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Google Wants Progressive Web Apps To Replace Chrome Apps (androidpolice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the repeal-and-replace dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Police: The Chrome Web Store originally launched in 2010, and serves a hub for installing apps, extensions, and themes packaged for Chrome. Over a year ago, Google announced that it would phase out Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux in 2018. Today, the company sent out an email to developers with additional information, as well as news about future Progressive Web App support. The existing schedule is mostly still in place -- Chrome apps on the Web Store will no longer be discoverable for Mac, Windows, and Linux users. In fact, if you visit the store right now on anything but a Chromebook, the Apps page is gone. Google originally planned to remove app support on all platforms (except Chrome OS) entirely by Q1 2018, but Google has decided to transition to Progressive Web Apps:

"The Chrome team is now working to enable Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to be installed on the desktop. Once this functionality ships (roughly targeting mid-2018), users will be able to install web apps to the desktop and launch them via icons and shortcuts; similar to the way that Chrome Apps can be installed today. In order to enable a more seamless transition from Chrome Apps to the web, Chrome will not fully remove support for Chrome Apps on Windows, Mac or Linux until after Desktop PWA installability becomes available in 2018. Timelines are still rough, but this will be a number of months later than the originally planned deprecation timeline of 'early 2018.' We also recognize that Desktop PWAs will not replace all Chrome App capabilities. We have been investigating ways to simplify the transition for developers that depend on exclusive Chrome App APIs, and will continue to focus on this -- in particular the Sockets, HID and Serial APIs."

8 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. WTF is Progressive Web Apps? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And how are they different from normal web apps?

    1. Re:WTF is Progressive Web Apps? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      https://medium.com/@adactio/wh...

      Reliable - Load instantly and never show the downasaur, even in uncertain network conditions

      Jeremy Keith
      A web developer and author living and working in Brighton, England.

      Why does that not surprise me? Brighton is basically the hipster capital of the UK.

      Likewise, Progressive Web Apps consist of:

      1. HTTPS,
      2. A service worker, and
      3. A Web App Manifest

      It seems like cache some html pages. They have an Javascript worker thread, and the thread queries the remote server. If there's no connection to the server you get the cached html page with the old data rather than that irritating T Rex jumping cactuses game that you'd otherwise get in Chrome Mobile.

      I suppose it's progress of a sort - Google have finally realised that not everyone has a internet connection all the time. Then again that's rather obvious - even in somewhere like NYC you lose your network connection on the subway between stops so an application which needs a connection all the time to run is unusable. Also it's a lot easier to find developers who can do Javascript and HTML than it is ones who can do Java.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    2. Re:WTF is Progressive Web Apps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Aaaand can be turned off at a whim leaving you high and dry.

      At least with genuine installable apps, if the company turns its servers off because "oh we're not supporting it anymore", you aren't going to be completely f*cked.

      This is why PWA should be treated like a disease and avoided.

      Think of it like DRM, when you have bought a load of stuff, and then the company goes bump or simply stops supporting it's auth servers. All those nice things you bought suddenly no longer work and you would need to replace them. Nice for the company, but not so nice to shit on the customer.

  2. If you don't like a Google API by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just wait a week, and it will be replaced with a new one.

  3. This is why I don't use develop using Google tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So if you made a Chrome app, Google now made your work useless. And what next year? Will they phase out web apps for the new flavor of the year? Google tech doesn't stick and can be abandoned by Google at any moment. I can't build on that.

  4. Fantastic! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't wait to transition to PWAs so that one day they can tell me it will stop functioning at the end of the month and all my related data will be deleted. This is much better than the garbage applications that keep working even when you are offline. Honestly, how do they expect to spy on my entire life without internet connectivity?! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Re:Jesus Christ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's the point. Artificially tying apps that should be able to function locally to Google's online services is stupid. It's the reason Chromebooks and web apps will never catch on.

    Nobody should have to have an active internet connection just to write documents, edit pictures, listen to music or watch movies.

  6. Chrome "APPS" by mnt · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Chrome "APPS" are just that: Not real apps. More like normal Websites.

    Chrome Apps: useless.

    AMP: useless.

    "progressive" apps: useless.

    Googles own fault for coming up with such crap.