There seems to be confusion about how, exactly, Apple keeps the web second-class on iOS. Understandable! It's the interplay of several interlocking effects. Let's examine them (thread).https://twitter.com/slightlylate/status/1190665796717957120 …
-
-
Next, Apple under-invests in Safari's engine (WebKit) in ways that cumulatively make it difficult to do anything new and ambitious. The cumulative effect of the under-investment is hard to overstate, but it can be graphed: https://web-confluence.appspot.com/#!/confluence pic.twitter.com/d6RhoRw0Vz
Show this thread -
On every other OS, the way we have dealt with laggard browsers is through competition. Remember haranguing friends and family to install Firefox? I sure do. Apple broke that too, via Section 2.5.6: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#2.5.6 …pic.twitter.com/D5Eb5uFfSE
Show this thread -
Section 2.5.6 is the Hotel Cupertino clause: you can pick any browser you like, but you can't choose a better web. In fact, iOS prevents other browsers from even replacing Safari as the system default. 2.5.6 caps web progress at the rate that Apple (under) invests.
Show this thread -
All of this has been done to preserve the linkage between proprietary OS/APIs, an exclusive software ecosystem, and the hardware sales that software ecosystem supports. The easiest iOS device sale is the upgrader who is worried about losing their software if they switch horses.
Show this thread -
If you're a web developer, this means that iOS -- the whole OS -- is the new IE6. Your CEO and wealthiest users won't switch off it, so it taxes everything you do. They also can't imagine the web being great because, for them, it isn't.
Show this thread -
If you make your living on the web, it's crucial to understand that Apple is *not on your side*. Every dollar you spend on iOS hardware is a vote against your future.
Show this thread -
A necessary addendum: don't take this out on the WebKit team. All of these decisions were made far above their pay-grade. They want a web that can work just as much as you do. Yes, they're Apple employees, but just as oppressed by this as the rest of us.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
If you are packaged web app, just be a web app. The last thing user need is to have the App Store be spammed with every web site in the world. And people already have a good search engine for that.
-
I'm struggling to find an argument in this response. Is your position that app stores can't handle scale, so let's not ask them to? That centralisation is beneficial to users ipso facto? Or that technology prejudice is ok so long as it's web developers that lose?
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
-
-
I agree with a lot said in this thread, but this point in particular is a fair requirement. As a user, nothing frustrates me more than installing an app that's really just a website repackaged.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
& Web Standards TL; Blink API OWNER
Named PWAs w/
DMs open. Tweets my own; press@google.com for official comms.