Bring back PWA (progressive web apps)

[brochard]

Progressive Web apps are an important feature of a browser that Firefox is the only one missing.
For some, it can be the reason to switch to another browser.
In other cases like for the Steamdeck, it's what imposed the choice to only include Chrome in the SteamOS interface.
Other problem even for avid Firefox users, since I wanted Social apps on my pc I had to get them on the Microsoft Store which is an Edge PWA that opens every link in an Edge window, making me use this... other browser.

[crabel]

+1

Microsoft recently announced that Teams will become a PWA(at least for Linux users).

I was at first really angry because Microsoft won't support Firefox, but then I realized it's not their fault.

[bun]

+1

please bring this back, PWA is the only reason I'm still using chrome

[joshtransient]

Love PWAs. Heavy Notion, Teams, and (/sigh) Google Chat user and love being able to get rid of all the browser chrome. Browser window with tabs and an address bar is for browsing websites, PWAs are for apps.

Firefox is gonna get a lot of Chrome/etc refugees after the ManifestV3 nightmare, and while that community PWA extension is...serviceable, regular users aren't gonna love that.

[UPPERCASE]

It would be awesome to have this back, using Discourse forums a lot, having a PWA makes things more seamless.

[Redoxeon]

Replying to this

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Is it clear what "PWA support" means? Some pieces of PWA are still available on Firefox. Some aren't. Is there a clear description somewhere of what the PWA umbrella covers and what is or is not important?

Partly I'm wondering because although I voted for this bug, I realized I was only thinking of mobile. Desktop support is far less interesting to me personally (though generally speaking, it seems like it'd be a cool thing to have).

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1719080 leads to a number of links.

My impression is that the desktop feature is a fairly heavy feature to support. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1602117 was the main bug for this, with https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1602117#c7 providing a list of pieces that were never implemented.

The strongest argument I see for desktop PWAs is for skipping an app store and pinning to the Windows taskbar.

I almost wonder if the best path for desktop would be some form of official support for https://github.com/filips123/PWAsForFirefox — as in, not trying to incorporate that, but adding it to continuous integration and otherwise trying not to break it?

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There's some apps that only are PWAs (i.e. Linear.app), but on linux, a lot of things are easier to get as an app through a PWA. If the extension could be supported officially, including through flatpak installs for people on devices like the steam deck, that would work for me.

[arusak]

PWA is awesome!
Firefox is awesome!
The definitely should be together 😃

[ChiefKoshi]

The lack of PWA support is the only thing keeping me from switching from Chrome to Firefox. It’s essential for developer workflow. 

Mozilla this is a feature we NEED.

[djsiropchik]

I'm agree 100%. Progressive apps very important. Fast, don't take a place on device and universal. Pls put it back, because we don't want to use another browsers.

[Maverick74]

This would be great for business users!

[mrbigmouth502]

I'd love to have PWA support, especially in the Android version of Firefox. I think it'd be great for social media users who don't want to use privacy-invasive official apps.

[Horus_Sirius]

PWA are allowing individual websites to be more important.

i like the idea to pin a browser window under windows to the taskbar.

for be more in a point of view.

one missing think between the compatibility is switching the PWA Archtekture to the defaul browser under the current system.

the memory usage and security update mechanism is if pin different runing websites in many browsers to the windows taskbar you will have the effekt.

Switching PWA to another browser is to difficult.

[alvin612]

+1 here. Among all the browsers, Firefox has been the most balanced and reliable. If PWA is added back, then I say it's the browser King no doubt.

[Froglich]

+1 here. Created a profile here just to add this. PWAs in Firefox would be a killer feature and it is the only thing keeping me from using Firefox as my one and only browser.

[Daseinn]

 @brochard 

I agree, and made an account when I saw this suggestion specifically. PWA's are only going to become more important as newer Web Technologies (AV1, WebGPU, WebUSB perhaps?) & Complimentary Acceleration methods from Modern Hardware get developed, people will not only be wanting this, but would also need  this on different platforms such as Windows, Linux/Android, MacOS/iOS, Even on VR Headsets or streaming boxes/sticks. It's a perfect fit that shouldn't be left to other browsers based off of Chromium to have full control on 😕 

 Take cloud gaming on SteamDecks (Which run Linux) for Example, they could just have a streamlined & efficient single page container that's sandboxed from the rest of Firefox set to full screen & customised focus mode with a pre-loaded cache of webpage assets, settings & addons tailored specifically to that usecase, and one single profile with a saved user/password combo. 

[Dasein]

Any new  updates on this? Because it seems as if the community really wants it back for all instances of Firefox 🍿👀