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Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

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Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#51

Post by presson »

collaborative wrote: post #23

I really hope your store takes off. I will say a prayer or two to this end. May your good character flourish and may you avoid all temptations that come with gatekeeping Apple and Google's app stores are death. They motivated me to re-code my c and java-based iOS and Android apps in js+wasm (SPA/PWA) from scratch. For a long time, I announced it with its proper name ("PWA"). I became very frustrated every time I inte…

Thank you! We have a very strong ethos around democratizing distribution and we plan to be careful not to go down a path to becoming what we hate. We're here to serve developers and users, and we'll look for guidance from our user base constantly. Re "PWA" I can empathize - I've found that for the majority of people, "installable web app" seems to register more effectively, but hoping that "PWA" becomes more broadly understood. Thanks again for the comment, and we look forward to serving you :-)

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#55

Post by presson »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #25

Very nice, one issue is that (on Safari iOS 16) when I navigate back to the list my scroll position is forgotten, I could understand when using my browser back button but I used the one in the UI so I’d expect it to remember the scroll position. Beyond that nitpick though this is excellent, well done.

Noted! Thank you for the feedback and the kind words! :-)

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#57

Post by willsmith72 »

yieldcrv wrote: post #48
willsmith72 wrote: post #43

This is awesome, as PWAs get better I really REALLY hope they'll challenge the big app stores. So far no one I know outside of tech knows or cares that this is even possible, but I hope sites like this will gradually change that and also change people's perceptions of what has to be a "native" app. I don't see any reason why in 10 years we should still be paying the 30% tax (+ the $100/year) just to get something wit…

nobody outside of tech cares they already use web apps with optional notifications anybody developing mobile apps knows that almost nobody downloads the company’s app, and it’s just there for vanity and clout

> nobody outside of tech cares

Yeah i know, hence "So far no one I know outside of tech knows or cares that this is even possible, but I hope sites like this will gradually change that and also change people's perceptions of what has to be a "native" app."

> anybody developing mobile apps knows that almost nobody downloads the company’s app, and it’s just there for vanity and clout

What do you mean here? Did you mean to say PWAs?

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#58

Post by presson »

tamimio wrote: post #40
mouse_ wrote: post #2

What a tragedy that what used to be called "installing" is now mocked by the industry lobby as "sideloading", and what used to just be "visiting a web page" has taken its rightful place. I have not and probably will not ever "install" a "web app". This is literally just a list of web sites. It's no more useful than Yahoo circa 1998 but now the bookmarks are on your desktop or homescreen rather than in your browser, w…

Your average person now think of anything as an “app” or it should have one, even if it was just a wrapper for a browser, they would still install the app (1), so I think OP is in the right direction, nothing will change from the user side but much better for the developer one. (1) Reminds me of this :) https://files.catbox.moe/36o4jr.jpeg

This is our hope. If we can help smooth out the messaging / install process, once a PWA is installed most apps will feel identical to a native app for most users. We used to say "web apps are apps" but now we just say "apps are apps" :-P
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