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Comment by scarface74 | Hacker News Reader

Yes because of the great choice of browsers on Android, companies of all sizes are eschewing native apps and telling Android users just to use their website. On the other hand they are being forced to create apps for iOS.

Oh wait. That’s not happening at all.

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On Google's android, everybody uses Google's browser. On Apple's iOS, most everybody will use Apple's browser.

That's why Google's apps ask you in which browser to open links, with Chrome being the first, and default, choice. And conveniently "forgetting" the user choice.

Don't forget about Google search which will push Chrome every chance it has. And Youtube.

As someone who has used Firefox on Android as the default browser for years, one thing that I must say is that Android never conveniently forgot my choice.

Which cannot be said about Windows.

I'm not talking about the OS. Google's apps conveniently forget the choice on iOS. Less aggressively in the past few months (probably caught by Apple), but still.

Oh, I didn't know that on iOS the apps is responsible for picking another app to open an resource.

In Android, the app just throws an intent to open something, the OS opens the list of app capable of handling it, the user picks the wanted one (either 'only this time' or 'use this as default next time'). The OS, not the app, then remembers the choice.

> Oh, I didn't know that on iOS the apps is responsible for picking another app to open an resource.

I don't think they are responsible, but you can invoke a specific app if you need. Google's apps keep showing this sheet with "browser choice" quite often, conveniently forgetting that the user keeps setting "don't ask me again".

The choices are: Chrome, Google, Safari, Default system browser.

The thing I was never understand how can one use chrome on android when its not allowing ads blocking? Zillions of notifications and pop ups, fraud ads that have more space than information you want to read. Trackers that slow down your pages and destroying battery by sending every move to google several times a second. Constant redirects to google store, constant attempts to subscribe you to mobile provider premium services. Android users living in spyware hell.

What does that have to do with the narrative that PWAs are a great alternative on Android yet no company seems to take advantage of the fact and they still all create an iOS, Android and web app?

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