Stack Overflow released a mobile app today for iOS and Android:
Stack Overflow@stackoverflow
Q&A on the go with the new Stack Overflow mobile app. 🍎 iOS → buff.ly/2qo5cma 🤖 Android →… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…15:07 PM - 16 May 2017
The website's blogpost about the release notes that Stack Exchange has had an app available for several years that included access to Stack Overflow, but this app is designed solely for access to the company's flagship site.
My first impulse would be to question the utility of a Stack Overflow app, since I'm confident that the vast majority of programmers that rely on the question-answer website do so while they write code on a personal computer and not their phones. Plus, asking a question on Stack Overflow requires users to adhere to somewhat strict protocol and often to use code blocks, special characters, or other non-traditional text that doesn't seem easy to thumb from a phone.
That being said, there are plenty of less complicated actions important to the Stack Overflow experience. "Meta" posts about the actual product are popular and often prominently featured—in fact the site devoted one to the app's release this morning. Plus there's plenty of back-and-forth in a question's commentary that could be done easily from a phone.
It's also important to remember that the lifeblood of Stack Overflow is the class of power users who spend hours a day assisting communities, and not people like me who ask the occasional question. A mobile app might be more useful for such users, and anything that expands the experience for them is likely worth it for Stack Overflow.
What do you guys think?
Top comments (4)
I've asked/answered questions on SO where discussions have continued after I've been away from my desk. I've used the app in the past for commenting or probing for more info - I will definitely use the new one.
Can't say I'd use it to actually ASK a question, though; adding code samples would be a nightmare.
I agree. It usually takes me like half an hour just to format a question correctly on a computer--can't imagine what it would be like on a phone. But often the back-and-forth in the comments is just like that of any other social media website.
I think it could have been the perfect scenario for a Progressive Web App. The guys at Stack Exchange missed a great chance IMO.
Developers are already full of apps they have to track, update and learn. Another one, with its own separate context, does nothing but adding more noise.
Our traffic on dev.to is more than half mobile. It's a different space than Stack Overflow, but any notions that developers spend most of their computer time on their laptops is false. Mobile is huge in our industry too.