INFO: Removal of progressive web apps in 17.4 in the EU

[PaulF]

Hi,

as mentioned in https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu/#dev-qa Apple are removing support for progressive web apps in iOS 17.4 Web apps, or web clips (unless I've got this VERY wrong) are used a lot in enterprise.

As I'm in the UK, I cannot test this, but I ask that, if you're in the EU, AND you use web clips, may I ask that you test in 17.4 beta to see if there will be an impact to your workflows

[PhilipDAth]

It is hard not to swear when replying to this notice.

[PhilipDAth]

The list of repressive countries with a lack of freedom and high surveillance and monitoring of the population - places where I would not want to live - now includes:

• Europe
• UK
• China

[kless]

Hi!

As far as I know, this change only impacts the implementation of progressive web apps on iOS (that was introduced through Webkit/Safari) in iOS 11.3 (PWA are Web apps that behave like native, Apple has added features over the years like push notification etc... see a list of features here: https://firt.dev/notes/pwa-ios/). Webclips, which are simply bookmarks, will remain. I am located in EU and tested today pushing a webclip on a iOS 17.4 Beta device: I could confirm it was pushed correctly.

[Green_Ghost]

Would you be able to confirm whether the webclip was pushed using the "fullscreen" flag?

Our testing seems to show that the "fullscreen" flag causes the push to behave as a PWA. Without the flag, it behaves as a standard bookmark.

The current assumption is that DMA compliant iOS versions will simply treat them as bookmarks, ignoring the full screen flag, and opening in the browser.