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The primary challenge here is that companies are hamstrung by browser-level API's by companies like Google and Apple where they provide them only if you build a

by zholer 1y ago

The primary challenge here is that companies are hamstrung by browser-level API's by companies like Google and Apple where they provide them only if you build an app. This forces developers to keep maintaining and providing apps, even though every developer knows that their headaches would be less than halved if they could just support the same capabilities via browser-level apis.

zholer 1y ago
Google is a lot better in this regard though, but supporting most things on Safari are an absolute PITA
chpatrick 1y ago
99% of apps don't need any native feature.
- zholer 1y ago
  true, but 99% of the apps don't generate any traffic at all :) If you look at the top 1% of apps, all of them could have been PWA's but can't. Here is a case study from aliexpress who achieved a 104% increase across all users for conversions when they deployed as a PWA: https://web.dev/case-studies/aliexpress https://web.dev/case-studies/aliexpress
  - beached_whale 1y ago
    And Aliexpress is annoying as heck because they keep trying to redirect to app owned URI's for things like tracking. I'm already there to buy. The privacy of apps is just not as good as web with no benefit to me.
    - dontlaugh 1y ago
      I think that's more cultural. Mobile apps are very much the default in China and websites are rarely used through a browser, but rather as mini-apps inside other apps.
      - beached_whale 1y ago
        Could be, I shop there despite it but it is annoying.
EasyMark 1y ago
the things I want a web app for are banks, shopping, various utilities, etc. They don't need a complex interface, and sticking to web standards should not be hard to be useful to 99% of the users out there, and should only simplify the developer's life.
theshackleford 1y ago
> every developer You know. Every developer you know. I know many devs who in fact expliticly do not think that at all, quite the opposite at a minimum.

by zholer 1y ago

zholer 1y ago

Google is a lot better in this regard though, but supporting most things on Safari are an absolute PITA

chpatrick 1y ago

99% of apps don't need any native feature.

zholer 1y ago
true, but 99% of the apps don't generate any traffic at all :) If you look at the top 1% of apps, all of them could have been PWA's but can't. Here is a case study from aliexpress who achieved a 104% increase across all users for conversions when they deployed as a PWA: https://web.dev/case-studies/aliexpress https://web.dev/case-studies/aliexpress
- beached_whale 1y ago
  And Aliexpress is annoying as heck because they keep trying to redirect to app owned URI's for things like tracking. I'm already there to buy. The privacy of apps is just not as good as web with no benefit to me.
  - dontlaugh 1y ago
    I think that's more cultural. Mobile apps are very much the default in China and websites are rarely used through a browser, but rather as mini-apps inside other apps.
    - beached_whale 1y ago
      Could be, I shop there despite it but it is annoying.

EasyMark 1y ago

the things I want a web app for are banks, shopping, various utilities, etc. They don't need a complex interface, and sticking to web standards should not be hard to be useful to 99% of the users out there, and should only simplify the developer's life.

theshackleford 1y ago

> every developer You know. Every developer you know. I know many devs who in fact expliticly do not think that at all, quite the opposite at a minimum.