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Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

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Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#741

Post by searchableguy »

b1tr0t wrote: post #613
burtonator wrote: post #543

I ported Polar ( https://getpolarized.io/ ) over to a PWA about a year ago. It's kind of a nightmare due to both Google and Apple messing things up. PWAs could be an amazing platform but both companies are really messing it up. Apple is trying to kill them by giving plausible explanations as to why they can't have PWAs. Security this, blah blah blah. There's no reason they can't have PWAs work well in Safari other th…

Hi there, I'm the product manager for PWAs on the Chrome team. Very interested in hearing about pain points you've had building out PWAs, especially if there's features you were keen on that haven't been released. Easiest way to reach me is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/b1tr0t Fully agree with you that docs are all over the place. We've started to consolidate docs under web.dev, and the PWA section launched recentl…

More background services would be very nice even though it's a bit of a security nightmare. A request was opened almost 5 years ago for background geolocation services.

Any plans for https://developers.google.com/nearby ?

I don't want Google or central authorities to decide which PWAs are "trustworthy" directly to ask for certain permissions but there could be a way or compromise. I don't remember which feature it was but it required yes from Google.

I really want the first screen after installing PWAs to be their privacy policy or detailing which permissions/how they use them. It should be mandatory and important or may show a default screen with permissions and few dangerous ways they can be used for.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#742

Post by jeremyjh »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #736
roywashere wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, HTML5 LocalStorage was always different on iOS when compared to other platforms. The iOS browser localstorage is stored in /caches so it is cleaned when the device goes low on disk space. I found out the hard way, had a cordova app which ran on Android and iOS (and web) and saved an account token in LocalStorage. Some iOS users kept on getting logged out, mostly users with smaller size iPhones! Now we s…

How do you use the iOS Keyring from within a PWA or website in Safari?

They already explained that they are using Cordova. This bridges native APIs to web apps. What you deploy is a native app through the app store.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#743

Post by [deleted] »

millstone wrote: post #740
jamiesonbecker wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. There is no choice with IOS: you choose the same WebKit that they've chosen, or Safari. One engine and version, or one browser using that one engine.

Android is a web monoculture too. Non-Blink browsers on Android are at <1%.

[deleted]

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#746

Post by Gaelan »

pier25 wrote: post #654
gridlockd wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's confusing. It's not 7 days of non-use , it's seven days of application use without visiting the site. Safari is one application, the homescreen app is a separate application. Presumably, all the alt browsers or WebView apps are separate applications as well. Since you can't use a homescreen app without visiting the site, the 7 days of not visiting the site can't happen.

will it be "7 days of non-use" for regular websites that use localStorage? You can't really have "seven days of application use without visiting the site".

For "regular websites" (visited through Safari) it's 7 days where you use Safari, but don't visit the site. So if you go on vacation for a month and don't touch your computer, or if you switch completely to using Firefox for a month, localStorage will remain untouched.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#747

Post by joeyspn »

Well, wouldn't surprise me if Apple is now trying to kill aspects of the "open web" they dislike. Ironic because they used "upcoming" web standards as argument to kill Flash.

Apple will do whatever it takes to protect its closed ecosystem, and if that means killing PWAs built with open web technologies they'll provide any dubious excuse to justify it (security, privacy, blahblah). They did the same back in 2010, killing a perfectly valid app platform that was picking up momentum, but they didn't control. A platform that was 5-10 years ahead of the "open web".

Looks like this time they won't use HTML5 as piss-poor excuse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_on_Flash

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#748

Post by jdauriemma »

comex wrote: post #710
burtonator wrote: post #543

I ported Polar ( https://getpolarized.io/ ) over to a PWA about a year ago. It's kind of a nightmare due to both Google and Apple messing things up. PWAs could be an amazing platform but both companies are really messing it up. Apple is trying to kill them by giving plausible explanations as to why they can't have PWAs. Security this, blah blah blah. There's no reason they can't have PWAs work well in Safari other th…

I tried using your app on an iPhone (with Add to Home Screen). - If I press the settings gear, the text on the settings page is about twice as wide as the screen, requiring horizontal scrolling. - On the front page, if I open the color picker, it's partially offscreen. - On all pages, if I do a scroll gesture in the wrong direction, it scrolls the entire UI rather than just the scrollable part. Admittedly, iOS has lo…

There are some fantastic PWAs out there. Twitter is the one I use most regularly.

I think one of the reasons we see a lot of less-polished PWAs is that the idea of the PWA appeals to businesses at certain stages. Larger shops can afford to ship native binaries to more than one platform, but a smaller operation can't. PWAs are presumably tempting to those types of product teams: you get multi-platform reach while truly only writing for the web. The fact that their UIs have rough edges are probably a result of having an MVP-stage product.

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#749

Post by numpad0 »

rhizome wrote: post #649
gridlockd wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's confusing. It's not 7 days of non-use , it's seven days of application use without visiting the site. Safari is one application, the homescreen app is a separate application. Presumably, all the alt browsers or WebView apps are separate applications as well. Since you can't use a homescreen app without visiting the site, the 7 days of not visiting the site can't happen.

So this is a requirement that all webapps phone home, moreover that they have a home to phone?

I'm not getting the semantics clear but wonder whether having the icon on the homescreen counts as "visiting" or whether suspending the app first day and reopening it the next day counts app-subjectively as "continuing day one" or "reopening immediately"

Re: Private client-side-only PWAs are hard, but now Apple made them impossible

#750

Post by Silhouette »

kstrauser wrote: post #730
osrec wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a relief. We've built our business on our PWA, which also has an offline mode. It would be annoying if we had to adjust it for (yet another) Safari quirk.

Except that by "Safari quirk" you mean "the way that all common browsers are heading". Safari is the first here. Firefox is certain to be right behind them. Google, probably not, but I bet Edge does the same thing before too long.

I hope not. Apple has had substandard support for modern web technologies in Safari for a long time, to the point where it is often referred to in the industry as the new IE. We've had enough of browsers breaking things that used to work in the name of false progress. Time for the grown-ups to take a careful look and see this for what it is.
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