WebKit is bringing Web Push to iOS home screen web apps, with a full suite of native-like functionality including badging and focus modes. Read all about it: https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-and-ipados/
@othermaciej It took the threat of competition from non-Safari browser engines on iOS via DMA to get Safari to implement stuff like this. And you know what? Good! We're all better off for all of these new features. There's no reason web apps should be second-class citizens on iOS other than it drives people to the App Store.
Let's see if the Safari team keeps up the pace.
@othermaciej Better late than never.
@othermaciej Regulatory pressure works!
@othermaciej Do you have any good pointers to how one achieves web push from within a web app? Specifically looking for how to store subscriptions, after doing the VAPID keys etc. 🙏🏻
@naton @othermaciej I would expect that the implementation of Web push by Apple follows the same standards that the rest of the browsers (except that extra requirement about adding it to the Home screen), and so your existing solution should work.
@naton essentially it works the same as in other browsers. We found most websites that supported Push for other browsers just worked, as long as they didn’t have a hardcoded user agent lockout.
@othermaciej Yes, OK, thank you. I do get that it's very much same. What I don't get, and this may be totally non-Apple-related, is how you actually set up a service that lets your users subscribe to e.g. shared Todo-lists etc. Everything I've seen so far never goes into any usable detail here. E.g. here's what Apple suggests I'll do, which is quite a mouthful, at least for front-end ppl like me:
@naton I see. Unfortunately, server-side web development is beyond my expertise, so not sure how much I can help. There are general tutorials out there for how to set up Web Push and send a push notification from the server. We don’t have WebKit-specific docs beyond that.
@othermaciej @siracusa If I had to prioritize new features around giving the impression (deserved or not) of a legally plausible alternative to the App Store, the list would include a lot of those things.
@othermaciej @siracusa This sounds awesome, can‘t wait to play around with it!