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I'm wondering why I still see a lot of apps (including fb & instagram) that use pull to refresh feature for updating content? I mean, they have notification system that can tell itself to refresh when there's new data. I see that FB for instance it has little bubble in the news feed section that tells me i have new feeds up there and it can take me to it if i press it, but the pull to refresh functionality is still there. Why?

user1955934
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6 Answers6

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This is a great question. I'm interpreting it from the perspective of user experience.

Fast Company did an interview with Kevin Systrom a few years ago when Instagram added pull-to-refresh. He wasn't into the idea.

Systrom feels the gesture, which enables mobile users to refresh their photo feeds with a simple tug of the thumb, is a superfluous addition to his app, a relic of another smartphone era. "I don’t believe there should be refresh buttons," he says.

You're right that applications don't need to provide manual refresh capabilities. I'd say that pull-to-refresh and other user initiated actions fall under a category of interfaces that return agency to users, rather than relying on automatic processes to accomplish a task — in this case, refreshing content.

There are a few questions a user might ask if pull-to-refresh was removed from the examples you've given.

  • How do I get new content?
  • How often does this content refresh?

Does the user know that the content is automatically kept up-to-date? Do they trust that it's being refreshed quickly and consistently?

Nielsen Norman Group wrote a post late last year about visibility of system status, particularly that progress indicators contribute to a positive user experience by reducing uncertainty. I'd extend this research to pull-to-refresh and related interfaces. Maintaining a user's ability to manually perform an action that fetches new content covers two of Nielsen's ten usability heuristics — visibility of system status and user control and freedom.

In this light, a user who engages pull-to-refresh has a particular mindset: I want the latest data, and I want it now. Necessary or not, allowing them to manually refresh may be contributing to an improved user experience.

Chris Droukas
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  • Thanks this makes sense to me. A great reminder how we need to keep in mind some of the user's variable expectations. – user1955934 Nov 17 '15 at 05:56
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It's usually better for a user to choose when to update the the news feed "like on the Social Apps". Since its not usually good to update the content automatically when the user is still reading it.This can bring about confusion to the user. And the pull to refresh is a qualified feature for doing the work

Also this is to save mobile data usage especially in countries where internet is expensive

Collins Abitekaniza
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  • Also automatically updating content through internet can consume mobile data significantly; it's considered better to leave that to the user's choice whether he/she wants to refresh. – abbath Nov 16 '15 at 12:18
  • @abbath You are absolutely right about that point, since data is expensive in other countries – Collins Abitekaniza Nov 16 '15 at 12:23
  • For FB, currently it still automatically updates newer content at the top of the feed, but it won't disturb the user and not forcing user to go up and read those new contents. It only display bubble shortcut to see latest feeds.. But on top of this, they still put up the pull to refresh.. this part is where i don't get.. – user1955934 Nov 16 '15 at 12:34
  • network usage also effects your battery consumption. – Fahad Ajmal Nov 16 '15 at 12:38
  • @user1955934 FB shows you a notification that there is new content at top but it doesn't load the content unless you do it your self.Try scrolling up when you see that notification and you will see the content just starting to update – Collins Abitekaniza Nov 16 '15 at 12:41
  • @ColnsAbt actually I tried on my iph6, i stayed at the top of my feed, then suddenly new content is added on the top and the bubble appeared, I can even scroll up to new content that's already displayed without clicking on the bubble... so i think it uses push notification to deliver the new content automatically, but it still provided pull to refresh nevertheless, probably the push triggers after certain threshold and not in real time to save bandwidth... – user1955934 Nov 16 '15 at 12:52
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FYI: Pull to refresh was first used by Loren Brichter in the app Tweetie 2 which was acquired by Twitter later.

I think his answer to how he had implemented Pull down to refresh gesture would be an apt answer for you question

Tweetie 2 simply took this idea from Tweetie 1, that reloading was simply “loading newer”, and “loading newer” put new messages at the top of the list… and activated the action based on a finger motion that you were already doing. Why make the user stop scrolling, lift their finger, then tap a button? Why not have them continue the gesture that they are already in the process of making? When I want to see newer stuff, I scroll up. So I made scrolling itself the gesture.

The gesture is only half the battle though, you need appropriate feedback. Once the reload is activated, the scrollable area of the list actually changes to leave the feedback UI in-place (rather than bouncing offscreen). Without this part, the UI is unintuitive. And once the loading is complete, the UI makes itself disappear.

Reference

ipraba
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Simple point by considering google's Do and Don't

Swipe-to-Refresh can be used to One-phased loading.We can use other type progress bars ie , circular etc for loading content for the first time and load and display all content at once or loading items when scrolls .

You can understand the purposes clearly by going through this

Anoop M Maddasseri
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In my opinion this UI component is an equivalent of refresh button which does not occupy any space and it is user friendly because join scrollable + force refreshing + loading animation + finish event

It is up to app's team to determine should they use it or not based on their possibilities

yoAlex5
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your question is Awsome.. i have some R&D on it. see nowadays reach apps never use pull to refresh in android. because android have service that can run in background with wack-lock. but ios have no background service.

service always consume battery best way when app is open you can one time use service and after than stop service and use swipe to sync or refresh.

hope u get some idea about it.

i have one Link for more about it.see comments that can open you for this point.

Vishal Patel
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