Service Workers are coming to WebKit and Safari. Thoughts on the impact this will have?

Webkit Feature Status

Comments

[Meghan (she/her)]

This is great news! As someone who recently got an iPhone 6 after an unlucky Android died on me and it was the only phone in the store (I didn't want a Samsung or iPhone 7) I am very excited about this. Although I will still be wary not to get too excited about this until it comes around and I can see how invested Apple gets in on the PWA game. While SW is a fantastic experience for everyone when done right, I still believe the platform could use some work in the manner of browser UX and discovery. I could probably write a whole post about that last sentence, but for now I'll keep it about Apple. Apple makes a lot of money from the App Store, but iPhones are a huge market that the PWAs of the webs are glad to finally have them join us. (And now I can test on a real device!)

[Ben Halpern]

I still believe the platform could use some work in the manner of browser UX and discovery. I could probably write a whole post about that last sentence

Always welcome. 😊

Apple makes a lot of money from the App Store

Yes, but if they lag too far behind with the improved user experience PWAs potentially offer, it really hurts them in the long run. Apple got to its current position in the market by going for user experience in the face of potential cannibalization. That was the internal pushback about the iPad's potential to hurt MacBook sales.

I'm an iPhone user and I haven't gotten the chance to experience PWAs much and I need to change that because it's holding back my ability to think about the technology appropriately. The looming platform expansion of service workers means I really want to get up to speed with it all.

[Vinicius Soares Batista]

I think it depends on how apple will allow(or won't) it on safari for IOS - which is the true game changer on this matter.