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I'll give you the answer I give anyone who emails us with the same request:

Our mobile website gives you all the convenience of an app without you having to download an app from the app store, having to keep it updated, and not taking up storage space on your phone.  With the mobile website you can access your EYB Bookshelf from any phone or tablet, not just your own.

What would you expect to get from an app that you don't get from our mobile website? If it is just that you want one click to the search, there is an easy way to do that - this is the Help page on adding an icon to your phone home screen. You set up the link to the page you want to land on when you go to the site - I have Home Page but you may want My Bookshelf Recipes. If you also then set up EYB as one of your autofill passwords in your phone's Settings then clicking the icon on your phone takes you straight into the site.

But if there are other reasons you want an app, please let me know as we are interested to know what members mean when they say an app would be useful.

The obvious benefit of an app is you wouldn't need to be connected to the Internet. I know its assumed that access is all pervasive but that's not the case. 

Being able to download my EYB's library into an app would definitely be a benefit but its not a deal breaker if I can't.

Originally Posted by: Indio32

The obvious benefit of an app is you wouldn't need to be connected to the Internet. I know its assumed that access is all pervasive but that's not the case. 

Being able to download my EYB's library into an app would definitely be a benefit but its not a deal breaker if I can't.

I speak here as someone who is not part of the EYB team. However, I spent 40 years in software development, more than half at a successful 'fruit' company you might have heard of. Having an EYB app would not magically give you offline access to all of EYB. There is a huge online database that backs up EYB -- books, notes, reviews... all of that is data... huge amounts of data, that take up space. What do you actually expect to be able to do with it offline?

So at some point you would have had to download to the app your data, what books you have, etc. Even if you could search for that recipe back home, the recipe will still actually be back home. The online recipes are still online and you are offline.

Apps backing up online services have their place. They are good when the user interface is resource heavy (lots of graphics etc) and the data stream is relatively thin (temperature, condition, etc.) Weather apps are a perfect example. A thunderstorm might require a few bits to communicate; the sexy onscreen graphic that appears with it might require many megabytes of data.

As a frequent user of Wikipedia, I see no purpose in the mobile application over the website. It's not a graphic heavy site. There are things you can do with the website (step backwards) you can't do with the application. Why does it exist? What superior functionality does it present?

I'd be happy if I could just get off-line search of own personal EYB library not website in its entirety.

There are lots of places even in London where you can't get a mobile signal (with my service provider anyway) The tube being one and more oddly Foyles bookshop Charing Cross Rd and Waitrose, Marylebone.... there lots of others.

Off the top of my head I have around 900? Kindle cookbooks using up around 2.2GB on my phone. For me the most useful part of EYB is being able to search my library when out food shopping after having seen an on offer or new ingredient. The vast majority of the time I can then cross reference the actual recipe from my Kindle collection.

Again it's not a deal breaker but an App with the above functionality would definitely make EYB more useful IMHO.

Originally Posted by: Indio32

There are lots of places even in London where you can't get a mobile signal (with my service provider anyway) The tube being one and more oddly Foyles bookshop Charing Cross Rd and Waitrose, Marylebone....

Truly surprising is your Waitrose — a branch I know well from worked just up the road at University of Westminster — because my local Waitrose (only 1 mile from my house) has full-on WiFi for customers and use it when in the shop. I keep a spreadsheet for my shopping list. Although, for health reasons, am currently having my purchases delivered. And my local Morrisons supermarket (equally only a mile away but in diametrically the other direction) also has customer WiFi.

Not just effort, ThePatheticBaker, but also cost - an investment in app development (or two apps as you also point out) takes money away from other new features, that would probably benefit many more members.

TLouise - you shouldn't have any issue viewing EYB on your phone when you have other sites open. Firstly you would just swipe up and view open sites/apps and click on the EYB page. Or if you have closed EYB but added the EYB icon to your Home screen then it's just one click to open it up again. If you aren't familiar with adding the icon to your Home screen then it is explained here in Help. Also, make sure you add EYB is your Website & App Passwords in Passwords & Accounts in Settings - then you shouldn't ever need to sign-in.

For my part:

I do not want an app.  App development always comes at the expense of the mobile website.  I have several weird and/or old devices, and I love that EYB works on all of them.  Please keep it mobile browser friendly.