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Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

joreteg.com

51–60 of 151 posts

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#51

I think one of the uphill battles you're going to have to fight with PWAs is end-user habit. If Joe consumer is looking for a great way to see a weather forecast he's going to look for an app. Jane wants to play podcasts - she's looking for an app. Ezra wants a Jewish calendar - app store. 99 times out of a hundred for the smartphone carrying crowd, the app store has become a replacement for google searches when it c…

You don't have to change users, you have to get Google and Apple to change. There's no technical reason they couldn't include web apps in their app stores. In the article the author speculates that both Google and Apple are working on this. I could see Google embracing web apps, but I'd be surprised if Apple does.

not only in the stores, widgets and general integration with the os (like actionable notifications etc.) are one of the things that make native apps a necesity. To appear in the widget screen in ios or make a homescreen widget in android you must have a native app.

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to use the 'app' offline is a pretty important feature tho. I almost always have web access, but most apps also almost never need it (for me to do what I want to do).

This really depends on what the app is . A few of my friends use apps to look up when the next bus is coming. I use the official website. There's zero need for their apps to be available offline, they only thing they're for is looking up the next bus, which requires an internet connection. The app in this case gives absolutely no advantage to the website. I find that's the case for a lot of phone apps

Even for this use case, an app (including offline-enabled PWA) should load faster than an online-only website if they're designed properly, because the app UI is pre-cached and it's just making a small JSON web request for the next bus.

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#53
post #3

So it sounds like PWAs now make this true: > You don't have to create a native app because PWAs now offer all the functionality of a native app. That's cool. But _this_ has been true for a while: > You don't have to create a native app because a mobile-friendly website offers all the functionality you need. I use (reluctantly) a bunch of apps that really should be just websites. They don't make use of my phone's came…

I've always naively assumed that apps were given preference because they are better at gathering info about the user (can get location more easily for instance, can phone home whenever...) and better at displaying ads (no Adblock there), and therefore I'm surprised nobody evokes this. Don't you think it's at least partly true?

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#54
post #36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> look up when the next bus is coming That's ridiculous argument against offline use - bus schedules are small enough data that we print them out and carry them in our pockets. Sure, if the bus company socks, it might be nice to know about changes due to roadwork, real-time updates (ie look up the next bus via it's gps location and speed) - but doing off-line route planning would be a great feature...

In Missoula, Montana, where I live, the Mountain Line app shows you where every individual bus on a given route is, and computes ETA to a selected bus stop. I'm pretty sure that's common functionality. (To be honest, the Mountain Line is very punctual, so I could likely do just fine with just a printed schedule.)

Where I currently live, the bus app does the same, but the difference between scheduled time at each individual stop is typically 1-3 minutes. So it's not like off-line functionality would be useless, even if on-line can add value. But it obviously only adds value when you're on-line - and if off-line the app doesn't work at all...

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#55
post #31
post #25

Just be aware that ionic3 is full of bugs. You can use angular 4 which is absolutely ready now. Ionic is full of promises (literally and figuratively), but it is not even ready as a beta. - I spent days to make workaround for making it work. Even basic things like routers. - I suffered a lot with its build process. Transpiling my typescript is a so much pain for my mac. That is even worse than when I compiled java ye…

Interesting that you had so many pain points. I like Ionic, don't love it but I find it to be very very easy to work with. I don't mean to flame, I just want to provide a counter example as I was using Ionic on the day to day basis for about 5 months. - I find the router to be very easy to use, requiring no work arounds, you call the nav controller and push / set a view, nothing crazy here. - The build process, speci…

Which app were you developing? Is it actually in the app store? What kind of usage does it have?

I've always entertained the idea of using a hybrid framework--like Ionic--but I have never heard of a successful business betting the farm on one (especially a "Banking" one like you say).

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#56
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to change users, you have to get Google and Apple to change. There's no technical reason they couldn't include web apps in their app stores. In the article the author speculates that both Google and Apple are working on this. I could see Google embracing web apps, but I'd be surprised if Apple does.

not only in the stores, widgets and general integration with the os (like actionable notifications etc.) are one of the things that make native apps a necesity. To appear in the widget screen in ios or make a homescreen widget in android you must have a native app.

Actionable notifications have been a feature of PWAs in Chrome for over a year now: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2016/01/notificati...

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#57

I think buildings sites as PWAs is a good idea but it'll take some time for them to actually replace apps. As other commenters have said, user habits go straight to apps. And until Apple decides to support service worker in iOS Safari, it won't have the same functionality as on Android.

Worth noting that Apple (WebKit) set Service Workers from 'Under discussion' to 'in development'

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#58
post #42

I'm really sick and tired of going to a site on my phone, and getting inundated with popups and banners and crap telling me to install the app (Reddit, I'm looking at you). I just want to view the same fricking website that I view on my desktop, but on my phone. You'd think that would be a simple and obvious way of working that would be supported by every single website in existence without any special effort on the…

I work at a small business, and our customers are constantly asking that we make an app. We have a fully functional website that is completely responsive, and we do more mobile sales than desktop. But they keep asking for an app. I have no idea why- I guess it feels more "legitimate" than a website. I try to politely explain that I'm our sole developer, and I'd have to support the website, AND an iphone app, AND an a…

I suspect they want the app to have an easy access icon on their home screen. I don't think most people know you can save a shortcut as an icon from a given web page on their home screen.

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#59
This is something I feel quite strongly about, and I too favour PWAs. I think native apps have their place for now, as a few key APIs are not fully exposed via browsers yet, but the API landscape continues to improve. Apple has even started dev on service workers for Safari, and their IndexedDB implementation is not as buggy as it used to be.

If I'm honest, apps never really made sense to me; they seem to be part of an intrinsically closed eco-system, which feels completely at odds with the initial premise of the internet, and dare I say, computing in general. If you have an Apple product, you must go to the App Store, if you have an Android product, then it's the Play Store etc. The feeling of openness that I became accustomed to (probably from a time before "apps") seems to have taken a step backward with mobile apps, and replaced with an endless need for vendor lock in. It's great for business, but as a user, it feels really restrictive. As a developer, it's not great either.

I believe that as browsers become more standardised (i.e. you don't need rubbish like if(IS_IOS) { ... } else { ... } in your JavaScript), and they start to expose more and more functionality via well-defined APIs, developers will favour the browser as a deployment platform, simply because it'll be more ubuquitous, will be easier to deploy and manage, and will have a lower barrier to entry. Till then, native apps will maintain their position, as they will be the more polished product.

A personal anecdote: I gave my latest app (a PWA - https://usebx.com) to a few small business owners in my home town to use for free. I pointed them to the website, and the first question they asked me was "why can't I find it on the app/play store?". I told them that they needn't go to the app store - just add the webpage to your homescreen, and you're good to go! They much preferred that method, as compared to "faffing around on t'app store" (imagine that said in a Yorkshire accent)! They even loved the app, and as far as I'm aware, found it on par with a native app. My point is, even the fairly long winded process of searching the app store to find an app, then waiting for it to install, was the first thing that came to mind for these non-techy guys. Once they knew about "Add to homescreen", they liked it. I think much of the transition to PWAs will be like this - people struggling free from their habitual need to use vendor specific app stores and eventually embracing the simpler, more open, web-based app paradigm.

Re: Betting on the Web – Why I Build PWAs

#60
post #42

I'm really sick and tired of going to a site on my phone, and getting inundated with popups and banners and crap telling me to install the app (Reddit, I'm looking at you). I just want to view the same fricking website that I view on my desktop, but on my phone. You'd think that would be a simple and obvious way of working that would be supported by every single website in existence without any special effort on the…

I work at a small business, and our customers are constantly asking that we make an app. We have a fully functional website that is completely responsive, and we do more mobile sales than desktop. But they keep asking for an app. I have no idea why- I guess it feels more "legitimate" than a website. I try to politely explain that I'm our sole developer, and I'd have to support the website, AND an iphone app, AND an a…

Hybrid mobile app?
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