When these kinds of things come up there's often complaint that desktop apps running in the browser are inefficient. As it happens, I agree. An old favourite of mine, Adium, probably never used 600 MB because I'm pretty sure my PowerBook G4 had less RAM than that.
But I think it's a mistake to jump to the conclusion that these apps should be written in a native framework rather than a web view. Slack is doing much more than Adium: web previews, document previews, pulling in pre-rendered fragments from the server and modular stylesheets. I wonder how much RAM Adium would have used to do the same things, and I wonder how much time the developers of an equivalent cross-platform app would have spent if they had been split trying to optimise lots of different platforms. They would essentially be re-inventing a modular layout and rendering engine (aka a web browser).
I don't know what the answer is. Maybe the detractors would prefer that the app did less. I know I'd prefer not to have previews and emojis, but I'm sure my colleagues find them useful.
(EDIT: Per reply below, turns out Adium did use a web view for presentation!)
But I think it's a mistake to jump to the conclusion that these apps should be written in a native framework rather than a web view. Slack is doing much more than Adium: web previews, document previews, pulling in pre-rendered fragments from the server and modular stylesheets. I wonder how much RAM Adium would have used to do the same things, and I wonder how much time the developers of an equivalent cross-platform app would have spent if they had been split trying to optimise lots of different platforms. They would essentially be re-inventing a modular layout and rendering engine (aka a web browser).
I don't know what the answer is. Maybe the detractors would prefer that the app did less. I know I'd prefer not to have previews and emojis, but I'm sure my colleagues find them useful.
(EDIT: Per reply below, turns out Adium did use a web view for presentation!)