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Apple declined to implement 16 Web APIs in Safari due to privacy concerns

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428 points coronadisaster | 1 comments | 29 Jun 20 10:16 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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msoad ◴[29 Jun 20 17:15 UTC] No.23679601[source]▶
Google's developer relations team have done a good job convincing web devs that those APIs are pushed by Google to enable "Amazing PWAs", yet we haven't seen them used by any major app. People are choosing to download native apps for more sophisticated applications.

However Google is pushing those APIs because they know tracking people without cookies in future is a big challenge for them and they need new ways of tracking people.

So sad that Google has taken over the web. From the most used browser (Chrome) to the content hijacking (AMP) to the standards (PWA). All to sell you to advertisers.

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Abishek_Muthian ◴[29 Jun 20 17:54 UTC] No.23680171[source]▶
If PWAs die, we will be struck with this duopoly in smartphone OS for foreseeable future as native apps are the ones which help them retain their position.

If we want upcoming pure Linux smartphone OS, Sailfish or any other platform which protect the mobile computing from becoming proprietary; we need web apps & PWAs to grow and capture significant market.

Apple's treatment towards PWAs has been well known as PWAs are the only threat for its Appstore monopoly in iOS.

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spideymans ◴[29 Jun 20 18:30 UTC] No.23680700[source]▶
From a developer's point of view, I can see the value in PWAs (for them), but as an end user, I really don't see the benefit of PWAs over native apps. The UX is almost always severely degraded when compared to their native counterparts (even if the feature set is ostensibly identical). Why would I use a Twitter PWA, when the native app provides a much better UX?
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the_gipsy ◴[29 Jun 20 19:40 UTC] No.23681669[source]▶
Why on earth would I use a native app for twitter? It's all static content browsing, this has been solved decades ago with the web.

The occasional tweet I may send is just an input field and a file upload maybe.

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Longhanks ◴[29 Jun 20 19:49 UTC] No.23681798[source]▶
This is a perfect example of a HN reader being out of touch with what the vast majority of users actually want. There are plenty of reasons people want a native twitter app: state restoration, integration with system services, push notifications, better user experience, better accessibility, fewer ways to track the user, better permission model, ...
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1. the_gipsy ◴[29 Jun 20 21:03 UTC] No.23683027[source]▶
What is state restoration? All I want is to go back to where I was, a normal website does that ( e.g. HN). Integration with what? I literally just wanna browse twitter, like, retweet, and occasionally compose one. Push notifications, they work on every system except iOS. Better UX is using URLs that I can open and share. Better accessibility is HTML that blind users can use. Native apps track you much, much more than websites and can't be uBlocked. Permission model is as good as native, if not better because users blindly give native apps all permissions (see Instagram).

You haven't made a single point, on the contrary, web wins on ALL of them.

The one single point you can make but you didn't, is that native apps often (but not always) feel smoother or more responsive. Which shouldn't be an issue on browsing static content.