Many of the most popular websites are evolving into something better and isn’t called Web 3.0 or anything like that. Instead, it is something that we’ve been covering in the past – responsive design. Just recently, the highly popular tech and culture website The Verge recently made switch to a responsive website and even went as far as announcing the planned removal of the site’s dedicated mobile apps and APIs. This sounds like a natural step because visitors only have to go to a single website address and let the responsive design adapt to the screen size of the mobile device. Once you add the site bookmark to your home screen, you are good to go. But with such a bold move to kill the mobile app, one might wonder if responsive Web design finally reached the tipping point. Based on how fast Web browsers are evolving, we are almost there.
Mobile app versions of a website still have the unique functionality to tap into your mobile device’s notifications system. A common practice is to have article sync to your mobile device and bring up a notification as soon as a blog update is made so you can then read the article offline. But many of the popular mobile news reader apps can do that too and you can essentially make your own personal digital magazine by adding other websites and blogs to the mix. But if you want to support as many mobile devices as possible, a mobile app may still be beneficial as there are entry-level and midrange phones that have poor Web browsing performance. Still, if the main function is about delivering news in a readable format, news reader apps should have you covered.
You should still evaluate whether or not you should take the responsive design approach. The difficulty in making a responsive design yourself might sound intimidating but biting the bullet and learning how to do it right can spell a great future for your site.