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I see and understand that questions "about mobile phones" are off-topic here. That's fine. That makes sense to me.

And I've seen:

And it makes sense that questions about Android or iOS apps should go to their respective sites.

But as mobile apps are becoming cross-platform, there appears to be a gap where there is no place to ask questions about mobile apps in the same manner as though they are desktop apps (e.g. "how do I do X on app Y?"). These are not web app-type questions, nor are they questions about the phones themselves, and because they are cross-platform, there is no clear choice about asking on Ask Different or Android Enthusiasts (and experts in any particular app would have to monitor both sites in order to answer).

Has there been a review or assessment to determine if the rules should be modified to allow mobile app use questions? Or is there another place for these types of general questions?

This gap will only increase as cross-platform mobile apps start to dominate and the mobile OS decreases in importance as a platform.

Example question: Export accounts from Microsoft Authenticator

As a mod, where do I migrate such a question so that it makes sense to the asker and not an arbitrary choice?

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  • Please change "cross-plaftorm mobile apps" to "cross-platform apps" or something more appropiate. Things like Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp that started offering a mobile app are consumer services. They might be called Internet services, among many other ways.
    – user152004
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 19:03
  • There has been no real consideration to amend the rules regarding mobile phones because we have two (formerly 3 including Windows Phone) sites already where the questions should be asked. That an app might run on any of them is not really relevant, it is up to the person asking the question to clearly define their platform or ask about the one that is most relevant to them at that moment. If there is no clear choice about where the question should be asked then the question should simply be closed until it is edited to make such a choice clear.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 19:07
  • @Mokubai yes, I understand that the current model is that all mobile app questions should be qualified and redirected to the site that deals with the mobile OS the app incidentally runs on. I'm not confused as to the process you want. I'm suggesting that the existing model is increasingly arbitrary given the trend in app development and asking if there has been a recent assessment to determine if this is still what you want. For example, You don't put an Excel question on hold until you know the OS it runs on.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 7:56

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The rules have not been changed - If the question is about using a desktop/computer native app on a PC, Mac or some other on topic platform it is on topic.

Say if I had a question on element, element web, or element on android and IOS would be off topic, while the desktop clients would be on topic.

As far as I know there's no windows,linux or MacOS(or OSX) client for either.

The question isn't particularly clear about which platform OP's running on either - and even if it ran on any of those platforms, the answer may be different based on that, so it probably shouldn't be migrated without figuring that out.

It isn't a clear choice because there's no clear information on where it belongs. It probably shouldn't have been migrated because it lacks information, and I'd suspect it would have been a better choice to migrate it to the appropriate site for the mobile platform OP was using once that had been determined.

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  • I know the rules have not been changed. I'm asking if a review of the rules is due.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 14:42
  • A platform-dependent choice to migrate is only relevant if the platform makes a difference. I'm asking about the case where the platform is irrelevant.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 14:44
  • If the decision is to keep SU "desktop-only", that's fine, but I'm thinking that SU might not be able to keep to that line and not be arbitrary in that decision.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 14:44
  • 3
    @schroeder - It's not exactly arbitrary. iOS and Android are not MacOS, Linux, and Windows. Since Google Authenticator and Microsoft AUthenticator don't exist on Windows, Linux, or macOS. The question should remain closed and NOT migrated until such time it's modified to clarify which platform the author is using.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 16:08
  • @Ramhound again, that only depends on whether the app's behaviour depends on the OS it runs on...
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 17:03
  • And what if the question is across all platforms?
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 17:07
  • Again, I'm asking if there has been a recent review of the applicability of the site's choice in this matter, and if not, if there should be.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 17:08
  • @schroeder - In the case of the question it does.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 19:21
  • I understand that the current model is that all mobile app questions should be qualified and redirected to the site that deals with the mobile OS the app incidentally runs on. I'm not confused as to the process you want. I'm suggesting that the existing model is increasingly arbitrary given the trend in app development and asking if there has been a recent assessment to determine if this is still what you want. For example, You don't put an Excel question on hold until you know the OS it runs on.
    – schroeder
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 7:56
  • @schroeder - Excel is platform antagonistic. Questions about applications running on a mobile device are not.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 18, 2023 at 18:33
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About the example question

With due respect, the question OP should review how they are making expectations about "mobile apps". Not because Google and Microsoft have similar apps, it means that both have the same features.

Personally I think that Stack Exchange (SE), as a default policy, should require users asking about software applications to throughly study the app help / resources for end-users before asking a question, specially if they are "beginners" (as app users, not as SE users) / not app power users and in questions asking "how to do X with Y" as most of these questions are poor worded questions that is not clear if they should be sent direclty to the app developers as feedback, as a feature request, as a customer service ticket instead of posting them in SE sites or if they are a XY problem.

I'm OK if there are sites that allow "beginner" questions but that treated as an exception to the SE model and as such should be clearly specified, probably in the tour, /help/on-topic and in the /help/how-to-ask pages from the respective site help center, at least to point users to the respective per-site meta.

Question migration

Don't migrate the sample question again until it's clarified if it's a good fit for a destination site. As a moderator, you might try to contact the moderators of the possible destination sites in Teacher Lounge chatroom. Ref. What is migration and how does it work?

Change of Super User scope

I don't think that Super User should change its scope, but it's true that there are some topics that might not have being very clearly specified if there is a SE site for them, like questions that are platform independent, i.e. "What is a Discord server", "What is a Slack channel". There is an old initiative (from 2013) in Meta Stack Exchange related to this: Build and strengthen the Stack Exchange community with "crossover questions" between sites. As of April 16, 2023 it has .

P.S. Platform independent questions related to customer service and other stuff that can only be answered by official service agents are off-topic in SE.

The term "cross-platform mobile apps" doesn't look to be appropiate as a question title, it might be "cross-platform software" or something alike.

From Telegram (software) | Wikipedia (links not included):

Telegram Messenger is a globally accessible freemium, cross-platform, encrypted, cloud-based and centralized instant messaging (IM) service.

Related

Super User Meta

Meta Stack Exchange

From 2021

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  • Individuals have suggested communities that allow new users to ask questions, the problem, is who will answer the question with actual accurate answers, very few actual answer questions. Most ask them.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 2:38

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