We need to exert more pressure on apple and eu to not remove PWAs. Every signature counts, please sign and share EU has already started a preliminary investigation on this http://archive.today/2024.02.26-223134/https://www.ft.com/content/d2f7328c-5851-4f16-8f8d-93f0098b6adc
They are not sabotaging “web apps” (aka websites), you just need to save the website to the homescreen if you want to use a web app, (this is both quicker and takes up less storage on your device so it is better for the end-user).
They are removing these “apps” from the appstore because they are not native apps.
PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) are their own categories of websites and they do indeed have the ability to behave like an actual app. They are much more than just a shortcut, which apple is reducing them to.
On android, my PWA that I developed for fun can go full screen and appear as though a browser isn’t wrapping the page, I can send notifications, I can access the microphone and camera, I can do nearly everything you could expect an app to do, I can support offline mode, I can store data locally, and I can manage my PWAs permissions as well as uninstall my app at an OS level. My entire family uses my PWA, and they see it as an app.
Are there some things native apps can do that PWAs can’t? Absolutely, but that is not the point. PWAs are an open and clearly defined technology to the web. Windows supports them as well.
Apple is refusing to accept that though. They are removing notifications, badges, etc, and reducing them to what you have described, just a shortcut to a Safari window. They are citing security concerns even though other operating systems are able to implement security around them just fine.
The real issue is Apple wants more control over how you use your device and is acting against the consumer.
That is literally how I am using kbin.social right now even though it’s just a website
All of those are defined in the web spec as well so you wouldn’t need an app for that (if apple implemented all of them, not sure if they have)
Your cached web page can do that too (even though most web pages don’t because it’s not a common usecase)
Cookies have existed for much longer than the iPhone
A website added to your home page basically acts like an app: it has an icon on your home screen and you can longpress > delete it just like apps
Badges might be the only valid complaint (I don’t know if they are part of the web spec)
Not sure how this is hurting the consumer. This has been announced many years ago and devs haven’t been able to publish new or update old web apps for ages, so this change only applies to those very old apps still on the appstore.
The distinction is web workers and offline mode.
It means your PWA can preload everything it needs to run offline, and you can actually use it offline. That is different from a “cached website” which can only cache the pages you’ve already visited and otherwise does not allow you to update data locally.
Your website can just preload all pages needed for offline mode