4 ms·

I wish such a browser could accurately emulate a mobile device's browser, not just change screen size, but even Apple's iOS simulator fails at this.

Y_Y 2y ago
No need, nowadays sites just guess you're on a phone if you resize the browser window too narrow and whinge at you to "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience".
- jsheard 2y ago
  > "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience". Plot twist: their "app" is just the same site wrapped in a webview, minus the nags to install the app.
  - codedokode 2y ago
    Plus autostart on boot and daily notifications.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
kilian 2y ago
There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.
- no_wizard 2y ago
  Can it emulate email rendering?
  - kilian 2y ago
    no I'm not touching that can of worms with a ten foot pole. Someone braver than me can build that!
  - avel 2y ago
    You need a farm of machines that run the actual mail clients, to do that reliably. https://www.emailonacid.com/ https://www.emailonacid.com/ is such a service.
    - no_wizard 2y ago
      I hate this so much. I don't want to do this, as its not cost efficient for development
- herpdyderp 2y ago
  Oh I wasn't even thinking about those things, but that's really cool! I was thinking more about different CSS implementation behavior, though that's less of a mobile-specific issue and more of a "every browser is different" issue. I don't have a list of differences off the top of my head, but I regularly find big enough differences that I don't rely on "responsive mode" or even (as mentioned) Apple's iOS simulator (because it does not accurately replicate the real on-iPhone browser rendering, which has bitten me before).
  - kilian 2y ago
    Using Polypane doesn't mean you can skip out on testing other rendering engines. That's such an important point that I even mention it on the homepage! So yeah, you should be testing (mobile) Safari and Firefox too. Chrome on android has some different APIs compared to Chrome on desktop, but rendering is identical. When developing your site, you can use Polypane Portal[1] to tunnel your local site to real devices while keeping them fully in sync with what you do in Polypane, so you can scroll, interact, inspect and even edit across real devices from inside Polypane, saving you a ton of time. [1] https://polypane.app/portal/ https://polypane.app/portal/

Y_Y 2y ago

No need, nowadays sites just guess you're on a phone if you resize the browser window too narrow and whinge at you to "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience".

jsheard 2y ago
> "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience". Plot twist: their "app" is just the same site wrapped in a webview, minus the nags to install the app.
- codedokode 2y ago
  Plus autostart on boot and daily notifications.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

kilian 2y ago

There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.

no_wizard 2y ago
Can it emulate email rendering?
- kilian 2y ago
  no I'm not touching that can of worms with a ten foot pole. Someone braver than me can build that!
- avel 2y ago
  You need a farm of machines that run the actual mail clients, to do that reliably. https://www.emailonacid.com/ https://www.emailonacid.com/ is such a service.
  - no_wizard 2y ago
    I hate this so much. I don't want to do this, as its not cost efficient for development
herpdyderp 2y ago
Oh I wasn't even thinking about those things, but that's really cool! I was thinking more about different CSS implementation behavior, though that's less of a mobile-specific issue and more of a "every browser is different" issue. I don't have a list of differences off the top of my head, but I regularly find big enough differences that I don't rely on "responsive mode" or even (as mentioned) Apple's iOS simulator (because it does not accurately replicate the real on-iPhone browser rendering, which has bitten me before).
- kilian 2y ago
  Using Polypane doesn't mean you can skip out on testing other rendering engines. That's such an important point that I even mention it on the homepage! So yeah, you should be testing (mobile) Safari and Firefox too. Chrome on android has some different APIs compared to Chrome on desktop, but rendering is identical. When developing your site, you can use Polypane Portal[1] to tunnel your local site to real devices while keeping them fully in sync with what you do in Polypane, so you can scroll, interact, inspect and even edit across real devices from inside Polypane, saving you a ton of time. [1] https://polypane.app/portal/ https://polypane.app/portal/