There is a long-term trend in the software industry that I think developers should pay more attention to:
We are slowly replacing the open mobile web with isolated app containers.
And I think this is a mistake.
Not because native applications are inherently bad. Some categories absolutely need them: low-latency audio, advanced camera processing, heavy offline workloads, games, Bluetooth integrations, system-level services, etc.
But a huge percentage of modern mobile apps are not really “native applications” anymore.
They are portals to web content wrapped inside a native shell.
And yet, by moving users from the browser into apps, we lose many of the properties that made the web powerful in the first place.
The Mobile Browser Is More Powerful Than People Realize
On desktop, most developers understand the value of the browser immediately:
- tabs
- deep linking
- bookmarking
- extensions
- history
- multi-window workflows
- interoperability
- inspectability
- copyable URLs
- open standards
But on mobile, many companies push users toward applications even when the actual product experience is fundamentally web-shaped.
The result is fragmentation of workflows that the browser already solved decades ago.
A Browser Tab Is a Better UX Primitive Than Most Mobile Apps
This sounds controversial until you compare them directly.
In a browser:
- I can open 20 conversations in separate tabs.
- I can preserve reading state naturally.
- I can bookmark specific content.
- I can restore sessions.
- I can share exact URLs.
- I can use ad blockers.
- I can use browser extensions.
- I can search across tabs.
- I can keep temporary research contexts alive for weeks.
In many mobile apps:
- navigation state is fragile
- deep linking is inconsistent
- opening multiple contexts is awkward
- content is trapped inside proprietary navigation systems
- session management is opaque
- there is no universal multitasking model
The browser already solved these problems with universal primitives.
Apps often reinvent them poorly.
Many Mobile Apps Are Just Embedded Websites
A lot of modern applications are effectively:
- React Native shells
- Electron-like architectures
- WebViews
- remote-rendered interfaces
- thin API clients around server-driven UI
And that is fine technically.
But if the experience is fundamentally web-centric anyway, why are we abandoning the actual web platform?
Especially when the browser gives users:
- portability
- inspectability
- interoperability
- lower installation friction
- better discoverability
- easier sharing
- less platform lock-in
The “App-First” Strategy Hurts the Mobile Web
This is the part that concerns me most.
When companies prioritize native applications aggressively, something predictable happens:
- the mobile app becomes the primary platform
- the mobile website becomes “good enough”
- feature parity disappears
- browser support stagnates
- investment into web capabilities declines
Eventually the mobile web experience degrades into:
- limited functionality
- missing features
- constant “Open in App” interruptions
- intentionally degraded UX
- broken navigation
- artificial restrictions
This creates a feedback loop:
weaker mobile web → more users forced into apps → even less incentive to improve the web
That is dangerous long term.
We Are Accidentally Weakening the Open Platform
One of the biggest historical advantages of the web was openness.
A browser is a universal runtime.
A website can be indexed, linked, archived, shared, inspected, extended, and accessed without asking permission from a platform gatekeeper.
Apps move the industry toward:
- closed ecosystems
- proprietary distribution
- platform dependency
- duplicated implementations
- reduced interoperability
The web was never perfect, but it created an environment where small teams could ship globally accessible software instantly.
That matters.
Especially for developers.
Progressive Web Apps Were Supposed to Bridge This Gap
PWAs are one of the most important ideas the industry produced in the last decade.
The promise was compelling:
- installable web apps
- offline support
- push notifications
- background sync
- richer device APIs
- app-like UX without abandoning the web
But mobile platforms still treat the browser as a second-class citizen in many areas.
And this directly affects innovation.
A Real Example: Voice Interfaces on Mobile Web
I built a voice-command-oriented web application.
On desktop Chrome, continuous speech recognition works surprisingly well. You can create fluid voice-driven workflows with near real-time interaction.
But on mobile, the experience degrades dramatically.
The browser often allows only short-lived microphone capture sessions for speech recognition workflows. Continuous recognition behavior is heavily restricted compared to desktop environments.
As a result:
- recognition sessions restart constantly
- UX becomes fragmented
- latency increases
- conversational interaction becomes unreliable
Meanwhile native apps can often access far more persistent audio capabilities.
This creates a structural imbalance:
developers are pushed toward native apps not because the web model is fundamentally wrong, but because the platform capabilities are artificially constrained.
And when users stop using the mobile web, platform vendors have even less incentive to improve it.
Browser Features Benefit Everyone
The browser ecosystem creates positive externalities.
When users rely on browsers:
- browser vendors compete harder
- standards evolve faster
- accessibility improves
- performance tooling improves
- privacy tooling improves
- extension ecosystems grow
- cross-platform compatibility matters more
The web encourages shared infrastructure.
Apps encourage isolated silos.
Security and User Control Matter Too
Browsers also provide something increasingly rare:
user mediation
Permissions are usually:
- visible
- revocable
- origin-scoped
- standardized
Users can:
- clear site data
- inspect permissions
- block trackers
- isolate sessions
- use privacy extensions
- sandbox activity more predictably
Native mobile apps often request much broader persistent access with significantly less transparency around internal behavior.
Again, some applications genuinely need this access.
Many do not.
“But Native Apps Are Faster”
Sometimes yes.
But this argument is increasingly overstated for many categories.
Modern mobile browsers now support:
- hardware acceleration
- WebAssembly
- IndexedDB
- service workers
- advanced caching
- streaming APIs
- GPU APIs
- installable PWAs
For content-centric products, dashboards, social systems, productivity tools, knowledge platforms, AI interfaces, admin panels, marketplaces, and communication tools, the gap is often far smaller than people assume.
In many cases, the biggest differences are organizational priorities rather than technical impossibilities.
The Web Is Still the Most Important Software Platform Ever Created
The web won because it was:
- linkable
- composable
- open
- searchable
- decentralized
- low-friction
We should be extremely careful about replacing those properties with ecosystems built around opaque application containers.
Especially when many “apps” are already websites internally.
My Personal Rule
If a service can function well as a mobile website, I increasingly prefer using the website over installing the app.
Not because I hate apps.
But because every time we choose the browser:
- we reinforce open standards
- we increase pressure for better browser APIs
- we support interoperable software
- we encourage better PWAs
- we reduce unnecessary platform fragmentation
And over time, that shapes the direction of the ecosystem.
Final Thought
I think developers underestimate how much collective user behavior influences platform evolution.
If users continuously abandon the mobile web in favor of closed app ecosystems, companies and platform vendors will naturally invest less into browser capabilities.
But if developers and users actively use and demand high-quality mobile web experiences, the opposite can happen:
- better APIs
- stronger PWAs
- richer browser capabilities
- more powerful web runtimes
- less dependence on app stores
- more open software ecosystems
The mobile web does not become stronger automatically.
It becomes stronger only if people continue using it.
What do you think?
Are mobile apps genuinely superior for most modern products, or are we underinvesting in the mobile web ecosystem?