My PM wants to take the current website, which really sucks on mobile (one of the worst mobile viewports I have seen) and put in an iOS/Android app.

So basically he wants an iOS/Android app which contains only 1 activity/viewcontroller which contains a webview...

My goodness...

Tried to talk him out of it, but I can't even get him to consider using a hybrid framework.

He doesn't appear to care very much about performance of the app neither does the PM care much about UX.

What the PM does care about is this thing called : ONE CODEBASE.

Any tips how I can try to persuade him to atleast consider a hybrid framework? Any requirements that will force the PM to abandon this stupid idea are extremly welcome!

Throw it on a simulator and change it's settings to simulate gprs connection, it will be painfully slow

Don't know what your webapp does, but with this level of detail I'm on your pm's side. You just need to sort out your frontend issues.

Show him the customer satisfaction ratings of the web view shit, that'll get him to change his mind

quick idea : migrate to electron the whole thing and present it as supporting multiple clients via a single codebase 😂

Why do you need an app at all, if it's just displaying your website? Does anyone really search their app store instead of Google first?
There is not really an advantage for you, but you have to pay for the developer account, and there is absolutely no advantage for your customers ...

@gitpush Good one already did that on bad hybrid app. PM: But who has a bad connection or no connection? Most people do have a decent connection. Also, showing a popup that you cannot show a page (that can be selected in the bottom nav) is completely fine when they don't have a good enough connection. Yes... wtf indeed

@beegC0de Good idea, but the website has no analytics nor does it request users to give feedback. But I could perhaps ask some people to give feedback in my circle. Good idea

@anonymus19941 Good point. They want them to be in app stores, so people can find them there and have that sweet icon on their phone.

Also, we recently have gotten a 2 million investment (obviously not only for development) so I don't think that bit of money is any issue.

@Ratsuky haha

@zvyn Only some(about, privacy etc.) are more or less static, the website is definitely a web app (vue.js)

The website can probably be quite simply made with nativescript as it supports vue.

Or just a react native app or any other hybrid and I would be happy.

The problem is getting this PM to agree to use a godamm hyrbid framework or a native app.

Update: Apple will block these kinds of apps (webview that loads your website) from entering the app store. YAY! While the PM still thinks we can work around it, he is starting to doubt YAY!

I really have to question why this needs to be a native app when most users hate installing yet another app and would rather access the site directly via Google in a browser.

You should really just fix the mobile frontend, then optimize for PWA standards. With service workers and the likes these days, you don't need a native app to do most common things. It would also get you a better ranking in Google. If you do it right, you can even mimic a real app on Android (don't know about iOS) when people add the site to their home page.

That really is the smartest solution and would stick to the "one code base" rule.

@dieseldev wow 🤦🏼‍♂️

@FranklySimple
Alright. Here are some arguments you can use if you haven't already. Obviously I don't know the whole story and scope of your solution, but I think this is a good place to start:

1. It's more cost effective in both the short and long term to fix the current web app.
2. The app will perform better in Google search rankings as a result.
3. Users don't like installing your app from the app store if they can avoid it. They RARELY search for it in the app store.
4. Users expect native capabilities from native apps and will hate your solution if their expectations aren't met.
5. The app will get buried in down votes and leave a negative impact on its users.

You can also start questioning the business case behind the native app. Why does it need to exist? What business goal does it solve? I firmly believe this "solution" of his will do more damage than solve any particular problem. Truly a "don't build something nobody wants" scenario.