I think PWAs are awesome, and I wish TWAs (PWAs in App Stores) were more "first class citizens" on both Android (can publish, but they lack documentation and access to IAP) and iPhone (non existent). Ironically, Steve Jobs wanted all iphone "apps" to just be websites, well before PWAs were a thing[1].
I urge every company starting out to consider a PWA before you go straight towards the native app route. You'll iterate/validate faster, and still be able to publish to Android.
>Steve Jobs wanted all iphone "apps" to just be websites
I wouldn't weigh that too much, as it seems it was PR deflection until the native app SDK was ready. Basically Steve's world class reality distortion field at work that left one content but going "wait what" hours or days later. Very useful if one is a journalist that has already turned in their copy by then.
Once the native app tools were published, Steve didn't say anything else about iPhone "app sites".
"Install this site as an app" is great feature on desktop also.
I use it for several Google apps (Gmail, Calendar, Keep) and local bus or map websites. So it is much easier to view on separate window and open from desktop/start menu.
They are just better bookmarks for most visited webapps.
This is fantastic. Native web technology is often undersold and overlooked. But it’s there. It’s powerful. And it unlocks the potential to re-open the web and move away from walled gardens.
There's a big conflict of interest between the walled garden and supporting a good PWA experience on iOS. As a result, you have buggy, limited and brittle Web APIs instead of native device APIs.
Users also don't really understand PWAs, they're used to getting things from the App store. The installation routine is cumbersome. Storing local data reliably is not possible.
So you ship a "native" App with a web view, but if you follow the terms of the App store guidelines to the letter, you can not update the app bundle through the web, and you can not use native APIs. It's the worst of both worlds.
It might be an acceptable compromise, but if you want to give your users the best experience, it's not a viable path and likely never will be.
If we had Congressional representatives that understood everything you just wrote, we'd get some serious reforms for this practice. I'm very much against the entire practice, but the way Apple intentionally limits what web APIs they support (especially when they support certain ones on macOS) is criminal.
The irony of Apple's current position on the web is that their big HTML5 Showcase page (back in 2010) literally said, "Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web."
Their current position is completely indefensible when viewed without rose-gold colored glasses.
I urge every company starting out to consider a PWA before you go straight towards the native app route. You'll iterate/validate faster, and still be able to publish to Android.
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2011/10/21/jobs-original-vision-for-the-...