Recently, LinkedIn launched fresh versions of its apps, and many were surprised to find that, instead of being web-based, they were fully native. You may be wondering what prompted the change, but the answer is not what you might think.
The usual problems with HTML5 are well-known: 1) it’s slow on many devices and in many situations, and 2) it crashes too frequently. So, which of these problems was LinkedIn having?
Neither one!
Kiran Prasad, LinkedIn’s senior director for mobile engineering, said in a recent interview with VentureBeat, that the primary reason for the switch from HTML5 to native is that the LinkedIn team was, “[S]eeing that more and more people are spending more time in the app, and the app is running out of memory. It’s not performance issues, like speed or rendering, but it’s still a big problem.” (The other reason he cited was the desire to have smooth animations when running the app.)
So it’s not that HTML5 itself is unworkable for LinkedIn’s needs, it’s that the app ecosystem doesn’t yet support the specific issue LinkedIn is having.
What does Prasad want to see? More tools! Especially an improved debugger, and a way to understand and address performance issues quickly and effectively. This means that, with a little more help from the powers behind the platform, HTML5 could once again become a viable option for LinkedIn (and presumably others encountering the same problem).
This intrigues us. Many are aware of the facial advantages and drawbacks of various systems and platforms, but sometimes a “minor” non-obvious issue is enough to tip the scales and send market players scrambling to a competing solution.
We’re interested to hear: does anyone out there have any stories of hidden issues that were make-or-break for your team’s decision-making?