Why I don't use native apps

31 May, 2025

There seems to be an unconditional love for native apps among Apple users. Native apps are great, and web technologies are bad. I was one of those people. While it is true to a larger extent, it also has some false assumptions.

Non-native is slow: Making good, fast, and smooth apps using web technologies is possible. Just look at Apple Notes vs Nota, or ChatGPT vs Chatwise. Both of these are just as snappy, if not more so, than their native counterparts.
Good intentions: Assuming that a native app publisher always has good intentions, i.e., to provide the best experience to their users, is completely wrong. While this is true for most indie apps, the large behemoths are here only to provide shareholder value.

If these two points made you curious enough to continue reading, might I suggest a challenge? Switch these two apps for their web counterparts for the next 30 days and see how you feel.

Twitter: use the web app with the following extensions, Minimal Theme for Twitter / X (available only on macOS) and Control Panel for Twitter (available on both iOS and macOS). Go through the settings for both of these extensions and see what works best for you. The end result is a calm Twitter that works for you. Don't want to doom-scroll on the algorithmic "For you" page? Remove it. Don’t want the gazillion premium and grok upsells? Hide it.

Before

After
Youtube: use the web app with the following extensions, Untrap for Youtube and Control Panel for Twitter (both available on iOS and macOS). Go through the settings and see what works for you. The results here can be vastly different as there are a thousand customizations, but this is how I use it. No algorithmic home, no distractions.

Before

After

I have been using some version of the web app for both of these platforms for a couple of years at this point and have never looked back. When I show this setup to other people, some don't get the point, and others feel like they have been living under a rock.

This is why I ask you to try it out for 30 days to see if this improves not just your experience but also your relationship with these apps.

Want to chat about this? Just email me!