Now that Memmy is in the App Store on iOS, I feel like Wefwef is going to be left behind since this is the main place people go to discover apps. I know that Wefwef is a PWA web app but if it could be put in the store that might get more people to use it. Are there any downsides to being in the store?
Just curious, is there anything a web app cannot accomplish if not being a native app in the App Store?
Absolutely. Many API calls are simply not possible since it currently is relying on basically whatever WebKit supports on iOS, and whatever Chromium/Gecko uses on Android. If a web protocol is not supported, then it doesn’t happen, since it’s a universal app.
If it were to be developed separately for the Google Play Store and the App Store, then you’d end up with the ability for things like 120Hz animations on iOS for instance, or using more optimized code for rendering to improve speed, background data fetching, etc.
It’s not about the features but the discoverability.
Deep linking is the big thing.
There are a few things that a webapp cannot do, like haptic feedback on actions and (until very recently and on older ios versions) notifications.