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PWAs on Android? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is there a way to install web apps on mobile using Firefox? I'm not looking for shortcuts that open in new browser tabs. I would like to run some sites as installed, full-screen apps. The excellent PWA addon works great for desktop, but I imagine it would not be possible to duplicate this on mobile based on how the addon runs.

Any thoughts? I'm open to using another app or browser that is built on Firefox if needed

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

If a website has a compatible PWA manifest the there will be an item labelled "install" in the three-dot menu of Firefox in place of usual "add to homescreen" item.

Edit: There's a few other requirements as well for the website to be considered installable as PWA, such as it must have a registered service worker so it can work offline. But regardless, if the website provides all the requirements then it can just be installed straight from the menu.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Yep sites like annas archive have it. But honestly not many sites have this available

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm looking at alexandrite for lemmy. But it would be much more useful to me as a standalone app. That 's how I use it on desktop as a pwa

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Just checked, no install option unfortunately

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Is there a way to force a website to open as a pwa?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

No need for any add ons. This is all on base Firefox on android.

Go to the website you want to install as a PWA and click on the three dots next to the URL.

Add to home screen

My Firefox version is 121.1.0 and my android version is Samsung's flavor of android 13.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

websites that properly support it will show as "Install" instead

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This needs to be a top comment, not a lot of people are aware that the option changes if the site has been developed specifically as a PWA

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just a shame that Firefox can be a bit shit at opening the installed pwa sometimes. I'm sure I stumbled across a bug on their bugzilla for the issue, but I can't find it now. The problem is highly annoying.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Oh it's mot just me then? It does feel to me that it's actually slower to open a pwa-installed app than just opening the website in Firefox (lineageos is my ROM).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

https://whatpwacando.today/ is a nice site to test things out. You should see the option to install on Firefox for android, as well as verify what features work.

Glad it finally landed in main, I've been using nightly to install PWA's for a while. It worked fine, but having the two different browsers to juggle for initial install was a pain.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not a proper PWA, but does a decent job faking it: Hermit

I did notice some rendering issues on an app I self host. It still worked, mind you. Just didn't look correct when compared to viewing in Chrome or FF.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

That seems promising. Thanks!