<story><title>Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?</title><url>https://subconscious.substack.com/p/why-did-the-web-take-over-desktop</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>amw-zero</author><text>People say this a lot, but really, what can a native app track that a web app can&amp;#x27;t? To track location, you need to give the app permission, just like the web. To receive push notifications, you need to give the app permission, just like the web.&lt;p&gt;I think this claim is unfounded.</text></item><item><author>feanaro</author><text>Native phone apps are more invasive and can therefore be used for more extensive tracking and spying, which is good for ad revenue.&lt;p&gt;Remember how all the largest spying products like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, etc aggressively push you to install their phone apps even though they are (or were) perfectly usable through their mobile websites.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>manigandham</author><text>Native apps have much more access to lower level APIs and had fixed identity that could be shared with all other apps.&lt;p&gt;The web was always limited by JS access, processing power, network connectivity, and a very fragile identity graph that was routinely reset. That&amp;#x27;s why Safari&amp;#x27;s battle on privacy is routinely seen as a misguided effort by most of the adtech industry that knows that SDKs in mobile apps reveal a magnitude more data.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why did the web take over desktop and not mobile?</title><url>https://subconscious.substack.com/p/why-did-the-web-take-over-desktop</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>amw-zero</author><text>People say this a lot, but really, what can a native app track that a web app can&amp;#x27;t? To track location, you need to give the app permission, just like the web. To receive push notifications, you need to give the app permission, just like the web.&lt;p&gt;I think this claim is unfounded.</text></item><item><author>feanaro</author><text>Native phone apps are more invasive and can therefore be used for more extensive tracking and spying, which is good for ad revenue.&lt;p&gt;Remember how all the largest spying products like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, etc aggressively push you to install their phone apps even though they are (or were) perfectly usable through their mobile websites.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kevin_thibedeau</author><text>Computers are kept in a fixed or limited number of locations. Phones are tracking devices that follow you throughout the day. The data they generate is far more valuable for building a consumer profile.</text></comment>