Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product?

Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by jb1991 on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:12AM (#40725673)

I don’t know much about these kinds of apps, but when I visit your game page, I don’t see any way to actually add it to the homepage on my iPhone. Is this something that iOS doesn’t allow, or is there another way to do it? The game looks pretty cool though :)

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by nefarious_ends on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @03:18AM (#40725710)

In Safari hit the share button then scroll down and hit Add to Home Screen.

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by palsecam on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @04:10AM (#40726009)

This.

Safari (and Firefox) does not have https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/BeforeInsta... So you can’t have a custom button/way to prompt players to install.

However, they can install a PWA manually, by themselves; there is the option somewhere in their browser menu.

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by jb1991 on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @04:54AM (#40726279)

That’s interesting, thanks. I just did it successfully, I don’t think I’ve ever installed an app like this before. So I guess when I click it it’s just opening a browser window with no actual browser controls and then loading the site?

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by palsecam on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @05:06AM (#40726364)

Exactly.

“it’s just opening a browser window with no actual browser controls”: yes, due to the `display` setting in the app manifest: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest/displa...

It’s similar to a `WebView` component: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebView

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by jb1991 on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @07:13AM (#40727118)

Why do they use the words progressive web app, seems like a fancy term for just saving a link to your home screen. Is there some additional benefit you get besides this shortcut? Does it do things a webpage does not once it’s been added to your home screen?

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by palsecam on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @07:40AM (#40727288)

It basically is nothing more than a glorified shortcut. The installed app gets a custom load screen. It gets listed on the device installed apps list, and can be removed from there.

But there is nothing a PWA can do that a website can’t do. It’s all about Web APIs. Take push notifications (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...): they make more sense for an (PW)app, but a simple website can do them too (if given permission).

See MDN intro on PWA: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web..., or https://web.dev/learn/pwa/ for more info.

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Re:Ask HN: Who has had a successful PWA product? by goosejuice on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @10:26AM (#40728640)

Installing the app on iOS is a pain point for users. If you have a significant iOS user presence it's a concern.

If Apple supported this API it would be much easier to convince stakeholders that PWA is enough.

You can do browser detection and show a dismissible pop up with instructions but it will still just confuse some users and others with scoff at the need to do that.

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