4 ms·

Why not use the web as the standard? I mean progressive web apps can do nearly everything that 95% of the apps do, they can present notifications, have a local

Why not use the web as the standard? I mean progressive web apps can do nearly everything that 95% of the apps do, they can present notifications, have a local persistent storage, there are even proposal to let them access bluetooth, USB and other hardware. But of course now Apple is trying to oppose PWA by imposing stupid limitations.

madeofpalk 6y ago
they just aren't good enough. even on android, with google supposedly being the patron saint of PWA, native apps just offer a better experience.
- pier25 6y ago
  OTOH more effort hasn't been put into PWAs (by developers and Google) precisely because these won't work properly in iOS.
  - jpttsn 6y ago
    Did apple remove some functionality? It always sounds like that, but when I look into it it’s more about adding new features that websites didn’t use to have?
  - madeofpalk 6y ago
    What doesn't actually work properly on iOS? Like what are the specific APIs that are missing (because PWA isn't actually a real thing, it's just a collection of APIs), or are buggy? IIRC you can't prompt for "app" "install", and service worker support for background activity is limited (as it should be IMHO). It's funny Apple gets this bad rep, when on the UI front they've actually had some really good APIs much earlier than Chrome. CSS Snap Points, backdrop-filter, and position: sticky on iOS all have been really great at creating more native-like experiences on web. But really, despite being a web developer, I just have very little experience in trying to compete with actual native apps which will always inherently be more capable and performant. This isn't really due to the platform being supposedly hindered by a particular company, but more down to the inherent free for all nature of the web where there's very little _authorised intent_ you can express.
    - pier25 6y ago
      > Like what are the specific APIs that are missing Push notifications and background sync for instance.

madeofpalk 6y ago

they just aren't good enough. even on android, with google supposedly being the patron saint of PWA, native apps just offer a better experience.

pier25 6y ago
OTOH more effort hasn't been put into PWAs (by developers and Google) precisely because these won't work properly in iOS.
- jpttsn 6y ago
  Did apple remove some functionality? It always sounds like that, but when I look into it it’s more about adding new features that websites didn’t use to have?
- madeofpalk 6y ago
  What doesn't actually work properly on iOS? Like what are the specific APIs that are missing (because PWA isn't actually a real thing, it's just a collection of APIs), or are buggy? IIRC you can't prompt for "app" "install", and service worker support for background activity is limited (as it should be IMHO). It's funny Apple gets this bad rep, when on the UI front they've actually had some really good APIs much earlier than Chrome. CSS Snap Points, backdrop-filter, and position: sticky on iOS all have been really great at creating more native-like experiences on web. But really, despite being a web developer, I just have very little experience in trying to compete with actual native apps which will always inherently be more capable and performant. This isn't really due to the platform being supposedly hindered by a particular company, but more down to the inherent free for all nature of the web where there's very little _authorised intent_ you can express.
  - pier25 6y ago
    > Like what are the specific APIs that are missing Push notifications and background sync for instance.