Here is what a PWA is on iOS:
--The same files (HTML, JScript, CSS) running at the website in Safari are downloaded.
--The same local storage (IndexdedDB etc.) used by Safari is used by the PWA.
--The local storage is separated from that used by Safari (which gets automatically deleted).
--The local storage is not automatically deleted (permenant).
--The PWA runs in a separate browser window run by Safari that only shows your app.
--Because of the downloads the PWA can run while offline.
--A true PWA provides a manifest file at the website describing how all this works to the browser.
If the author below is describing the security of Safari, the efficiencies of Safari, the Safari security model, and the hacks/stacks of HTML/JS/CSS then the points are relevant. I think, though, that Safari is likely the most secure, efficient, and capable app on iOS for website-level needs (which can be quite astounding when done right), so we have a difference of opinion.
PWAs are supposed to be run by the browser that was used to download them even if that browser is not the default. This was not an issue when Safari was the only browser on iOS. Now that Chrome might have been used to DL the PWA, Apple likely has some changes to make to the PWA process to ensure Chrome not Safari runs the PWA.
In other words, if you are on a web page that you find very useful, and you want access to it while off-line and you want its local storage to not get auto-deleted you can download it as a PWA and access it directly from an icon on your home screen. If you want to keep using it after browsing to the site in Safari (Chrome, etc.) you can do that also.
HTH.
It’s a bit of a dick move but that kills more web apps is fine by me. I know this is not a popular idea but hear me out first before you hit me with a shoe or something.
I spent years architecting the things and quite frankly most of the use cases need to just go. Everyone say they allow you to break free from the chains of your platform. They don’t. They allow someone else to sell their own SaaS microplatform to you instead or hoover up your data in an easy centralised location. The UI’s are terrible and built on stacks of hacks and garbage which consume ridiculous amounts of energy and fall over all the time. Not to mention the security model is terrible to dire at the very best. And even the supposed offline ones don’t work properly offline. They are a net regression for application delivery and I wish people would stop saying they are the best thing in the universe. Have you seen a web developer after a decade of doing it? They are almost universally nervous wrecks and smoke a lot. The back end guys are crack smoking monkeys and the companies that build them are hiring the worst people they can and hoping you don’t sue them one day when all your personal data end up for sale by the gigabyte on some dark web forum.
Of course this can be replaced by Electron so instead of having a PWA or native web app they bundle the whole stack into a monolithic blob that is shipped to your computer to run alongside everything else and eat up your RAM and CPU because they are too damn lazy, cheap and stupid or their business model is so close to the line that a native app is going to ruin them. They all suck.
The web should be for content delivery only and we should have fully native apps that support occasionally connected scenarios on our devices. I’m almost entirely running like that these days and my life is much much much better for it. Everything is always where I need it and my security and data protection posture puts my personal data at significantly lower risk.
As for on device browser engines, this whole thing is going to turn into the mess like Android is. Your entire locked down device model is screwed the moment someone bundles a completely separate browser engine just to display a flipping about box. Yes I’ve seen that twice now… Urgh!
www.turnoffthelights.com
