I have some sympathy for Apple here. The EU required Apple to offer the option of multiple browser engines. PWAs cannot integrate with iOS without using iOS's engine. So there's no way to legally offer that feature.
Why should anyone give Apple sympathy for restricting PWAs to Safari in iOS? There is no valid reason for Apple to prevent PWAs from opening in the default browser selected by the user.
You know as well as everyone else does that PWA’s require the browser to be able to integrate with the platform at the level of the OS which would break iOS’s security model.
You might want the EU to force iOS to be an open platform, but I don’t think that was their intent when they made the requirement to allow alternate browsers.
Preventing other browsers from implementing PWAs does not improve security in iOS. This is a self-serving restriction intended to discourage users from switching away from Safari.
With these changes, Safari is the only browser allowed by Apple to implement PWAs on iOS, which gives Safari an advantage over the other browsers that are not allowed to implement PWAs on iOS. Anyone who uses PWAs on iOS must do so via Safari. PWA users who prefer a non-Safari browser on iOS must switch between their preferred browser and Safari for their web browsing needs. The additional burden of maintaining two web browsers discourages these users from switching away from Safari, and the entire setup prevents these users from leaving Safari completely.
> Safari is the only browser allowed by Apple to implement PWAs on iOS, which gives Safari an advantage over the other browsers that are not allowed to implement PWAs on iOS
Thank you for explaining so succinctly why Apple is compelled by regulation to remove the PWA feature from Safari.
To do otherwise would be anticompetitive and risk the wrath of the EC.
Apple is not compelled to remove PWAs from Safari in the EU, because Apple has the option of allowing non-Safari browsers to implement PWAs. Apple chose to remove a PWA feature from Safari and prevent non-Safari browsers from adding PWA icons to home screens, which degrades functionality for all iOS users in the EU while still granting Safari an anticompetitive advantage.
As the article says, Apple is changing iOS in the EU to prevent non-Safari browsers from adding PWA icon links to the home screen, making this feature exclusive to Safari (and granting Safari an anticompetitive advantage). Apple did not remove PWAs in Safari, but they removed the ability for PWAs to be displayed full-screen in Safari in the EU.
Nothing in the article says that new PWA links can't be created in Safari. Read carefully:
> PWAs can’t be linked to alternative browsers.
If the situation that you think is happening were true, the article would simply say that Apple removed PWA links from iOS, instead of specifically saying that the removal applies to alternative (non-Safari) browsers on iOS.
According to the article, the latest iOS beta prevents non-Safari browsers from adding PWA icons to the home screen. These changes retain iOS's favoritism of Safari.
> PWAs can’t be linked to alternative browsers. Apple simply doesn’t allow it anymore at the operating system or launcher level. Users in the EU are forced to open them in Safari, if they want to open them at all.
Read it more carefully. PWAs are no longer supported, even in safari. Any old PWAs that were already in the launcher just become web links. They happen to open in safari, but they are not PWAs, and no new such links can be created.
This is just a way to not delete the old links from the user's launcher until they have had time to create new bookmarks in the browser of their choice.
If you are going to argue the this somehow advantages Safari, you aren't being serious.
The article doesn't say that. It says that Apple is changing iOS in the EU so that PWAs can't be linked to alternative (non-Safari) browsers.
The article doesn't mention any changes to other PWA features like notifications for PWAs/links added to the home screen via Safari. It only says that, in the EU, Apple removed full-screen mode for PWAs from Safari while restricting non-Safari browsers from adding PWA icons to the home screen.
> Now, when a user in Europe taps a web app icon, they will see a system message asking if they wish to open it in Safari or cancel. The message adds that the web app "will open in your default browser from now on." When opened in Safari, the web app opens like a bookmark, with no dedicated windowing, notifications, or long-term local storage. Users have seen issues with existing web apps such as data loss, since the Safari version can no longer access local data, as well as broken notifications.
> Progressive Web Apps are designed to offer a user experience comparable to that of native apps using web technologies, with the potential for users to add them directly to their home screen with no need for an app store. The latest change is particularly controversial because historically Apple has suggested that developers who are unwilling to comply with its App Store guidelines could instead focus on web apps. Now, the company's recent adjustments appear to contradict this stance by limiting the capabilities of PWAs and their ability to compete with native applications in iOS, raising questions about its commitment to supporting web technologies as a viable alternative to the App Store.
Based on media reports like this one, assuming that the website links do open in the default browser selected by the user and not just Safari, it looks like TFA's sentence "PWAs can’t be linked to alternative browsers" is incorrect or at least imprecise.
It remains to be seen whether iOS browsers using non-WebKit browser engines in the EU can implement PWAs independently and make use of PWA links on the home screen. I'll wait and see when the iOS update is released.
And how is that exactly? Can you please elaborate?
It's all so familiar: just a year ago Apple would have had us believe that "You know as well as everyone else does that third party browser engines must integrate with the platform at the level of the OS which would break iOS’s security model."
Well, that obviously wasn't true, but there's still sheeple who will take the bait again and again :-)
We're all waiting for your technical arguments on the point, but it doesn't sound like you are actually interested in having a conversation that could be called intellectual in some way.
Since Apple has to approve every browser anyway (whether on the App Store or not), why couldn't they just enable it only for WebKit browsers? But putting even that totally aside, more engines does absolutely nothing to explain why they've also ended PWAs' ability to run in full-screen mode.
