Stop asking me to download your app
Stop asking me to download your app
How this annoying trend is harming the accessibility of the Web, and what can we do to stop it
There are three words that trigger me like nothing else, shatter my fragile inner peace, make me shiver and weep.
“Continue in app”.
Every time I look things up on the Internet, this annoying phrase keeps coming up. Reddit, Google, Instagram, and others do not care about my usage patterns, preferences, or requirements. All they want is for me to press that magical button and reduce my storage space by at least 500Mb.
I argue that this practice is not only terrible from the UX standpoint, but is harmful to the accessibility of the Web in general. In today’s issue, we will look into how those annoying pop-ups make the Internet less accessible, and imagine the future where they finally cease to exist.
This text contains 1,315 words and will take around 10 minutes to read.
Just let me do what I came here to do
According to Forbes, 91% of people hate being asked to download an app. Mobile users find it extremely frustrating when websites prompt them to install a mobile application to view the page they came for. To make matters worse, 80% of people end up dropping the website altogether.
In 2021, consultancy Heady.io facilitated a study of mobile users and concluded that although almost half of users prompted to install an app do so, there are some long-term consequences for businesses that employ that strategy. To quote the company CEO:
You don’t propose to move in with someone on your first date. Apps are a long term commitment.
It is obvious that companies are doing their best to convert every visitor, and that visitors are naturally not too thrilled about it. But what does it have to do with accessibility? Let’s find out.
The bad, the ugly, the app
If you use your mobile browser to google anything in 2024, chances are, Google will ask you to download its app and use it instead. Instagram will not let you view posts without reminding how significantly better the experience of viewing it in the app would be. Reddit will not let you proceed without suggesting you see the post in their app.
Occasionally, however, Reddit (obviously, out of love and care for you and your sanity) will force you to choose between opening the post in app or abandoning it. For instance, if you are trying to access a post marked not safe for work, a pop-up will remind you that you can only view the page in the app.
However, apparently, Reddit values its sighted users over visitors with visual impairments. Otherwise, how would you explain that while the former are shielded from the harmful influence of the nasty discussions and vulgar images, Voiceover users proceed straight to the content, as if the pop-up was not even there?
But how is it bad for accessibility, exactly?
There are several issues with those pop-ups (beside them being annoying), but for the sake of brevity, we will focus on the most problematic.
Are you sure your app is accessible?
Opening a new app is not always a bad idea, especially if the task requires additional functionality: access to camera and downloads, for instance, that your browser has not been granted. The need to view a text-based post in the app is hard to explain, especially if the user only came to browse one page and go about their business.
Browsers can be customised and tailored to the user’s preferences and requirements. Safari, for instance, is deeply integrated into iOS, and the plethora of accessibility features, native to the system, work in it flawlessly. Users can opt to enable, say, a reader view, making it easier for them to consume large quantities of text.
Browsers cater to the user’s wants (“I prefer to read white text on a dark grey background”) and needs (“I won’t be able to comprehend the text unless it is written in a large serif font”) across all platforms and services.
Not every app, on the other hand, is capable of doing what the browsers do. Even major platforms overlook important features and violate the standards.
Imagine abandoning your tailored browser with its high-contrast theme and 200% text zoom, only to end up in the space that neglects your requirements and preferences completely.
Something essential is missing!
Try opening two posts side by side in the app. Or, perhaps, bookmarking a post to get back to it later. Can you easily select and copy any text in the app? Access your history?
What about going back? A simple gesture that is consistently available in your browser may be missing from your favourite app or replaced by a variation of “pull down to dismiss” or “tap anywhere to close”, which you will not be able to access with ease.
Now that you are trapped, how would you like to purchase a Pro plan for just $9.99/month?
Apps have their own mind
Apps crash, reload, and refresh in the background. “Smart feeds” never show you the same post twice, making it almost impossible to rediscover the material you came to view, should the application choose to reboot.
It may not seem critical to some, but it severely damages the experience for those who cannot view the page in the app right upon its launch.
When the user clicks “Continue in app”, they go through a series of tasks. Just imagine using assistive technology and having to:
Click the “Get the app” button to open the App Store and commence the purchase;
Wait until the app is installed and open it;
Wait for the app to load and continue to the onboarding;
Complete the onboarding (anywhere from 3 to 20 screens) and land on the Home page.
Return to the browser and click the “Open in app” button.
Apps require storage, bandwidth, and permissions
Finally, applications are not just icons on the desktop: they take up space, operate in the background, draining the battery, and often ask for permissions, refusing to function unless they’re granted.
We’ve talked about how bloated software harms accessibility earlier on “The Accessibility Apprentice”.
What would be a better alternative?
The future where revolting and persistent app upsells do not exist is not upon us, but it doesn’t mean that we cannot have our cake and eat it, too.
No pop-ups and no surprises, please
We get it, you need to convert a certain percentage of users and hit a particular number of downloads to meet a quarterly goal, but it does not mean a blocking pop-up is the way to go.
As product professionals, we are taught to solve complex problems with creativity and design thinking. How about you apply this thinking here to come up with a less intrusive way to get your user data without disrupting your user’s experience?
Respect your user
If the user declines your invitation to continue in app, do you really feel the need to continue insisting on it? If the user requests a desktop site, do you feel obligated to insist on pushing a mobile version down their throat?
Respect your user’s decisions and requests, please.
Make sure your app is accessible
You do not have the authority to call the shots, I get it. Your leaders believe that it is the way to go, and the stats agree: almost 80% of your website visitors end up downloading your app, and you cannot (nor are you willing to) change it.
What you can do, however, is make sure your app is accessible before you leave your visitors no other choice but to use it. Chances are, you have spent millions of dollars building your application, testing it rigorously, ensuring its stability and security. Would you now mind spending the fraction of this time, money, and effort to make sure people can actually use it?