Comment by cosmic_cheese
2 days ago
The big difference, as always with web apps, is intent and consent.
Installing an app is a strong signal that the user actually wants/needs it. The level of consent is much higher right out of the gate. With web apps on the other hand, the user can be swept away by a redirect, accidental tap, maliciously captured tap (think a transparent element covering the whole page), etc. There’s a much higher chance that users never intended to end up where they’re at and don’t actually want anything from the app.
Following this train of thought, it stands to reason to have a looser policy with apps. If there’s a way to install web apps with the same level of consent (PWA listings in an App Store for example), standards could be loosened when users come through that route, but for navigating to any random web address things should be more tight.
The user already has to explicitly "install" a PWA on iOS. See dfabulich's comment in this same thread for how overly complicated and convoluted that process is currently. So there's a pretty good argument that installing a PWA actually require much, much MORE intent than a native app from the app store.
Similarly, the user needs to consent to notifications (among other things) just as they do for native apps.
> So there's a pretty good argument that installing a PWA actually require much, much MORE intent than a native app from the app store
As it should because native apps go through an approval process to vet them.