Maximiliano Firtman

I was following this and it did seem to appear in the beta -- I'm not sure whether it has been removed in the GA version listed here, or if they simply haven't mentioned it since it's perhaps a browser rather than WebKit feature? ... I assume WebKit has had support for this for a long time, since Safari on macOS has long supported push notifications. https://firt.dev/ios-15.4b

Sorry, should have included that: https://developers.google.com/web/android/trusted-web-activity Basically: It’s a way to verify that an app represents your site and then that app can open up the PWA inside it (a bit tricky to explain, but it’s great if one wants to be in the store and/or have an existing non-PWA app that one wants to upgrade to a PWA) More info: https://firt.dev/pwa-playstore

App makers (and often users!) want dedicated buttons for services or apps they use on their phone home screens or menus. Apple has put considerable effort into having a standardized workflow that most users understand when it comes to installing a mobile app on their device: you access it through their App Store. I would love for Progressive Web Apps to be normalized, and PWAs can do a lot, and you can also get a button for a PWA on your home screen, but the process to do so is odd/cumbersome, requires explanation for inexperienced users, which is not something that most companies that want a well-positioned mobile app are willing to tolerate. And while PWAs on iOS can access some sensors, the API support is limited[0] and in some cases not supported at all. Not being able to capture links to properly direct users into installed PWAs, not being able to provide install prompts, background sync, etc. are considered serious limitations to people who are used to those luxuries available to actual iOS apps. [0] https://firt.dev/notes/pwa-ios/

None of this is aimed at any individual Webkit developer. The state of Safari (stagnation and underinvestment) is on Apple, not on the team. Apple not taking feedback or taking it and it being completely pointless is well documented behavior. This guy... https://firt.dev/ ...has basically been doing Apple's job for ages. Testing releases, documenting endless bugs, providing feedback, usually leading to absolutely nothing at all. Recently, he kept score from what was actually handled based on last year's feedback. It was close to nothing. Which is business as usual, it's like talking to a brick wall. Things couldn't be more dramatically different with the Chrome team. When I register a bug there, I get feedback within hours. They will scrutinize it immediately and confirm if its reproducible or not. They will indicate if its per spec or not, refer to discussions and assign it to a group/member when it's a valid bug. If it's anything remotely serious, it's often solved within 2 releases, so within 12 weeks. Further, one can directly interact with the Chrome team on Twitter and I regularly have long email conversations with them by personal email. They are accessible and take your feedback serious. Apple is the exact opposite. As for Safari updates, they're usually meh. Small list of bug fixes and some web inspector improvements. Hence my remark that this is an unusually valuable release.

> Apple never supported PWAs. That's not really correct. "PWAs" actually just describe a suite of APIs, most of which Apple supports: https://firt.dev/notes/pwa-ios/. The biggest "missing link" has been support for push notifications, which iOS 16.4 added: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/16/23603042/apple-push-notifications-w…

Here's the definitive list: https://firt.dev/notes/pwa-ios/ None of those things are necessary to create a very full featured Tumblr web application. E.g. twitter works quite well on mobile web. Tumblr wants people to download the app for engagement purposes.

PWA support is improving, though. https://firt.dev/ios-15.4b (that post is based on a beta, it’s possible noted bugs will be fixed already, though this is Apple we’re talking about…)

Here's the link to the section: https://firt.dev/ios-15.4b#web-push-notifications-on-ios－with-a-catch > 1- It's a disabled-by-default experiment at this time > 2- The APIs are there, but they are not working

- localStorage is broken in Safari 14.1 (the latest version) on macOS [1] - Apple added support for blob.stream() in Safari 14.1 but calling the function causes a null pointer exception and crashes the renderer process [2] - Read this summary of Safari changes in iOS 14.5 (released a few weeks ago, and without an official changelog for nearly a week) and tell me that Apple isn't trying to kill PWAs through neglect [3] [1]: https://twitter.com/jaffathecake/status/1389493762129375232 [2]: https://twitter.com/feross/status/1386835131780931587 [3]: https://firt.dev/ios-14.5/

Better PWA support on iOS https://firt.dev/ios-15.4b

It's coming soon! https://firt.dev/ios-15.4b

This article seems prompted by: > Apple finally acknowledged the name "Progressive Web App" and the platform as an alternative to the App Store. It's not how we all were expecting this to happen, but at least it's a start. No one from the WebKit and Safari teams is talking about PWAs; Apple's lawyers defined PWAs and their compatibility on iOS and iPadOS as evidence against App Store monopoly to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission https://firt.dev/ios-14.5/#progressive-web-apps-on-ios-14.5 - linked to from the third "fact" listed at the start of the article. (Or at least, I was thinking that an article such as this one needed to be written when I read the above.) Presumably, the ACCC and similar bodies around the world will be looking for evidence as to whether this claim is true. While it's generally known among front-end developers that Safari is the reason PWA's on iOS haven't really been feasible for a long time, it wasn't clearly articulated anywhere. Now the lawyers will have this article to refer to as evidence. Hopefully it will pressure Apple to at least make PWA's more viable on iOS, even if just as an argument for their lawyers.

In fact, Steve Job’s WWDC 2007 launch, his “one more thing” for iPhone was that you could develop and distribute apps, web apps with icons using iPhone APIs: Web 2.0 + AJAX, integrate w/ iPhone services, instant distribution, easy to update, secure ... Apple originally intended the iPhone to be open in this way, for HTML5 apps you’d get from anywhere. Similar to Palm Pre, and other devices of the time. There was no “app store”. For a while after the app store, even the “native” apps toyed with being really just HTML5 apps in a wrapper (e.g. Facebook famously went that way before eventually going back). Those HTML5 app features have gotten better, not worse, but its almost as though devs haven’t ever seen or tried this approach. This 2018 Medium article talks about how really “It’s been PWA all along”. Note that as time passes, more native API access is brought through securely, not less: As of 2018: https://medium.com/@firt/progressive-web-apps-on-ios-are-here-d00430de… And as of 2021: https://firt.dev/pwa-2021/ That’s a somewhat anti-Apple take. Going back to the beginning, you can already see Apple struggling with implications of native API vs. openness. See this October 2007 open letter from Steve Jobs: “[We] were trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once — provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and…