State of offline-first Apps

This year I have been travelling more than [my] normal and I have found myself wondering what to do when I am on flight mode. Usually I read something, sleep, or talk to my partner if we are travelling together. In other cases, I try using my phone but am always annoyed with limitations on what I can do without the internet.

If planned, I can stay without networks—of all kinds—happily for really long duration. But sometimes in flights I turn my head down and expect the familiar comfort of staring at a screen. And trust me, the experience is a huge disappointment unless you are going to consume already downloaded media.

I want to acknowledge that there are apps that do really well here¹, but at the same time I can't look at my fitbit records since the app doesn't even load a single visual element if you are not connected to the internet. It gets even worse when you realize you can't rely on your note taking or todo app as well in offline settings. And then you think maybe a recently downloaded game that needs internet only for keeping track of a global social leaderboard should be fine. But guess what!

This problem has a larger bite. One of my recent realizations has been that many user workflows are extremely delay tolerant. Cases like instant messaging and a few others are the only ones that absolutely need low-latency internet connectivity, everything else work fine even if you get occasional connections throughout the day. If you get more connectivity, that could add to the experience, but that won't be essential to basic usage. But our app development layer doesn't seem to care about this. The problem statement of 'how to do offline-first development' is moved lower down the stack to a statement like 'how to provide more connectivity, everywhere'. Leaving the direct usability issues, I don't know if this is a sustainable translation of the problem statement from a long term perspective. This is a rant and I obviously haven't studied this area much but I hope something changes here.