I disagree, I think it's a great feature that let's apps like ProtonMail not require a desktop app.
What it needs is a user-driven gesture restriction and a harsh penalty by Google for firing on first-load.
What it needs is a user-driven gesture restriction and a harsh penalty by Google for firing on first-load.
There is a user-gesture restriction. So now there's an HTML pop-up on dozens of pages.
Imo the user-gesture + permission-modal design is fundamentally bad. We penalize sites by making them have to maim their cover with grotesque user-gesture cutouts, then, once the user clicks (makes a user gesture) they have to click again. Sites should just request push notifications, without user gestures. Something should show up in the awesome-bar, and users can enable it at their leasure. Rather than an active "pull" flow for permissions, we need a "push" flow where users can passively enable/disable some permissions freely, in a more chill way. Conversion rates would plummet, but the whole web would be a much more pleasant place & actually operate for-the-user, which is what the internet is for[1].
For many users, being forced into web-only non-native cloud “apps” is not actually feature.
Especially for something like end-to-end ostensibly client-side encrypted e-mail.
This thread is about actively facilitating that kind of behavior by developers.
Personally I like web notifications, if the site doesn’t implement them well then turn it off for that site.
I’m forced to use crappy web apps for work.
How does it benefit Apple — or Apple’s users — for Apple to facilitate forcing users into crappy, non-native web apps?
We’re discussing the idea that this feature is valuable because it facilitates developers dropping native applications in favor of fully web-based replacements.
The example given by the first poster was Protonmail, which performs client-side encryption, and which they argued would be better served by providing only a web application.
I noted that this would not actually be desirable for most users, especially when the application in question must be trusted to implement client-side encryption for which the server should not have access to the private keying materials, as is the case for protonmail.
There, hopefully you’re all caught up. I understand that you like the idea of this feature, but please read the threads you’re replying to.
I really don't think any mail client needs corner of screen popups to be useful: I respond to most emails within 5-10 minutes, have used web email since 2005, and I've never wanted or allowed push notifications on my desktop.
It is, at best, a solution looking for a problem, and at worst, an adtech popup spec maliciously impressed upon the web with a casual justification for building it.
The “Lol” at the end of your comment is misplaced, comes off as condescending.
Not everyone is the same as you, maybe they had considered turning them off and it’s possible that they believe that it may not be an option.
For people outside of tech who do not mess with the settings of their devices, ironically the same people who are likely to be abused by this feature, then having a toggle is not very useful overall anyway.
But, I’m not happy with your tone as it brings down the whole conversation to the same tired old flame war/shit slinging that inevitably happens when someone starts it with mild condescension on the internet.