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It is certainly a plan to further relegate PWAs because they directly challenge the monetization strategy of apple. Its an area where their interests do not ali

It is certainly a plan to further relegate PWAs because they directly challenge the monetization strategy of apple. Its an area where their interests do not align with user interests. A "properly written" PWA may offer things like not re-fetching data from the internet when you already have it locally, and / or not forcing you to create an account just to save some basic data (ex: A recipe app, a jobs search app, etc). Consider for example, saving a job search website as an app, and being able to search and save jobs without having to make an account. An account could be offered if you want cross device syncing, but is not required just to save jobs. Which is great because some users prefer to remain anonymous, and PWA's open the door to that type of thing (as a singular example). This move is _an_ example of Apple's (understandable) hostility towards PWA's, but you must understand the context here: There is a threshold beyond which PWA's become a generally acceptable strategy, and the quality and diversity rise over time. Apple is preventing that with this move (and others). That's why people are upset. Moreover, the outcome of this will be more "native" apps that are actually just wrappers around web apps, that exist purely because some basic functionality is being actively blocked by Apple.

notduncansmith 7y ago
> Consider for example, saving a job search website as an app, and being able to search and save jobs without having to make an account. An account could be offered if you want cross device syncing, but is not required just to save jobs. Which is great because some users prefer to remain anonymous, and PWA's open the door to that type of thing (as a singular example). Consider the use-cased of this example. If I am actively job-searching, I will probably be using the site at least once per week, and the data will be saved throughout the process. When I stop using the site, I want that data to disappear for my own privacy/security; and if users want to save the data indefinitely without signing up for an account, then offering an export (e.g. CSV) seems like a reasonable way to address that. Furthermore, non-Apple user agents may retain data as long as they like, and PWA's (as well as web trackers) are free to utilize that. It's not like this move implements any additional vendor lock-in; people who don't like it will switch to non-Apple platforms. > Moreover, the outcome of this will be more "native" apps that are actually just wrappers around web apps, that exist purely because some basic functionality is being actively blocked by Apple. This doesn't seem problematic. It's great if you can reuse some code between your web and native apps. Obviously truly-native UIs will be more efficient in many cases, but perfect needn't be the enemy of good.

notduncansmith 7y ago

> Consider for example, saving a job search website as an app, and being able to search and save jobs without having to make an account. An account could be offered if you want cross device syncing, but is not required just to save jobs. Which is great because some users prefer to remain anonymous, and PWA's open the door to that type of thing (as a singular example). Consider the use-cased of this example. If I am actively job-searching, I will probably be using the site at least once per week, and the data will be saved throughout the process. When I stop using the site, I want that data to disappear for my own privacy/security; and if users want to save the data indefinitely without signing up for an account, then offering an export (e.g. CSV) seems like a reasonable way to address that. Furthermore, non-Apple user agents may retain data as long as they like, and PWA's (as well as web trackers) are free to utilize that. It's not like this move implements any additional vendor lock-in; people who don't like it will switch to non-Apple platforms. > Moreover, the outcome of this will be more "native" apps that are actually just wrappers around web apps, that exist purely because some basic functionality is being actively blocked by Apple. This doesn't seem problematic. It's great if you can reuse some code between your web and native apps. Obviously truly-native UIs will be more efficient in many cases, but perfect needn't be the enemy of good.