I would like to mention that although I’m aware of the limitations, I think it is worth designing and advocating for web app standards that could even at some point become a viable competitor to native apps, especially for apps that really don’t need to be native/wrapped apps in the first place since most are CRUDs anyways.
Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.
Most apps can be a PWA nowadays. A Hetzner VPS costs roughly the same as the Apple dev membership. Saying this as a native iOS dev since iOS 4. For your average pretty json printer you don’t need to go native.
Offline PWA sites are very limited on iOS. If you force close Safari, look at your phone funny, or don’t visit the site regularly, the cache is cleared and you are stuck at a loading screen until you have internet again.
That’s what forced me to finally bite the bullet and pay Apple yearly so I could develop an app for my friends and I to use. Would have much rather kept it as a PWA.
You aren't even limited to android apps. You can install termux and write and compile your own code to run from there or to copy and run anywhere else.
With a free account, it needs to be reinstalled every 7 days because the signature expires. It's hardly convenient for personal use.
even worse - if you need to build some app with entitlements or some features likes push notifications etc then you need non-free account
I would like to mention that although I’m aware of the limitations, I think it is worth designing and advocating for web app standards that could even at some point become a viable competitor to native apps, especially for apps that really don’t need to be native/wrapped apps in the first place since most are CRUDs anyways.
Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.
1 reply →
Most apps can be a PWA nowadays. A Hetzner VPS costs roughly the same as the Apple dev membership. Saying this as a native iOS dev since iOS 4. For your average pretty json printer you don’t need to go native.
Offline PWA sites are very limited on iOS. If you force close Safari, look at your phone funny, or don’t visit the site regularly, the cache is cleared and you are stuck at a loading screen until you have internet again.
That’s what forced me to finally bite the bullet and pay Apple yearly so I could develop an app for my friends and I to use. Would have much rather kept it as a PWA.
1 reply →
[flagged]
Every 7 days, forever?
At some point you have the thing working to your satisfaction and just want to continue using it.
3 replies →
Going on vacation and want to continue dogfooding?
It happens. Sometimes you're done making updates to a personal app you use that you wrote.
This is not true either. At some point you had to pay. But it’s been a long time since they made it free (with caveats).
Even free-er with Expo and React Native. Course then you have to touch JavaScript ;)
What an insane song and dance to run software.
>free
You forgot to factor in the cost of a Mac.
You don't need a computer to develop Android apps?
All you need is a phone: https://github.com/atamshkai/Android-Studio-On-Android-Phone
1 reply →
You aren't even limited to android apps. You can install termux and write and compile your own code to run from there or to copy and run anywhere else.
You can use _any_ computer to make Android apps. For iOS you strictly need a Mac.