[tmarsden]

It’s a shame we are reliant on (2) app stores. It would be nice if there was a way to safely implement browser plug-ins that would bring some of the functionality offered by native apps. Not sure if WASM/WASI might save the day here eventually, but the path we’re on now is looking pretty grim if the status quo wins out.

[Drew_]

Plenty of web APIs that offer native functionality. Apple will not implement them in Safari for obvious reasons. Apple will also not allow non-Safari browsers for the same reason. Apple knows that even simply allowing Web Push on iOS would noticeably eat into their services revenue.

[kgin]

100%. There's no reason why people can run spreadsheets and word processors and vector design apps on their Mac browsers but have to download a 100mb binary app on their iPhones to order pizza.

Mobile web tech could support the overwhelming majority of use cases without jank with a few key, non-impossible improvements. And they would if there were any incentive for platform owners to do so.

[oscargrouch]

While phone apps fall into the app store trap, browser are also falling into the cloud trap.

Its not enough to run applications on the browser, you need to fix some of the things that make browsers weak giving we need to let go all the information to cloud providers who will then monetize on it somehow.

Years ago i've put myself into this path to build something that could help a little bit on this. I hope this can cover some ground as the future looks bad for everyone else who is not part of the big tech paradise, as outside of it, everything is being sucked by a big straw and dying a long, slow and painful death..