Google Is Integrating Progressive Web Apps Deeper Into Android (chromium.org) 46
Yaron Friedman, a software engineer at Google, writes on Chromium blog: In 2015, we added a new feature to Chrome for Android that allows developers to prompt users to add their site to the Home screen for fast and convenient access. That feature uses an Android shortcut, which means that web apps don't show up throughout Android in the same way as installed native apps. In the next few weeks we'll be rolling out a new version of this experience in Chrome beta. With this new version, once a user adds a Progressive Web App to their Home screen, Chrome will integrate it into Android in a much deeper way than before. For example, Progressive Web Apps will now appear in the app drawer section of the launcher and in Android Settings, and will be able to receive incoming intents from other apps. Long presses on their notifications will also reveal the normal Android notification management controls rather than the notification management controls for Chrome.
Progressive Apps? (Score:2)
I am sure this will be popular in California and NYC, but I don't think The GOP and the Donald will be very happy.
Don't need progressive apps in Texas, but safe spa (Score:2)
We don't need no damn progressive apps in Texas!
They keep showing up, saying they know we have jobs for them here, so we set up a safe space for them, called Austin.
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As long as Verizon does not break it. (Score:2)
You know how nasty they can get with built-in stuff.
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Dude, AT&T ain't much better.
This is gonna be a real nasty turnoff if they expect me to stay with Android (that, or drive me towards rooting the thing from now on...)
First off, I do not need or want *any* app digging deeper into the phone OS (where it can siphon off even more of my personal meta-info to sell). Oh, and imagine, if you will, your little built-in alarm clock app going off in the morning, then showing you a stupid advertisement as you reach for the thing. No frickin' thanks.
Second, More nag
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I agree with you, but I'm not terribly upset by this move on Google's part. I don't have to use any of the PWAs, and have no intention of starting.
This has a few reasons ... (Score:5, Informative)
I was at the last two Google Polymer Summits and last years definitely saw a push towards PWAs. One of the reasons Google want's to push these is that it bridges the gap between complex web apps, mobile capable websites and mobile apps. Another quite simple reason is the app-bloat we're alle experiencing on our cellphones. Apps clocking in at 40+ MB and weighing down on Smartphones budgeted memory and storage are a big problem, as are mobile performance hogs that only run satisfyingly on the most modern 1st world smartphones. Many updates people can't make, because the vendors apps are simply growing to big. PWAs are supposed to tackle this problem aswell.
PWAs is Googles attempt to leverage the ubiquity of the open web and offer mechanisms to integrate it further into native plattforms. It's actually quite a stunt, because libs like Polymer try to square the circle in offering web toolkits that are easy to use, mobile ready, powerfull, cross-plattform and still somehow don't weigh down to much on end-user systems. You can imagine what bucketload of work that is and what stunts the developers come up with to tackle this problem, but the crews at Google have come up with some really impressive stuff. Such as storage worker components that stabilise mobile webapps with flaky online uplink. These are basically websites that mask as mobile apps and behave offline just as well as they do online, syncing your stuff only when they have a chance too. There is some quite cool stuff out there in PWA space.
It's all quite some magic, but probably is also an attempt to counterbalance the fragmentation happening in the android space. Build once, run everywhere (iOS, Android, Chrome, Desktop OS, etc. ...) is actually not that far away with PWAs.
I'm experimenting with PWAs, and while they do have a point, they also have the usual problems of squaring the circle. Tricky stuff and once again a scenario that proves building modern feasible non-trivial web-apps actually is quite a serious development task, requireing carefull planning and big, complex pipelines akin to those in regular x-plattform development.
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Another quite simple reason is the app-bloat we're alle experiencing on our cellphones
Well maybe not everyone. I have 64GB of internal storage (no sd card slot) and have 67% free space currently. I have roughly 120 apps total on the phone (when looking at the apps storage page in settings). The major users of space are the NES roms, podcasts and photos.
I am sure others use their phone way more than I do though. Mine is usually on the charger.
This whole PWA thing just sounds like a reason not to use Chrome to me. It sounds intrusive as well as a security hole. A web browser that can reach int
I hope you're enjoying your new phone (Score:2)
> I have 64GB of internal storage (no sd card slot) and have 67% free space currently
In hope you're enjoying your brand new phone. ;)
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Indeed. The storage space argument is absolute nonsense. Technically, 64GB of mobile storage isn't that much nowadays: https://www.newegg.com/Product... [newegg.com]
"Apps clocking in at 40+MB" equates to 1600 apps. I did not do an extensive search, but users have rougly 30 to 100 apps installed according to these sources:
- https://www.quora.com/How-many... [quora.com]
- https://thenextweb.com/apps/20... [thenextweb.com]
No, storage space on average mobiles is gobbled up by (UHD) self shot videos and years of videos received with Whatsapp (and the lik
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If your only target audience is the wealthy. If you're trying to reach the general public, storage space is very important. My phone has 1.27 GB, and that's more than any of my previous phones had. I always have to delete an app to install a new app.
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The major users of space are the NES roms
There are less than 900 NES games (licensed and unlicensed). Call is 1024.
The ROMS are measured in dozens to hundreds of KBs. Call it 256 KB on average.
If you had every game, it would be about 256 MB. Emulators incorporate automatic zip decompression, though I do not know if this is a thing on Android NES emulators.
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I believe most new phones have 16GB.
Android 5.1 very common as well although 6.0 is decently common.
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So, the last tiny remnants of Firefox OS died out for good a few days ago and Google's announcing it's copying Firefox OS?
dammit.
Lol (Score:2)
More stuff to undo, if possible (Score:5, Insightful)
Deja Vu (Score:2)
Dear Google,
Good luck defending this to the European Commission.
Thelasko
Free software and cooperation with other browsers (Score:2)
The facts in this case differ substantially from the facts in the case of IE. First, practically everything in Chrome except Adobe Flash and Widevine digital restrictions management comes from Chromium, which is free software. Second, Google works with W3C to encourage the other browser publishers (Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft) to implement the same "progressive" APIs.
Applets for a new age (Score:2)
Convince me these are not destined for a similar fate as Java applets - Go.
Is it really that big of deal? (Score:2)
It just sounds like it lets you make a 'Web App Manifest'. So you package a directory on an SSL enabled web server as an application. Everything else seems like web good design.
By definition with this being a 'Progressive' web app you have to have workarounds incase the targeted platform doesn't support X feature. So.. are things like Service Workers, that might not work, really a big deal?
Oh Mr. Page, what big lips you've got! (Score:2)
All the better to suck up every last bit of privacy you possess, my dear!
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Wait - are they deeply integrating a web browser? (Score:2, Interesting)
Into the operating system?
I thought that was considered Illegal
AOSP and Chromium are free software (Score:2)
AOSP and Chromium are both free software. So other browser publishers can see what Android APIs Google is using to make web apps feel native and use them as well.