Why Apple doesn't like PWAs (Progressive Web Apps)

Originally proposed by Google in 2015, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) try to bridge the gap between native apps and web apps through new browser standards like Service Worker and Push Notifications.
New features are continuing to be added through Project Fubu.
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Written by Anthony Gore
/ anthonygore

[@idarkness7789]

PWAs are the future of iOS a lot of possibilities can be make with these things!

[@sdfjsd]

Unfortunately, it's not going to happen.

[@JasonDainter]

@@sdfjsd says who?

[@markkoalawebseo]

Good explanation, Thanks 🙏

[@JustJasonMan]

Excellent video!

[@sabuein]

Thank you, very helpful.

[@onedough83]

Great overview.

[@mattjames4978]

Never heard is pronounced "caysh" in 20 years - but really nice video, thanks.

[@Ded-Ede]

I can save some websites to my iPhone and it work just like the app, so more websites need to make their apps have this functionality.

[@emreaka3965]

They don't have to use safari and you can warn your users about using chrome instead.

[@meiguise9592]

useless, under Apple's constraint, only Safari can run some PWA function.

[@ERICROJO156]

shout out to the Cinco reference in the manifest at 5:27

[@RabbitChannel66]

Another reason to hate apple. I even don't know why people use their devices if they have more cons. than pros.

[@TerriTerriHotSauce]

Their devices are better for most people. Windows interrupts you non stop (damn near harasses you while you use it) and Linux doesn't have enough custom software. Mac OS is quiet and fully features. If you've used an iPhone you'll know that it's intuitive. It's easier to figure out where stuff is. Android is a lot less intuitive. I've googled how to do something on an Android far more often than on an iPhone. I've extensively used everything I just mentioned. (DJ, software engineer, app developer & designer).

[@RabbitChannel66]

@@TerriTerriHotSauce I have used Mac OS to compile software. But never used IOS. I'm also using Linux for over 4 years now, without any problem or complain. Apple as a company makes so many mistakes and other companies follows it as they can see how much this can reduce the cost while also harm users.

[@TheLegendOfNiko]

@@TerriTerriHotSauce You can't even game properly on a Mac. Stop defending that trash company.

[@LuLeBe]

​@@TerriTerriHotSauce I agree about Linux, maybe about Windows as well (but not really, the issue with Windows is more in the hardware, battery life etc, less windows itself) but definitely not about Android vs iOS. I have devices running either system on the latest version, and for the average user they're identical. As evidenced by the fact that in Europe, there's a large chunk of normal people who'd never buy an iPhone cause they know how android works. It's different, but not harder. A Google Pixel is just as dummy-friendly as an iPhone, it just allows more flexibility in case you want that. But unlike Linux, it doesn't imply extra work just to use it.

[@coshvjicujmlqef6047]

This happens when microsoft does not make phone os

[@sdfjsd]

The only way the browsing experience on iOS can improve is if Apple allows third-party rendering engines such as Blink or Gecko. This would allow Google and others to give iOS users a richer browsing experience. After all, Blink is just plain better than Webkit. Everyone knows that.

[@judewestburner]

I've been making PWA's since before that phrase was coined. Reaching a massive audience is often not the goal of most people. Most of the time the goal is offering some bespoke functionality to a targeted set of people often as a complimentary app versus the 'next big thing'. This audience is vast.

[@niksatan]

Is learning Flutter dead end, or it will it be worth it in the future for android/ios development ?

[@Content4free78]

Sideloading apps from the internet uses the Web, (Web Apps) it is not an Apple thing, it has to do with the Web Browser.

[@ernst367]

that's what I thought

[@StijnHommes]

But wasting time and effort on web apps means Apple would get less income from their app store. And we'd all be dealing with more security issues from the sideloading we've been avoiding for years.

[@Thoths_Pen]

How can a steaming pile of web garbage pretending to be actual software, be a threat to actual software. It’s like asking is a five year old’a finger painting a threat to a Picasso? It’s not even close.

[@jeffgibson8655]

But you're doing away with what makes native apps so appealing. Native apps response time are much faster than PWA. Don't get me started on offline capabilities. Sell me on PWA.

[@gimmemydinner]

A few selling points of PWAs; - Developers don't have to learn multiple languages to develop their apps on different platforms - One code base means less bugs and faster development of new features and apps (which benefits users and developers) - The performance of native apps that primarily fetch content from the web is nearly identical to that of PWAs but PWAs require much less effort - Apple takes 30% - 10% of your revenue from "in app purchases" of native apps but not PWAs (this benefits users as developers can charge less while making the same profit) - Native apps mean developers need to keep up and comply with whatever changes Apple/Android/etc. make to their OS and Ts and Cs - Well designed PWAs provide a better user experience than standard web apps and considering the web isn't going anywhere that's a win for users

[@bruno_ricci]

@@gimmemydinner Also updates are as fast as deploying the new version to production, the service worker would just update the new files to the cache and that's it, in matter of milliseconds. Otherwise you depend on user having automatic updates activated or bother them to update once they open the app (most times, a terrible bad UX).

[@defy933]

@@gimmemydinner you mentioned all the pros that benefits the devs which the end user doesn't give a sh about. They want faster and better experience. So native is the way to go

[@StijnHommes]

It's not just Apple that doesn't like PWAs. I really wish that after several years of this nonsense getting spammed, we'd finally get the ability to boycott, block and remove PWAs completely. No ability to run, install or activate them anywhere on a user's system if they've chosen to set things up that way. Unfortunately, that would mean "developers" actually giving truthful information about what they're offering and Google and cohorts don't seem to consider that a priority.

[@StijnHommes]

@Coder's Corner They gave developers a shortcut to build fake apps and distribute them by sideloading. They clearly care more about developers than they do about users.

[@amirhosseinrafiee2926]

If you dont like pwa then dont install it on your device It's your choice Pwa is great tech for making web app faster and offline use case

[@evandaniyel9388]

@@StijnHommes why do you hate PWAs so much? Is it that they don't have any use case?.

[@StijnHommes]

By the way, I have never seen a cafe that insisted I install an app to look at the menu. If I ever did, I'd leave to find a more customer-minded place. Of course, 3 months after reporting this spam nothing happened, because Google, Microsoft, Android and iOS are all promoting this nonsense. They don't care if you are promoting this without including the proper disclosures.

[@StijnHommes]

I don't install apps to my home screen. I install them to the app drawer where they belong. Either make that the default behavior or GIVE THE USER THE CHOICE! You can't even get the default behavior right on your fake apps! And let's not forget, apps come in just one flavor: native. Despite the name, web apps are websites, not apps.

[@joaquin67]

All web apps are websites, not all websites are web apps