A PWA is a custom version of SatelliteGuys which is optimized for mobile devices. While it may look like the website, its actually different so that only the files needed for mobile are sent, meaning its a much faster experience all around.
TapaTalk is essentially dead. It was written for PHP 5.4 and we are now running PHP 8.4. There have been a LOT of PHP security updates since then and since Tapatalk for Xenforo has not been updated in a long long time it is not the safest idea to keep running it.
In addition those trying to view the site on their mobile devices using a browser were getting spammed on the top of the screen for people to install TapaTalk, this ad in some cases would take up 20% of the users screen. We could get rid of that ad but we would have to pay $20 a month to get rid of it.
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In addition TapaTalk could and was inserting their own ads on SatelliteGuys in the app which only benefitted them, SatelliteGuys was not paid for those ads they were displaying on our site. Again we could pay to get rid of those ads.
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And here was the cost of the Premium Tier.
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Now to make matters worse Tapatalk recently announced that they are going to start charging users of the app 99 cents a month to continue using it.
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So soon you would be paying them each month to access SatelliteGuys via their app, again all the money going to them... and you would still see all their ads too.
Tapatalk was a great program which we run for many many years, and for a long time we DID pay for the premium tier. But now with such a small offset using it (My numbers show a total of 6 members) it wasn't work paying for any longer.
In addition Tapatalk was sold to a different owner who made lots of promises of improvements and updates but then that owner has been really radio silent since, instead they have been letting TapaTalk rot on the vine.
If you visit their support forum at
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tapatalksupport/ you will see there is not much going on, in fact most of the support questions posted there go unanswered.
Please give the PWA a try, I was a die hard Tapatalk user myself but now only use the PWA on devices. It is a much better all around experience, with no bloatware or additional ads based on your user membership level.
I don't have an android phone so I could not make a graphic showing you how to add SatelliteGuys PWA to your phones apps or home screen. But here is a site that explains how to do it on all kinds of devices.
How to Install a PWA on iOS, Android, Windows & Mac [2025 Guide]
The above link also explains PWA's better as well.
If Tapatalk were to update their plugins so we know we are more secure and up to date and allow us to remove the "Smart Banner" without having to pay $20 a month, we would consider adding it back. I don't even care about their ads, as if a user wants to use their app and is willing to sit through their ads in order to use that app then I am ok with it.
But hopefully that explains better why it was removed. It was not done to cut anyone off from the site.
Please give the PWA a try.
