Hacker News Reader

Comment by johnnyanmac | Hacker News Reader

I mean, the problem is the same one introduced since the two big mobile platforms were established: "I want to publish to IOS/Android as a native app without needing to have two separate builds to manage". PWAs make that pitch to those who already have websites to triple dip. It never has to promise to be as good as a native app, just "good enough".

Does it live up to that? YMMV. It's probably fine for very simple apps, probably comes apart at the seams for anything trying to look modern or have fancier functionality.

View on HN

The "two big mobile platforms" were not established by an irreversible act of God. Before the current time of two platforms, there was a time of (mostly-)one platform i.e. the Web, and that platform had quite a few nice features.

One of the small conveniences is indeed that you didn't need to develop the same thing twice, which made the barrier to entry much lower. The functionality that you were exposing to users did not need to pass a review at one of two US tech giant companies, which could reject publishing it for any or no sensible reason at all. You were not forced to pay 30% of your revenue to the gatekeepers of the platform. You were not banned to invite users to buy your product in any way that works for them, even if it meant sending you checks over carrier pigeons. There was no _chokepoints_ that a single company could squeeze to further its own interests (after the collapse of IE).

>There was no _chokepoints_ that a single company could squeeze to further its own interests (after the collapse of IE).

Google Chrome would like a word...

I've built large, complex and beautiful healthcare apps as a PWA.

The only two things I've ever missed from native functionality are:

- background geolocation

- push notifications on ios

The second one was fixed recently.

In contrast, from what I've seen 90+ percent of apps I see in the app stores would be better as a web page / PWA.

But the real question is where most of your users live.

I’d take a decent wager that most of your users are most familiar with apps and would prefer installing full apps.

Doesn’t matter that most apps would be better suited to being a web page or PWA if that’s not where the users are. That’s kind of like saying that PCs are better at gaming than consoles. Yes, that’s true, but that’s not where the majority of users are.

I mean, PWAs aren't made with the goal to maximize User UX. It's a cost saving measure like any other solution that isn't making 2 dedicated native apps for IOS/Android.it won't get as much traffic as a native app, but it's almost "free" to deploy.

To use the gaming console example, it's not unlike using an emulator to launch your game on PC (if you could somehow monetize an emulated rom). It's not the ideal experience, but it requires very little extra work.

I find PWAs to have a vastly superior UX. I can trust that they are running in the strongest sandbox my device has to offer. I don’t have to download anything, and I don’t have to update anything. I don’t have to remember any account passwords to install anything, and my ad blockers and password managers just work inside them. I don’t have to worry about arbitrary content policies of Apple or Google, the app can just show me whatever it wants.

>But the real question is where most of your users live.

Well, they "live" on their phone. I would just put a button on my website to install the app, users would find that easily.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com