2. Getting approval to publish to the major app stores
3. Advertising to users so they actually download the app
4. Reminding users to use the app.
> now you have an icon that the user sees every day.
My home screen only has room for 24 items. Those items haven't changed much in a few years. I may have traded one app for another (e.g. Pocket Casts replaced Apple Podcasts), but that's about it. I don't look at the random Uniqlo app I downloaded to save 10% that one time every day. I don't look at the various restaurant apps every day.
I do have bookmarks in Chrome that I visit frequently. Why? I'm in Chrome for a significant part of the day.
You have those same challenges or worse with a website, except number 2. And for the vast majority of apps, that’s no problem. I’ve submitted 100+ apps to the App Store and never had an app that didn’t pretty easily get approved.
And I think most users have more than one screen of apps at this point. And are more likely to see those icons than a given browser bookmark.
there's a big difference between typing a URL into a web browser & downloading an app:
1. go to the app store
2. search for it and find the right one
3. make sure you have the right amount of space for it
4. download it
5. place it on the 5th screen of your phone
6. never see it
You can invent the same convuted path for everything. Ok, for the PWA: go to Google. Find the pwa you want. Make sure you did not exceed your data cap. Figure out how to add it to home screen. It will end app at screen #5 and will never be found again.
How is that easier? What if you want to sell your app?
Real scenario for native apps is much more simple: you get either the link to the app or the banner. Tap on it, tap get, tap open. That’s it.
Btw, there is an app offloading, which provides you space by getting rid of the app you don’t really use. And for the missing space argument to be even a little bit valid you must talk about huge apps, which probsbly means they provide functionality you could not replicate with a PWA.
Show someone with an iPhone how to turn any website into a web app with one button in safari and their mind will be blown, yet the feature predates the App Store. No one knows how to do this outside of tech circles. Apple had it as a stop gap before the coming App Store, then promptly never mentioned again to cement the store as the only way to get additional utility from the phone; web apps are a vestigial feature.
People only go to websites on mobile for one off things or they absolutely lack storage on their phone. Anything visited with any regularity demands an app instal, because bookmarks are clumsy on mobile and typing into the address bar on iOS at least has been frustrating since version 1 because of the lack of any spellcheck, even if you are very obviously typing a complete sentence or phrase, and how terrible moving the cursor can be with a touchscreen.
Not a lot of people know you can add a website to the homescreen, either.
