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popcornricecake | 3 months ago

To be fair, Android also sabotages PWAs, it's just done behind your back. You see, in order to get a PWA to properly install, you'll have to use Chrome, and you'll have to have a Google Play account and Chrome will submit the PWA manifest for validation to a Google server, which in turn will decide whether the PWA is worthy, and if it is, it will generate a so called WebAPK, which is then installed on your device. If it's not worthy however, then it will become a bookmark instead, and many of the features that can be described in the manifest will not work at all.

So if you wanted to use a different browser or install a PWA without a connection to the internet, or without Google Play, all you get is a bookmark.

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mmis1000|3 months ago

> in turn will decide whether the PWA is worthy

In my personal experience, it only validate whether manifest is malformatted though. Although it's still up to google if they want to do something wonky.

popcornricecake|3 months ago

I saw someone claim on SO that they were not able to get a PWA to install properly until they changed their IP address, supposedly because they were from Iran, a sanctioned country.

daveoc64|3 months ago

Other browsers on Android support PWA, such as Firefox.

popcornricecake|3 months ago

To my knowledge, every PWA installed from Firefox on Android will become a bookmark. For Firefox I believe that means for example that if you try to open a link elsewhere that is within the manifest scope, it will not open in the PWA. That's because it's not possible to deep link to the PWA without it having an AndroidManifest with a corresponding intent filter, which is what the Chrome WebAPK achieves and why they can support for example custom protocol handlers or share targets or launch handling options.

theK|3 months ago

Other browsers "occasionally" find a way to create a PWA install.

YMMV, it never lasts.

Right now Firefox cant, at least not on any of my android phones.