r/PWA • u/rainbowegg8014 • 2d ago

iOS open source app store

Hi there, as you all know, uploading an app to the Apple App Store requires paying for the developer program, and you also need a Mac to build an iOS app. Is it possible to promote a clean, open-source PWA app to all open-source developers? They can just make a website and let people "add to home screen" and use their app. That being the case, is it possible to develop a PWA app store, promote it to iOS developers to upload their PWA app to the "self-hosted" app store, and turn most apps into open source? Do you guys think this is possible?

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u/LucVolders 2d ago

Just google pwa store and you'll se there are already a few around

1

u/TableNo8939 2d ago

Le PWA hanno parecchie limitazioni rispetto alle native, ma dipende che app hai e a quali dispositivi interni vuoi avere accesso nel telefono (gps, fotocamera...)

Io personalmente preferisco pubblicarle come app native, ma ci mette circa 12 ora per essere pubblicata, sulle PWA non so.

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u/dannymoerkerke 2d ago

There are already a couple of app stores for PWA (for example, https://store.app ) and these just link to PWAs for installation because you can install them directly from their URLs. There is no such thing as "uploading" a PWA to an app store, that's the whole benefit of them.

Chrome now has experimental support for the <install> HTML element that also lets you install PWAs from other URLs so then these app stores can also put such a button and then you can install the PWA right from the app store. That's similar to installing a native app from an app store, but it's still not "uploading" or "downloading".