I disagree, at least on the Android side of things (Apple has long been hostile to PWAs). Installing a PWA from a website is trivially easy on Android, it's just that most users really have separated in their minds (not surprising due to history) that apps come from app stores, and the browser is used for websites.
Also, Google has made in much easier in recent years to submit plain PWAs to the Play Store: https://youtu.be/ddbHp8tGBwQ
On Android you have to pop open a menu and find the install option. That's not inherently discoverable as you need to know it's even possible, and most people don't.
It would be trivial to present the user with a more proactive notification that a site can be installed as an app, or even include such a notice in their search results on Google, but they choose not to do so.
Actually nowadays it's not that bad anymore. Android browser itself offers installable PWA and there is an event called beforeinstallprompt event (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/befo...), which can be used to perform PWA installation on user interaction. Of course it's not supported in every browser.
iOS is more difficult since user needs to understand that "saving to home screen" is same as installing "app" and there's no way to trigger it programmatically or help user in any other way than with visual illustrations.
The share menu is used for everything on ios, I had to get used to it at my first apple device’s case.
One notably stupid usage of the Share option was (I believe it is no longer how it’s done) adding an image to a hidden folder — that’s something you definitely don’t want to share, yet quite easy to accidentally send to someone during this process.
Thankfully this insanity is changing in the upcoming release due in September. A button for a 3 dot/hamburger menu appears in the bottom right when you select photos.
Because it doesn't make sense that it's part of the web share functionality to begin with.
The native share dialog is about "I have this piece of content, now share it with one of these other apps", e.g. saving a document locally, or sending it with AirDrop, or saving to Google Drive, or sending as an email attachment, etc.
Installing a site as an app on your homescreen has absolutely nothing to do with sharing content to begin with.
I have some PWAs in the Play Store via that method. I also got this same Android API update email and had to jump through various hoops to update them all. I wish I could list an actual PWA (like a URL to a website) in the Play Store and then never have to worry about Android API version updates, since I'm literally not using any Android-specific features.
> it's just that most users really have separated in their minds (not surprising due to history) that apps come from app stores, and the browser is used for websites.
Right, because for a very long time (and maybe still) PWAs have been much closer to terrible websites than good apps. They generally don't have the same UX properties as real apps.
Remember when the iPhone first came out and web apps were the only option and they sucked balls? That never really changed. People still find mobile sites with maps that are impossible to use. They don't expect that from app store apps.
And if it's just a web site, why do you need to "install" it? A link is surely sufficient?
But nowadays you can't really see the difference between good webapps and native apps. We also migrated our native apps to full SPA apps. And really it makes development so much easier. The apps we have are relatively simple without fancy stuff. But the css render engine is fast. Even on Android.
And we reduced some of our apps from 30mbs of java code to 150kb of java/typescript.
Plus as a bonus we can have a website and serve ios as well.
For us there is really no reason to go back.
Sidenote: some parts of the app are still native. Ads, Auth and analytics
Thanks for posting, I think this is a great point. Web tech has advanced to the point that a large swath of apps can be implemented as PWAs with no loss of experience (though last I checked iOS was still holding things back).
This isn't true for all apps, but with the notable exception of games, I'd say it applies to most: banking/finance apps, social media apps, travel/airline/booking apps, etc.
If you seriously think analytics makes for a worse user experience, then you're speaking out of ignorance.
Analytics tell developers exactly where bugs and crashes occur.
And on which devices or versions of the OS the problem is.
Without analytics it would take weeks/months to figure out exactly what line of code is causing the issue. Heck, the developers might NEVER KNOW that the software has an issue.
Apps would just keep crashing on users for years. And developers would have no idea why users were abandoning their product.
Nobody that has any idea what they're talking about would say that analytics makes for a worse user experience.
> And if it's just a web site, why do you need to "install" it? A link is surely sufficient?
The point is that there are apps that can pretty much be built entirely using web technologies as PWAs, but in doing so they are no longer "just web sites" and they need functionality of installed apps, like notifications. For example, most banking apps on Android could be entirely rewritten as PWAs, but they'd need to make use of things like notifications (I don't want a random website sending me notifications, but I DO want notifications of activity on my bank account) and camera APIs (e.g. for mobile check deposit).
I find bank apps to be the least flexible about notifications; there's no way to get them to use app notifications for a lot of things they insist on using email and/or SMS for.
The last thing being the worst as SMS 2FA is so insecure, but SMS of your bank deposits isn't much better.
Well, obviously all the features that are available to PWAs are available in browsers - a browser is the thing that executes a PWA to begin with.
It basically is just a difference in use case and how most people thing about "apps" vs. "websites". If I have a long term relationship with a business, and I access its functionality frequently, I'd rather have it as an app on my homescreen.
Just looking through the apps I currently have open… Bank app, chat app, maps, Tile, YouTube and a weather app. Only one of them is actually doing anything that wouldn’t fit a PWA. So why are they apps, not a collection of links?
I would say only the weather and bank apps would be really equal as a PWA.
Maps require complex gestures and advanced graphics and UIs that would never work well as a PWA. Try maps.google.com. Its nothing like the Google Maps app. Plus Android Auto integration.
Tile probably needs pretty deep Bluetooth integration and background processing that the web doesn't provide.
YouTube can do things like PiP that you can't do on the web.
Yes, "Add to home screen" is exactly how you install a PWA to your phone =)
It's a bit confusing, isn't it? "Add to home screen" makes it seem like you're just adding a link, but it's installing the PWA, possibly enabling notifications, and etc.
1. For people like you that don't want to install them, they're just a normal website.
2. For people that do want to install them for the added functionality (things like notifications), then it is easy to install, and furthermore cheaper for developers to build and maintain (one codebase instead of multiple).
You say "you have no desire to have an app", but I think for most people that's really dependent on the site/application. Yeah, for any site I just have a short term or infrequent transaction, I don't want an app either. But many/most people use apps for businesses they have long term relationships with (namely financial institutions).
That's not always because of anything intrinsic to the Web. We know that ordering a pizza isn't any more complicated than what can be represented on a paper form. Forms can also be capably represented in a browser. The problem is that app developers are by and large not capable of distilling the requirements down to what is necessary and sufficient for the task at hand. Instead, they're foolishly preoccupied with what they consider to be the mandate to deliver experiences.
Also, Google has made in much easier in recent years to submit plain PWAs to the Play Store: https://youtu.be/ddbHp8tGBwQ