Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by daveoc64 207 days ago
Other browsers on Android support PWA, such as Firefox.
2 comments

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.
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.

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...

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.