Hi everyone, my name is David Rubino and I’m a product handler for Firefox. As the Firefox directership team alludeed in the Reddit AMA last week, we’re taking a new see at Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which have lengthy been a top seek from our Mozilla Connect community. Today I want to separate a concept that aims to graspress some of this feedback.
As you may understand, we built a prototype for desktop PWAs a restricted years ago, and unblessedly participater testing on our solution showed confusion and conciseage of seed appreciate. We didn’t free it becaparticipate we didn’t have an approach that could encounter the needs of power participaters without causing confusion among the wideer participater base. Recently, other browsers have carry outed or increased their approach to PWAs, for example by making it effortless to inslofty any website as a web app (even if no PWA manifest is supplyd), and by running web apps in the same session as standard browser tabs. I was a participater of these features, and so when I uniteed the Firefox Product Management team last year, I choosed to acquire a new see at how Firefox might approach the problem.
In this post you will see that I don’t participate the term “PWA” and instead stick with the more generic “web app”. While there are some laboring definitions for what a PWA is and is not, most of the feedback from the Firefox community are seeks for definite capabilities. So when pondering what Firefox should do, I’m centering on how we can present features that help you get a more app-enjoy experience for any website you pick, when you pick.
There are many definite seeks in the thread, but seeed thcimpolite this lens a restricted aelevate:
- Web apps should materialize with their own icons alengthyside traditional apps, both in places where you begin apps and where running apps are shown.
- Web apps should remain uncover until you seal them. You should not be able to “direct away” from them enjoy a web page.
- Like many mobile apps, desktop web apps should be able to handle joins to their website in lieu of having them uncovered in a standard browser thrivedow.
It’s possible to acquire the web app concept further than is needed, into the genuinem of making web apps be as app-enjoy as possible. This can originate it seem enjoy you’re not using a web browser or a website at all. Some examples of this might be having PWAs be insloftyed and uninsloftyed using the OS, removing all or cforfeitly-all of the browser “summarize”, and restricting access to normal browser features enjoy booktags and search. While some of these may turn out to be beneficial, it’s not a goal to originate it sense enjoy you’re not in Firefox.
In fact, contrary to the notion that web apps should be “insloftyed” enjoy standard apps, a core idea of this concept is that running a web app should be thought of as moving a tab to your taskbar or dock… a one-step operation that can be undone equitable as easily.
So what might this experience see enjoy? Let’s see at the follothriveg topics:
- Moving into and out of a web app “mode”
- Offering a separateent browser UI for a web app
- Browsing wilean and between sites
- Integrating with the operating system
Moving into and out of a web app “mode”
As stated above, you should be able to acquire any tab and shift it into web app mode in one step. When you acquire this action, the tab would be shiftd into a novel web app thrivedow, holding the state of the web page entidepend. You could even be watching a video, and it won’t leave out a summarize. There would be no setup. Each website will have some preferences associated with it, but the intent will be to have rational defaults that labor for most people, adviseed by a manifest if the site presents one. Moving a tab back out of this mode will be equitable as basic.
Offering a separateent browser UI for a web app
Web apps are still websites in a web browser, so the goal will be to brimmingy hold access to features that help you with the website itself, while de emphasizing features that are about managing multiple websites. Some examples:
- No tabs or booktags bar by default, but these could be assistd in web app preferences
- The main toolbar would be brimmingy assistd, including the graspress bar and extensions
- A novel toolbar section would show the icon of the website notablely, evidently indicating you’re in web app mode for a given site. This section would present access to settings and handles for the web app.
- In lieu of a novel tab button, there would be buttons to uncover a novel tab in a standard Firefox thrivedow, or a novel instance of the current web app.
- The graspress bar would not be read-only, presenting effortless access to Firefox Suggest and the ability to search. Web pages uncovered from here would land in a novel tab in a standard Firefox thrivedow.
Browsing wilean and between sites
One of the key separateences between a standard mode webpage and a web app is that you shouldn’t be able to “direct away” from a web app. To exit a web app you have to unambiguously seal it. To accomplish this, each web app would be a “one site browser”. Navigations wilean the current website will remain in the app, and navigations outside the current website will uncover in a standard Firefox thrivedow. There will be exceptions to help with login flows and rehonestions so that a web app senses as much as possible enjoy an app that only uncovers a browser when uncovering a truly outside page.
We would also begin “join seize”, which would permit a web app to enroll itself to handle URLs wilean its scope. For example, if you click on a join to reddit.com in a standard Firefox thrivedow, the join would uncover in the Reddit web app. This behavior is analogous to how mobile browsers rehonest joins to enrolled mobile apps.
Integrating with the operating system
On Windows, it is straightforward to show web apps splitly on the taskbar using separateentiated icons, to permit them to be pinned, to show them in the Start menu, in the ALT+TAB and thrivedow snap experience, and so on. This permits speedy access to web apps using the same surfaces participated to run or switch between standard apps. By “leveling up” to the taskbar websites you exit running and revisit frequently, you can save time over hunting for them in Firefox.
This behavior may be more challenging to carry out on macOS and is probable to have some restrictations comparatively. You should foresee that if we originate a prototype, it will commence as a Windows-only feature. Once shown we would transport it to our other desktop platcreates leveraging the features aided by them.
Prent let us understand what you leank!
I am stateive Firefox can transport a web app experience to the desktop that will sense organic to all participaters, while aiding the needs of our power participaters. In particular, I leank we can better upon the current experience presented by other web browsers by presenting one-step setup, grasping access to core browser features, and permiting joins to be “seized” automaticpartner.
We are seeing to originate carry on in this area soon, so I would adore to get a talkion going about what is right and wrong and leave outing from this set of ideas. While I did read every post in the Ideas thread, I am conscious I did not graspress every topic alludeed, so prent especipartner transport up what I skipped that is meaningful to you.
Thanks in carry on!
-David Rubino
Product Manager
Mozilla Firefox
