At WWDC 2020 Apple announced a new feature for iPhones, App Clips for iOS 14.

What you need right when you need it!

Sounds awesome!

But are they really an innovation?

No, not really.

Are they useful?

The concept yes, but the execution no.

Is there a better, available on all platforms way to accomplish the same thing?

Yes the web has had this feature since QR and barcode scanning was added to phones several years back, including iPhones.

Another reason why progressive web applications are superior to native applications.

Many are comparing the new app clips to progressive web apps, but clips are more analogous to a single web page.

The problems mobile apps have are high install friction and of course the space they occupy on your phone.

Most consumers only use a small handful of apps. Typically 10 or fewer. Most of their app screen time is within a single application. The most popular brands are Facebook’s social media platforms, YouTube and other video services.

ComScore Real App Consumer App Usage

When a consumer is searching for a local business or wants to make a contactless purchase in a store they do not want to fuss with downloading an app. They want to make the purchase as quickly as possible.

We also know roughly 3% of app usage is retail apps. The main reason, there is so much effort required to download an app to do the exact same thing you can do in the website.

App Usage By Category

#pwas #ios