Open web first
Why I've been shipping websites instead of native apps, and where that's starting to break.
So far, everything I’ve shipped is a URL. Send the link, tap it, and you’re in. There’s no install step and no review queue between me and the people I built the thing for.
Half of the reason is arithmetic. I’m one person, and I can’t build and maintain native apps for iOS and Android alone. One web build works on every phone in the family group chat.
The other half is control. Apple and Google decide what goes in their stores and what it costs to be there. On the web, I put the thing up and it’s live.
An installed app can send notifications at any time. A URL waits until I want it. I like that better.
Sometimes the browser can’t do the job. Tukur is at that limit now. iOS won’t let a browser tab read the phone’s location in the background, so Tukur will probably have to become a native app. The plan is to keep the web version as the main one and let the native app cover what the browser can’t. I haven’t tried this yet, so we’ll see.
The cost of web first is discoverability and reach. People look for apps in the store, and a website is easier to miss. So far, with every user in my contacts, that hasn’t mattered.