Live data from Hacker News

Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

utcc.utoronto.ca

211–220 of 329 posts

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#211
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your opinion isn’t held by other people, some of whom disagree with your opinion and are expressing that. The other opinion seems "notifications cannot be disabled, therefore notifications are bad". If you don't want to see notification requests, you never will. Granted: you need to be able to change settings, in a very restricted environment or with a custom clone of some browser you might not be able to. For most…

I didn’t express an opinion either way. But it’s clear to me that there are some amongst us that believe that a difference of opinion must mean everyone who disagrees must therefore be in a cargo cult. That is what I am taking issue with. It’s also against the guidelines here.

I'm still struggling to find out the non-cult reason for "the feature must be banned from the browser, just being able to disable it for all time with a single click is not enough".

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#212

This is why, despite it being monopolistic, I hope Apple can continue their requirement on using Safari's rendering engine on iOS. It's the sole remaining defense against a far worse monopoly. Neither the Mozilla nor Edge teams have the backbone to resist Google's web platform initiatives.

As a developer, I hate it. Not only because feature lacking. But also because it's so buggy in terms of literally every aspect. It don't really actually properly implemented all spec from web 2.0 properly. Bugs comes out from everywhere for no reason. Supports it is just like rewrite the whole page again with no really payoff.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#213
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe your app is a rare exception, but apart from chat apps, any use of notifications I’ve seen are undesirable and abused to spam users. Even those that do have a legit use-case still abuse it by pushing non-desirable (from user perspective) messages. I think apart from Gitter I’ve never wanted a notification, as a user.

I don't like browser notifications, especially on mobile. Maybe it's me but there's no explicit place agreed upon between me and the browser where the browser says "if the site sends a notification, here is where it will be". Mobile is already bad enough where if you swipe a notification away, well I hope you remembered the icon and the bit of context that was on that notification. Browser notifications just make thi…

Technically, webpush-enabled site starts a service on your phone (read on js service workers) that then asks a browser to accept notifications from some origin and sends permission credentials to that origin. Then it decides for every incoming notification if it is worth popping up (e.g. if a site is a chat and it is already on the screen, there is no need to spam with popups), or if it’s worth a new tab on tap/click, etc. It is a hassle to configure, but then it usually just works. I suspect that your browser has to be running anyway, because a service worker is just a restricted browser env. Push providers may have delayed delivery, at least there is a ttl field in a notification at server-side. Didn’t test that much and only used that in one project, but remote alpha users already reported missing notifications. I have no clue how to debug that, because it simply doesn’t happen (phone config seems okay).

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#214

> (Conversely, if Safari refuses to implement some alleged 'feature', it becomes much less useful even if Chrome does implement it.) The fact that Apple refuses to implement basic features in mobile Safari that Firefox and Chrome have had for years now, and the fact that they refuse to allow other browser engines on iOS is the reason why we can't have nice things like progressive web apps. I recently worked on a heal…

Progressive web apps is not a feature. It is one of the worst bugs a browser can have.

It is almost Electron level bad.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did I accidentally disable this or something? I’ve never seen it. Everyone acts like 1. For some reason it has to be some sort of pop up, it could easily be a small icon in your bar 2. Apple couldn’t/wouldn’t design this so that it was unobtrusive 3. If the way they did design it was still too annoying, they wouldn’t make it less so, or make it easy to turn off Why do so many on HN argue from “if it existed it would…

> 1. For some reason it has to be some sort of pop up, it could easily be a small icon in your bar It is a popup right now... it is in your face and requires immediate action. An example: https://imgur.com/a/GfqUuAZ Using: https://www.bennish.net/web-notifications.html > 2. Apple couldn’t/wouldn’t design this so that it was unobtrusive It is obtrusive in that it is a full-window popover and you can't go to any other…

Wow, now I understand the sentiment... but that's a reason to stop using Safari, not against notifications.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why Apple is holding anyone back. Just build an app that doesn't work on iOS. There's lots of apps exclusive to iOS and Mac - why not exclusive Android? If the app really is a game changer, if it's that compelling, Apple will absolutely change its tune.

Because any app that is social in nature (where interactions between users is required really) that can only reach 50% of users does not have 50% of the potential value, it's closer to 0. As an example, my girlfriend's a nurse, and they have a really bad paging system. Basically, the doctor calls the hospital reception who calls one person who is on call, who calls the second person on call. Of course, this breaks up…

The issue is not very clear to me, but usually people create a group chat for that and simply turn notifications off when not “on call”. Whatsapp, telegram, signal, discord, mailing list, whatever fits more. For automation chat/email bots may be used. Chances are it’s already solved, if you take wider than “PWA or nothing”.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone. Sites abuses this and are always asking on my computer and it’s too easy to accidentally say accept.

The default setting for notifications in Chrome is "Sites can ask to send notifications", but you can set that to false in "Preferences > Privacy and security > Site settings > Notifications" and you'll never see the browser popup again. This is a feature that Chrome has had for about 6 years. The fact you haven't discovered it shows Chrome's UX could be better, but the fact you haven't searched for it might alsp sho…

You don't seem to understand what "I don’t want websites to be able to send notifications to my phone." means.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#218

> (Conversely, if Safari refuses to implement some alleged 'feature', it becomes much less useful even if Chrome does implement it.) The fact that Apple refuses to implement basic features in mobile Safari that Firefox and Chrome have had for years now, and the fact that they refuse to allow other browser engines on iOS is the reason why we can't have nice things like progressive web apps. I recently worked on a heal…

Half of Americans use an iPhone? Is that true?

~47% [0].

[0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/236550/percentage-of-us-...

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#219
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you would agree that some users can prefer notifications over email/sms, or is that line of reasoning only self-serving?

I absolutely agree that different groups of users want different things. An "average user" isn't useful in determining that.

Which is exactly why you can continue emailing your users, while others like me would like an option to use notifications and other PWA features.

Re: Safari is now probably the influential wild card browser for user privacy

#220
post #204

> (Conversely, if Safari refuses to implement some alleged 'feature', it becomes much less useful even if Chrome does implement it.) The fact that Apple refuses to implement basic features in mobile Safari that Firefox and Chrome have had for years now, and the fact that they refuse to allow other browser engines on iOS is the reason why we can't have nice things like progressive web apps. I recently worked on a heal…

If your progressive web app stops working because the browser is missing a feature, by definition you have not built a progressive app. It’s supposed to work everywhere, with progressive enhancements if platform features are available.

The parent comment didn’t say their PWA stops working on Safari, only that it doesn’t have a full set of features on it. For some applications, features like push notifications are essential.
Post reply on HN