4 ms·

I believe PWAs have a place in highly “templatable” things like restaurant pages and online shops. Those I can see adding to my home screen. Anything more compl

I believe PWAs have a place in highly “templatable” things like restaurant pages and online shops. Those I can see adding to my home screen. Anything more complex than those is questionable.

madeofpalk 3y ago
Why do you need to 'install' a restaurant app/website? That's the perfect usecase for like... a website.
- jwells89 3y ago
  For quick access without cluttering browser tabs and bookmarks.
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    You value real-estate on your home screen less than in your bookmarks?
    - jwells89 3y ago
      It’s more that the number of sites I’d add to my home screen has a hard upper bound that’s not high, management is easy, and if I want one without it being on the home screen I can send it to the app library instead, where it’ll surface with a search. Bookmarks on the other hand are unbounded and suck to manage (no browser has improved meaningfully in this realm in ~20 years for some reason) so the threshold for what gets bookmarked is higher.
    - paulddraper 3y ago
      It's a spectrum. Some things are important enough for a bookmark, others are important enough for home screen.
      - elevatedastalt 3y ago
        It just feels a bit of an edgecase to imagine that a menu of a specific restaurant is important enough to occupy a spot in the top 20-25 of your digital real estate.
        paulddraper 3y ago
        What about a movie theater?
    - troupo 3y ago
      I search for installed apps on my phone quite regularly. It's often faster than remembering where the hell it is in my folders on screen.
  - julianlam 3y ago
    You're able to add websites to your home screen without it being a PWA, but this is on Android. Assuming this is not the case on iOS
    - jwells89 3y ago
      You can on iOS too, but it opens a browser tab which is undesirable. Sites have to be marked as PWAs to open in their own process.
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    Why would you need quick access to one restaurant’s menu? If you go there infrequently, I don’t understand why you would clutter up any part of my phone - bookmarks or Home Screen - with its menu. If you go there frequently… you already know the menu?
    - jwells89 3y ago
      > If you go there frequently… you already know the menu? For most places, but there are a handful that have huge menus. Its name escapes me but for instance when I lived in SF there was a sandwich place I frequented that was one such shop and aside from a couple of favorites I could never remember everything they had. Also, these sites tend to facilitate ordering ahead, ordering delivery etc too so it’s not just a static HTML file.
    - perilunar 3y ago
      Also if they have online menus or ordering they usually have a QR code on the table or nearby. No need to bookmark or save anywhere.
- DANmode 3y ago
  For most uses, "install" = hold my auth and put a bookmark on my home screen. In that regard, webapps work perfectly.

I believe PWAs have a place in highly “templatable” things like restaurant pages and online shops. Those I can see adding to my home screen. Anything more complex than those is questionable.

madeofpalk 3y ago

Why do you need to 'install' a restaurant app/website? That's the perfect usecase for like... a website.

jwells89 3y ago
For quick access without cluttering browser tabs and bookmarks.
- BobaFloutist 3y ago
  You value real-estate on your home screen less than in your bookmarks?
  - jwells89 3y ago
    It’s more that the number of sites I’d add to my home screen has a hard upper bound that’s not high, management is easy, and if I want one without it being on the home screen I can send it to the app library instead, where it’ll surface with a search. Bookmarks on the other hand are unbounded and suck to manage (no browser has improved meaningfully in this realm in ~20 years for some reason) so the threshold for what gets bookmarked is higher.
  - paulddraper 3y ago
    It's a spectrum. Some things are important enough for a bookmark, others are important enough for home screen.
    - elevatedastalt 3y ago
      It just feels a bit of an edgecase to imagine that a menu of a specific restaurant is important enough to occupy a spot in the top 20-25 of your digital real estate.
      - paulddraper 3y ago
        What about a movie theater?
  - troupo 3y ago
    I search for installed apps on my phone quite regularly. It's often faster than remembering where the hell it is in my folders on screen.
- julianlam 3y ago
  You're able to add websites to your home screen without it being a PWA, but this is on Android. Assuming this is not the case on iOS
  - jwells89 3y ago
    You can on iOS too, but it opens a browser tab which is undesirable. Sites have to be marked as PWAs to open in their own process.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  Why would you need quick access to one restaurant’s menu? If you go there infrequently, I don’t understand why you would clutter up any part of my phone - bookmarks or Home Screen - with its menu. If you go there frequently… you already know the menu?
  - jwells89 3y ago
    > If you go there frequently… you already know the menu? For most places, but there are a handful that have huge menus. Its name escapes me but for instance when I lived in SF there was a sandwich place I frequented that was one such shop and aside from a couple of favorites I could never remember everything they had. Also, these sites tend to facilitate ordering ahead, ordering delivery etc too so it’s not just a static HTML file.
  - perilunar 3y ago
    Also if they have online menus or ordering they usually have a QR code on the table or nearby. No need to bookmark or save anywhere.
DANmode 3y ago
For most uses, "install" = hold my auth and put a bookmark on my home screen. In that regard, webapps work perfectly.