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It's a good restriction although I wish Apple helped a bit with the installation of web apps to the home screen. Not install prompt banners like in Android* bu

by pier25 4y ago

It's a good restriction although I wish Apple helped a bit with the installation of web apps to the home screen. Not install prompt banners like in Android* but right now you have to use the Share screen. It almost feels like Apple is hiding that functionality so that users don't find it. Installing and sharing are two very different actions. * I'm an android user and I agree these are bad.

throwanem 4y ago
"Share sheet" is a bit historical in my opinion, and has been for some time. In practice it serves as more of an OS-level context menu that happens to put the "send to frequent contacts" and "open in another app" options first. In theory Safari's tab context menu would be a better fit, but given it iconifies as a "change text size" tool, I don't know if that would really address your concern at all.
Gigachad 4y ago
For people who haven't used iOS, the Share screen is the ios junk draw where every option they couldn't find a better place to put something goes. Things like Find on page are located there too.
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  FYI you can just type in the address bar and a “find in page” option appears in the autocomplete list if that text is on the page, no need to use the share screen
  - gregoriol 4y ago
    This is even more hidden than the one in the share screen
    - sosborn 4y ago
      More hidden maybe, but definitely more logical.
      - Someone1234 4y ago
        More logical to use a textbox typically reserved for navigating away from the current page, to instead search that page?
        gregoriol 4y ago
        Thanks, was going to answer the same: nor the "address" text field nor the "share" button indicate actions to be performed inside the page; the logical idea is that first one is to go to another site, the second one is to transfer the current page to another app/person I have to admit I don't see where to put the "search inside the page" feature, definitely some ux trick to be found
  - makeitdouble 4y ago
    The worst part of this is it’s the last item in the autocomplete list, and will often be under the keyboard, off screen until we scroll to it. It also hides the current page behind the list of course. All in all, text selection and search is still such a second class experience on iOS.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- layer8 4y ago
  It’s more like what would be the context menu in a traditional desktop GUI.
- fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
  I disagree, the “share screen” is the logical place for actions that operate on the object you’re currently looking at. Adding a new banner or something for installing PWAs would just clutter up the UI and make it less consistent.
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    I don't think it's strictly bad to have a junk draw menu, but calling it a share menu doesn't really describe what it is.
    - testTED 4y ago
      DRAWER, it's a drawer.
    - saagarjha 4y ago
      Its official name is not the share menu, if that helps.
  - pprotas 4y ago
    A perfect menu already exists for this. If you click the “Aa <puzzle piece” button, a bunch of website-specific settings pop up. “Search on Page” or “Install on Homescreen” would fit in perfectly here. Maybe under “Translate Page”.
    - fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
      This is close, but it’s not ideal: the drawer is an OS-wide feature, that puzzle menu is a relic of when the drawer didn’t exist. And its symbol suggests that it’s about text options.
  - rahoulb 4y ago
    Somewhat off-topic but as someone who used to be a very heavy iPad user (the M1 Mac has kind of obsoleted it), I think of the share sheet as the equivalent of a Unix pipe. It takes your current view or output and makes it available to another process - and if you use Shortcuts, you can actually see the data and its transformations along a literal pipeline. So, back on-topic, it does kind of make sense in that you’re taking the current URL and sending it to the Springboard.
- isametry 4y ago
  You’re not wrong, however they’ve actually been cutting down on that lately — moving the items which aren’t really “sharing” in any sense to a kebab / ellipsis. The best example is Photos, where the Share Sheet would have a LOT of unrelated junk — Duplicate, Hide, Slideshow… But as of one or two major versions ago, there’s now an ellipsis menu to keep those options instead. Notes got the same treatment. In current Safari, the “aA” menu is an equivalent of that. In my opinion, “Find on page” is really the only option on that Share Sheet which doesn’t really belong. All the others make sense, as they’re an “Export” of the page in some way or another.
donbrae 4y ago
I’ve long been hoping for something like the Smart App Banners[0] that native app developers can use to link to their app in the App Store. It’s relatively unobtrusive and easy for users to dismiss. [0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_apps_with_smart_app_banners https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_a...
- LeanderK 4y ago
  yes! Smart App Banners are really great and I just wished they would be available for PWAs

by pier25 4y ago

throwanem 4y ago

"Share sheet" is a bit historical in my opinion, and has been for some time. In practice it serves as more of an OS-level context menu that happens to put the "send to frequent contacts" and "open in another app" options first. In theory Safari's tab context menu would be a better fit, but given it iconifies as a "change text size" tool, I don't know if that would really address your concern at all.

Gigachad 4y ago

For people who haven't used iOS, the Share screen is the ios junk draw where every option they couldn't find a better place to put something goes. Things like Find on page are located there too.

tomduncalf 4y ago
FYI you can just type in the address bar and a “find in page” option appears in the autocomplete list if that text is on the page, no need to use the share screen
- gregoriol 4y ago
  This is even more hidden than the one in the share screen
  - sosborn 4y ago
    More hidden maybe, but definitely more logical.
    - Someone1234 4y ago
      More logical to use a textbox typically reserved for navigating away from the current page, to instead search that page?
      - gregoriol 4y ago
        Thanks, was going to answer the same: nor the "address" text field nor the "share" button indicate actions to be performed inside the page; the logical idea is that first one is to go to another site, the second one is to transfer the current page to another app/person I have to admit I don't see where to put the "search inside the page" feature, definitely some ux trick to be found
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  The worst part of this is it’s the last item in the autocomplete list, and will often be under the keyboard, off screen until we scroll to it. It also hides the current page behind the list of course. All in all, text selection and search is still such a second class experience on iOS.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
layer8 4y ago
It’s more like what would be the context menu in a traditional desktop GUI.
fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
I disagree, the “share screen” is the logical place for actions that operate on the object you’re currently looking at. Adding a new banner or something for installing PWAs would just clutter up the UI and make it less consistent.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  I don't think it's strictly bad to have a junk draw menu, but calling it a share menu doesn't really describe what it is.
  - testTED 4y ago
    DRAWER, it's a drawer.
  - saagarjha 4y ago
    Its official name is not the share menu, if that helps.
- pprotas 4y ago
  A perfect menu already exists for this. If you click the “Aa <puzzle piece” button, a bunch of website-specific settings pop up. “Search on Page” or “Install on Homescreen” would fit in perfectly here. Maybe under “Translate Page”.
  - fiddlerwoaroof 4y ago
    This is close, but it’s not ideal: the drawer is an OS-wide feature, that puzzle menu is a relic of when the drawer didn’t exist. And its symbol suggests that it’s about text options.
- rahoulb 4y ago
  Somewhat off-topic but as someone who used to be a very heavy iPad user (the M1 Mac has kind of obsoleted it), I think of the share sheet as the equivalent of a Unix pipe. It takes your current view or output and makes it available to another process - and if you use Shortcuts, you can actually see the data and its transformations along a literal pipeline. So, back on-topic, it does kind of make sense in that you’re taking the current URL and sending it to the Springboard.
isametry 4y ago
You’re not wrong, however they’ve actually been cutting down on that lately — moving the items which aren’t really “sharing” in any sense to a kebab / ellipsis. The best example is Photos, where the Share Sheet would have a LOT of unrelated junk — Duplicate, Hide, Slideshow… But as of one or two major versions ago, there’s now an ellipsis menu to keep those options instead. Notes got the same treatment. In current Safari, the “aA” menu is an equivalent of that. In my opinion, “Find on page” is really the only option on that Share Sheet which doesn’t really belong. All the others make sense, as they’re an “Export” of the page in some way or another.

donbrae 4y ago

I’ve long been hoping for something like the Smart App Banners[0] that native app developers can use to link to their app in the App Store. It’s relatively unobtrusive and easy for users to dismiss. [0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_apps_with_smart_app_banners https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_a...

LeanderK 4y ago
yes! Smart App Banners are really great and I just wished they would be available for PWAs