The concept of a progressive web app is enticing: an application using web technologies that is inherently cross platform (since it runs in a browser) and acts like a native app, even functioning offline. Support for PWAs in traditionally locked-down platforms like iOS means that PWAs can give users the freedom to install apps without having to go through Apple’s App Store. But there are problems with web content that PWAs haven’t solved.
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I’ve always liked the idea of progressive web apps, made a simple p2p webrtc- based multiplayer tetris game nearly 10 years ago now.
The ability to save a web app for offline use was interesting to me, since web apps avoid(ed) some of the common vulnerabilities that simply running native programs came with, and would all be routed through my web browser and http proxy, allowing ad, tracker, and fingerprinting blocking to function.
While I think IWAs are cool for their cross platform nature, they lose a lot of the low-trust benefits of PWAs that I liked, as my biggest wish has long been for companies to stop forcing users (me) to use heavy data collecting apps on my phone.
Don’t think that’s the main benefit of PWAs? They are more secure or less secure depending on the angle you’re coming from (for instance, there’s a reason Apple disables Safari’s JIT compiler when iOS is in Lockdown mode).
For PWAs, instead of the Android Runtime running the (Kotlin/Java) app, it is the default WebView doing so (running JavaScript), while also providing a presentation layer (HTML+CSS) & an integration point with the OS; something very similar to what Flutter does.
Ref: Guia de integração | Web on Android | Chrome for Developers
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The industry kinda decided that PWAs don’t have a “main point” to make them worth using over other solutions, considering only an insubstantial amount of sites have them.
The ease of converting an already existing site into a cross-platform app was the big advertised feature for devs, which was slightly more interesting 10 years ago, but there is a dozen ways to do it now that don’t have issues with differences in browser choice that PWAs do.
Since they don’t actually use the default webview, rather the default browser, “this app does not support Firefox” has already been an issue
I suppose the most beneficial point from a company may be the ability to prompt a user from inside a browser and be able to seamlessly flow from the browser into the app, without needing to sign in again or open an app marketplace.
PWAs have limited ability to request permissions from the user and collect personal data in the background, but native mobile app permissions have also gotten more granular in the last 10 years, with scoped file permission and whatnot.
Sorry for the weird flow, on my phone & on a train and I’ve rewritten this a few times to try and not sound like I’m arguing.
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