I don't think anyone actually uses these in the real world.
Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
11–20 of 54 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#12[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#13Because PWAs are mostly hype originally aggressively promoted by Google, but now even Google is tired of promoting them.
One of the few places where hype is still real is Hacker News, and even here people can't even come up with examples of good PWAs beyond, and I kid you not, Twitter.
Going from 1 install to 270 installs is a 270% increase, too. So I would take such stats with a grain of salt weighing about 270 tons. Google is dominating mobile market and Chrome is dominating the browsers market, and that's the best stats they can come up with?
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#14Recent interesting thread about PWAs: Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40724774
Great thread, thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#15Updated to say it seems people find anecdotes useful and interesting, my apologies for discouraging this. Previously I wrote: > Replies with personal anecdotes and opinions are not super helpful, sorry! I'm specifically looking for reliable empirical measurements and data.
K. HN is not your personal search engine or whatever.
That’s not how social networks work. You aren’t just going to get crickets if nobody has what you’re after, which seems quite likely given you could count on one hand the number of organisations that could reasonably be in a position to have this data, and given that you would’ve searched before asking this.
It sounds like you’re trying to backsolve for a desirable answer. You can make quite educated / justifiable inferences, not much guesswork at all, to come to the conclusion that the numbers are for most intents and purposes immeasurably small.
Why would PWAs reasonably be used by anyone other than idealistic nerds? You’re kidding yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#16I work as a developer / consultant. Sometimes I show «install as desktop app» on Edge/chrome on windows and people are genuinely surprised, and don’t know about it. I’d bet the conscious usage is very low. Chrome(OS) and others might use PWAs behind the scenes, so depending on how you count, maybe the numbers are much higher than I’d think?
I am also thinking that installing is exactly what people avoid when they prefer PWAs, so if installing is actually just creating a shortcut to home screen (and Windows equivalent), then maybe the verbiage should reflect that and we would see wider adoption.
On my RadioSide, when the user selects to add to home screen or install as an app, it makes an icon and that's that, from the user's point of view it looks like an app, works like an app, quacks like an app, without the risks and hassle.
Most users have no idea that it's possible thus presenting them with an "install this" they already get anxiety attacks of downloading and running stuff and taking risk, I am talking about average users.
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#17Updated to say it seems people find anecdotes useful and interesting, my apologies for discouraging this. Previously I wrote: > Replies with personal anecdotes and opinions are not super helpful, sorry! I'm specifically looking for reliable empirical measurements and data.
But they are interesting, so I’m glad they’re posted.
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#18At my previous consultancy client, a B2B SaaS, we thoroughly implemented our products as PWAs... A big, big part of what needed to be done was explaining what & why to users, we figured since it's B2B we could afford the extra end-user education. In a B2C context though, yeah I think the adoption rate is just very low due to its obscurity, most people don't know it exists, and me, having developed multiple PWAs, don'…
What was the uptake like? Would be super handy to know how well it was tolerated or if there were any unexpected surprises.
I’m pretty much decided on Capacitor for my new B2B SaaS, but I honestly had forgotten about the possibility of PWA deployment.
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#19> Apple said PWAs had "very low user adoption" Installing PWA isn't obvious for users on iOS Safari or even macOS Safari. It's very obscure > A Chrome OS ... desktop PWA installs have grow by 270% Google Chrome would "beg" you to install PWA if the web was developed in the correct way with correct manifest and ServiceWorkers.
Open Website. Click Share. Click Add to Home.
Doesn't seem that obscure and for me the issue is much more with websites not making it clear when a PWA version of the site is available.
Re: Ask HN: Why are PWA user install stats so hard to find?
#20> Apple said PWAs had "very low user adoption" Installing PWA isn't obvious for users on iOS Safari or even macOS Safari. It's very obscure > A Chrome OS ... desktop PWA installs have grow by 270% Google Chrome would "beg" you to install PWA if the web was developed in the correct way with correct manifest and ServiceWorkers.
Open Website. Click Share. Click Add to Home. Doesn't seem that obscure and for me the issue is much more with websites not making it clear when a PWA version of the site is available.
Share doesn’t seem strange in that context?