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.
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?
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.
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. 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! 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!
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!
10 thoughts on “"iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!"”
@Edent To use the internal phrase: Google software only comes in two states: deprecated and not yet ready.
| Reply to original comment on masto.ai
@psa @Edent another version: Googlers get promoted for launches, not landings.
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"IT WoRKs BeTter in the App " | Hacker News
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Alex Buznik
Hi. I can support this fully!
There is some irony though that your homepage is styled as a mobile device screen.
And yet, you'll notice that all of the sites it links to work beautifully on a web browser.
Nick
Schroedinger's software, in perpetuity
@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"
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@psa @Edent
Google Graveyard is getting crowded.
Why would I use Google <anything> now, given what we know unless forced to? Or Meta or Microsoft.
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Replacing thousands of miles of copper telephone lines with fibre optic could produce a £2bn windfall for BT. CC-licensed photo by Leo Reynolds on Flickr.…
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Lobsters
12 comments
Agreed 110%.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/