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I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

debuggerdotbreak.judahgabriel.com

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Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#241

Post by saagarjha »

iandev wrote: post #25
judah wrote: post #2

Author here. Thanks all for bringing this to the HN front page. The jist of the article is getting a PWA into the app stores is harder than it needs to be, especially on iOS. Between Google, Apple, and Microsoft, I found Google's Play Store to be the simplest and quickest store to get a PWA published in. Another interesting bit is that web technologies haven't caught up to native. My PWA isn't super complex -- it's a…

In the article: "Aside: I guess Apple won’t let you submit an app unless you have a registered, legal company?" Although it does seem to be this way, you can submit an app to the store without being a registered, legal company. The most common route is to just mark yourself as a sole proprietorship using your own name. No need for an LLC or anything. However, this may vary from country to country.

Can confirm: in the US, you don't need to get a DUNS number at all, if you're selling individually.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#243

Post by robocat »

mamcx wrote: post #184
floatboth wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Android webviews are VERY slow Huh? Since KitKat I think, WebView is updatable (and is on the App Store), plus browsers like Chrome and Firefox can provide their own WebView implementation. Most people with non-ancient phones are probably using Chrome's engine in all WebViews. And also, old engine doesn't even mean "slow". Only Apple used to an actual problem here, because for a long long time there was no JS JIT i…

That is the theory. Hold a iPhone and and android and run the same web-browser apps and look for yourself. I have tested several demos by ionic, framework7, etc... is amazing how slow are androids...

My guess is that the difference in speed is mostly due to hardware, not the browser.

Apple hardware benchmarks well beats Android hardware: http://browser.geekbench.com/mobile-benchmarks

Given Safari can optimise for a single GPU target (which is also probably faster), it is likely the speed differences are not due to the browsers per se.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#244

Post by saagarjha »

hesarenu wrote: post #96
ryandrake wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a lot to do with what you’re used to. As an Apple user bought into their ecosystem and tools, I find developing for their platforms dramatically easier and more straightforward than for other targets. I can basically do Android development with some pain and confusion, but on Windows I’m totally stumped/useless.

I was trying to learn native iOS and Android app design been a mainly reactnative developer. Android was very easy to start. I learnt kotlin as I was writing the code. Java I remembered some from college days decade ago. The UI builder was very easy to use. I even went far as using the dagger Di. iOS I was kind of frustrated. I had gone over swift Lang some time back. But I found its syntax estoric. UI builder had it…

So, you found iOS development hard because you had very little experience with the tools?

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#245

Post by menckenjr »

freeone3000 wrote: post #223
zghst wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How accessible is your app? Have you tried it with VoiceOver? How does it do with battery and memory vs another comparable native app? When there's an OS upgrade, does your app automatically adjust to new resolutions and device classes?

It doesn't matter. Literally doesn't matter. Making apps work correctly is a lot of effort for zero gain.

I'm sure you didn't mean that to read that way.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#246

Post by specializeded »

freeone3000 wrote: post #223
zghst wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How accessible is your app? Have you tried it with VoiceOver? How does it do with battery and memory vs another comparable native app? When there's an OS upgrade, does your app automatically adjust to new resolutions and device classes?

It doesn't matter. Literally doesn't matter. Making apps work correctly is a lot of effort for zero gain.

I’ve been getting tired of seeing accessibility, accessibility, accessibility in every front end web/iOS/etc conference. Like we get it, everyone’s got it...

No longer tired of it, thanks.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#247

Post by oarsinsync »

saagarjha wrote: post #225
judah wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I'm not making any money on their platform. I'm a non-profit, building a free app; this isn't about money. I mentioned money in the post as a list of all barriers to moving a PWA to app store. $99/year + 33% in-app purchases (plus a $1000+ Mac to build, and probably one or more Mac minis for CI) is a barrier. The bigger concern is Apple is lagging behind on web standards. I suspect the reason for that is…

> I'm a non-profit So the only thing that applies to you is the price to have access to a Mac. Since you're a nonprofit, Apple will waive your developer fee, and you wouldn't need in-app purchases anyways. Also, IIRC the cut Apple takes is 30%, not 33%, in line with the rest of their App Store policies.

"non-profit" doesn't mean "not selling things"

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#248

Post by mft_ »

mankash666 wrote: post #217
shinratdr wrote: post #39

From a user perspective, this is why I love iOS. * Barrier to entry. If your project is more than a hobby, you can jump through a couple hoops to reach the iOS userbase. If the difference between $99 and $25 is make-or-break, you're probably trying to publish a hobby/low quality app anyways. There is a reason the Microsoft Store and Google Play are absolutely filled with trash, and this is part of it. * Forcing you t…

Gosh darn the cognitive dissonance!! The free market and users are completely capable of choosing quality apps, iOS/Apple needn't babysit, nay play brainwashing big-brother-evil-megacorp strangling competition/dissent, them in the process. "If your project is more than a hobby, you ...." Yes yes - if you're serious about your project, you'll willfully submit yourself to anal-probes by monopolistic mega-corporation th…

> When was the last time you let your refrigerator manufacturer tell you what items are allowed in your OWN FUCKING refrigerator? Why is different for iOS/Apple?

Well, if the things I put in my refrigerator started acting like malware, I think manufacturers might start taking a different approach...

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#249

Post by danShumway »

saagarjha wrote: post #235
danShumway wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every time some sort of device hardware is exposed to web applications, it needs to be rolled back in some way or the other because someone's found a way to use for fingerprinting. This is odd to me. Do you think it's harder for a native app to fingerprint you? At least on the web I can block specific domains or scripting in general. A native app will always be a net loss for privacy and sandboxing.

No, of course it's a lot easier for a native app can fingerprint you. The difference is that with native apps, I can trust that someone has already looked at this app to ensure that it's not doing anything malicious. Plus, I, myself, have to install the app, which shows that I put my trust in it.

I used to have this perspective, but recently I've started to find it problematic.

Curation, while effective, is always a monkey patch on top of security. Ideally, I want to sandbox code. I don't want to have to trust it. I think it's unnecessarily limiting to assume that users should only ever run code that they trust.

In fact even native apps already try to do some sandboxing through a permission model. It's just that their permission model is less effective than the web, gives users less control, and leaks more information.

I'm also not sure that this matches my real world experience. I might use Facebook messenger or Twitter on my phone's browser. Installing something like Matrix makes me feel even better about that. I would never install their native app.

In theory I trust apps more than websites, but in practice I find that I usually view the app store with just as much suspicion as I do a random website.

Re: I built a progressive web app and published it in three app stores

#250

Post by [deleted] »

danShumway wrote: post #237
saagarjha wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you going to stop every website requesting all the permissions upfront?

The same way we stop native apps from doing that? It used to be fairly common in Android for developers to just request everything. Developers still request too much, but it's gotten a bit better because in newer versions of Android you have to actually start using the API before the permission will be requested - so as a user if you request microphone access, I know it's because right now you intend to record sound.…

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