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Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

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Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#71

Post by palsecam »

jb1991 wrote: post #64
palsecam wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. “it’s just opening a browser window with no actual browser controls” : yes, due to the `display` setting in the app manifest: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest/displa... It’s similar to a `WebView` component: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebView

Why do they use the words progressive web app, seems like a fancy term for just saving a link to your home screen. Is there some additional benefit you get besides this shortcut? Does it do things a webpage does not once it’s been added to your home screen?

It basically is nothing more than a glorified shortcut. The installed app gets a custom load screen. It gets listed on the device installed apps list, and can be removed from there.

But there is nothing a PWA can do that a website can’t do. It’s all about Web APIs. Take push notifications (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...): they make more sense for an (PW)app, but a simple website can do them too (if given permission).

See MDN intro on PWA: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web..., or https://web.dev/learn/pwa/ for more info.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#72

Post by joshstrange »

throwaway9143 wrote: post #35
joshstrange wrote: post #26

Whenever this argument comes up it reminds me of how detached from reality HN is on this subject. Customers want apps. Companies want apps. No one except us nerds want PWAs. We can talk about how PWAs are second class citizens and how unfair that is or we can remember that end-users _do not care_ about the underlying technology. We constantly make this mistake, customer don’t care what language you are using, they do…

"customer don't care what language/framework you are using" is a strange way to support a claim they do care about having a native app over a PWA. The first statement highlights that the user just wants something that works as advertised, and doesn't care about the framework. But the second statement highlights that, despite their disinterest in the technology, they care deeply about the app's delivery tech (PWAs vs…

> But some of us also want support tech that fulfills the goals of the open web. You don't seem to care about that, but others do. Telling everyone its basically a lost cause is a silly and pointless endeavor, because PWAs are the long game, and you're playing the short game.

Get off the cross, we could use the wood.

Spare me. I love the web, in fact all my “apps” are built with web tech and I offer them all as websites/PWAs in addition to apps but standing on principals of only using the web as some kind of middle finger to the app stores AND your customers is just silly.

So I bite the bullet and wrap my web apps in a thin wrapper and shove them into the App Store. You can call it principles but I just call it stubborn and dragging your customers into a crusade they don’t care about.

At the end of the day I care about the customers of my products more than I care about trying to wage a losing war against something they actively want, apps from stores.

Life is way too short to tie up your identity in things like this. I want to spend my time making products people enjoy using. If you actually care so much about PWAs then stop writing PWAs that your users hate using and go be a full time advocate for that instead. Right now shipping PWAs is a worse experience so the only one you hurt is yourself and your customers when you double down on them.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#73

Post by joshstrange »

lostfocus wrote: post #34
joshstrange wrote: post #26

Whenever this argument comes up it reminds me of how detached from reality HN is on this subject. Customers want apps. Companies want apps. No one except us nerds want PWAs. We can talk about how PWAs are second class citizens and how unfair that is or we can remember that end-users _do not care_ about the underlying technology. We constantly make this mistake, customer don’t care what language you are using, they do…

That's why there are efforts to get platform companies to allow putting PWAs into their app stores. I think on Android it's already possible with a thin wrapper and with regulatory pressure it might be necessary for other platforms to enable that as well.

You can put PWAs in all the app stores today with a thin wrapper, I know, I do it for all my apps.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#74

Post by danlugo92 »

terhechte wrote: post #16
throwaway9143 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a full local reset. Its an issue that plagued us for almost a year sporadically across several thousand customers. After instrumenting our app with very detailed remote logging, we were fortunate enough to catch it on one of our in-house local test iPhones. The logging showed an app with rich local state, the app close, then several minutes later the app open with no local state. Everything was wiped. This lined…

Nah. I used to be a iOS developer. The official native frameworks are buggy as hell. Everything is broken all the time. Occam's razor is on this behaviour being just another bug that receives little attention because everything else is also buggy. I can't even blame them, the iOS api surface is huge, and every year there's new frameworks and every couple of years new devices. Android has the advantage of being open s…

They have trillions, no excuse.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#75

Post by meiraleal »

gnfedhjmm2 wrote: post #32
throwaway9143 wrote: post #3

I'll give you a hard-earned tip: expect to fight Apple every step of the way. They will randomly erase all local data (cookies, localstorage, push subscription tokens, etc) in your PWA without warning. They say they don't do this, but I have the receipts. They want PWAs to suffer, and you will go insane trying to make workarounds on iPhone.

I’m not saying this isn’t true. Genuinely! but when I make up random unsubstantiated slander about other companies it gets removed instantly. What makes Apple different? You could never say this about substack or Tesla.

You can definitely say that about Tesla and most people don't care about substack

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#77

Post by meiraleal »

joshstrange wrote: post #72
throwaway9143 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"customer don't care what language/framework you are using" is a strange way to support a claim they do care about having a native app over a PWA. The first statement highlights that the user just wants something that works as advertised, and doesn't care about the framework. But the second statement highlights that, despite their disinterest in the technology, they care deeply about the app's delivery tech (PWAs vs…

> But some of us also want support tech that fulfills the goals of the open web. You don't seem to care about that, but others do. Telling everyone its basically a lost cause is a silly and pointless endeavor, because PWAs are the long game, and you're playing the short game. Get off the cross, we could use the wood. Spare me. I love the web, in fact all my “apps” are built with web tech and I offer them all as websi…

Are you ok?

Your hate for PWAs seems a bit excessive. Nowadays it's possible to build binaries for iOS and Android using PWAs and it'll behave just live your Cordova projects. Don't be stuck in the past.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#78

Post by joshstrange »

meiraleal wrote: post #77
joshstrange wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But some of us also want support tech that fulfills the goals of the open web. You don't seem to care about that, but others do. Telling everyone its basically a lost cause is a silly and pointless endeavor, because PWAs are the long game, and you're playing the short game. Get off the cross, we could use the wood. Spare me. I love the web, in fact all my “apps” are built with web tech and I offer them all as websi…

Are you ok? Your hate for PWAs seems a bit excessive. Nowadays it's possible to build binaries for iOS and Android using PWAs and it'll behave just live your Cordova projects. Don't be stuck in the past.

Please read my full comment:

> I love the web, in fact all my “apps” are built with web tech and I offer them all as websites/PWAs

I'm well aware you can build binaries and ship a PWA, I literally do that. I don't hate PWAs, I dislike people that refuse to ship anything but PWAs and I especially dislike being told I don't care about the "open web".

If you want to be a martyr and _only_ ship PWAs be my guest but pretending it's noble is just silly and drags your customers (you know, the people you should actually care about) into a battle they don't give 2 shits about all while making their experience worse.

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#79

Post by codazoda »

the_florist wrote: post #65

https://flowery.app is exclusively a PWA. It was designed from the ground up to prioritize the “Add to Home Screen” experience on iOS. The web is the ideal platform given the app’s emphasis on text and typography, and a native replica would be reinventing the wheel for no tangible benefit to the user. WebKit and Safari have come a long way. Flowery puts browser engines through their paces with its UI animation, which…

Thanks for sharing. The app functions really well and is beautiful. It took me quite a while to figure out what it does and I'm still not 100% sure I understand completely. Is the app profitable? How do people find out about it?

Re: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

#80

Post by meiraleal »

joshstrange wrote: post #78
meiraleal wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you ok? Your hate for PWAs seems a bit excessive. Nowadays it's possible to build binaries for iOS and Android using PWAs and it'll behave just live your Cordova projects. Don't be stuck in the past.

Please read my full comment: > I love the web, in fact all my “apps” are built with web tech and I offer them all as websites/PWAs I'm well aware you can build binaries and ship a PWA, I literally do that. I don't hate PWAs, I dislike people that refuse to ship anything but PWAs and I especially dislike being told I don't care about the "open web". If you want to be a martyr and _only_ ship PWAs be my guest but prete…

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