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A feature for who? Not for users - now there's one less avenue for developers to get them something they want. Not for developers - now they have to jump thro

A feature for who? Not for users - now there's one less avenue for developers to get them something they want. Not for developers - now they have to jump through additional hoops to make something that works cross platform. Who exactly does this benefit?

snazz 7y ago
Users want to be able to log in and see their data from any device. If the whole idea is that there is no server that the data is stored on, then you can't have a sync function, can you? Do any of you have an example of a good offline-only PWA that will be affected by this?
- swsieber 7y ago
  The whole point is that you don't need to download a big payload just because you haven't used it recently. There are two ideas that go together well: * The app can work offline * The app doesn't need a server to function Neither of those prevent a sync function from existing. Right now, apps can do both of those. Why don' we want PWA's to be able to do the same? Why do I have to go through Apple's walled garden in order to so? Especially when said alternative is in a sandbox?
- woodson 7y ago
  It means you constantly have to re-login on a PWA (e.g. Twitters web client PWA).
  - falcolas 7y ago
    Constantly being weekly at most frequent in this case.
    - vxNsr 7y ago
      I roll my eyes every time robinhood makes me login again after an app update... though it hasn't happened in a while, so maybe they fixed that bug, but it was annoying when it's an unexpected hurdle that doesn't follow what other apps are doing.
- dktp 7y ago
  Games with your personal high scores. Is the one that would affect me Plus a local note-taking app I created a while ago
- eslaught 7y ago
  The whole point is that those PWAs probably never got built in the first place because the foundations were always shaky at best. It's a chilling effect. But if you look at native apps, especially ones I use on desktop OSes, they're dominated (at least in my usage) by offline-first or offline-only apps---and for me, this is a feature, not a bug. This doesn't have to mean they don't have sync, by the way, it just means that's separate from the main functionality of the app. A perfect example of this is Dropbox: it syncs to your local disk by default. It's easy to forget how valuable this is until you go camping (or similar) and suddenly you realize you forgot to star that one directory you care about. Now your mobile phone is useless, but your laptop works no problem. And due to this being factored out into a separate app, all my files now work regardless of file type (I don't need separate offline support in every app I use, since that's the default).
- veeti 7y ago
  It's no less of an issue for an online-based PWA. Where do you store login credentials or session tokens? In local storage. What happens to them when Apple decides to arbitrarily throw it away? The user has to log in again and again. This sounds like a seriously poorly thought out idea. Want to clear tracking data from random websites I've been to? That's great. But you don't mess with the data stored by apps I have specifically _chosen_ to install on _my_ device.
  - bengale 7y ago
    But only if they don’t interact with it for a week. I wouldn’t be surprised if a web app I hadn’t used for a week required me to login.
    - veeti 7y ago
      There are many apps on my phone that I only use every once in a while, yet every single one of them remembers me. No matter how long I've been gone. Technology is amazing! Where is Apple's famous UX here? What legitimate argument is there for clearing data of an app the user has added to their home screen?
    - admax88q 7y ago
      And most native apps crash one a week, we should therefore automatically crash every app once a week. Just because current apps are buggy doesn't mean we should enforce those bugs at a platform level.
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      I wouldn't be surprised but I would definitely be upset.

snazz 7y ago

Users want to be able to log in and see their data from any device. If the whole idea is that there is no server that the data is stored on, then you can't have a sync function, can you? Do any of you have an example of a good offline-only PWA that will be affected by this?

swsieber 7y ago
The whole point is that you don't need to download a big payload just because you haven't used it recently. There are two ideas that go together well: * The app can work offline * The app doesn't need a server to function Neither of those prevent a sync function from existing. Right now, apps can do both of those. Why don' we want PWA's to be able to do the same? Why do I have to go through Apple's walled garden in order to so? Especially when said alternative is in a sandbox?
woodson 7y ago
It means you constantly have to re-login on a PWA (e.g. Twitters web client PWA).
- falcolas 7y ago
  Constantly being weekly at most frequent in this case.
  - vxNsr 7y ago
    I roll my eyes every time robinhood makes me login again after an app update... though it hasn't happened in a while, so maybe they fixed that bug, but it was annoying when it's an unexpected hurdle that doesn't follow what other apps are doing.
dktp 7y ago
Games with your personal high scores. Is the one that would affect me Plus a local note-taking app I created a while ago
eslaught 7y ago
The whole point is that those PWAs probably never got built in the first place because the foundations were always shaky at best. It's a chilling effect. But if you look at native apps, especially ones I use on desktop OSes, they're dominated (at least in my usage) by offline-first or offline-only apps---and for me, this is a feature, not a bug. This doesn't have to mean they don't have sync, by the way, it just means that's separate from the main functionality of the app. A perfect example of this is Dropbox: it syncs to your local disk by default. It's easy to forget how valuable this is until you go camping (or similar) and suddenly you realize you forgot to star that one directory you care about. Now your mobile phone is useless, but your laptop works no problem. And due to this being factored out into a separate app, all my files now work regardless of file type (I don't need separate offline support in every app I use, since that's the default).
veeti 7y ago
It's no less of an issue for an online-based PWA. Where do you store login credentials or session tokens? In local storage. What happens to them when Apple decides to arbitrarily throw it away? The user has to log in again and again. This sounds like a seriously poorly thought out idea. Want to clear tracking data from random websites I've been to? That's great. But you don't mess with the data stored by apps I have specifically _chosen_ to install on _my_ device.
- bengale 7y ago
  But only if they don’t interact with it for a week. I wouldn’t be surprised if a web app I hadn’t used for a week required me to login.
  - veeti 7y ago
    There are many apps on my phone that I only use every once in a while, yet every single one of them remembers me. No matter how long I've been gone. Technology is amazing! Where is Apple's famous UX here? What legitimate argument is there for clearing data of an app the user has added to their home screen?
  - admax88q 7y ago
    And most native apps crash one a week, we should therefore automatically crash every app once a week. Just because current apps are buggy doesn't mean we should enforce those bugs at a platform level.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised but I would definitely be upset.