I think more than once I have said that there is everything in Android, and practically true. I speak not only entertainment, education, utilities or customization, but also information. No little people take advantage of your trip to work to read news of interest that are happening.

In fact, many media know that this happens and, taking advantage of powerful mobile operating systems, do not hesitate to launch their own applications. Now when we talk about newspapers, blogs and others, many (I dare not say all) are usually little more than a link to your web.

They have been few complaints about it, because these applications do not have too big a contribution as to what would view the content on the web itself. But even so the applications have their followers, who decide to embrace these subtle advantages for help but the trip to the website.

The best and worst of the apps off the web

One of the main advantages of apps, and the reason why many use them instead of going to the Web is the speed with which you access what you want. Simply press the icon on the desktop and now you can watch your favorite news website, without having to open the browser, search for the page (or open it from the favorites option) and wait for it to load.

Another advantage we can find is the small saving our data rate, but considering that browsers increasingly incorporate methods to save data, this advantage disappears over time, but still maintained. Is this enough to justify using an application before the web of the media?

The biggest disadvantage we have already mentioned, is the almost zero contribution against the web, since in several cases take you to the web from the internal browser application if you do not choose to take the content using one of the browsers have installed on your device.

There are cases, increasingly, in which the application interface is so unfriendly that is not only intuitive when using it, but also is not at all attractive, and oddly enough, there are people who choose to stay or uninstall an app depending on how it is pretty and functional.

What should have apps so they can prevail over the web?

There is no perfect app, and if we talk about the characteristics of the media, are no exception. Maybe your favorite app already includes, but is something that should already be in all of them to avoid complaints (justified) about which are nothing more than a quick access to the web.

Something that should be mandatory for all is the ability to select articles or news to read them offline. There is nothing worse than going underground and find that you cannot read the content for lack of internet access. With this option in all applications, and they would win many integers.

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A good example of this might be the app New York Times which, although not allow you to select items individually, it does have an offline mode in the settings, called “Reading without internet connection” in the you can choose to read offline only major sections or entire contents, which would be discharged.

Another good quality would you send notifications about news topics that interest you (on configuration), so if you are interested, for example, sports (or sports in particular) or politics, you can receive notifications when comes something of interest to read it immediately or save it for offline reading in public transport.

Another example, this time negative, would the app of Huffington Post, which allows you to choose the order of the sections, but does not allow you filter out what you want to receive notifications, i.e. that or receive notifications of all or nothing, something that many might not like.

Compensate applications for the reader

Actually each person must answer a question for yourself, but what is clear is that they have much room for improvement to be more than just a web link to the content they want to read with its own internal browser. If applications are still conformists, browser versions which will end up killing applications.

If we look, we see how the Android browsers are improving in key aspects for the user: the speed of page loading and saving data so they would not go flying megas. With this in mind, the developers responsible for applications should think about adding the functions listed above (if you have not already) and some more.

Must give real value to that which the application is downloaded see it really is different to the portal and offering you things that will facilitate navigation and will depart from the feeling that simply is an app that has a summary items that lead you to the web version with its internal browser.

Personally, when I have to read some news on my mobile, I usually prefer the web version thanks to the evolution of browsers and little additional value that usually offer the official applications that medium. Would you rather use an application or go directly to the page to read your favorite content?