Comment by turblety

2 months ago

Ah yeah. While this is mostly implemented terrible, a web app can absolutely do this for you using service workers. So you can install a webapp to your homescreen and use it without an internet connection at all.

Emulate a network layer to serve a pre-packaged bundle. Neat "platform", but as a developer no thanks.

While apps are spying etc, making them is usually a no-brainer compared to churning and leaky web stacks. And probably not a single time a webapp loaded for me when I tried it outside standing in the wind trying to figure something out. It was always an app that started and helped and didn't ever scroll horizontally while doing so.

In that case the only difference between a webapp and a normal app would be the permissions, wouldn't it?

  • Permissions and performances.

    But we could argue that if webapps were more used on mobiles, new APIs would have been opened to facilitate cross-app integrations.

You seem to miss the fact that most web app experiences are inferior to that of native app.

The disadvantage of native is barrier to install. Once that's done, the experience to the user is simply superior. True native experience, fast and predictable. As a developer it's easier to build those types of apps as well.

People who haven't used iOS might not understand this though as they've never seen "how things should be".