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Comment by mmis1000 | Hacker News Reader

Because it's technically a separate app in ios system, with all storage separation, permission… etc. enforced by the system itself. And ios don't actually allow any app to install another app unlike Android. The pwa install process is a somewhat backdoor build into safari and ios for this specific usage and never made public at first place.

To make this work with another browser. They would need to fix this, make a safe public api for it, and publish it in new ios version. (Which they think it's way too much work and rather want to get rid of it instead)

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Browser can do the exact same thing as a PWA app. It's using the same web APIs.

Edit: don't know why I am getting downvoted. A web page can do exaxt same thing as a PWA. Access camera,mic, files system, Bluetooth etc, send push notifications here's an example.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FileSystem

Maybe you are getting downvoted because you are wrong. On iOS, you cannot receive push notifications unless you have been added as a PWA to the home screen.

Thanks. It's helpful to mention the specific features needed, as people often mean different things when discussing PWAs. I see https://letter.open-web-advocacy.org/ says «critical features including integration with iOS, push notifications, unread count badging, and the ability to run full screen».

Not to access native push notifications which was the one feature that Apple only just added in 2023.

Sure, Webkit and mobile safari have supported things like service workers for years and years, but we just freaking got notifications and so it felt like they were yanking it back.

But to make push notifications happen, you need a central push server. How do you handle that with a third party browser engine? Where does the browser app request notification access? But then how is that delegated to a separate PWA if you have notifications turned off for the browser specifically? Currently, notifications run through Apple servers on iOS. With third party engine support, that opens a can of worms needed to proxy the requests into an iPhone.

PWAs on ios couldn't send them until the it was supported in webkit and safari. Talking security concerns about a PWAs which is the same risk as allowing users browser the internet since it's using the exact same APIs. Banning PWAs security reasons wouldn't make sense unless you just banned users from browsing the internet on the device as well. It's the same security threat.

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