Say No to iOS Apps

I had made a reservation for dinner at a local restaurant. They required Yelp to make the reservation. I used the restaurant's link on their website and it worked fine.

Then the trouble began.

The day before our reservation, I got the following text message from Yelp.

Here's the web page I got when I clicked that link on my phone.

No, I'm not going to install an app just to confirm a reservation.

So, I just replied "YES".

So the demand to install an app was just a bluff. Why would Yelp bluff you to install an app?

I found this reddit comment that explains it better than I can.

• A website can't ask your OS for a list of installed apps and then sell it to the highest bidder.
• A website can't nag you with useless notifications, unless you explicitly click "yes" on a scary-looking browser dialog.
• A website can't access your phone's globally unique identifiers, nor can it collect stats about your battery to determine how likely you are to buy a new phone.
• A website can't scan your phone's entire storage for interesting stuff after you grant it the permission to pull one photo from a directory.
• A website can't put you on the "users to eventually ban" list if your phone is jailbroken or rooted.
• A website can't download ads in the background to show them even if you are offline (even though the web tech to make offline sites actually exists).

Now, that's why don't I like to install apps.