> I don't see how e.g. making Spotify or Slack into native apps would dramatically improve their UX.
Well then that is something you might want to do something about if you're an app developer. There's no reason arguing if you are unable to discern the big difference between the UX of a (both properly built) native app and an Electron app.
I think this might be one of the reasons Electron is actually successful; a lot of developers do not have a good sense for UX so they think what they've built is a proper alternative to a native app. Same goes for those who think PWA's are going to be great and up to par with native apps (hint: nope, not even close).
> Well then that is something you might want to do something about if you're an app developer. There's no reason arguing if you are unable to discern the big difference between the UX of a (both properly built) native app and an Electron app.
I'm able to tell the difference thanks. I'm saying that with native apps the UX can be better but for a large cost and a lot of the time that cost is not worth it. I'd also argue that most coders fixate on bad examples of non-native apps because when non-native apps are done well they don't notice. For example, Visual Studio Code is based on Electron and there's always lots of comments from people being surprised how performant it is. People also use lots of web apps day-to-day that they're happy with.
I must've interpreted that the wrong way then. We'll have to agree to disagree then because I do think there is a big difference in UX.
I really think the limits of providing a nice UX with web tech is the elephant in the room here and everyone is ignoring it because it is simply cheaper and easier to work with and/or because of idealistic reasons. Which I think is a shame because it's responsible for a trend where we're moving towards good-enough software on all platforms, instead of nice software for specific platforms.
Turning Slack and Spotify into native apps can upgrade them from just being functional, to actually being a pleasure to use, something of which I'm convinced is not possible with web tech no matter how hard you try. There is a huge amount of platform specific UX details (much appreciated by Apple users especially) which you will not be able to emulate.
Well then that is something you might want to do something about if you're an app developer. There's no reason arguing if you are unable to discern the big difference between the UX of a (both properly built) native app and an Electron app. I think this might be one of the reasons Electron is actually successful; a lot of developers do not have a good sense for UX so they think what they've built is a proper alternative to a native app. Same goes for those who think PWA's are going to be great and up to par with native apps (hint: nope, not even close).