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Comment by fbelzile | Hacker News Reader

I don't know though, Microsoft already runs multiple app stores (Xbox & Windows, Edge). I don't see why they couldn't build it out for another platform or at least figure out some kind of arms-reach integration with Github -> Microsoft Store.

This could be a nice come back into the mobile sphere they lost out on. As a developer, I completely agree that Microsoft earned my trust over the years.

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There's pushback on another app store from Microsoft because nobody wants more walled gardens.

The pendulum has shifted, and it's swinging towards PWA.

Per Microsoft, Outlook is now a progressive web app.

App stores are dying - they're just going to take a bit to timeout.

>>The pendulum has shifted, and it's swinging towards PWA

Didn't Firefox recently announce they're discontinuing PWA features?

Only for desktop, I think.

FF only removed the SSB (site specific browser) feature on desktop which was in an alpha state. There was no announcement that Mozilla was going to remove the entire PWA features (such as service workers).

PWA is a set of modern web standards. "Supporting PWA" can mean many things but "Removing unfinished SSB" doesn't mean "Removing PWA".

Unfortunately, the pendulum is also swinging away from Firefox.

> The pendulum has shifted, and it's swinging towards PWA.

It has for some things, and for others native is king. Native just delivers experiences that PWA can’t (yet).

To take a simple example - let’s consider a ‘timer app’. On iPhone I ask Siri to set me a timer for 5 minutes, it sets the timer and I walk away from my phone. 15 minutes the timer pings on my watch where I can accept it. There are multiple steps in this user story that a PWA currently struggles with, including:

* (Reliable) backgrounding

* Siri integration

* Notifications

* Apple Watch support

These are all artificial problems created by Apple, though. The first three are all doable on Android PWAs, and you can do everything with a TWA in the Play Store.

I don’t disagree, although I think these reasons do mean that it’s far too early to say “App stores are dying” as in the post I was replying to - at least in Apple’s case they are still central, and even seem to be becoming more core with deeper integration into MacOS.

Also, in this context, a TWA isn’t useful as the post is about avoiding an App Store / central control using PWA.

Apple's case, until the users revolt hard enough/some killer webapp on Android doesn't work the same on iOS.

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