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 …
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First, no matter how app-like it is, Section 4.2 of the App Store Review Guidelines excludes web experiences from being discovered via the search box where users go to add things to their homescreen. Structural prejudice against the web by policy: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#4.2 …pic.twitter.com/SViQETHtUF
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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
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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
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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.
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Replying to @slightlylate
Not disagreeing, just noting that certain apps allow you to choose a default app for web browsing, eg. Google apps and Reddit. Again I think there should be a system default chooser.pic.twitter.com/VSTkNE1WV1
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These apps *have* to do this because users can't effectively set a different default browser on iOS the way they can on MacOS, Windows, Android, Chrome OS, or Linux.
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