Apple cites security concerns for killing PWAs in europe. I mean they could‘ve made changes to the system to allow running PWAs in other browser engines by offering an API in which other applications could hook themselves into, akin to how Android did it with the web activity that is used by other apps.
But then that would mean conceding to the EU and we can‘t have that, can we?
Can’t harvest data from a PWA like you can an app.
For other people’s benefit and my own:
PWA: Progressive Web App
I was wondering… passwords with attitude?
Mine are pretty sassy
Boo paywall
Freedium.cfd
Can we kill locally running web apps from the AppStore next, please?
Things that run in a WebView?
Yes, electron-based stuff and the likes are a plague
agreed
Don’t use them?
Hard to do when half the applications are built that way. Git GUIs, code/text editors, chat programs, even the next outlook is jumping on this stuff.
I get it that it’s faster to code like that and you basically get cross platform compatibility for free since you’re writing a website, but it’s a hog of resources that should have been stopped years ago.
All those examples you listed have alternatives…
I understood it as a technical limitation imposed by the changes Europe are demanding. They now have to allow different browser engines, so they can’t just use Safari under the hood for PWAs. They will need some UI and the technical underpinning to allow the browser engine to be selected.
They aren’t killing PWAs. They’re simply removing them from the home screen. Nothing about this will interfere with the ability to load and operate PWAs.
Except stuff like push notifications, that requires the pwa to be added to home screen.
That’s the social engineering aspect of insecurity on pwas.
I’m genuinely baffled by this comment section.
Apple’s implementation of other PWA standards requires an app to be opened from the home screen. A user can’t access features of the app if they can’t add it to the homescreen.
Yeah, ok. So now I have the ammunition to convince my friends to avoid apple. Thanks apple. :)
You think that’s going to convince them? Plenty of people consider Apple as the second coming of the messiah. They would cheer if Apple dropped a bucket load of crap on their desk.
I agree that there are addicts and these need therapy indeed. I’m talking about the others. Those who actually think apple does a good job.
No, it will kill PWAs. And since Apple dictates what everyone else does, this also automatically means PWAs are dead on Android, too. It’ll probably get prevented system-side in the future no matter which browser you use, they’ll find a way.
Why would they be dead on Android?
Same reason NFC payments on Android were super niche for years before Apple finally implemented it. Or why so many apps don’t use Android features that would improve them because iOS doesn’t offer that feature. For whatever reason, Apple has an outsized mind share and are able to use that to hold back competing platforms because people don’t want the iPhone version of their apps to be less capable.
Of course, the biggest loser in all this isn’t Android. It’s smaller platforms that want to compete with both Android and iOS.
But then there are other features on Android that are thriving in spite of Apple not supporting them, like app sideloading.
Same reason NFC payments on Android were super niche for years before Apple finally implemented it
I’m very interested in why you think that. Do you have numbers?
The concept of a mobile wallet was invented in Kenya in 2007 with no input from Apple. That then spread to East Asia where in China, not NFC payments but QR-code payments have been a thing since 2011 and they have barely caught on in the West. There are massive developments and usage of different technologies happening outside of Western countries of which the majority are now on Android simply due to price.
Or why so many apps don’t use Android features that would improve them because iOS doesn’t offer that feature
Which features are these?
Are you an Android user? And which continent are you on? I’m guessing your views are very much centered around a personal experience in a single country or even region, but I may be wrong.
And since Apple dictates what everyone else does
Quoting myself again for clarity.
Hmm… OK. Not sure you’re right in this instance. PWAs have been shit on iPhones for ages due to everything being forced to use Safari on that platform. Probably less people use PWAs on iPhone than on Android. Most people probably didn’t even know of PWAs (as seen right in this comment section in a tech community).
Like it or not, Apple is the trend setter. Everybody feels like they need to do what Apple does. So given that, Apple kills PWAs, everyone else will surely follow.
That’s normally how it goes anyway.
Look for every time Apple has said “reimagined” and you’ll find a feature that Android had 5 years earlier.
I don’t think that’s true. Android has had more features than Apple for over a decade. People forget that iPhones didn’t used to have a proper file manager and the only way to put songs on them was through iTunes. iOS has been trailing behind Android in that respect while maintaining their walled garden.
People also forget that smartphones existed before iPhones and MP3 players existed before iPods.
That’s the point though. Android has all these features, but they only suddenly become “real” to the general public when Apple makes their version of it too.
I was using Google Wallet for NFC transactions years before Apple made the same available, but as soon as they did everyone started asking if I liked the new iPhone when I paid with it.
The comment I replied to suggested the opposite, that whatever decisions Apple makes, Android follows behind which isn’t the case in reality.
I understand your point though. It’s weird that people who use iPhones have this mentality that iPhones are at the forefront of innovation. I know some people who are aware that Apple is behind but the phone does what they require of it so they have no need to ask more.
That doesn’t make them trend-setters though - that just makes them big spenders on marketing. i.e. Android wasn’t following what Apple did - they’d already been doing it first!
Technologically, Apple are far behind. But they’re trend setters in terms of the fact that their big marketing and outsized mind share make people want those features.
It’s dumb, but that’s where we are. iOS is essentially the IE6 of the mobile space at this point, holding back real advancements until Apple figures out a way to make a buck off them.
The original comment was
it will kill PWAs
like if Apple STOPS doing it then everyone else will stop doing it. Like when Apple stopped having 3.5mm jacks everyone else stopped having 3.5mm jacks. Oh wait…
As I said, they’re big spenders, not trend-setters.
The title appears to be quite the reach. If Apple wanted to kill PWA’s, they would have done so worldwide. There is absolutely nothing preventing them from disabling them in the US and Canada (and much of the rest of the world) today, but they haven’t — they’re only disabling them in the EU.
Arbitrarily and suddenly destroying all apps built with a certain tech stack, throughout all of Europe will have a knock on effect for that tech stack that will drive less investment in it for every single European company and every multinational that even sometimes operates there.
Apple is being an absolute piece of shit
if they go through with this, I will never buy one of their products againif they do. They’re a trillion dollar company acting like a petulent child because they were forced to be ever so slightly less monopolistic, they’re acting like huge pieces of shit.They’re a trillion dollar company acting like a petulent child
No. They’re a trillion dollar company acting like a greedy dirty scum that they are.
Yes. Greedy dirty scum regularly act like children.
don’t insult children like that.
Arbitrarily and suddenly destroying all apps built with a certain tech stack…
Except they aren’t. Sure, PWAs may be slightly more disadvantaged on iOS/iPadOS than they are now, but they haven’t been “destroyed”. And they continue to work exactly as they did with the prior iOS/iPadOS release in all the rest of the world.
Everyone seems to think Apple is playing some sort of 4D Chess to kill off PWAs — but if Apple wanted to kill off PWAs they could just disable the functionality completely globally tomorrow, and they’d likely face no repercussions for doing so. They don’t even need an excuse to do so.
I’m not claiming that Apple is acting honourably here; merely that if they actually wanted to kill PWAs it wouldn’t require some sort of Rube Goldberg machine-style planning to do it. There is no conspiracy here.
