6/1/2026 at 6:06:28 PM
by pentagrama
6/1/2026 at 11:17:19 PM
Until I see support in other browsers, I'll assume this is as useful as Internet Explorer Silverlight apps.Perhaps usable in an entirely locked down corporate environment where centralised IT with "standard desktop builds" and MDM will enforce Chrome use. But without at least Safari support, and ideally Firefox (plus forks), this remains a useless toy to me.
by bigiain
6/1/2026 at 6:09:52 PM
Not answered in TFA: What does it mean to "install" a web app in Chrome?by bityard
6/1/2026 at 10:37:59 PM
It means the site is saved to your home screen (on mobile) or taskbar/dock (on desktop). When opened that way, it appears in a window with minimal browser chrome and with the site's icon and branding instead of the browser's, so it somewhat resembles a native app (even though under the hood the browser is still doing all the work). Sites that offer this will often also use a Service Worker to remain functional in the absence of an internet connection, since native apps are usually expected to do that; these and some other web APIs are often conceptually bundled together under the term "progressive web apps", originally coined by Google. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web... for more.I would expect web developers these days to mostly be aware of this, since it's been in widespread use for a while, so I didn't find it odd that the article assumed that level of background.
by ameliaquining
6/1/2026 at 11:29:10 PM
> …"progressive web apps", originally coined by Google.To make it a bit less faceless while humans still matter, it was coined by Alex Russell and Frances Berriman in 2015. Russell worked at Google at the time, Berriman at Code for America.
by CharlesW
6/2/2026 at 12:21:06 AM
Browsers shouldn't have an install. Can we stop half-baked HTML XML syntax at this point?I forsee abuse of such:
const button = document.querySelector('install');
button.addEventListener('promptdismiss', () => {
console.log('User dismissed the install prompt but forcing installation of adware, malware and bitcoing mining anyway');
});by doublerabbit