It's a massive blow for PWAs. There are a lot of corporate apps that are PWAs as the app stores do not really support "private" distribution of apps (other than via MDM-based solutions which doesn't work for use cases where you don't control the users' devices). Furthermore, by forcing the apps to load in a browser tab (rather than as a full screen home screen app) it breaks the support for push notifications. In my opinion this is malicious compliance.
So much this. I am the author of a barcode scanning library for JavaScript, my customers are mainly SMBs running in-house apps, and they love frigging PWAs.
- No App Store review
- Full control of distribution channel
- Instant deployment from CI/CD
- Single codebase
- Easy to source developers, even in-house
- No administrative burden from having to maintain accounts at Apple/Google.
Adding to home screen is important for non-technical end-users to recognize it as an "app" and not a "website".
