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I wish Apple and Google would make rules to the effect of "if your app's entire functionality could be done in a regular website or PWA, then you can't put a na
by josephcsible 1y ago
I wish Apple and Google would make rules to the effect of "if your app's entire functionality could be done in a regular website or PWA, then you can't put a native app on our stores".
- throwawaymaths 1y agothen they can't charge their app tax!
- nomel 1y ago> if your app's entire functionality could be done in a regular website or PWA, then you can't put a native app on our stores A very silly threshold, since this would knock out probably 95% of the app store, including games, since "websites" are extremely capable these days, with full 3d graphics, etc. Then, each time safari added a new modern browser feature, more would get knocked out.
- josephcsible 1y agoWhy is that a bad thing? Wouldn't we be better off with all of them being PWA's?
- Zak 1y agoIt's not a bad thing for users. It would reduce the ability of Apple and Google to extract revenue from their stores though, so they're motivated to do the opposite.
- cosmic_cheese 1y agoFor more complex apps, efficiency could be a considerable issue. As capable as the web has become, it’s not very battery friendly for more advanced use cases.
- Zak 1y agoSure, native apps can be good for users in some cases, but this post isn't about those.
- scarface_74 1y agoHow many apps that could be websites have in app purchases of digital goods?
- karanbhangui 1y agoGotta love the HN bubble. Users want apps, not PWAs.
- frollogaston 1y agoIf Apple wanted to make PWAs look like apps, users wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Except that's not what Apple wants at all.
- dpkirchner 1y agoIf apps were interchangeable with PWAs we'd just call PWAs apps. What would be the difference, besides distribution?
- frollogaston 1y agoThat would be good too, "progressive web app" is a silly name
- cosmic_cheese 1y agoI don’t think that’d be possible without a considerably different web engine than currently exists. Even on desktop with Chrome which is the best case scenario currently, web apps are visibly different from their native counterparts due to differences in things like click handling, latency, etc.
- frollogaston 1y agoMost apps nowadays are already websites inside a thin wrapper, and that part is just so it can go on the App Store and have certain OS integrations, not for the UI. Like yeah React Native implements a button with UIButton, but Safari also implements a button with native code. Good example is Discord. Complex app, only really difference for native is something about push-to-talk.
- cosmic_cheese 1y ago
- Tadpole9181 1y agoI think that's a little overstated. Part of a game's functionality is performance and native controls. A website can technically do those things, but the JS and WGL requirements will significantly hamper performance, and getting a browser to hand over native, first-class control of the device to the website is largely impossible and usually ends up an awkward mess. And that little asterisk would end up getting abused by pretty much everyone. After all, we wouldn't be able to add the same functionality to the website because the developers we employ for this are only proficient in `<native language here>`. By-intent, it would definitely be a big chunk of the apps out there, but I would argue that's a good thing. I don't want an App for every brand I interact with, especially since I know what they're doing (harvesting my data to sell to brokers to make a fraction of a penny more per transaction).
- kingo55 1y agoGiven how much it seems Apple detests PWAs, I don't ever see this happening. One can dream.
- llm_nerd 1y agoI feel like Apple is some lazy target for people to point to why PWAs have little uptake. Android has long had PWA support. Almost no one uses it at all. In fact iOS users have long had significantly high web browser usage than their Android compatriots. "It's because iOS doesn't support it...somehow. Despite entirely separate bases that could be served in entirely different ways, it's actually Apple's fault" A couple of years ago Apple pretty much fully supported PWAs, including push notifications. Still negligible uptake on either iOS or Android. It turns out that it was the PWAs vs the Apps all along, and had nothing to do with Apple. The web and the average web technology stack has turned so toxic -- those enormous frameworks that yield an atrocious user experience -- that people prefer the app. Still though, somehow Apple's fault. Increasingly such adherents have to reach to successively more niche weird Google additions to Chrome to justify why somehow Apple is to blame. Because Apple doesn't support the new half-baked AdBlastNoBlock3000 API that Google jammed into Chrome. Etc. It's just weird. At some point people need to be a bit more honest with themselves about why apps are preferred over PWAs or even just basic websites when an app is avialable.
- frollogaston 1y agoApps are normally made semi cross-platform nowadays. Not much point in maintaining a PWA that's effectively an Android-only app. But even aside from Apple's lack of support, the PWA standard seems kinda bad. Weird boilerplate like the serviceworker.js even if all you want is to make it addable to home screen.
- c-hendricks 1y agoYou don't need a service worker if that's all you want to do. You just need a manifest.
- barbazoo 1y agoWhat you probably envision but didn’t say is that this would be in a world where a website could be a first class citizen and behave more like an app. Mobile browsers don’t have e to be so shitty.
- dontlaugh 1y agoApple almost sort of do. If you have a website and put an app on the App Store, it must have functionality that beyond what the website already offers.