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by popcornricecake 207 days 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.
2 comments
mmis1000 207 days 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.

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popcornricecake 207 days 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.
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daveoc64 207 days ago
Other browsers on Android support PWA, such as Firefox.
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popcornricecake 207 days 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.
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theK 206 days 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.

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daveoc64 206 days ago
Firefox uses a widget to make it work.

I've never had an issue with it, and have been using it for years. I use it for X (Twitter) so that I can avoid ads.

Looks like support for installing a PWA on Android was added in Firefox 58 back in 2018:

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/progressive-web-apps-firef...

Video demo:

https://youtu.be/heSvwQgEMLM?si=5X0iky_uVDAS6eE1

Developer and user documentation: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-web-apps-firefox-an...

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web...

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theK 205 days ago
AS I said, YMMV. PWA install has seen many a regression. Last Android release it didn't work for me, this one it does. I presume a lot of it is due to ecosystem variations and API changes.
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