Am I the only one who finds it frustrating how sites seem to be prioritizing mobile users over PC users?

I think they get more data from your usage on mobile.
- yep. tons of telemetry.
  
  Even moreso for apps, you can still retain some control through Firefox and others on mobile, but it's still limited.
  They want to push people to apps because you have no control over how you view the site, unlike on a traditional web browser where you can tweak such things and block advertiser connections.
- I think it's also that just significantly more people own a phone than a laptop.
  It's like those demographics maps that are really just population maps.
  
  Phones have web browsers. You can view websites easily from your phone.
  Apps give them access to everything. You can request access to contact lists, even, and most people won't even think twice to allowing access.
  
  If companies really designed sites and apps thinking on the majority of people they would make their software as lightweight as possible, so that they could run fine on cheaper hardware
- Ayup. Iphones at least sandbox, but even then, you're still talking a sieve over a bucket leak-wise

no. its one of my pet peeves that we spent decades creating sites with dynamic viewports (mobile friendly/any screen size) only for kids to wonder where the 'app' is for your site.
and conversely, server products created with such minimal features as to require an external app to fulfill basic functionality.
god i hate apps.
- On the flip side, applications now suck because everything is a shit web wrapper. Nobody wants to develop using native UI on desktop anymore.
  
  its the trend of everything being a service. organizations dont have on-prem data centers anymore, its all web services tied to other web services.
  its all about that subscription revenue, per-process nickel-and-diming and super fast development cycles.
- Fret not! Lots and lots of apps are just PWAs packaged into thin wrappers so they can be distributed through an app store. Humanity gets all, or at least most, of the benefits of the web with unmatched cross-platform support, and our Grandmothers and 12 year olds still get to tap on the Spotify and Starbucks icons. Win-win!
  
  I'd way rather use a pwa than an election/react native/whatever app

It's all attempts at vendor lock-in because phones are more locked down than computers and more people only have just a phone.
It's up there with how I think Youtube/Tiktok videos are an absolutely terrible way to explore deep problems.
If I have to watch a three hour video with only spoken references, I'm sorry, I'd way rather have a 300-page document with figures, graphs, and most fucking importantly god damned footnotes and endnotes.
Especially since this is the fucking internet that was built on hypertext which is like a footnote on steroids since you can directly link to the original document instead of just referencing it.
Videos are fine for lots of things, but not always long-form deep-dives into difficult and complex subjects. Often it makes sense to have a video in a lecture set up, if you're actually trying to educate people and not just inform them, but otherwise text does fine for research.
Fuck apps and their spyware bullshit, fuck all knowledge being in videos you can't footnote, fuck trying to turn the internet into a one-way-medium like cable TV.

there is NO social media that's worth getting frustrated over
the first time a site does something stupid ("enter your ph # to continue!" or "disable your adblocker to continue!") i'm out and never going back. the internet exists to provide me with things, not the other way around
- Same.
  There's almost never only a single option to offer me what I'm after, so I'll just go back to my search results or whatever and pick the next link and move on.
  There's no way in hell I'm giving some jackasses my phone number, though. I don't even like giving people who really actually need to be able to call me my number, so why would I give some sketchy-ass website it?

This shouldn't really be surprising, I'd think most people's internet usage is probably on their phone, and has been for some time.
People don't want to sit at a desk or whatever and browse or do their socials stuff, they want to do it sat on the sofa while the TV is on or in between chores in the house.
I think the last two companies I've worked for, both B2C have had mobile web and app usage way higher than desktop web.

I'm also frustrated. But at work the other day I learned that like 75% of our usage is from mobile phone users. Sometimes you just have to realize you're in the minority; and that other people will make bad choices.
- It's interesting that you mentioned the term minority, because I find it so ironic that companies invest a lot in marketing how they care about minorities, but then any userbase that isn't the biggest one is abandoned with a fuck you and a middle finger.

Yes, I hate it. In fact, I hate most of the impact of smartphones on the internet:
I'm not giving you my phone number. Shu'up. Stop asking.
I'm not installing your broken browser made for a single site. Aka, your "app". And if you don't let me check your site without that "app", I am not doing it.
Smart web devs can deal with different screen ratios, but those are a minority. So guess what - I get blank space on both sides of my screen!
I've noticed (based on myself + acquaintances) that people have worse basic reading comprehension when using a phone than a computer. And I'm tempted to blame the sorry state of social media partially on that.

It's because the apps work as black boxes stopping the end user from blocking their telemetry, advertising and tracking.
What I hate more is how companies deliberately add blocks to their websites if you're on mobile so as to force the user to download the app.
Two of the most egregious samples I've seen so far is Microsoft teams that shows a banner saying "this browser is not supported", but switching your user agent or enabling desktop mode from within your phone's browser makes it work perfectly fine.
Another is Facebook (yuck) which displays a fake loading bar that never finishes unless you trick it the same way as with teams. Their mobile site prevents you from posting anything, commenting, viewing random posts, uploading files, or seeing notifications. If you don't have the app installed, you're essentially locked out of messenger because it is reluctant at opening any shared files or posts as that has to be opened through the facebook app (obviously). What's worse is I'm prompted to log in to Facebook every time I open any link Facebook or not from within messenger.
I'd love to fully uninstall meta's apps but I have family members that only use their apps (fuck the networking effect)
- Shoutout to spotify who have a perfectly functional HTTP interface that inexplicably breaks when viewed on a phone. I end up using a modded client.
  Facebook on mobile web is buggy AF, but the adblocker works so it's still better.
  
  I'd honestly love a wall of shame for websites and "tech products" that showcases their hostility to users trying to circumvent their tracking
- Another bad one is reddit. The amount it pushes the mobile interface while on mobile is painful, but switch to desktop mode and it all goes away.
  I don't go on it a lot anymore, but when I do it's typically from my phone and its really gotten worse.

On Instagram
Funny you describe all the annoyances of web vs mobile, but visit this awful site. Instagram wont let me see anything at all, web, mobile or otherwise because I don't and won't have an account.
Maybe avoiding social media all together is a better idea.

As someone who is on mobile a lot, I find the opposite to be the case. So many websites are not optimized for mobile browsing.

Use RTINGS next time for electronics reviews. They're so much more in-depth than any other review site; they test every single aspect of the products and lay out the info in a manner that's easy to understand, while still providing all the technical jargon for geeks like me. And no mobile number needed, either. The site is well-optimized for desktop.
- Hi sorry for my late reply! I just checked that site out and it's so in depth and goes into detail about so many parameters that aren't typically listed on the sites I buy them from, and I'll be using this site to check reviews if I want to buy a new monitor. Thank you! 😃

They don't prioritize mobile users, they prioritize mobile apps - easier to track and gather telemetry, easier to show ads (harder to use adblock), easier to send notifications, you can expect the user to return if they already downloaded an app.

I get frustrated with that with the fediverse. To see an image in a post at a proper size ends up taking 3 clicks
- I've noticed that with Tumblr as well (which is a really good site for artists btw!)
  When you first click on an image, it's kinda small and to view it full size you have to right click, open the image in a new tab, click on the new tab and click the image again to enlarge it.

I mean, its been more than a decade since mobile traffic overtook desktop web traffic. So yeah, it makes sense to prioritize mobile especially if they can get you to install their (spyware)app.
I'm sure it is a different ratio for things like B2B.

What does my head in as someone with a large monitor is even the desktop site is formatted in a way that only takes 1/3 of the space i have. My old blind arse has that extra space for a reason
- You mean the narrow kinda look? I also have a large monitor and prefer the bigger/wider versions too since I find it easier on the eyes and it looks less weird. I know UI design isn't easy but it'd be nice if there was an option for that for the reason you mention.
  
  Yeh right in the center of the screen in a column. Bonus hate if there's no dark mode.
  Think it annoys me more as I work for a Web app company in infrastructure and know there's some tricks to make it look decent enough.
  That said I bitched and moaned for a dark mode for our internal instance before they did anything about it.
  
  It's been studied quite extensively, and there's a limit to the width on most pages for a reason. Your eyes have a harder time tracking a very wide width, and it's easier to read in a column like that. Even newspapers do it, because it's a well-researched topic.

check out pixelfed its like instagram but on the fediverse and its been in browser up until the app released only yesterday so you can do both now but browser is where its at
- I made a Pixelfed art account a while ago and I think it's pretty good! The site's very responsive and I prefer it over Instagram. Pixelfed has been experiencing an influx of new users lately too which is great! Do you have an account there?

I'm more upset that RSS is dying off.

I know it's not what you were asking about, but you will probably find this website helpful: https://www.rtings.com/
They are by far the best consumer electronic rating website I've ever seen. There's a table view where you can do things like show me all computer monitors that have black frame insertion or show me all headphones with an audio delay of less than 5 ms and other weirdly specific stuff like that.

Sometimes I get the urge to go check Reddit. But not with that app of theirs, thru Firefox on my mobile and never logged in. Well after trying to view a few things it's so buggy and broken and sometimes it doesn't go back to the threads and just stays in the page I was viewing and suddenly the urge is gone. It's so badly coded.
- I don't have an account on Reddit but I've browsed it a few times and got the same type of thing. They do have an old version of the UI that's all wide and fits nicely on a desktop and you just have to type in "old." before "Reddit" in the address bar. On the current UI I'll sometimes click back and instead of going back the page will break and "Reddit" will be in giant blue letters it's weird.

I have a feeling there are more mobile users than PC users now.
- That's not even in question. Mobile apps allow for greater snooping and data that can be used to push more product. There are a lot of mobile users who are entirely uncomfortable using a desktop machine.

Also the opposite can be infuriating. When a company asks you to install their app, you usually find that the website has more features. Looks like usually the app is just a bare bones version of the actual website with several core features missing.

Sorry for being meta but I think this belongs in rants more than in CC
- Sorry, is there a rants community? I wasn't aware there was one so I apologize if it's out of place here. It's not something I'm angry about it's just something I find mildly annoying and I was wondering how many people can relate 😅
  
  I think it's fine personally as well, but I can see it brushing up against these rules:
  Keep the conversation nice and light hearted
  Avoid controversial topics such as politics or societal debates
  It's a slightly contentious issue, so not as easy to keep it lighthearted when people want to complain about it, and technically it could be considered a "societal debate."
- I'm not a mod or anything but I think it's fine. At least it's not some of the political or doomer stuff that you see here sometimes
  
  Egh I guess

Because "mobile first" design, means "PC last (if at all)".

It's okay. They are wrong for using their mobile phones for everything. PCMR brother. Never change.
- No, everyone should browse the web on Wii
  /s

With cross platform frameworks there is no excuse to not have features pariry
- Surely you mean there is no excuse not to.
  
  Yes
- Cross-platform frameworks generally make for truly shit apps, though.
  So yeah, there's a valid excuse in that you actually want to build a good product for the end users - cross-platform frameworks are antithetical to that goal

Mobile traffic far outweighs desktop for most sites, so it makes sense to do so. It’s expensive to maintain two UIs, so most sites just go with a hybrid approach that works well for mobile and fine for desktop.
- i dont buy it. modern frameworks allow you to maintain a single codebase for mobile and desktop

I used to be upset by all the mobile shit and then I went to college for computer stuff and started hating looking at computers after working on them all day. Now I'm a help desk tech and I don't own a working computer of my own because using them outside of work feels like work. If I can't do something official on mobile, I just get permission to do it on my work computer. If something for fun doesn't have a mobile version, I don't do whatever that thing is.
I do not like all the requests for phone numbers and shit, though. Just let me look at the site without being bothered.

Ironically enough I only use lemmy on my phone (browser or voyager) and it works way better than desktop for some reason. I couldn’t even get a post to work on firefox the other day, and images were not loading.
- I find Firefox Lemmy works well, it's just my laptop is like 4kg and not quite as portable as my phone. Never had an issue except for a period of time where next page never loaded but that was mobile and firefox

No, but the mobile market is where the money is, and greedy corps are gonna chase the almighty fucking dollar at all costs.

There are Instagram proxies like imginn that you can use to new stories and posts

I only ever browse social media on a PC and that’s the way it will always be. Sometimes I can’t help but feel like desktop/computer users are becoming an afterthought. Anyone else have similar feelings? 🫠
They are. This gives much better control to them of what we're doing when we're doingon 'our' phone, and much less control to us at the same time. It's a Win-Win situation... for them only. And a lose-lose for us (worse experience and much less control of it).
That's one of the reasons I refuse to use my phone to do anything... where I still have the option.

I never really need Uber, but I was going to set it up for a trip. Even though I knew I would be using my phone to get the rides, I still will only enter credit card info on a desktop with proper blockers installed. Yeah, you can't setup an account on desktop at all.

I feel this. I prefer desktop for almost all of my posting and reading online. I only use phone when I am out and about.
- Prefering a system over another is just bad design. Probably more profitable, but they shouldn't care if I upload from my self build phone, desktop, tablet or what ever.
  
  Agreed.