5 ms·

Nah, you can build a PWA that more or less acts entirely like a mobile app and get out of the app store game entirely.

jmull 5y ago
It will be interesting to see if that happens or not.
senko 5y ago
Not as a counter-argument, but I would be curious to find out if there are any big commercial successes that targeted mobile niche but were implemented as a web app. I can't think of any.
- ec109685 5y ago
  Amazon’s app is made up of mostly web views, and so are a lot of others. Apple doesn’t give web apps all the features (e.g. push notifications) as native apps, so it behooves companies to continue using at least native wrappers.
  - senko 5y ago
    It's still a native app and must play by Apple's rules - for example on monetization. The fact that it uses a subset of web technologies that Apple deems acceptable is a technical detail.
- ioblomov 5y ago
  The only example I can think of is a recent one: Wordle.
ethbr0 5y ago
Which is the insightful reason Apple pivoted away from first class web apps in iOS' early days. They realized they'd never be able to control and tax them as with native. Technical pros and cons were ancillary.
agust 5y ago
Except Apple is making it impossible for web apps to compete with natives apps by crippling Safari with bugs and not implementing crucial features like push notifications, while banning competing browser engines who could do so. So no, currently web apps are no alternative to native apps on the iPhone. When regulation comes in to force Apple to lift their anti-competitive practices though... Developers and companies will definitely flock to the web, for many good reasons, just like they did on desktop.
- giantrobot 5y ago
  > implementing crucial features like push notifications Push notifications are a fucking cancer. It's bad enough disabling them from native apps but I definitely do not want web apps sending them. For every one legitimate user of push notifications there are a hundred (conservative estimate) spam/junk users.
- Swizec 5y ago
  As a consumer I much prefer most app’s web version than polluting my phone with their native stuff. The lack of notifications is actually one of the biggest reasons. Many app developers abuse notifications so much that I’d rather check uber eats tracking screen every 3 minutes than enable notifications for that app
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > not implementing crucial features like push notifications Thank goodness. I don’t need to add de-cluttering my parents’ phones with respect to every website they’ve visited in a year to my Christmas tradition of unfucking the family’s devices. If I want notifications from a website, I’ll give them my phone number or email.

It will be interesting to see if that happens or not.

Not as a counter-argument, but I would be curious to find out if there are any big commercial successes that targeted mobile niche but were implemented as a web app. I can't think of any.

ec109685 5y ago
Amazon’s app is made up of mostly web views, and so are a lot of others. Apple doesn’t give web apps all the features (e.g. push notifications) as native apps, so it behooves companies to continue using at least native wrappers.
- senko 5y ago
  It's still a native app and must play by Apple's rules - for example on monetization. The fact that it uses a subset of web technologies that Apple deems acceptable is a technical detail.
ioblomov 5y ago
The only example I can think of is a recent one: Wordle.

ethbr0 5y ago

Which is the insightful reason Apple pivoted away from first class web apps in iOS' early days. They realized they'd never be able to control and tax them as with native. Technical pros and cons were ancillary.

agust 5y ago

Except Apple is making it impossible for web apps to compete with natives apps by crippling Safari with bugs and not implementing crucial features like push notifications, while banning competing browser engines who could do so. So no, currently web apps are no alternative to native apps on the iPhone. When regulation comes in to force Apple to lift their anti-competitive practices though... Developers and companies will definitely flock to the web, for many good reasons, just like they did on desktop.

giantrobot 5y ago
> implementing crucial features like push notifications Push notifications are a fucking cancer. It's bad enough disabling them from native apps but I definitely do not want web apps sending them. For every one legitimate user of push notifications there are a hundred (conservative estimate) spam/junk users.
Swizec 5y ago
As a consumer I much prefer most app’s web version than polluting my phone with their native stuff. The lack of notifications is actually one of the biggest reasons. Many app developers abuse notifications so much that I’d rather check uber eats tracking screen every 3 minutes than enable notifications for that app
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> not implementing crucial features like push notifications Thank goodness. I don’t need to add de-cluttering my parents’ phones with respect to every website they’ve visited in a year to my Christmas tradition of unfucking the family’s devices. If I want notifications from a website, I’ll give them my phone number or email.