Hi om2, this is completely off-topic, but I'm so intrigued that Safari devs are actually chatting openly about their product, I figured what the heck I'd ask something.
A few years ago, I tried my hand at making an HTML5 application using the apple-mobile-web-app-capable, apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style, apple-touch-icon-precomposed META tags and the apple-touch-startup-image LINK tag.
It was so slick how the iPhone put my webapp's icon on the home screen and had a very beautiful startup splash screen as well. It felt very native and I could feel Jobs' influence on the way that presented, especially because it reminded me of his original iPhone reveal where he hinted that one would write apps for the iPhone using HTML5 (this was prior to the appstore.)
Ultimately, I had to give up on offering my webapp as a homepage app because of differing behaviors of my page in application mode versus in Safari.
For one, if the user switched applications and switched away from my html5 application, it would fully unload. Whereas the same web page would only pause/suspend if safari lost focus (I assume this is iff there is enough memory to keep the tab alive/passivated, which is of course reasonable.)
I can't have my webpage unload/reload on focus changes because it's a single-page webapp and keeps a lot of transient state.
Second, if I recall correctly, there was some oddities about the browser chrome that differed between application mode and safari mode whereby you stole some extra screen real-estate in application mode with an opaque bar and I needed that space for my layout. This second issue I think would be already addressed because your devices post iPhone5 have larger screens.
It would be so neat if these limitations were lifted on HTML5 applications and I could offer it to my users! Are there new/recent improvements to the system that you can share with me? Are there any super secret toggles I might add to my meta tags to tell the iPhone to preserve my HTML5 app's context as aggressively as Safari?
Thanks for talking even though people here are dogging on your proposal!
I appreciate the list of issues affecting home screen web apps on iOS. We're looking into improving how they work. I can't promise any specific set of improvements or timeline but we are aware of the issues you mention.
Appreciate the willingness to address it, it would be the completest thing if HTML5 Apps worked as well as safari tabs. Very empowering thing for you to do for us web devs, thanks!
If you can share any history or stories about the origins of that feature landing on the iPhone, I would be grateful. I find it all fascinating.
A few years ago, I tried my hand at making an HTML5 application using the apple-mobile-web-app-capable, apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style, apple-touch-icon-precomposed META tags and the apple-touch-startup-image LINK tag.
It was so slick how the iPhone put my webapp's icon on the home screen and had a very beautiful startup splash screen as well. It felt very native and I could feel Jobs' influence on the way that presented, especially because it reminded me of his original iPhone reveal where he hinted that one would write apps for the iPhone using HTML5 (this was prior to the appstore.)
Ultimately, I had to give up on offering my webapp as a homepage app because of differing behaviors of my page in application mode versus in Safari.
For one, if the user switched applications and switched away from my html5 application, it would fully unload. Whereas the same web page would only pause/suspend if safari lost focus (I assume this is iff there is enough memory to keep the tab alive/passivated, which is of course reasonable.)
I can't have my webpage unload/reload on focus changes because it's a single-page webapp and keeps a lot of transient state.
Second, if I recall correctly, there was some oddities about the browser chrome that differed between application mode and safari mode whereby you stole some extra screen real-estate in application mode with an opaque bar and I needed that space for my layout. This second issue I think would be already addressed because your devices post iPhone5 have larger screens.
It would be so neat if these limitations were lifted on HTML5 applications and I could offer it to my users! Are there new/recent improvements to the system that you can share with me? Are there any super secret toggles I might add to my meta tags to tell the iPhone to preserve my HTML5 app's context as aggressively as Safari?
Thanks for talking even though people here are dogging on your proposal!