This content originally appeared on Adactio: Journal and was authored by Adactio: Journal
Back in June I documented a bug on macOS in how Spaces (or whatever they call they’re desktop management thingy now) works with websites added to the dock.
I’m happy to report that after upgrading to Sequoia, the latest version of macOS, the bug has been fixed! Excellent!
Not only that, but there’s another really great little improvement…
Let’s say you’ve installed a website like The Session by adding it to the dock. Now let’s say you get an email in Apple Mail that includes a link to something on The Session. It used to be that clicking on that link would open it in your default web browser. But now clicking on that link opens it in the installed web app!
It’s a lovely little enhancement that makes the installed website truly feel like a native app.
Websites in the dock also support the badging API, which is really nice!
I wonder if there’s much point using wrappers like Electron any more? I feel like they were mostly aiming to get that parity with native apps in having a standalone application launched from the dock.
Now all you need is a website.
The biggest issue remains discovery. Unless you already know that it’s possible to add a website to the dock, you’re unlikely to find out about it. That’s why I’ve got a page with installation instructions on The Session.
Still, the discovery possibilities on Apples’s desktop devices are waaaaay better than on Apple’s mobile devices.
Apple are doing such great work on their desktop operating system to make websites first-class citizens. Meanwhile, they’re doing less than nothing on their mobile operating system. For a while there, they literally planned to break all websites added to the homescreen. Fortunately they were forced to back down.
But it’s still so sad to see how Apple are doing everything in their power to prevent people from finding out that you can add websites to your homescreen—despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that push notifications on iOS only work if the website has been added to the dock!
So while I’m really happy to see the great work being done on installing websites for desktop computers, I’m remain disgusted by what’s happening on mobile:
At this point I’ve pretty much given up on Apple ever doing anything about this pathetic situation.
This content originally appeared on Adactio: Journal and was authored by Adactio: Journal
Adactio: Journal | Sciencx (2024-10-16T09:33:29+00:00) Docks and home screens. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/10/16/docks-and-home-screens/
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