Implemented...ish Making the case for a XF native app

Ludachris

Well-known member
I know XF is forum software, and I understand that forums are fundamentally different than social media. I know that Tapatalk is a viable option for many forum owners. I've tried it but it wasn't the right solution for my site, mainly because it doesn't work with various plugins that website owners tend to use to try and set themselves apart from their competition and make their forums more sticky and cool (among a few other deal breakers). I understand that an app is costly to develop and that it's difficult to come up with something that will make the masses happy.

With of all that said, here's the case I'm making for an XF native forum app:

If your forum members take photos using their phones, where are they more likely to share those photos these days? The road blocks and extra steps it takes to open a browser on the phone, navigate to your forum, click around and find the right place to post the photo in the forum, and then use the upload feature to click around and locate the photo on the phone takes WAY more time than clicking the Share button after you take that photo and selecting FB or Instagram. And when you have a lot of the people in that forum as friends on your social network, why go through the extra hassle of also sharing that content in a forum?

Social media networks have given the user the ability to make their own networks that they used to depend on forums to access. I don't think this will kill forums, but it will certainly start taking away from a big part of what used to make forums sticky. For some communities - take the car enthusiast communities for example - those photos signify what a member is working on at the moment with their car, and that is an extremely important community-building element that is starting to drop off in forums these days because it's FAR EASIER to share that content on social media via mobile, especially with the upward trend in mobile device usage for interaction. This is not a problem that is/will be exclusive to the automotive community.

I've been talking with members of my site for several months about this, getting their feedback and taking notes. The consistent message coming back is that the forum will always be a great place for finding technical information, but that FB is becoming more preferred for engaging and networking with other car enthusiasts because of how simple it is to use, especially on a mobile device. The problem is, being a technical resource ONLY is not going to keep a forum community thriving.

Over 65% of my traffic views the site on a mobile device these days. I'm using a mobile friendly theme without Tapatalk (for various reasons). And though the site is easy enough to use on a mobile device, I would LOVE to have an app that is native to XF that was build in a way that it coule be extended by some of the talented plugin developers we have in this community (like @Bob who built Showcase and other cool content-centered plugins). If I install an app it has to encompass all areas of the site where I collect content - when that user clicks Share after they take a photo I need to be able to give them quick and easy options to share that content in my forum somewhere so that they don't just share it on FB or IG instead.

The simplicity and ease of sharing content from mobile is becoming more and more expected from the average user. And the traditional way the user has to go about posting in a forum is falling behind in terms of modern day usability. I'm not advocating forums be more like social media. I'm advocating exploring ways to make forums as easy to use as social media on mobile device and doing it in a way that it's extendable - so that plugin developers can tie their plugins into standardized locations.

I'd pay an upfront license fee and a monthly fee for that and I know quite a few other forum owners who run their forum as a business and rely on advertising revenue would invest in this as well. I'd think it's worth exploring and I imagine the XF decision makers probably already have, and probably keep revisiting as mobile usage continues to increase. As someone who didn't used to be too concerned about social media being a competitor a few years back I now see why it's very possible that forums could be used less and less for sharing content and networking among people with similar interests - which could turn forums into obsolete, searchable newsgroups.

We need to keep people engaged and make it extremely easy to have new, quality content posted on our sites. I've always felt XF was forward thinking in the forum space, which is why I moved over from vB last year. I'm hoping the XF devs will seriously consider revolutionizing the way members post content on forums using mobile devices, I like most everything else they've done with the script so far.
 
Upvote 56
This suggestion has been implemented. Votes are no longer accepted.
That will likely be widely adopted and available via the PWA one day. The web APIs already exist if you’re using Android.

After push notifications it is difficult to say, but the hope is that Apple supports it one day.

Native apps just aren’t a solution for applications that are already web based like ours.

In the one time we got as far as prototyping something, it was essentially a web view wrapper - that’s not even what most people who want an app would be satisfied with anyway.

In 2023, with PWAs essentially providing the sheer majority of native app functionality, there is little to no justification for the effort, expense and resources it would require for us to do it the right way.

Other forum platforms who honestly I thought did a very nice job of producing a good looking and functional native app no longer offer an app with their product to the best of my knowledge. Which strongly implies the barriers, cost or lack of demand for an app were insurmountable.

The only one I can think of that actually offers anything decent is Discourse Hub, which isn’t exactly storming the App Store charts:

IMG_0041.webp

And, while its utility is useful, (allowing you to add multiple forums), it’s still basically just a web view pointing at the web server of each forum.

It’s just not something I can ever see us working towards, not without a justification that would have to go way beyond sharing images, which may well not need a native app anyway in the long run.
 
I'll make sure to silently mark suggestions as implemented, not planned, or whatever else going forwards.

I'm not going to set myself up for backlash again.
 
I'll make sure to silently mark suggestions as implemented, not planned, or whatever else going forwards.

I'm not going to set myself up for backlash again.
Come On Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 
The essential part of the suggestion is to be able to share an image directly from your phone to xenforo.
Indeed. This is the reason my members tell me they upload their photo galleries to Facebook or IG because it's so much simpler.

It's a shame we need to wait for Apple to support it, why not get it started now so at least the Android people can use it?
 
The problem with PWA's is users don't use them. Installation needs to be made easier.
As pointed out before, it is no more difficult than having to go to the app store to install an app. Google Chrome now literally shows an icon in the address bar if the site has a PWA (and I think Edge does, too, meaning it is probably a Chromium feature rather than just a Google one). And there's a menu option on the hamburger menu. Click/tap that and you're off to the races. How would you make it easier than a simple menu option?

I have personally never found either native apps or PWAs any more useful than just having a home page shortcut to the site on my phone. Circle, which my favourite singer uses for her fan site, has a native app and it is actually worse for doing some things than than just going to the site in Chrome. So I have documented how to install the PWA on my site but I don't encourage it or anything unless someone asks.
 
It's a shame we need to wait for Apple to support it, why not get it started now so at least the Android people can use it?
We're not waiting for that. It's still very experimental so it would be a disservice if we were to rely on its current implementation and it changed, was removed, or otherwise broke.
 
Indeed. This is the reason my members tell me they upload their photo galleries to Facebook or IG because it's so much simpler.
I posted a suggestion for this a long time ago, but it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed:
 
Users do not use things because they are not familiar with them or are not trained to use them (or simply do not want to use them). Train your users to use them (incentivize it, people love rewards) and they will either use them or they can just be ignored for not using the tools offered to them.

Native apps are a huge investment, and will never offer functional parity when it comes to add-ons or custom styles, thus are inherently worse than a PWA. This becomes more and more true as the spec for PWA expands and more functionality is added.

The only place where a native app has somewhat real benefits is mobile payments and certain ad networks, and even that is dependent on your site.
 
Back
Top Bottom