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by psnehanshu 855 days ago
And what is the state of PWAs on Android? Is it any better?
4 comments

Yes.

Google Chrome has support and documentation on Android: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361?hl=en&co=GE...

Mozilla has documentation about PWAs across many platforms, including Android: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...

Mozilla's docs are very clear in defining what makes a PWA special:

> One of the defining aspects of a PWA is that it can be promoted by the browser for installation on the device. Once installed, a PWA appears to users as a platform-specific app, a permanent feature of their device which they can launch directly from the operating system like any other app.

This is precisely what Apple is breaking for iPhone users in the EU.

Mozilla's docs are also out of date. Safari on desktop can install PWAs.
It's night and day. For example:

- Installing a PWA from Firefox browser adds to home screen with Firefox engine

- beforeinstallprompt event https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/befo...

It's much better, but most of our users are on iPhones. The one (yes, one) Android PWA user is really happy.

Probably the best part about PWAs on Android is that you install it more like an actual app. iOS still makes you "Add to Home Screen" which is very unintuitive.

Significantly.

E.g. no multi-month broken light/dark mode.