Half of my apps don't need to be a dedicated apps on my phone. Instead, they can build an excellent mobile-first web app and be done with this Google and Apple app store tax. But, they won't be able to collect info about you then? Right? Even newspaper site asks to download their stupid app.
This is probably controversial, but from the perspective of a user, I’ve rarely seen a mobile-first web app (putting really simple use cases aside) that comes anywhere close to offering the seamless experience of a native app. Web apps can be good, but they always feel handicapped in some way - a little slower, odd steps required or a poorer experience with things like Bluetooth earbuds, getting logged out constantly, no native notifications…
I don't think that the issue here is native app vs web app but service vs app. What I mean is, Spotify and other providers like Apple Music or Tidal all do the exact same thing and the logical way would be to use the music app you like with these services.
So it is irrelevant if the UI is made in JavaScript and runs inside the browser or made with Swift and runs natively. What's relevant is, we are made to use the official "viewer" and that doesn't make sense from users perspective and it happens only because these services want to control the customer behaviour. IMHO, at some point all apps with similar functionality will consolidate into viewer apps that use the data provider of choice of the user.
As an EU member most newspaper sites don't ask me to download an app, they just tell me that while I'm very important to them I'm not allowed to see their website as gdpr means they can't collect absurd amounts of data as I read.
I don't think web apps are the privacy haven you think they are.
