content: Thanks for the long resoonse. Overall I can agree with you but you've also missed lots of points. Let's use Voat as an example. Yes, it would benefit from being an app due to the nature of being on the net and having a larger vector for attacks. However, it is written in C# IRC or if I'm not mistaken so that's basically a winaphone for you. The voat app would still need ApI endpoints so data is still gonna cost you either way. The DDOS attacks would decrease because of obscurity rather security. What is more worrisome is how local data is stored and transferred -- lots of APIs could go lazy with security because they feel safer. As for scalability ... Hmmm, I guess a Frankenstein mixture with lots of PHP is shit but then again GB is humming along. Twitter chose Ruby and Rails and probably took a similar route as FB to provide other languages for scalability. As for design, Meh, lots of apps loom similar but I do agree that using Unity and such would be wonderful but does a voat app need that? I do agree that I hate generic looking sites and we're still in the material design phase ... Its better than XP and early OSX designs were. A native app does also give you better control over abusing permissions to access your contacts, camera and mic (granted that a developer should be a good citizen). Although, jS does add security issues to a website, lots of shops use that to run Ajax calls and your base language for apps that are converted rather than built natively. An app for oat could easily be done with Iconic or Onsen. But my point was more about the I have to have one too crowd. Basically, they don't need one. An app for a majority of sites or even companies are just a waste of money and will never be updated as easily or rapdily as a website. Voat changed their ApI and people started saying their voat app took a shit. So, the developer need to find what has been deprecated, changed or is new. Code for that, recompile it and resubmit it. Google gives a shit what goes in and depends on users givibg away their data while Apple has a crap system that takes a hundred clicks to just get your app in front of their eyes. With website, make changes, run tests and deploy. So for voat, I can see have a responsive site is just fine. Use Vue, redact or angular and you have some bling. But!!! I do agree that an app using the native language for the OS can do a lot more. Hell, a howitzer can kill deer too ;-)  One thing that you mentioned about all stores is possibly the biggest problem at the moment is that you can't do content discovery like you can with a web page and Google. I would never have found voat if it was an app. So, TLdR; picking the right tool for the right job is important and why I do see your points as valid for certain apps especially ones that could easily be run on a desktop full OS. But for viewing content like voats, I think k it's just overkill.