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Curious, can you give some examples of PWAs you use, and why? I've rarely seen any benefit of actually installing a PWA vs just bookmarking the site. On mobile

Curious, can you give some examples of PWAs you use, and why? I've rarely seen any benefit of actually installing a PWA vs just bookmarking the site. On mobile, I could see privacy reasons for wanting to use a PWA vs a native app, but every time I've seen a site that supports a PWA, they also support a native app and the PWA is usually a sad substitute in comparison.

kstrauser 3y ago
Along those lines, does macOS 14's Safari's support for "Add to Dock" count as installing a PWA? I have a couple frequently used websites in my dock, acting more or less like regular Mac apps (or at least like Electron apps). What would a "proper" PWA add to that? (Not a leading question. I'm genuinely asking people who like and use PWAs: is there something cool I'm missing out on?)
- dutchCourage 3y ago
  You're correct. I'm actually not sure what installing a PWA does that visiting the website in your browser doesn't, but it's essentially opening the website in a headless browser. So very much like electron except instead of having to bundle the browser in the executable it uses your machine's browser.
  - chuckadams 3y ago
    > headless browser I think you mean chromeless (an amusingly confusing term when it's chrome hosting the PWA). If it were headless, you wouldn't see anything at all.
    - dutchCourage 3y ago
      Ah indeed I mixed up the two.
TheFuzzball 3y ago
I use PWAs for YouTube Music, Slack, and Readwise Reader. Sometimes there is a standalone app available, like with Slack, but often the PWA has the same features and doesn't duplicate the entire Web Platform stack (Electron), which saves some battery.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  Thanks, the Slack example is a good one, I just use the electron app now but there is no reason I shouldn't use the PWA.
kpw94 3y ago
Any online IDE is a much nicer experience as an installed PWA compared to as a browser tab. VS code server for instance, since you don't get a the address bar at top like https://code.visualstudio.com/assets/docs/remote/vscode-server/server-connected.png https://code.visualstudio.com/assets/docs/remote/vscode-serv... (without having to go Full screen on browser), and you get a standalone icon in task bar, and standalone window so you can Alt-Tab between it and other apps like web browser of choice quickly.
porridgeraisin 3y ago
Photopea, it's a web based photo editor that is really really great. If you install it as a PWA, it works offline. Similarly, excalidraw, monkeytype, google calendar all work offline if you install it as a PWA. Apart from that, I have youtube music, slack, discord, whatsapp web just for convenience of having it in alt+tab rather than cycle through a thousand tabs (admittedly, this usecase is nullified by tab search)
- fauigerzigerk 3y ago
  >(admittedly, this usecase is nullified by tab search) Cmd+Tab is far quicker than tab search for me.

kstrauser 3y ago

Along those lines, does macOS 14's Safari's support for "Add to Dock" count as installing a PWA? I have a couple frequently used websites in my dock, acting more or less like regular Mac apps (or at least like Electron apps). What would a "proper" PWA add to that? (Not a leading question. I'm genuinely asking people who like and use PWAs: is there something cool I'm missing out on?)

dutchCourage 3y ago
You're correct. I'm actually not sure what installing a PWA does that visiting the website in your browser doesn't, but it's essentially opening the website in a headless browser. So very much like electron except instead of having to bundle the browser in the executable it uses your machine's browser.
- chuckadams 3y ago
  > headless browser I think you mean chromeless (an amusingly confusing term when it's chrome hosting the PWA). If it were headless, you wouldn't see anything at all.
  - dutchCourage 3y ago
    Ah indeed I mixed up the two.

TheFuzzball 3y ago

I use PWAs for YouTube Music, Slack, and Readwise Reader. Sometimes there is a standalone app available, like with Slack, but often the PWA has the same features and doesn't duplicate the entire Web Platform stack (Electron), which saves some battery.

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
Thanks, the Slack example is a good one, I just use the electron app now but there is no reason I shouldn't use the PWA.

kpw94 3y ago

Any online IDE is a much nicer experience as an installed PWA compared to as a browser tab. VS code server for instance, since you don't get a the address bar at top like https://code.visualstudio.com/assets/docs/remote/vscode-server/server-connected.png https://code.visualstudio.com/assets/docs/remote/vscode-serv... (without having to go Full screen on browser), and you get a standalone icon in task bar, and standalone window so you can Alt-Tab between it and other apps like web browser of choice quickly.

porridgeraisin 3y ago

Photopea, it's a web based photo editor that is really really great. If you install it as a PWA, it works offline. Similarly, excalidraw, monkeytype, google calendar all work offline if you install it as a PWA. Apart from that, I have youtube music, slack, discord, whatsapp web just for convenience of having it in alt+tab rather than cycle through a thousand tabs (admittedly, this usecase is nullified by tab search)

fauigerzigerk 3y ago
>(admittedly, this usecase is nullified by tab search) Cmd+Tab is far quicker than tab search for me.