Unnecessary limitations / Custom HTML

Hi Everyone,

I genuinely love what Glide have achieved here, but I feel that the Glide team is actively preventing the upgrade to Pro with limitations that treat the users like children that can’t be trusted.

I committed that I would upgrade to Pro if my app could play audio across multiple screens. This was understandably difficult for Glide without re-coding the way they navigate between pages, so I accept that limitation as an out of the box feature.

Next I needed playlist support for the audio player. This can be implemented really easily in HTML, but of course Glide won’t allow even their Pro users to use custom HTML, despite being simple to implement and opening up their development potential significantly.

Lastly, I wanted to brand the app colors beyond the options available. Again, simple with CSS or even basic Javascript, but Glide won’t allow you to, even as a paying customer.

I’m now needing to hire a developer to build the entire app outside of Glide purely because they refuse to allow their users to perform even the most basic customizations. It just doesn’t make sense to go 95% of the way to a great app but need to throw it all out in the final 5% because they have trust issues with their paying customers.

We don’t limit the use of HTML because we don’t trust you, we do it because custom HTML will likely break Glide apps when we publish them to app stores, which we are beginning to work on. We want to keep the implementation of Glide apps abstract, so we can run them on other platforms beside web.

Please do not try to read our minds and accuse us of distrusting our customers or treating them like children, it’s simply not true.

2 Likes

Thanks @david for the quick reply.

Respectfully, it wouldn’t be difficult to prevent publishing apps on non-Web platforms (or at all) if they are using the “Custom HTML” component.

It’s a tough call to make, but that’s our opinionated decision about how Glide works at this point, as it leaves our platform options open—we wouldn’t break any apps if we change our rendering technology from HTML/DOM to Flutter, for example.

If this limitation prevents you from building the app you need, then please share your requirements and we can consider building first-class features to support them. If we can’t add features to meet your needs, then you should pick another platform, but it would be a disappointment for everyone if we changed Glide’s fundamental choices to be like other app builders in this way, dozens of which allow custom code.

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Agreed, @david. I’ve been creating apps within Glide for almost a year now and never have I felt cheated, “mistrusted” or “treated like a child”. Rather, I feel respected—the Glide developers actually listen to and interact with their user base and are constantly seeking ways to improve their product. Mind you, Glide is a relatively new company and are already disrupting the status quo when it comes to app building.

@richard_prosody, give them time. Glide releases new features only when it’s certain that those features will improve the product risk free. I’ve been floored by the numerous improvements they’ve released in the past 6 months (can you believe that 6 months ago, copying apps and data columns weren’t even a thing?!). Can’t wait to see what they roll out next.

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Thanks @david and @Robert_Petitto, I appreciate your replies.

@Robert_Petitto, I agree with what you wrote, but have to clarify that I never said “cheated”. The Glide team don’t owe me anything and the point is that I actively want to buy their product, but have hit a hard-limitation that prevents it.

Regarding the mind-reading, I apologise if it came across as disrespectful. I was searching the forums for how to use HTML, and the answers appeared to be hard “no” without explanation (as far as I could find anyway). I still think both “Custom HTML” and “Custom CSS” are essential components that could be platform-restricted, but it’s absolutely the right of Glide to choose their features.

I am testing a hybrid route that may or may not work to get the audio features: Wrap the Glide app in a WebView on Android and intercept the mp3 URLs to a native player. I’ll give feedback if this works so others can try it.

@david, please reach out of there’s any information I can provide on our use case.

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You are correct…my apologies. I didn’t mean to throw the word cheated in quotes. That being said, I’d love to see what you do with your app and how you push the boundaries. It’s this level of innovation that excites other users to use the platform and envision solutions that they hadn’t foreseen. Keep us updated.

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@richard_prosody Please consider submitting your feature requests to our feature request app:

Richard,
Please let me know if you find a way to let audio play across tabs or in a playlist format. This is the biggest restriction I’m currently facing with my app. My users are requesting this functionality but I haven’t been able to find a steady fix. An enhanced audio component could take many apps to the next level.