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If you make your own app with just a view or two, with no tracking or ads, and relying on OS-optimized persistence like iCloud… the app can load pretty much instantly.
I don’t think people realize how much time they spend waiting just because companies have market concerns like needing to find and retain customers to make money, and needing to stay platform-independent to protect the revenue stream from middlemen. Even freely available software is bogged down by the author’s desire to make sure it works for as many people as possible.
Robin Sloan covered many other benefits of “home-cooked” software, but the difference in startup latency is what struck me today as I was using a home-cooked version of a commercially available “single-purpose” app. Theirs is so bogged down with gamification and social features that whenever I tap its icon, I have to wait six seconds to do anything else. My version finishes loading even before iOS finishes its zoom-in animation from the home screen.
Anyway, that’s why I hang out in the Future of Coding community so much—to help ensure that in the future, everyone can do this. :)