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General Discussion

Posted by hl9
hl9
8,443 Points

If you have a responsive website, do you need a mobile app version of your site as well?

Since the Treehouse website is already responsive, I wondering why they have an iPad App as well? Why do they need an app if their site is already responsive? Would you need several apps for different devices? I thought the whole point of media queries was that a site would look good/be accessible on mobile devices. O.o

UPDATE: The main reason I was asking was regarding responsive WordPress themes. Why would they also require a mobile app? I found the answer here and here.

1 Answer

Simon Chercka
Simon Chercka
23,809 Points
Simon Chercka
Simon Chercka
23,809 Points

A native app can provide specific features not available to a web app. So even though the site looks great in my ipad browser it does not for example allow me to download videos for offline viewing. The native app lets me do this which is why I use it instead of the website.

So there is no straight answer to your question. It depends on what you want to accomplish. Native apps have access to hardware and OS functionality which might not be accessibe through a browser.