this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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No, it will kill PWAs. And since Apple dictates what everyone else does, this also automatically means PWAs are dead on Android, too. It'll probably get prevented system-side in the future no matter which browser you use, they'll find a way.
Why would they be dead on Android?
Same reason NFC payments on Android were super niche for years before Apple finally implemented it. Or why so many apps don't use Android features that would improve them because iOS doesn't offer that feature. For whatever reason, Apple has an outsized mind share and are able to use that to hold back competing platforms because people don't want the iPhone version of their apps to be less capable.
Of course, the biggest loser in all this isn't Android. It's smaller platforms that want to compete with both Android and iOS.
I think this has to do with web/mobile dev and higher management usually being apple users
But then there are other features on Android that are thriving in spite of Apple not supporting them, like app sideloading.
I'm very interested in why you think that. Do you have numbers?
The concept of a mobile wallet was invented in Kenya in 2007 with no input from Apple. That then spread to East Asia where in China, not NFC payments but QR-code payments have been a thing since 2011 and they have barely caught on in the West. There are massive developments and usage of different technologies happening outside of Western countries of which the majority are now on Android simply due to price.
Which features are these?
Are you an Android user? And which continent are you on? I'm guessing your views are very much centered around a personal experience in a single country or even region, but I may be wrong.
A big benefit is writing the app once and it working everywhere. If it only works on Android, people will just default to the tools tailored to that platform anyway.
But it wouldn't only work on Android. It would also work on Windows and Unix and any other niche operating system that can run a browser (my Blu-ray recorder has a browser in it). There's a whole world outside Apple/Android. This message brought to you by a browser running on Windows...
That's theoretically true, but in practice, the desktop experience (screen size, interaction model, etc.) is sufficiently different that adapting it to mobile to get an app-like experience is not that different from building a separate app.
It's not at all like building a separate app. All the back-end code is identical - all you have to do is make the mobile version not take up as much screen-space, and that's not much work. e.g. on desktop I use icon and text, but on mobile icon only.
Then why do you think most business are already writing a separate Android app rather than just optimising their mobile website?
But "make the mobile version not take up as much screen-space" is not as simple as simply zooming out and just hiding some icon labels. And just the fact that people interact by touch rather than with a mouse and keyboard is already a major adjustment.
Anyway, I'll leave it at this, since I feel like there's not much to gain here for me from the discussion anymore :) Cheers!
I don't think that. I know some businesses who are still writing separate apps, instead of switching to cross-platform. You'll have to ask them why they're doing that. It frustrates me no end when platform-specific bugs come up because they're running different code on each platform, each written by different people.
...makes no difference at all. Whether a user has touched a button, clicked on it, or tabbed to it and pressed enter, the same Button.Clicked event gets triggered.
Like it or not, Apple is the trend setter. Everybody feels like they need to do what Apple does. So given that, Apple kills PWAs, everyone else will surely follow.
That's normally how it goes anyway.
Look for every time Apple has said "reimagined" and you'll find a feature that Android had 5 years earlier.
I don't think that's true. Android has had more features than Apple for over a decade. People forget that iPhones didn't used to have a proper file manager and the only way to put songs on them was through iTunes. iOS has been trailing behind Android in that respect while maintaining their walled garden.
People also forget that smartphones existed before iPhones and MP3 players existed before iPods.
That's the point though. Android has all these features, but they only suddenly become "real" to the general public when Apple makes their version of it too.
I was using Google Wallet for NFC transactions years before Apple made the same available, but as soon as they did everyone started asking if I liked the new iPhone when I paid with it.
The comment I replied to suggested the opposite, that whatever decisions Apple makes, Android follows behind which isn't the case in reality.
I understand your point though. It's weird that people who use iPhones have this mentality that iPhones are at the forefront of innovation. I know some people who are aware that Apple is behind but the phone does what they require of it so they have no need to ask more.
That doesn't make them trend-setters though - that just makes them big spenders on marketing. i.e. Android wasn't following what Apple did - they'd already been doing it first!
Technologically, Apple are far behind. But they're trend setters in terms of the fact that their big marketing and outsized mind share make people want those features.
It's dumb, but that's where we are. iOS is essentially the IE6 of the mobile space at this point, holding back real advancements until Apple figures out a way to make a buck off them.
The original comment was
like if Apple STOPS doing it then everyone else will stop doing it. Like when Apple stopped having 3.5mm jacks everyone else stopped having 3.5mm jacks. Oh wait...
As I said, they're big spenders, not trend-setters.
Quoting myself again for clarity.
Hmm... OK. Not sure you're right in this instance. PWAs have been shit on iPhones for ages due to everything being forced to use Safari on that platform. Probably less people use PWAs on iPhone than on Android. Most people probably didn't even know of PWAs (as seen right in this comment section in a tech community).