A app for chess.com on all platforms - Windows, Mac and Linux.

Hey everyone, I read through some posts and even found out that there was an app before for Windows 10 but it was discontinued since many people did not use it. Well tbh, online chess was not even that a year back. But in these COVID circumstances, one good thing that happened was the increase in popularity of online chess and chess as a whole. Therefore, I as well as several other chess.com players request for a desktop as it would be so much better than playing on a web browser. And please release the app on all platforms, not on Windows as there are many players on Mac and Linux as well ( I personally play on a MacBook as well.) If the staff read my post and look into my request, I will be very grateful. Thanks!

oh yea boi
ur a visionary
full support to u!

I don't think Covid lockdown was entirely to blame for the surge in Chess popularity, Queen's Gambit limited series was the actual thing to blame.

Furthermore, I don't think they need to invest in an App. Instead, I encourage them to build on their phone Apps and make them better with actual profile pages showing, rather than simplified versions of both profiles and forums threads.

The reason they don't release a desktop App/program is actually so that they are equally available cross-platform. They could make a Windows App and justify it as worth their time, it's Mac and Linux where the minority may not be worth it, depending.

Yeah Queen's Gambit was a major factor as well. I missed that lol. About the app, I mean tbh, most of the community plays on web browser I'm pretty sure, and the phone apps are good enough imo for now, but yeah they could improve some stuff. Finally, about your cross-platform thing, that's the reason I requested for an app on all platforms lol, so that cross-platform is still there. Idk much about it tho, but yeah, thanks for commenting your opinion.

An app for chess.com sounds great!

Chess.com doesn't have an app on windows anymore

Yep they discontinued it, I mentioned it in my above post. 

Your suggestion obviously is ideal if it's viable economically. Chess.com is a business, it doesn't act 'pro bono' in the way that lichess does but is also superior in what it provides, for sticking to this. Rensch can't afford to waste too much on app development if it's not worth it in the long run vs other features he could invest in.

What is it that you feel is missing in playing on a web browser that you need a separate app for? How would an app on Win, Mac & Linux benefit the users when compared to the site?

I guess its like discord, you can do everything online but its just alot easier and better for everyone when there is a app

If you use Chrome a good way of doing something similar is to;

Open Chess.com, click the three dots at the top right (settings) -> goto more -> create shortcut, you can then pin it to your desktop/taskbar and it behaves like a separate app/window.

They could enable something on their end where it will let you install it as a web app with offline settings and stuff - I think that's the way to go really.

Pretty sure they have never had one. There may have been an app for the old phone OS but the site hasn't created one for Windows desktop and are unlikely to do so.

edit: there was a phone app and it was discontinued. Never a desktop app.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/help-support/issues-with-the-chess-com-app

Lockdown created a massive surge. Queen's Gambit added to it.

https://www.chess.com/blog/erik/chess-com-during-this-global-stay-home-moment

https://www.chess.com/blog/erik/incredible-second-wave-of-interest-in-chess

I agree with Abhinav0121 here, why would they make an app for three separate platforms (3x development) when it wouldn't provide any benefit versus the website.

Google Chrome have the power to run a site into something that resembles an app.
1) Options --> More Tools --> Create shortcut.
2) Check the "Run as window" box.
3) Save icon on desktop.

Speaking as a chess enthusiast, chess.com member and software engineer by profession, I don't actually think having native apps for Chess.com would be a good idea at all.  Let me explain why:

First, different native apps would fracture Chess.com's code base forcing them to maintain separate code for each platform.  The web app by contrast is universal; some work has to be done to make sure it works as expected in all browsers, but it's still only one code base to maintain.  An update to the web app code reaches all users at the same time; if there were to be separate native apps for each platform, we would have to deal with some users getting new features before others and potentially some users never getting the features at all. 

Second, what benefit would native apps give users that the existing web app doesn't?  Chess.com doesn't really need local storage, location services or most of the other things a native app would give them.  Even if they did want to incorporate them, there are other, better ways to do that now days than native apps.  If I compare the existing smartphone app to the web app, the web app is already better hands down.  I just don't see how this would benefit the users. 

If anything, I would like to see Chess.com replace their native smartphone apps with a Progressive Web App that gives users the same functionality as the existing desktop web app and would unify their code base.  A Progressive Web App would also let users "download" the app to any desktop platform and use it like a native app without the technical burden of actually maintaining separate code bases.  That would give everyone a better experience and allow the development team at Chess.com to focus on creating and improving features that actually improve the experience of users instead of spending dev hours keeping up with the various update cycles of at least three different platforms.   

My view as someone who works inside the computer code; I may be missing something that really would make a native app better, but I just don't see it.  Please feel free to let me know if you see something I don't.  

This is another way yeah, thanks for the suggestion.

Oh, guess I misread the Windows app for a PC. Thanks for confirming about this.

About the "Progressive Web App" that you mentioned, maybe that can be a possibility yes. I do understand the fact that making native apps for 3 platforms separate would not be that beneficial, but normally, the purpose of an app is better accessibility. People prefer apps rather than web browser apps because, you are running a search engine that takes up much more RAM and overall has a much bigger impact on your PC while running. With a native app, the thing was first of all, we can just access it more easily and secondly, with an app such as one of chess.com, it would have a much lesser impact on PC's in my opinion although I'm not sure, so please excuse me if I'm wrong here. I also am mentioning the PC impact point, cause I myself play on a low-end system. That was basically my main purpose of this post but I have realised that instead of making 3 native apps just for better accessibility, the chess.com devs can work on better features for the site itself and work on the mobile apps and try to upgrade them maybe. Thanks to everyone who suggested their opinions and at the end of the day, it was informative for everyone!

I will really like the idea and it would help a lot!