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The addition of push notifications is long awaited, and necessary to take PWA to the next level. It is the single biggest hurdle for me in developing PWAs for

The addition of push notifications is long awaited, and necessary to take PWA to the next level. It is the single biggest hurdle for me in developing PWAs for iOS. Bring it on!

lessright 4y ago
Agree. No longer having wrapper apps will be a blessing for everyone.
skybrian 4y ago
I guess, but I will keep blocking them whether they are mobile apps or web apps. Few apps have any business sending notifications.
- thewebcount 4y ago
  Agreed! I don’t know why anyone would want that. And even Apple is getting bad with their own notifications. I just got one from Apple Music yesterday about the Super Bowl. WTF? I had to turn off Notifications for that now, too.
  - culi 4y ago
    It's not that websites will now send you notifications. It's that PWAs will now have the option to ask to send you notifications in the same way any other app on your iPhone does. It means people can start developing apps for the web that will basically work on any platform that can run a browser. A huge step forward for the web platform that has so far been stunted by Apple's unwillingness to support these web standards
    - theresistor 4y ago
      I think the post you're replying to reflects a very different view of the utility notifications, which I share. I almost never approve a notification request. From anything, be it an app or a website. Off the top of my head the only notification sources that I have enabled are messaging apps, and even there I only have them turned on for the couple that I use for my most important communications. I consider it a nuisance and almost an anti-feature that every random app nags me to give it notification permissions. By the same token, granting that anti-feature to even more things if something I Do. Not. Want.
      - culi 4y ago
        I'm with you and almost never grant permissions for anything. I even have notification badges turned off for everything they'll let me turn it off for (everything but the Settings app). Apple's implementation will likely have a toggle in the settings to decide whether or not you can be prompted for this permission. In fact, you can already do this with Firefox (and I assume Chrome). The people like you and me who don't allow any notifications anyways will likely just turn off the prompt entirely. But for developers, this helps bring the web platform one step closer to equal treatment as native platforms and can dramatically open up the ecosystem Apple currently so tightly controls
    - scarface74 4y ago
      And yet almost every site that asks for notifications do if exclusively to spam you.
      - culi 4y ago
        You can simply block the ability of websites to even prompt you... That's what I do on Firefox
  - habitue 4y ago
    > I don’t know why anyone would want that. A calendar app, a messaging app, etc. All sort of apps have reasonable use cases for notifications, and now you can write those apps as persistent web apps on iOS. The user should still have control over notifications of course, and if you're downloading, let's say, a shopping app, no reason to allow notifications, it'll just be ads or whatever. Overall, flexibility is good.
    - olliej 4y ago
      Happily good calendaring apps have a standard protocol to communicate with calendar apps that don’t load a ton of Facebook and Google stalkerware every time you load them, and let their users just use their prefer calendar app. Messaging services can also make an app, because I sure as shit don’t want my entire browser to become more annoying just because someone can’t be assed making an app. Hopefully safari will gate this BS on making a home screen app rather than just making every site a beacon of “add notifications so that we can sell you to advertisers even when you aren’t on our site!”
      - CGamesPlay 4y ago
        My favorite calendar app is a PWA that uses those standard protocols to integrate with services, plus some other features that I want. And soon, it will have notifications, too. > Overall, flexibility is good.
        olliej 4y ago
        Ah, see I prefer not to have my personal data proliferated to a bunch of additional companies that want to monetize my data, and I like my use of such apps to not include spyware linking that to all the trackers on the web. It would seem we're unlikely to agree on the value proposition of notifications from random websites. My assumption is that I'll see a bunch of BS "get notifications" spam from a variety of sites, none of which have any reason to justify the spam. Just as happened with the first version of "let's give websites the ability to spam users. Surely that won't be abused" notification system.
    - 4y ago
olliej 4y ago
So bizarre that there are devs think we want webpages with the ability to spam them. Literally the last thing I want from a random website is notification spams and pop up, but woooooo soon I guess I’ll have to get used to pop ups asking me to receive ads from websites all over again.
- padjo 4y ago
  If you’re building a web based messaging app notifications are pretty crucial. Safari not having proper webpush was a major pain in these cases.
  - olliej 4y ago
    If you're offering a web based messaging app, I am assuming that no matter how "secure" you may claim it is, your site is filled with spyware that connects to every other website in my browser. To me that's a big negative, and so I'm not going to trust it. As a byproduct I am uninterested in allowing a "secure message" website the ability to spam me when I'm not on that site. If I decide I like/need your service I would expect an app to be available, because again, I don't want the constant threat of my messages being tied to the identity the various spyware companies have built from my browsing. I also don't want to have to switch to my browser and then find the message tab or wait for a giant multi-meg web app to download again. If Safari limits access to the spam API to just home screened pages then I wouldn't mind the addition of notification spam: creating a home screen app is a reasonable indication the user does value a site highly, and more importantly limits the ability of random sites to spam me with notification requests. Don't get me wrong, I understand that you can make mediocre cross platform webapps more easily than actual good apps, it's just that as a user I don't care. The argument "this is easier for me" falls flat because plenty of other people have been able to make apps, and those apps are typically better, but they actually get basic platform behavior correct. Failing that you can make an electron or similar app, and have all the crappy cross-platform BS, but hey at least you get to ask to spam me and you can't sell me out with spyware linked to my normal browser instance.
- Tepix 4y ago
  Let's say you write an email client as a web app. Or a twitter client. Or perhaps an encrypted voice telephony webapp. Of course it is important for them to deliver notifications for those who want to receive them. This isn't about regular web pages that want to annoy you.

The addition of push notifications is long awaited, and necessary to take PWA to the next level. It is the single biggest hurdle for me in developing PWAs for iOS. Bring it on!

lessright 4y ago

Agree. No longer having wrapper apps will be a blessing for everyone.

skybrian 4y ago

I guess, but I will keep blocking them whether they are mobile apps or web apps. Few apps have any business sending notifications.

thewebcount 4y ago
Agreed! I don’t know why anyone would want that. And even Apple is getting bad with their own notifications. I just got one from Apple Music yesterday about the Super Bowl. WTF? I had to turn off Notifications for that now, too.
- culi 4y ago
  It's not that websites will now send you notifications. It's that PWAs will now have the option to ask to send you notifications in the same way any other app on your iPhone does. It means people can start developing apps for the web that will basically work on any platform that can run a browser. A huge step forward for the web platform that has so far been stunted by Apple's unwillingness to support these web standards
  - theresistor 4y ago
    I think the post you're replying to reflects a very different view of the utility notifications, which I share. I almost never approve a notification request. From anything, be it an app or a website. Off the top of my head the only notification sources that I have enabled are messaging apps, and even there I only have them turned on for the couple that I use for my most important communications. I consider it a nuisance and almost an anti-feature that every random app nags me to give it notification permissions. By the same token, granting that anti-feature to even more things if something I Do. Not. Want.
    - culi 4y ago
      I'm with you and almost never grant permissions for anything. I even have notification badges turned off for everything they'll let me turn it off for (everything but the Settings app). Apple's implementation will likely have a toggle in the settings to decide whether or not you can be prompted for this permission. In fact, you can already do this with Firefox (and I assume Chrome). The people like you and me who don't allow any notifications anyways will likely just turn off the prompt entirely. But for developers, this helps bring the web platform one step closer to equal treatment as native platforms and can dramatically open up the ecosystem Apple currently so tightly controls
  - scarface74 4y ago
    And yet almost every site that asks for notifications do if exclusively to spam you.
    - culi 4y ago
      You can simply block the ability of websites to even prompt you... That's what I do on Firefox
- habitue 4y ago
  > I don’t know why anyone would want that. A calendar app, a messaging app, etc. All sort of apps have reasonable use cases for notifications, and now you can write those apps as persistent web apps on iOS. The user should still have control over notifications of course, and if you're downloading, let's say, a shopping app, no reason to allow notifications, it'll just be ads or whatever. Overall, flexibility is good.
  - olliej 4y ago
    Happily good calendaring apps have a standard protocol to communicate with calendar apps that don’t load a ton of Facebook and Google stalkerware every time you load them, and let their users just use their prefer calendar app. Messaging services can also make an app, because I sure as shit don’t want my entire browser to become more annoying just because someone can’t be assed making an app. Hopefully safari will gate this BS on making a home screen app rather than just making every site a beacon of “add notifications so that we can sell you to advertisers even when you aren’t on our site!”
    - CGamesPlay 4y ago
      My favorite calendar app is a PWA that uses those standard protocols to integrate with services, plus some other features that I want. And soon, it will have notifications, too. > Overall, flexibility is good.
      - olliej 4y ago
        Ah, see I prefer not to have my personal data proliferated to a bunch of additional companies that want to monetize my data, and I like my use of such apps to not include spyware linking that to all the trackers on the web. It would seem we're unlikely to agree on the value proposition of notifications from random websites. My assumption is that I'll see a bunch of BS "get notifications" spam from a variety of sites, none of which have any reason to justify the spam. Just as happened with the first version of "let's give websites the ability to spam users. Surely that won't be abused" notification system.
  - 4y ago

olliej 4y ago

So bizarre that there are devs think we want webpages with the ability to spam them. Literally the last thing I want from a random website is notification spams and pop up, but woooooo soon I guess I’ll have to get used to pop ups asking me to receive ads from websites all over again.

padjo 4y ago
If you’re building a web based messaging app notifications are pretty crucial. Safari not having proper webpush was a major pain in these cases.
- olliej 4y ago
  If you're offering a web based messaging app, I am assuming that no matter how "secure" you may claim it is, your site is filled with spyware that connects to every other website in my browser. To me that's a big negative, and so I'm not going to trust it. As a byproduct I am uninterested in allowing a "secure message" website the ability to spam me when I'm not on that site. If I decide I like/need your service I would expect an app to be available, because again, I don't want the constant threat of my messages being tied to the identity the various spyware companies have built from my browsing. I also don't want to have to switch to my browser and then find the message tab or wait for a giant multi-meg web app to download again. If Safari limits access to the spam API to just home screened pages then I wouldn't mind the addition of notification spam: creating a home screen app is a reasonable indication the user does value a site highly, and more importantly limits the ability of random sites to spam me with notification requests. Don't get me wrong, I understand that you can make mediocre cross platform webapps more easily than actual good apps, it's just that as a user I don't care. The argument "this is easier for me" falls flat because plenty of other people have been able to make apps, and those apps are typically better, but they actually get basic platform behavior correct. Failing that you can make an electron or similar app, and have all the crappy cross-platform BS, but hey at least you get to ask to spam me and you can't sell me out with spyware linked to my normal browser instance.
Tepix 4y ago
Let's say you write an email client as a web app. Or a twitter client. Or perhaps an encrypted voice telephony webapp. Of course it is important for them to deliver notifications for those who want to receive them. This isn't about regular web pages that want to annoy you.