“It works better in the app”

“在 App 里用体验更好”

The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There’s always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation. 谷歌那帮“码农”似乎永远没法把任何一款应用做得尽善尽美。总有一些实用的功能被遗漏，或者存在致命的 Bug 迟迟得不到修复，成千上万的粗糙细节至今仍未被这代最聪明的大脑们解决。

I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar app. Is it possible to click on a calendar link and add it to my phone? No. Here’s what Google has to say about the matter: Really?!? I mean, fucking really???? This isn’t the most complex software engineering task known to humanity. Add a + button. Pop open a text entry field. Validate. Save. Done. I’m sure even the shitty Gemini model can vibe code that in a couple of months, right? 我想订阅一个活动日历。我有链接，手里拿着运行最新 Android 17 系统且日历应用已更新的 Google™ Pixel® 手机。点击日历链接就能直接添加到手机里吗？不行。谷歌对此的回应是：真的吗？！我是说，他妈的真的吗？？？这又不是什么人类历史上最复杂的软件工程任务。加个“+”按钮，弹出一个文本输入框，验证，保存，搞定。我敢肯定，哪怕是那个烂透了的 Gemini 模型，花几个月时间也能把这代码写出来，对吧？

Anyway, I opened calendar.google.com on my phone (using desktop mode), added the calendar, and it magically appeared in the app. This is just pathetic. 总之，我在手机上打开了 calendar.google.com（使用桌面模式），添加了日历，它就神奇地出现在应用里了。这简直可悲。

In fairness, this isn’t only a Google problem. Many companies want a permanent presence on your homescreen and think you’re too thick to use your browser’s bookmarks feature. Maybe they’re right. Maybe an app is the only way to increase the engagement KPI sufficiently so Quinn in the leadership squad can hit their OKRs and get a bonus. So they build an app. Or, rather, they half-arse it. 平心而论，这不仅仅是谷歌的问题。许多公司都想在你的主屏幕上占据一席之地，并认为你笨到不会使用浏览器的书签功能。也许他们是对的。也许 App 是提高参与度 KPI 的唯一途径，这样领导层的 Quinn 才能达成 OKR 并拿到奖金。于是他们开发了一个 App。或者更准确地说，他们敷衍了事地做了一个。

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told “it’s easier if you use our app” only to be unceremoniously punted back to the web when I try to do anything outside of the app’s narrow strictures. I was there in the early days of phone apps. I built stuff for Symbian, BlackBerry, even the bloody Palm Pilot! 我已经数不清有多少次被告知“用我们的 App 会更方便”，结果当我试图在 App 狭窄的限制之外做任何事情时，又被毫不客气地踢回了网页端。我经历过手机应用的早期时代。我曾为塞班、黑莓，甚至该死的 Palm Pilot 开发过东西！

The central problem with apps has always been that they are hard to update. Every new bit of functionality - or even a new page - needs to be tested on a thousand devices. Once done, it takes an age to distribute to users. The only way to solve that is to have the app dynamically pull in new functionality from a remote resource. At which point, you’ve reinvented the Web browser! App 的核心问题一直在于难以更新。每一个新功能——甚至只是一个新页面——都需要在成千上万台设备上进行测试。一旦完成，分发给用户又需要漫长的时间。解决这个问题的唯一方法是让 App 从远程资源动态拉取新功能。而到了这一步，你其实就是重新发明了网页浏览器！

Sure, there are some things you can only do with an app (although browsers are catching up), and having an icon on the homescreen is useful (which is easy for sites to add), as is offline functionality (which, again, is possible on the web). Oh. If you want an app, fine. Do it. Just finish the job please! 当然，有些事情确实只能通过 App 完成（尽管浏览器正在赶上），在主屏幕上放个图标也很有用（网站很容易就能做到），离线功能也是如此（同样，网页也能实现）。噢，如果你非要搞个 App，行，没问题。但请把活儿干完好吗！

Comments / 评论精选

Paul Armstrong @Edent: To use the internal phrase: Google software only comes in two states: deprecated and not yet ready. Paul Armstrong @Edent： 用一句内部行话来说：谷歌的软件只有两种状态：已弃用和尚未准备好。
Tim W RESISTS: @psa @Edent another version: Googlers get promoted for launches, not landings. Tim W RESISTS： @psa @Edent 另一个版本：谷歌员工因为“发射”（发布产品）而获得晋升，而不是因为“着陆”（产品落地/完善）。
Alex Buznik: Hi. I can support this fully! There is some irony though that your homepage is styled as a mobile device screen. Alex Buznik： 嗨，我完全支持你的观点！不过有点讽刺的是，你的主页设计得就像一个移动设备屏幕。
@edent: And yet, you’ll notice that all of the sites it links to work beautifully on a web browser. @edent： 然而你会发现，它链接到的所有网站在网页浏览器上都能完美运行。
Gregory: @Edent my response to “it works better in the app” is usually “and whose damn fault is it that you can’t be assed to make a decent mobile website, I wonder” Gregory： @Edent 我对“在 App 里用体验更好”的回应通常是：“我倒想问问，你们懒得做一个像样的移动端网站，这到底是谁的错？”