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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?

#101

Post by throwaway9143 »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #97
iudqnolq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user doesn't care about the delivery tech. They care about the installation and usage experience. They want to go search the app store, click the button, and get an icon on their homescreen.

How is requiring the user to open a completely different application a better "user experience" than installing it from the web page they're already on? Yes, I know that installing a PWA is confusing (especially on Apple's systems), but there no reason it has to be that way. PWA (if it were implemented properly): "Click here to install app". Click. Confirmation dialog. App is installed. App opens in the same window .…

Bingo. Defenders of the app store have severe stockholm syndrome. Apple ruins the PWA experience intentionally, so they blame people who use PWAs, instead of Apple.

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

#102

Post by throwaway9143 »

mardifoufs wrote: post #96
throwaway9143 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I dislike people that refuse to ship anything but PWAs What a weird thing to get all bent out of shape over. People do things a different way than you, get over it. If someone wants to only ship PWAs, why does that bother you so much? Because they're hurting users, and you're trying to protect them?

Yes, if so he's right. PWAs are a bad experience for the user or at least a worse one than even just a webapp wrapped in a native app, regardless of the reasons. I've never had a pwa not feel like a hanky browser tab, and this is on android.

Yeah but nobody here is making the case that PWAs are better than native apps. The point is that PWAs are worth getting better support because it's better for everyone.

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

#103

Post by meiraleal »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #97
iudqnolq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user doesn't care about the delivery tech. They care about the installation and usage experience. They want to go search the app store, click the button, and get an icon on their homescreen.

How is requiring the user to open a completely different application a better "user experience" than installing it from the web page they're already on? Yes, I know that installing a PWA is confusing (especially on Apple's systems), but there no reason it has to be that way. PWA (if it were implemented properly): "Click here to install app". Click. Confirmation dialog. App is installed. App opens in the same window .…

PWA has no marketing budget and a lot of people invested on private app stores attacking it.

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

#104

Post by metadat »

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.

Are you saying the Safari browser on iOS intentionally cripples web applications by randomly erasing / deleting browser data (cookies, localStorage, etc)? And this happens on purpose because apple wants to boost App Store Apps usage?

If there is evidence of the veracity of this claim, this topic deserves a whole lot more attention. Especially considering Apple's stance on 3rd party mobile web browser engines - Apple forbids them, although EU regulation may force this to change.

I searched a bit and found no smoking gun, the closest hit was:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Safari/comments/185cra6/safari_nuki...

But it seems more likely caused by legitimate bugs than any intentional campaign.

Have I been nerdsniped here by a nutter? :-s

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

#105

Post by postalrat »

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…

Are you using a hackernews app to use hackernews?

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

#107

Post by joshstrange »

postalrat wrote: post #105
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…

Are you using a hackernews app to use hackernews?

On my phone? Yes, a combo of Octal and HACK, but I often fall back to the web since the apps don't expose everything.

On my computer I always use the web. I prefer the web on my computer but on my phone apps can provide a nicer experience (larger touch targets, swipe gestures, etc). But in general I find the phone (and tablet) limiting and if I need to do any actual "research" I immediately move to my computer where I can open multiple tabs and move between them easier.

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

#108

Post by morbicer »

palsecam wrote: post #24

https://FreeSolitaire.win is a successful PWA of mine. It’s a Klondike Solitaire game. It used to bring ~$500/mo of advertising revenue, but that’s significantly down these days: I refuse to have a cookie/consent banner, so I refuse customized ads (in the UE, in some US states now, &c.) Players do add it to homescreen. There is a non-intrusive button prompting them to do so, at the end of a game. People like to be ab…

Nice and clean!

How did you get it off the ground and gather first users?

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

#109

Post by metadat »

palsecam wrote: post #24

https://FreeSolitaire.win is a successful PWA of mine. It’s a Klondike Solitaire game. It used to bring ~$500/mo of advertising revenue, but that’s significantly down these days: I refuse to have a cookie/consent banner, so I refuse customized ads (in the UE, in some US states now, &c.) Players do add it to homescreen. There is a non-intrusive button prompting them to do so, at the end of a game. People like to be ab…

Why does it let you sort through the card deck one-by-one? Ime mkst solitaire offers the top of a set of three.

Maybe it's just a different style of solitaire? This one seems too easy, though. Well done app, regardless - cheers! :)

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

#110

Post by jmb99 »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #97
iudqnolq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user doesn't care about the delivery tech. They care about the installation and usage experience. They want to go search the app store, click the button, and get an icon on their homescreen.

How is requiring the user to open a completely different application a better "user experience" than installing it from the web page they're already on? Yes, I know that installing a PWA is confusing (especially on Apple's systems), but there no reason it has to be that way. PWA (if it were implemented properly): "Click here to install app". Click. Confirmation dialog. App is installed. App opens in the same window .…

> PWA (if it were implemented properly): "Click here to install app". Click. Confirmation dialog. App is installed. App opens in the same window.

> App store: "Click here to install app". Click. An entirely different application opens. Confirmation dialog. App is installed. You open it, but now you're in a different context.

You’re unfortunately oversimplifying the PWA installation. Say a user has heard of a new service called “Florb” which has a PWA and a native app. To install natively:

1. Open the App Store

2. Tap the search button (optional, might already be selected)

3. Search “Florb”

4. Tap Get

5. Confirm download

For the PWA:

1. Open Safari

2. Search for Florb using your chosen search engine

3. Open Florb homepage

4. Tap “share”

5. Hunt and scroll for “Add to Home Screen”

6. Tap “Add to Home Screen”

7. Give the app a name

8. Tap Add

This is ignoring the possibility that searching Florb returns other sites first (maybe news articles about the neat service, or a wiki page), nor that there are usually enough ads on google pages to completely obscure the first real results from the screen on page load. Yes, the App Store also shows an ad, and it’s possible for other similarly named apps to appear first in the list, but it’s generally less of a problem than relying on google searches.

Even ignoring the fact that the average user doesn’t know or care that PWAs exist, the first option is simply easier and more reliable. There’s no getting around that. And that’s also ignoring that PWAs are, to an average user, “installing a website” rather than “installing an app,” which just feels wrong.

“Add to Home Screen” has been available on iOS since at least iOS 4 (that’s the first time I remember seeing it, but it may have been around longer). If people don’t care about it yet, I have a hard time believing they will any time soon unless it is substantially and objectively better than the App Store.

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