Hacker News Reader

Comment by TheAceOfHearts | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why people make so much noise about PWAs. Am I the only one that doesn't mind opening his browser and then clicking on a bookmark?

View on HN

There's a lot of case studies on PWAs driving significant increases in conversion rates and engagement.

https://developers.google.com/web/showcase/2017/

Disclaimer: I work on Google Web DevRel, which owns developers.google.com/web

Is there a single platform where I can add a web app to the taskbar, dock or home screen and start in as a regular app?

I don't use Android, but I've never seen this work using any browser on MacOS, Windows or iOS.

On both Android and iOS, you can add any url to your home screen (https://www.howtogeek.com/196087/how-to-add-websites-to-the-...)

I know, it just opens in a browser, not like a real app.

AFAIK you can pin bookmarks/PWAs to your windows taskbar/start menu/desktop via Chrome.

They'll even open in a seperated window.

I've never seen this work, ever.

I just tested it and it appears to work on my system.

Three dots > More tools > Add to Desktop

PWAs are more than just adding a icon/link to the homescreen. https://developers.google.com/web/progressive-web-apps/check...

Which is not what this article is about - the article focuses on PWA meaning 'home screen web app'. My impression is that Apple use case of Service Workers is for improved caching rather than trying to make "Save to home screen" sites better.

PWAs work without connection, or with a very lousy or limited data connection, without having to download a lot of stuff the moment you need it the most. In other words, the vast majority of advantages of native apps.

Their exciting for web devs (which are a large group), as they allow us to create apps that approximate native apps (the really big feature being offline support).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com