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I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. If the web was invented today browsers would never be allowed on the App Store. Not even a dumbed down version with
by klabb3 3y ago
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. If the web was invented today browsers would never be allowed on the App Store. Not even a dumbed down version without advanced scripting capabilities.
The fact that they have a browser and allow “3p browsers” is only because the web was already established and customers wouldn’t have bought in without it.
iPhones and iPads are not general purpose computing devices. Not by tech, but by policy.
- srcreigh 3y agoKeeping in mind what a browser could have been in 2024 if Apple hadn't disallowed/slowed innovation, it's fair to say browsers aren't allowed on the App Store.
- radley 3y agoTechnically, third-party browsers are NOT allowed. The only browsers allowed are built using Apple's "open-source" WebKit.
- willsmith72 3y agoTIL chrome on ios uses webkit...
- xcdzvyn 3y agoFirefox too.
- hnburnsy 3y agoDon't many apps use their own in app browser and not Safari? https://krausefx.com/blog/announcing-inappbrowsercom-see-what-javascript-commands-get-executed-in-an-in-app-browser https://krausefx.com/blog/announcing-inappbrowsercom-see-wha... I always thought that a company should make an app those does something trivially, but also has its own in app browser as the true functionality.
- Hamuko 3y agoAny single application on iOS(/iPadOS) that allows you to browse the Internet is in some way based on Safari. The in-app browsers are just using one of the webview UI elements based on Safari/WebKit instead of opening up Safari.
- Etheryte 3y agoAll of those are iOS's own Webkit, just with extra tracking scripts.
- rootusrootus 3y agoI feel like a lot of people have forgotten that we had proprietary services before the web became a thing. E.g. Compuserve, Prodigy.
- smoldesu 3y agoA lot of people never paid for or used those services even when they were in their hayday.
- kelnos 3y agoI used CompuServe in the 90s (user ID 76760,1543 here; why do I remember useless things like that...), and it was fantastic to be able to ditch it for a generic, competitive, local ISP, where I could get on the internet using open, standardized protocols. Making things proprietary when they should be commodities is a step backward, and we should fight that, tooth and nail.
- LMYahooTFY 3y agoThose services died relatively quickly in the face of what GP is describing.
- rootusrootus 3y agoIndeed they did. Why do we now think it's possible to go back to that?
- int_19h 3y agoOP's point is that it's not, which is why Apple is begrudgingly allowing it. But if they could make you use apps for everything instead of a browser, they would. And they'd use all the same arguments they do today wrt not allowing sideloading etc to justify it.