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I'm with you. The potential for websites to add themselves is far too dangerous; the web being open, wild, and dangerous, adding a website to the home screen sh

I'm with you. The potential for websites to add themselves is far too dangerous; the web being open, wild, and dangerous, adding a website to the home screen should only ever be a browser-based task. And no, asking the user for confirmation is never sufficient to stop unsuspecting people from accidentally causing their own compromise. It's a trust thing. Once they trust one dialogue from a legit website, they'll trust it over and over. Let web sites leave the home screen on my phone the same way web sites have always left my bookmarks/favourites: alone

Brakenshire 8y ago
As far as I’m aware this Add to Home Screen API you’re describing controlled by the website doesn’t exist, adding a PWA is a process controlled by the browser which occurs according to its heuristics, on Chrome it’s something to do with repeated visits to the same site. The only control the website has is a manifest, which sets the icon, loading screen colour, and whether the website can run without browser chrome. Edit: It looks like Chrome may have changed this, what I’m referring to above was the initial implementation. I think it’s a reasonable objection to say this should be under the control of the browser. But Safari could just implement the former without the latter. My main gripes with Safari at least with my use of webapps is that it doesn’t allow users to install PWA’s without the browser chrome, and its implementation of service workers is subtlely broken. Those are the biggest usability issues. If a user goes out of their way to go to the share menu, scroll along and click ‘add to homescreen’ why not allow them to specify to use what is clearly an app-like link without browser chrome? And why implement Service Workers but not according to the standard?
- johneth 8y ago
  I thought you could trigger mobile Safari to hide its chrome when added to the home screen via some meta tag.
  - zapzupnz 8y ago
    You can, and that should be sufficient.

Brakenshire 8y ago

As far as I’m aware this Add to Home Screen API you’re describing controlled by the website doesn’t exist, adding a PWA is a process controlled by the browser which occurs according to its heuristics, on Chrome it’s something to do with repeated visits to the same site. The only control the website has is a manifest, which sets the icon, loading screen colour, and whether the website can run without browser chrome. Edit: It looks like Chrome may have changed this, what I’m referring to above was the initial implementation. I think it’s a reasonable objection to say this should be under the control of the browser. But Safari could just implement the former without the latter. My main gripes with Safari at least with my use of webapps is that it doesn’t allow users to install PWA’s without the browser chrome, and its implementation of service workers is subtlely broken. Those are the biggest usability issues. If a user goes out of their way to go to the share menu, scroll along and click ‘add to homescreen’ why not allow them to specify to use what is clearly an app-like link without browser chrome? And why implement Service Workers but not according to the standard?

johneth 8y ago
I thought you could trigger mobile Safari to hide its chrome when added to the home screen via some meta tag.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  You can, and that should be sufficient.