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Is this a joke? Do people using android devices regularly "install" websites to their phones? I'm not sure if the author is pulling my leg or if Google is plan

Is this a joke? Do people using android devices regularly "install" websites to their phones? I'm not sure if the author is pulling my leg or if Google is planning some kind of proprietary android specific PWA component...

shaftway 7y ago
I think there are some advantages to "installing" PWAs to your phone. As I understand it you're grabbing a ball of HTML, CSS, Javascript, a bunch of assets, and whatever else your website needs and presenting it in a chromeless browser (a browser without UI, not without Chrome). If your PWA has significant offline capability, this can be useful. Think of Google Drive on a laptop. You can enable offline mode, which essentially saves a similar ball of assets to your cache and saves copies of your files to local storage. You can use most of the capabilities offline just like you were online (obviously not anything that actually requires internet). There are advantages to appear like an app to the user. User's tend to assume "If I have no internet, websites don't work" which obviously isn't the case with drive in offline mode. But it's hard to fight that. The expectation around apps is that they generally do work offline, so it tricks / socially-engineers / whatever the user into that assumption.
- Ill_ban_myself 7y ago
  so the idea is to use a native app thin shell around your pwa to get access to local storage and all the user's mobile data? How is this different than the way in which a blackbox like Flash breaks the security sandbox? How is this not ripe for abuse?
  - feross 7y ago
    You still have the same permissions as any other website. Chrome makes and manages the APK.
_def 7y ago
PWAs are (gonna be) cross platform
- azdacha 7y ago
  I build PWAs, I can install them on android, os x, windows, haven't tested I OS. It requires a manifest file just like any (android at least) app. I'm very happy they have allowed to do this, fews weeks ago I believe we couldn't trigger such things. My current concern is about how the manifest file can be updated without uninstalling the pwa and then reinstalling it. Also, how one switches the app theme according to dark & light mode? Love to see PWAs grow!
mikedelfino 7y ago
I "installed" a patience game to my home screen once and it's been working fine.

shaftway 7y ago

I think there are some advantages to "installing" PWAs to your phone. As I understand it you're grabbing a ball of HTML, CSS, Javascript, a bunch of assets, and whatever else your website needs and presenting it in a chromeless browser (a browser without UI, not without Chrome). If your PWA has significant offline capability, this can be useful. Think of Google Drive on a laptop. You can enable offline mode, which essentially saves a similar ball of assets to your cache and saves copies of your files to local storage. You can use most of the capabilities offline just like you were online (obviously not anything that actually requires internet). There are advantages to appear like an app to the user. User's tend to assume "If I have no internet, websites don't work" which obviously isn't the case with drive in offline mode. But it's hard to fight that. The expectation around apps is that they generally do work offline, so it tricks / socially-engineers / whatever the user into that assumption.

Ill_ban_myself 7y ago
so the idea is to use a native app thin shell around your pwa to get access to local storage and all the user's mobile data? How is this different than the way in which a blackbox like Flash breaks the security sandbox? How is this not ripe for abuse?
- feross 7y ago
  You still have the same permissions as any other website. Chrome makes and manages the APK.

_def 7y ago

PWAs are (gonna be) cross platform

azdacha 7y ago
I build PWAs, I can install them on android, os x, windows, haven't tested I OS. It requires a manifest file just like any (android at least) app. I'm very happy they have allowed to do this, fews weeks ago I believe we couldn't trigger such things. My current concern is about how the manifest file can be updated without uninstalling the pwa and then reinstalling it. Also, how one switches the app theme according to dark & light mode? Love to see PWAs grow!

mikedelfino 7y ago

I "installed" a patience game to my home screen once and it's been working fine.