Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)(danq.me)
878 points by MrVandemar 61 days ago | 535 comments
tl;dr: Frustrated that a travel agency required installing a 43MB Android app just to view an itinerary (which was really just HTML, images, and PDFs with added tracking and ads), the author reverse-engineered it by rooting an Android emulator and intercepting traffic with HTTP Toolkit. They discovered the app fetches JSON from an API using concatenated username-password credentials in the URL, then wrote a Ruby script to convert that JSON into a lightweight, password-protected webpage for their tour group—stripping ads and tracking while gaining bookmarking, printing, and accessibility benefits.
HN Discussion:
  • Companies push apps because they're more profitable, enable tracking, and bypass ad blockers
  • Users and businesses genuinely prefer apps for the home screen convenience and familiar install flow
  • The web platform's extensibility and browser extensions make it superior for customization
  • PWAs were the promised path but were undermined by app store economics and notification incentives
  • Developers themselves benefit from abandoning app stores due to bureaucracy and deployment friction