Does using Slack as a Safari Web App reduce resource consumption vs the Electron app? This seems like a huge deal if so
Yes. Yes it does.
This is why “native” apps that use the operating system’s default WebView for the corresponding platform run seamlessly compared to apps packaged with Electron.
Safari is has much better performance than any other web browser on macOS, and this change will allow users to access those benefits.
Typical marketing BS. Browsers are probably very close to performance. Chrome said last year they are actually the fastest browser on M1/2. On Speedometer 2.0 (apple developed benchmark) with M2 Air Chrome currently has the highest score of 491.
https://blog.chromium.org/2023/06/how-chrome-achieved-high-s...
To me, proof is in the pudding: Chrome feels large and bloated when I use it. Safari feels snappy.
I know it is an early developer beta, and I haven't even begun to debug it, but Slack running in this method does not perform well. My sent messages frequently show and then get stuck in the grey "sending" text indefinitely after they appear as sent on other devices, and I often don't receive messages in the web app until I force a refresh.
Also using Safari is great if your app is Mac-only, but the whole point of Electron is to support Mac and Windows and Linux. And not have to worry about browser quirks and Safari versions and backfills and whatnot.
Because it duplicates the overhead of an entire browser (and Chromium at that) rather than the overhead of a single webpage in an already-open browser?
Seamlessness is a UX concept, not a memory/resources concept.
In most cases, the decision will finally always revolve around the system hooks – how many does the Electron app have, and whether are you able to live without them.