You’re right. They should’ve called apps web 3.0, but then the web guys might have to admit that a big reason why people flocked to apps is because of how much they’d already enshittified the web at that point.
I'm pretty sure those are separate parallel terms, like IoT can be in Web 2.0 (website connectivity) and Web 3.0 (blockchain interconnectivity some IT CEOs were pushing)
It’s tough for me because I love native app experiences but most are so invasive. I won’t be surprised when companies drop websites completely.
The whole Reddit saga had me re-evaluate my social media use.
For Meta I switched just to the mobile sites and noticed that with Messenger, it can’t even be accessed from the browser, and Instagram won’t even let you login unless you turn off private relay. I doubt we’ll ever get a threads website.
Now if I use a native app, it is only ones that collect as little data as possible. I use Dystopia for Reddit occasionally, Ice Cubes for Mastodon, Memmy for Lemmy and Surfboard for Tildes.
The browser is a political statement that the user should be the one to control how the page is displayed. The native app is the opposite, a statement that the corporation should be the one to control how the page is displayed.
we need to make tinkering with apps easier. the tech is already there with zygisk and xposed and modded apps in general but creating mods are the hard part.
ios jailbreaking had a tweak called flex at one point which was pretty good albeit paid and limited. we need to make a better flex for android so people can actually make mods as opposed to download shady pre-modded apks.
browsers already have userscripts and userstyles, though they seem to be falling out of use in favor of purpose made extensions