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What PWA Can Do Today

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Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#81

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

onion2k wrote: post #67
starfox64_ wrote: post #4

It's kinda sad that the website doesn't prominently display which features have "universal" support across iOS and Android. The whole point of PWAs is to provide cross platforms apps so if a feature isn't available on all/most platforms, I don't think it's fair to say that it's really usable at all in your PWA.

The whole point of PWAs is to provide cross platforms apps so if a feature isn't available on all/most platforms, I don't think it's fair to say that it's really usable at all in your PWA. You should be delivering the best possible experience for the user based on what their device can do, not the lowest common denominator of some arbitrary set of features. Progressive enhancement, API detection, and polyfilling are…

> Progressive enhancement, API detection, and polyfilling are all common strategies that can be used to mitigate almost all device differences.

Keyword being "almost", and that in some cases if the platform doesn't support your feature, you're shit outta luck.

By far the thing that prevented PWAs from bigger uptake earlier was Apple dragging their feet on push notifications support on iOS. There was simply no workaround or polyfill for that at all, and the biggest use case for PWAs was supporting push. Apple finally released web push notification support last year on iOS but the app needs to have already been installed on the home screen (I think that part is good), and last I checked the "install to home screen" on iOS Safari was still a horrible user experience (the actions is hidden under the "share" menu, which makes no sense to me).

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#82

Post by PaulHoule »

postalrat wrote: post #17
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Spam you with spam spamifications. Clutter your mobile device device with more twisty little icons that all look look the same. Attempt to store content with an unreliable storage service. Move on folks, nothing more to see here. PWAs are just another Google side project, talking about them in 2024 is like still being hung up on a chat app Google killed years ago or being that guy who did his whole house up in Materi…

What's with the FUD. What else besides PWAs promise to free everyone from app store rent and anticompetitive policies? PWAs would also open the doors to new mobile OSs beyond Google or apple control.

I think web apps are great. The average brand has no business making a mobile app when an web application would do.

It's the "progressive" part I have a problem with. Web apps revolutionized our idea of what an application can do; everything in PWA makes web applications worse, not better.

Just to take a simple example, when I want to visit Hacker news I just type n in the address bar of my iPad and click on the auto-suggest result and I am there.

If I had an app for it, it would compete with all the other apps that have a burnt umber orange icon or that have an "H", an "N" or a "Y" as their own logo. (McDonald's might be the only brand that can pull that off) If I had an app for that I'd also be installing lots of other apps and have 4 or 5 pages of them to scroll through. If anything, brands should be asking for ways to make installed apps as easy to find as uninstalled web pages are.

(Note all the things I complained about originally except the lack of a reliable storage facility, are problems with apps. What makes it a 'side project' is that PWA advocates keep denying that "it just doesn't work" and then act incredulous that nobody wants to waste time with them.)

If anything, most app authors should just quit drinking the Kool-Aid and just make plain ordinary web applications without any of the PWA power-downs. It's like playing a Mario game and finding some mushroom that makes you smaller without any benefit (like being able to go in some hole.)

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#83

Post by moffkalast »

starfox64_ wrote: post #4

It's kinda sad that the website doesn't prominently display which features have "universal" support across iOS and Android. The whole point of PWAs is to provide cross platforms apps so if a feature isn't available on all/most platforms, I don't think it's fair to say that it's really usable at all in your PWA.

> "universal" support

Apple laughs at your universal support.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#84

Post by palata »

robertlagrant wrote: post #35
lolinder wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "extinguish" is what happens after a substantial portion of the web is only accessible through Chrome. At some point it no longer makes sense to use a different web browser, and when we reach that point the open web is gone.

Isn't the idea of PWAs that you aren't doing it through Chrome, or not knowingly. You're just running an app, and Chrome (or Blink) is a library that the app can use?

> or not knowingly

That's a big difference. What if I sold you a Linux computer that was actually running Windows with a UI that looks like Linux?

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#85

Post by janci »

jwells89 wrote: post #26
JimDabell wrote: post #13

This should have big warnings on it. Some of these are not web standards; they are features implemented unilaterally by Google in Blink that have been explicitly rejected by both Mozilla and Apple on privacy and security grounds. Take Web Bluetooth, for example: Mozilla: > This model is unsustainable and presents a significant risk to users and their devices. — https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#web-bluet…

Another API that Google implemented that Mozilla and Apple made similar objections to is WebUSB.

Very useful for flashing microcontrollers and devices without need of native apps. No installation, no drivers, works cross platform.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#86

Post by JimDabell »

martinald wrote: post #69
thekingshorses wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2D barcode Which JS library do you use? I couldn't find a single library that can reliably scan PDF417 barcodes.

I assume the built in one that OP has? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Barcode_Det...

This is another Google-authored specification, implemented only by Google, which is not currently a web standard. It’s not just Safari that doesn’t support it; Firefox doesn’t either. It’s a Blink-only API.

> Editors:

> Miguel Casas-Sanchez (Google LLC)

> Reilly Grant (Google LLC)

> Status of this document

> This specification was published by the Web Platform Incubator Community Group. It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track.

— https://wicg.github.io/shape-detection-api/

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#87

Post by palata »

postalrat wrote: post #17
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Spam you with spam spamifications. Clutter your mobile device device with more twisty little icons that all look look the same. Attempt to store content with an unreliable storage service. Move on folks, nothing more to see here. PWAs are just another Google side project, talking about them in 2024 is like still being hung up on a chat app Google killed years ago or being that guy who did his whole house up in Materi…

What's with the FUD. What else besides PWAs promise to free everyone from app store rent and anticompetitive policies? PWAs would also open the doors to new mobile OSs beyond Google or apple control.

> What else besides PWAs promise to free everyone from app store rent and anticompetitive policies?

I don't know... laws?

> PWAs would also open the doors to new mobile OSs beyond Google or apple control.

Or force everyone into ChromeOS once and for all.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#88

Post by 2024user »

I dislike that when you install a PWA it is browser specific. For example, if I use Chrome, the installed app will only open in Chrome. Use Firefox on Android and it overlays a Firefox icon on the installed app icon.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#89

Post by bodantogat »

MBCook wrote: post #53
hutzlibu wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"On a purely technical level the main thing stopping PWA adoption" I rather think, the main thing stopping PWA are that browsers still can not decide how to treat them. In some ways you can just do anything unrestricted and in other areas your PWA gets treated and limited like a random untrusted website, with no way to get needed rights. At least that was my experience last time I messed with it. It is of course a pr…

Go to any webpage/PWA, hit the share button, hit “add to home screen“. That’s it. It’s not complicated or restricted in any way.

Its not intuitive for the average user. "Share" does not usually imply "Install" , and the add to home screen option for me is way down in the menu.

Re: What PWA Can Do Today

#90

Post by kccqzy »

bodantogat wrote: post #54
fidotron wrote: post #22

On a purely technical level the main thing stopping PWA adoption is the JS front end universe being addicted to front end frameworks which destroy the UX of websites and PWAs, but there is a key value add with app stores which PWAs will never have: trust, and much as the Apple haters will hate it it is much stronger on the iOS App Store because of the very things they hate about it. Chrome, for all of Google's sins,…

On IOS, I can't install a PWA/add to home screen with a simple click. I think thats the bigger obstacle.

You can't install an app from the App Store with a single click.
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