I tried Jerboa briefly and couldn’t get it to work well for me. Then I visited kbin on my phone’s browser and was prompted to install the kbin app!? I haven’t seen any references to it, but it’s exactly what I wanted…? Has anybody else tried it?

  • Chozo@kbin.social
    72·
    1 year ago

    The version you’ve installed is the PWA (Progressive Web App). It’s effectively just a stripped-down browser window that loads the mobile site in its own dedicated “app” on your device, even though it’s technically just a separate Chrome window.

    For a lot of users, this may be all they need. But because it’s just the mobile web page, you won’t get any extra features that you might find with a dedicated app (like notifications or custom UI elements).

    • ivanafterall@kbin.socialOP
      15·
      1 year ago

      Nice, I had a feeling it was something like that, but it’s honestly really slick. I like it better than Jerboa, I think. It’s all I need for casual browsing, commenting, etc…

    • Tomassci@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      This, the app is just a webpage that doesn’t appear like one. Though I have to say that it is good for the time being (until some better app gets done)

      • VerifiablyMrWonka@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        A good PWA is almost indistinguishable from a native app.

        On Android, where they’ve bothered to implement the apis for it you’ve got access to all the same stuff (camera, location, Bluetooth etc)

        Apple has less, which is ironic because originally the iOS platform was only going to be PWAs. I guess discovering they could take a 30% cut of all money taken changed their mind.

        I recommend you take a look at https://elk.zone as an example of an excellent PWA (be sure to actually install it and use it that way)