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by htor 2845 days ago
> That is how the web works.

good luck trying to convince google of that. they are shaping the web just the way they want it. push notifications? nobody ever except the marketing apartment thought that was a good idea to add to anything. if we try making everything on the web like mobile apps we're gonna get garbage features like this and false expectations on what the web should be like.
2 comments
LeanderK 2845 days ago
Well, i was looking foreward to push-notifications on the web and used them for non-marketing related purposes.

EDIT: I also used Service-Workers in the same project to provide offline functionality :) It worked great, I was suprised how good it worked!

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bryanrasmussen 2845 days ago
I'm pretty sure that everyone who ever used some sort of messaging application thinks that push notifications are a good idea.
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ForHackernews 2845 days ago
Nobody wanted their "messaging application" to run in a web browser before Google. AIM, ICQ, IRC, and Yahoo Messenger all used local clients.
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untog 2845 days ago
No actual user cares how their messaging application is made. If it's a progressive webapp or a native app, and the actual experience can be the same, then it really doesn't matter.

> AIM, ICQ, IRC, and Yahoo Messenger all used local clients.

A webapp with a service worker is a local client. And a lot of people use Whatsapp Web, or Facebook Messenger's web site. I know I do.

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ForHackernews 2845 days ago
I think users do care. I care that I can't close my browser without missing messages. I dislike that Electron apps use half my RAM.

If by "don't care" you mean "don't care enough to abandon a platform their friends are on" then I guess I agree. But all you've proven is that network effects matter.

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bryanrasmussen 2845 days ago
but people do want their messaging application to run in a browser now.

People don't want something until it happens and they see it and say hey that's what I want, unless you are going off the assumption that people are sheeple and can be made to want messaging applications in the browser because they have been told to want it somehow.

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pmlnr 2845 days ago
Really? Have they been given an alternative? Not an electron app, a real desktop alternative, that syncs with the mobile native client and gives an in-desktop experience.

Nobody did that, ever. It's simpler and cheaper to ship an in-browser solution, so everyone does that, that's all.

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