On 2015-07-16 8:17 AM, Benjamin Francis wrote:
Exactly. We can no longer talk about "merging the web and native" as some
potential future thing that may or may not happen. It is already happening:
1. Android's Chrome Custom Tabs will keep users in native apps when
following external hyperlinks
https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs
2. Android's App Links will let native apps register to handle a
particular web URL scope and remove the choice of the user to choose to
open in the browser instead
https://developer.android.com/preview/features/app-linking.html
3. App install banners in Chrome may prompt users to install a web app
or a native app, and the user may not even be able to tell the difference
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/increasing-engagement-with-app-install-banners-in-chrome-for-android?hl=en
http://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/#related_applications-member
4. Android's App Indexing will surface content from inside Android apps
in Google results https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/
5. iOS's "Universal Links", "Smart App Banners" and new search API will
do much of the same on iOS
https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2015/?id=509
As far as I can tell, neither of the above are things that another UA
can hook into. Am I correct in my understanding here?
This all points towards a future where the web and proprietary app
platforms are so intertwined that users may not even know the difference.
If the above assertion is true, then you need to replace "the web" with
Chrome and Safari on their respective OSes.
The question is how we respond to that. On Firefox OS we have the freedom
to define the entire experience, but on the other operating systems we
touch we need to accept the reality of the environment that we find
ourselves in. My personal conclusion is that we should react to all of the
above by pushing back in the other direction by:
1. Helping users discover a web app before they discover its native
equivalent, whilst browsing and searching the web
How does supporting W3C manifest or lack thereof help or hurt this?
Couldn't we detect these "web apps" by looking at the meta tags inside
pages? It seems like manifests are not technically needed for this.
2. Making web content a first class citizen on every OS Firefox touches,
with a standalone display mode for Firefox
How are we planning to hook into the OS through Firefox? It seems like
a lot of the "web" integration coming to Android and iOS is essentially
integration with the browser developed by the OS vendor.
3. Promoting re-engagement with web content through icons in launchers,
offline and push notifications
Again, how does supporting W3C manifest or lack thereof help or hurt
this? It seems like we can pick up the icons/application-name through
the meta tag as well. And given that the manifest format helps people
link to the native app offerings, it seems like supporting it will
slightly hurt this goal!
4. Guiding users to the best of the web through a crowd-sourced,
community curated guide
I'm not sure how W3C manifest helps here either.
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