Cool concept! I'd like to list an app but I can't seem to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the terms.
On iPad, I can’t scroll to the bottom of any page. There’s no way to tap the “get” button on the bottom row of apps.
Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
141–150 of 233 posts
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#142Is it just me that I like websites with URLs on the browser while trying to avoid Apps wherever possible, especially on the desktop? Please don’t take me the wrong way; I was the one developing apps for Pocket PC devices in the early 2000s. For instance, “Twitter” is the first featured “app” I see here at Store.App. However, when I use Twitter, I tend to click away on links and read/browse them. How are people using…
Yeah Twitter is an awful use case. Any app that has lots of external links or that you want to spawn new tabs is better just staying in the browser.
The ones that work better as installed apps are things that you kinda just leave open in their own window: instant messaging apps, email, music streaming, etc.
There's no reason for these to have a URL bar at the top, and "installing" the things often unlocks global hotkeys and other bits.
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#143Is it just me that I like websites with URLs on the browser while trying to avoid Apps wherever possible, especially on the desktop? Please don’t take me the wrong way; I was the one developing apps for Pocket PC devices in the early 2000s. For instance, “Twitter” is the first featured “app” I see here at Store.App. However, when I use Twitter, I tend to click away on links and read/browse them. How are people using…
Depends on how you organise things. I generally DON'T close most tabs I open individually. I tend to open more and more tabs until I'm forced to close them all or most of them to keep things organised and then I start again. With habits such as mine, opening a webapp as an application rather than a tab will make it persist longer and be easier to find.
Additionally, while 99.9% of users won't take advantage of this, your operating system has all sorts of features to manipulate the window of individual GUI applications which it can't use in the context of tabs. Unattended automation of the GUI has all sorts of interesting applications.
You can also get rid of some of the wasted space at the top of the screen.
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#144I like the concept a lot, but I also think it should filter to only installable apps by default. If you detect a user is on a mobile device, it would probably also make sense to enable the mobile filter by default too. It would also be nice if there was an offline-capable filter as well, but maybe I missed it? I also notice the Developer tab is not part of the PWA, which kicks you out of the PWA experience on iOS, ev…
> PWAs on iOS can finally show notifications This has been such a great addition, once it was officially added I've quickly built a small web app that can now distribute notifications to all my devices effortlessly, with a single codebase and with no need to pay the dreaded $99/yr subscription. Haven't released that publicly but I might at some point once I clean up the mess that inevitably resulted from me writing i…
Not sure if it's entirely similar, but there's also this for those who don't want to build it themselves: https://ntfy.sh/
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#145Ah this is perfect! Once few years ago I had https://web-app.store/ (I no longer own that) and attempted to do exactly the same thing as you did, @presson. Funny how, besides your high-quality TLDN, it's basically the same name/TLD but reversed. For posterity sake, here is what it looked like:
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#146Ah this is perfect! Once few years ago I had https://web-app.store/ (I no longer own that) and attempted to do exactly the same thing as you did, @presson. Funny how, besides your high-quality TLDN, it's basically the same name/TLD but reversed. For posterity sake, here is what it looked like: https://i.imgur.com/hQospzk.png
That's amazing! We definitely stand on the shoulders of giants. Hoping that now is finally the right time for the web to make the jump. LMK if you ever want to connect and talk shop!
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#147I am on desktop. There is a button that says 'Get'. When I click on it, I get prompted to 'Install the app on your device'. Which just sends me to the home page? I just check on mobile, same thing. How is visiting a website's homepage 'installing the app on my device?' I think some people might be turned off by the word Installing, when you're just visiting a website? The word Get seems misleading, because you are no…
If you visit a PWA on Chrome for Android, you can install the app by tapping the three dots and scrolling down to 'Install app'. OP has a filter for only installable apps, but it's off by default. So you might be taken to an app that's not installable.
We've been getting feedback to keep the "installable" filter on by default, which I think is a good idea. We'll implement tomorrow. Eventually this'll evolve quite a bit, but we're taking a measure approach. Stay tuned! :-)
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you! It was pricey, but not as bad as it could've been. I pre-ordered it a month before .app became available as a TLD, and bought it on the first day of availability (May 2018!). I've been planning on building this for some time :-P Re carousel feedback - thank you! We've talked about this but have been prioritizing some other features ahead of it. That said, your feedback helps us prioritize higher. Keep the…
https://shouldiuseacarousel.com/
:-P
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asking the important questions.
I'm going through this very thing now. I'm focused on getting the backend features working, but getting pressure to make the tiny tweaks to the UI. Once you open the UI to actual users, priorities quickly get rearranged. The UI complaints are the punch in the "everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the face" phrase.
All part of the process, though! Brick by brick...
Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps
#150There is still no way to trigger an "install on homepage" dialogue from javascript, right? This seems to be the biggest limiting factor to me—The need for PWAs to include _instructions on how_ to install the app rather than a button to make it so.
Not on iOS, but you can trigger native install prompts on android and chromium browsers (Chrome and Edge).