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I think the answer is simply that Google is massive and sometimes competes with itself. Android’s Instant Apps, announced a few years ago (seemingly to go nowhe
by untog 6y ago
I think the answer is simply that Google is massive and sometimes competes with itself. Android’s Instant Apps, announced a few years ago (seemingly to go nowhere?) seemed like a direct attack on the use case for web sites, but the company tolerated it.
As a whole I think Google wants to chase ubiquity. A PWA will work on laptops, phones, Windows, Mac, Android... an Android app won’t. So they’ll push PWAs.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y agoI too thought of just blaming it on Google's idiosyncrasy, but PWA has stood the test of time with multiple parties (browsers) extending their support. Perhaps, I'm thinking other way round; May be PWA was supposed to kill traditional web apps and was intended to bring web apps to Playstore/Appstore but it didn't happen(yet). >Android’s Instant Apps, announced a few years ago (seemingly to go nowhere?) seemed like a direct attack on the use case for web sites, but the company tolerated it. I think android instant apps are meant for Google Assistant ecosystem, Google Smart Display have it and Fuchsia would have GA; so instant apps might come handy.
- jfoster 6y agoPWAs can be bundled up for the Play store: https://medium.com/@firt/google-play-store-now-open-for-progressive-web-apps-ec6f3c6ff3cc https://medium.com/@firt/google-play-store-now-open-for-prog...
- Abishek_Muthian 6y agoCorrect, I meant to say PWA hasn't taken off as much as Google wanted.
- jfoster 6y agoThey have made it unusually difficult to get it bundled up for the Play store. I mean, it should be as simple as proving ownership and supplying the manifest URL. I think solving the distribution problem would definitely be key to having developers think about it as an alternative to native apps.