totally right.
Checking the "Request desktop site" checkbox, reddit loads a lot faster on my
phone. That is really sad.

I never downloaded the reddit mobile app, and have always just stuck with
mobile web whenever I wanted to browse it. But now I'll be sure to just
request desktop site.

~~~
sharcerer
They should make a PWA version. Although i akready add the site icon to my
home screen. Opens in chrome. But an optimized PWA would be nice. I read a
WIRED story about a redesign, hope it doesn't slow it more.

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beenBoutIT
It would bother me less if the banners were accurate. Any app ad that says it
offers a better experience than can be had browsing in Chrome on Android is an
obvious lie. Reddit's Android app that promises faster speeds is inferior in
every way to simply navigating to Reddit.com in Chrome or Chromium on Android.

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rajeshpant
Going through same feelings. I enjoyed Quora so much, now suddenly I see ads,
now more ads than content, on top of that quality of content going so low.
Everybody wants to show off writing skill and end up posting motivational
quotes, pictures and what now. It ruined a genuinely good platform.

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techcode
Besides the irony of mobile apps not really offering better/faster experience
in most cases.

Also ironically - many companies just buy into "best practices" (hype) without
actually checking conversion rate/ROI between the mobile apps, mobile site
(non-responsive) and responsive.

At which point we're also probably talking about corporate politics and
sinking costs - where I don't find it hard to imagine someone needs to prove
investment into apps was not a mistake ...

Though everything I just said is nothing more than my impression looking from
the outside.

Place where I work at www.booking.com has both mobile apps and mobile website
(request desktop website functionality works). And my general industry
impression is based on things I know from most of my time here being in mobile
web teams.

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decisiveness
My guess is that most companies decide to cut the cost of maintaining
responsive web apps since they are already paying developers to maintain
native mobile and desktop web. Because, in their minds "who wouldn't just use
the app"?

To get around it, there are a few lesser known mobile browsers that allow you
to modify the "User-Agent" header, in which case you can bypass by masking
yourself as viewing on a desktop browser. Sleipnir is one.

~~~
colejohnson66
Chrome and Safari on iOS have a “view desktop site” that, IIRC, work by
sending a desktop User-Agent

~~~
skellera
“Responsive” sites do not work with that sadly. Something that has always
bugged me.

~~~
techcode
Probably because it's same group of people that defined standards like media
queries and wrote "best practices" ...

Technically browser would need to report different pixel density or resolution
(check what
[https://www.whatismyscreenresolution.com](https://www.whatismyscreenresolution.com)
gives you) to get "desktop looking" site.

Though in reality it's one/same site - so I'm not sure how much would you get
with that...

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Rjevski
I never used Quora to begin with because of their constant pushing to sign
up/log in to read past the first page.

I dismiss Quora links the same way I do with ads or any kind of sponsored
content.

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hiven
I specifically don’t visit the site for that very reason now. Not only does it
make it unusable on phone without the app (why any company wants to make that
decision is beyond me) but it has also built resentment against the brand.
Overall, a stupid decision and plenty of other similar sites I can visit
instead.

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jayshi19
Going through same feelings. I enjoyed Quora so much, now suddenly I see ads,
now more ads than content, on top of that quality of content going so low.
Everybody wants to show off writing skill and end up posting motivational
quotes, pictures and what now. It ruined a genuinely good platform.

------
skellera
The link to expand the content is right above the get app button but it’s grey
so it’s hard to see.

Really annoying but still technically usable. I’d still quit for them doing
that.

After looking, it seems it’s only like that on your feed. Once you get into a
topic then the normal continue reading buttons are there.

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1223912thNW
A: ... quotas and roots. Milton Friedman's book: Free to Choose, explains
"self-interest", the Economic Man, and his search for the better life. I'm
pretty sure it's in the DNA.

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rajacombinator
Also quit using quora, deleted app, because of this.

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bitxbitxbitcoin
Bad QA :(.

