Did anyone actually ever put web apps on their home screen?
I have a few. X has a pretty good PWA.
It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
31–40 of 329 posts
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC In the EU apple may be forced to open up iOS to other browsers, including PWA using non-safari engines. Not sure why this is such a threat. I’m torn on this whole issue. I both enjoy my walled garden and want full-fat Firefox on iOS.
It's unfortunate that the whole discourse is about one of the worst imaginable outcomes: replacing apps with shitty slow bloated underperforming web apps. That is, the discourse is valid, and Apple is to blame. But why did it have to be around PWAs of all things?
do I just hear the arguments again how java is slow vs c++?
the browser is the jvm of a web app, very secure and js engines like V8 is extremely capable... although js programs can be run at near native speed (the browser is a c++ program normally and there is native compilation of some code fragments)
you should also make yourself familiar with webassembly tech... some folks use even node.js on the server side... the js UI model is also very good
and nobody is replacing native apps, there will be a great competition and in those areas where native has competitive edge, it will win
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#33This is criminal. After decades I finally had the ability to develop for iOS without a Mac and a yearly $99 fee - only for it to be crippled again?
I think it's a bit of a stretch to call a web app "develop[ed] for iOS" The whole point of the web is that it is cross platform. That isn't a negative thing it's a positive, but calling it "develop for iOS" is arguably disingenuous.
Most people just want to make apps for themselves. If you use an iOS device but not a Mac, there was no way to do that before web apps (which still offered a terrible dev experience, without debugging) and now there's again no way to do it.
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#34Any chance we can get the original title which doesn't sound so childish: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU And if PWA were such a threat to Apple's business then why are they allowed in US.
One example: a while ago I worked on a bluetooth le based companion app for industrial sensors. The client would absolutely have built this as a web app if iOS had offered web bluetooth. With alternative engines this would be possible and Apple does not want these kind of applications outside the App Store.
With the right engine basically any kind of app could be created as a webapp / pwa
So in the US it doesn’t matter because users are still stuck with Safari there
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's unfortunate that the whole discourse is about one of the worst imaginable outcomes: replacing apps with shitty slow bloated underperforming web apps. That is, the discourse is valid, and Apple is to blame. But why did it have to be around PWAs of all things?
Web apps aren’t inherently slow, bloated or underperforming. You can absolutely build a snappy, polished web app with a UI layer that rivals a native app. (I don’t personally enjoy working with JavaScript, but the reward of truly cross-platform development makes it worth doing when it’s a viable option.)
I'm genuinely curious: do you have any examples you'd like to share? Not that React Native is the same as a PWA, but even in that space I have yet to find an RN app (at least those I know about from their Showcase page [1]) that rivals a native app on iOS, but perhaps it's wrong to assume a React Native app would be comparable to or strictly better than a PWA.
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's unfortunate that the whole discourse is about one of the worst imaginable outcomes: replacing apps with shitty slow bloated underperforming web apps. That is, the discourse is valid, and Apple is to blame. But why did it have to be around PWAs of all things?
Web apps aren’t inherently slow, bloated or underperforming. You can absolutely build a snappy, polished web app with a UI layer that rivals a native app. (I don’t personally enjoy working with JavaScript, but the reward of truly cross-platform development makes it worth doing when it’s a viable option.)
Funny how the vast majority of web apps are not snappy, or polished, or rival native apps.
The whole discourse around PWAs is frankly schizophrenic.
Web apps (esp. Electron-based) on desktop: universally regarded as bloated, slow, resource-intensive for the simplest tasks, breaking platform conventions etc.
You add a P in front, and talk about mobile? Oh, PWAs are the bee's knees, just as good or better than native etc.
And yet, when you ask for examples of these amazing apps (after all, Android with full PWA support has dominated mobile market for over a decade) we get either silence or... Twitter.
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The AVP is one of the most out of touch products I've ever seen from a respected brand, and I can almost hear Steve Job's scathing criticisms of it, based on everything I know about him. Not to mention, it goes against the increasing trend of less screens and less tech. The fact that it got made and is being pushed so hard as the next step in computing, is bonkers. So to me, it contributes because it is another data…
> Steve Job's scathing criticisms of it, based on everything I know about him Vision Pro patent from 2007 when Steve Jobs was still CEO: https://twitter.com/ianzelbo/status/1753076050643575230
Collecting patents is not proof of a great idea.
Exhibit A: Google's patent on a "sticky car" that is covered with adhesive, to stick to pedestrians when you hit them https://patents.google.com/patent/US9340178B1/en
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#38Since iOS 17.4 for EU users
1. Apple will DELETE user's data without notice
2. Lot of apps will stop working and there will be no way to access them without update
3. Web Push will stop working; users expecting notifications will never get them
4. Apple breaks the Web platform
This was published in the document "Update on apps distributed in the European Union" https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu/
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#39Any chance we can get the original title which doesn't sound so childish: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU And if PWA were such a threat to Apple's business then why are they allowed in US.
Because in the US they will not be forced to (and likely won't) allow Firefox, Chrome, Brave, etc, with their own rendering engines, on the App Store, and if they do, they will definitely not allow them to become the PWA storefronts they are on Android.
Adoption of PWA on Apple platforms is low because they've always had a significantly degraded experience when compared to PWA on Android, ChromeOS, or desktop browsers other than Safari.
Re: It’s Official, Apple Kills Web Apps in the EU
#40The creation of the Vision Pro, and now this direct assault on the open web, makes me believe that Apple is no longer has the vision to lead the industry effectively. It's a shame because it has enormous momentum behind it, which means every bad decision, like this one, will be felt be millions of people for years.
Apple is a 3 trillion business that is out of growth drivers. They will need to squeeze more money out of everybody in the ecosystem to appease wall street. Or launch a new 500bn product line but I don’t think they have anything big in the pipeline.
They’re working on cars for sure