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Jen Simmons
@jensimmons@front-end.social  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

I’m surprised I haven’t heard more responses from web developers about the change to Safari on iOS and iPadOS regarding web apps. Now every website can be a web app (saved to the Home Screen and opened as a stand-alone app) — not just sites that have been configured a certain way by the developers.

It’s a big difference for users. Every site gets the same experience. No more mysterious sometimes-it-works-one-way, sometimes-another.

Read more: https://webkit.org/blog/17333/webkit-features-in-safari-26-0/#every-site-can-be-a-web-app-on-ios-and-ipados

Safari on iOS 26, after tapping on Add to Home Screen. The interface showing allows the user to edit the name for the icon on the Home Screen, and toggle whether the site will open as a web app (default on), or instead be a bookmark and open in the default browser.
Safari on iOS 26, after tapping on Add to Home Screen. The interface showing allows the user to edit the name for the icon on the Home Screen, and toggle whether the site will open as a web app (default on), or instead be a bookmark and open in the default browser.
Safari on iOS 26, after tapping on Add to Home Screen. The interface showing allows the user to edit the name for the icon on the Home Screen, and toggle whether the site will open as a web app (default on), or instead be a bookmark and open in the default browser.
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Chris Armstrong
@armstrong@mastodon.design replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

@jensimmons I really appreciate this and all you’re doing that makes the web more of a first-class platform on mobile, but I’m finding the lack of persistent data storage makes most PWAs unworkable

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Jesper
@Jespertheend@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons It would be helpful if we could get a standards position on the Web Install API https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/463
That way we can inform our users about the existence of this functionality. A lot of our users seem to not be aware that this possible in the first place.

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William O'Connell
@williamoconnell@mas.to replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons As a developer I was already specifying the behavior I wanted in the manifest, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be excited about here. I can see the consistency argument, but this is also just one more thing the user can be confused/distracted by during the install process. A process that seems to require more taps with every Safari update.

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Alfonso Martínez de Lizarrondo
@alfonsoml@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons as a web developer, we already have a standard way to tell the browser how it should display my web app .
Why should I be excited about Apple doing its own thing ?
I want you to show an install icon because I'm telling you that my web is ready to act like an app, anything else is a failure.
This is a feature for users, not developers.
Please, tell us why this is better than providing a web manifest (that we're already doing)

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Colin
@colingourlay@bne.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons we’re a wee bit sidetracked by the need to (hopefully temporarily) adapt to layout viewport bugs introduced by 26.0 (partially fixed by 26.1), and visual viewports that differ based on Tab layout settings (Compact/Bottom/Top) when the virtual keyboard is present, but the new Home Screen default behaviour is sooooooo welcome. I’m really looking forward to depending on it, instead of reaching for native apps that are essentially webview wrappers💜

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Antonio Bueno
@atnbueno@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons Not a web developer but, is #Safari doing anything better than what I did with a #shortcut in a summer afternoon two years ago?

https://routinehub.co/shortcut/16316/

I tested Safari’s new feature a bit and I still can’t change the icon, or set the scope (not all #webapps are at the root of a domain!). Do splash screens still need to be the device’s retina resolution? Are they still stretched in landscape iPads? 😬

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Open Web Advocacy
@owa@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons The reason is, this feature makes no meaningful difference to the viability or uptake of web apps compared to native apps. For web apps to be successful you and your team need to develop install flows as easy as installing native apps (install banners, same number of steps, nice UI etc) but we all know that's never going to happen because of AppStore revenue.

The erosion of the mobile web lies at apple's feet.

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Open Web Advocacy
@owa@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons I know you personally care about the future of the web, so happy to set up a meet to explain exactly what would actually move the needle but I doubt corporate would allow it.

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Peter Saathoff-Harshfield
@pesh@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons This is great to see, but it doesn’t work well in a few ways, at least with the site I have had on my home screen for several years, https://text.npr.org/. The favicon isn’t picked up, I can’t use a dark mode style extension, and I can’t pull to refresh. All three of those work/worked when it just opened a Safari tab. I could be missing something though.

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Henrik Pauli
@phl@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons Wasn't this kind of feature a Hot Thing like 10 years ago? And then it seems to have fizzled out completely. Or maybe only on the Android front, I don't remember.

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minyak
@minyak@aus.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons good feature. I use it lots to cull some apps on my limited-capacity iPhone e.g. chesskid

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Nico Berlo
@nico@lepoulsdumonde.com replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons unfortunately (or for safety reasons ?) it doesn’t handle access to saved passwords. But it’s still a cool feature !

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kaiserkiwi :kiwibird:
@kaiserkiwi@corteximplant.com replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons Maybe because it's still extremely inaccessible to create a "web app" from a website. Hiding it in the share menu is just bad.

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SouprMatt
@mls14@social.vivaldi.net replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons This looks great, I hope the word gets out there more!

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Derk-Jan 💙💛🇺🇦
@TheDJ@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@jensimmons not to be ungrateful or anything, but I think this sort of applies:

https://youtu.be/B0B_ekSrsEk?si=den9FpNxcoRED-i4

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