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by pentagrama·4y ago·view on hn ↗
This topic has so many layers.

And I'm ok if Apple don't want to allow PWA features on Safari.

My problem with Apple is that they technically don't allow other browser engines in iOS, all non-safari browsers on iOS are Safari with a skin. That should change.

And regarding Native apps vs. Web apps (PWA), let's imagine some examples, I think is a good exercise to enrich the discussion:

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- The NYT app

I think that this can perfectly be PWAs in the state that PWA features are supported right now in 2021. Users can install it, add the icon to the homescreen, get push notifications, save articles to read offline, uninstall it. Pretty good. But Apple don't want that because they will not get a 30% cut for all those NYT subscriptions generated in the app.

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- A keyboard app

I never used a PWA that feels snappy like a native keyboard app, or in reality a PWA that have so fast and complex interactions. The latency of native is so smooth. And also, how do you integrate a PWA as a keyboard app in the OS? I don't think is possible right now. In this case I think that web apps do not compete with native, at least for now. Recently I found this Google-developed web app to compress images and is pretty good tho https://squoosh.app/

1 comments
> Users can install it, add the icon to the homescreen, get push notifications

Did I miss something? Did iOS 15 add push and installabilty for PWAs?

Push notifications are still not a thing on iOS (not for websites/-apps).

You can install a PWA-capable web app. Try twitter.

... you have to dig into the Share menu, then "Add to home screen".

And prepare for weird bugs because PWA mode on iOS is broken in many, many ways. It introduces bugs that aren't there in Safari or Chrome on iOS (which is also Safari, basically).

I'm at a point where I actively try to prevent Safari from installing a home screen shortcut as a PWA. I "upgrade" web apps to PWA on other platforms, but Safari just gets a regular shortcut which opens in a tab. Too much problems...

Ok. Thanks. So no real changes with iOS 15