is wefwef only ment to be web app or will it be released as an app?

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I heard the main dev ~~has some sick fascination with~~ is very dedicated to PWA.
- Good!

I hope it stays PWA.
- i hope so too
  it works incredibly well as a PWA and feels 100% like a native app. This also allows me to open it on my portrait-orientation monitor on my PC and it feels very good. Handling is much better than the native lemmy UI and i only visit lemmy ui for admin stuff
- Same. The PWA is great.

Writing a native app, and not just a web wrapper, is a different skillset to writing a PWA. It’s not a quick conversion, it’s a whole new app from scratch and everything would be rewritten.
This is a superb PWA, and web apps will get better in each iOS release.
There are plenty of native apps to choose from if you want one.
- Actually, as I understand it, wefwef is built using the Ionic framework, which has a really handy tool called Capacitor that lets you port over a web app to native really easily. It’s pretty neat!
  https://ionicframework.com/docs/native
  Edit: more info https://capacitorjs.com/
  
  That lets you access native device features from a webapp/website.
  It doesn’t make a webapp a “native” app. It would still be exactly the same web based technologies - still a very fancy website. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As wefwef is amazing

web only.

Unfortunately, PWA have a limit of only 50 MB storage on your device. Not sure what this means for wefwef’s ability to store and show content, or to grow features over time.
- I’m also curious if haptics can be implemented in a PWA. I’ve seen conflicting info.

What difference would that really make?
- Just makes it easier for people who are accustomed to searching for useful things mainly on appstores. Many have no idea you can have full functionality in the form of PWAs.
  
  I just love that the dev is able to pump out updates pretty much daily. Getting anything reviewed on both the App Store and Play Store takes ages
  
  As someone who hasn’t really used many PWAs in the past, I am realizing that like 90% of the apps on my phone could probably just be a PWA. Hell, most of them just seem to be wrapping a browser in an iOS app anyway.
  
  Makes sense. It’s actually my first time using a PWA as well
  
  They'll find some other app in the playstore then. Wefwef is awesome as it is.
- Haptics on iOS I really miss from Apollo
  
  I actually never used Apollo, but I think Memmy has done a great job with that.
- I could have a nice icon of my choice and without browser logo under it. really. that's the only reason. I'm simply a purist and I love to have my UI clean and the way I want it, all my icons have the same form factor and general vibe. I even might give up on wefwef if something decent will come out. And the whole mess because of dumb icon
  
  I don’t think that makes you a purist, I think that just means you have ocd or something 😅
  Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I personally think there are way more important reasons for the developers and users as to PWA or native.
  I love the frequency of updates wefwef is providing us to improve the user experience by bypassing the approval process of submitting every update to the app stores. And instantly makes the app accessible to users across platforms and not limited to just iOS or android.
  
  On Android I can just change the iconnto whatever I like, isn't that possible on iOS?

i guess being a web app gives Android users a taste of Apollo
i still feel like the web app is going to eventually hit some walls and need to be made into a native app.
- @BitingChaos
  Yes... It'll be great if #wefwef made into a native app
  @wegettosss @wefwef

If it comes out as an app then the development will be divided between android and ios :( too much to deal with.

39 comments