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brochard
Making moves
Status: In review

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.

338 Comments
NickF
New member

+1 for this idea. As a dev making B2B apps, PWAs are by far the winner anytime I go over a cost-benefit analysis with a client. Personally, I enjoy the Youtube Music and Google Maps PWAs. I wish the WhatsApp, Slack, and Facebook Messenger desktop apps were all just PWAs as well.

benlimanto
Making moves

Hopefully this will be implemented so.. we can drop Cr project for OEM distribution and use firefox natively.

Pedro
Making moves

I know that this was dropped due to PWAs usage not being that high (a "regular" user won't even know what they are/how they work), but I believe we Tech community really take advantage of it and this will be one major thing that will make people leave for Chromium browsers.

slowbyrne
New member

Important reasons to add PWAs to Firefox.

  • Prevents the need for multiple browsers (Firefox for main browser, Chomium for PWAs).
  • Removes the artificially inflated Chromium/Chrome popularity (a small amount, but still something).
  • Increases Firefox's presence on popular frequently travelled sites (the typically used PWAs).
  • This puts pressure on sites to better support Firefox as a browser.
  • This helps halt the progression of the web being overtaken by the chromium based browsers (we all remember what the web was like when sites only supported IE right??).

Firefox is currently fighting a losing battle with Chrome and dumping a useful feature that forces more users into Chrome is only going to make that worse.

Reasons why PWAs are often better than native apps:

  • Most web apps that have a "native" app are Electron aka wrapped Chromium (see points above).
  • Opening 3 electron apps opens 3 separate instances of Chromium eating up unnecessary resources.
  • A PWA version of an app will allow the end user to add extensions to enhance the app experience.
  • With extensions you also get easy ad and tracker blocking, so the PWA version is also more private and possibly has better performance.

I also get the impressions that with Firefox's new Multi-Account Container feature, part of the work is already done. There are so many reasons to add this functionality.

anubhav
New member

Please firefox team bring the progressive web apps feature before version 100.

It is very important feature because the people will try to switch to firefox the lack of this feature will make them switch back to chrome because its very handy to access web apps like native apps.

It will also give competitive advantage against safari

Status changed to: In review
Jon
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hey all,

Here with another exciting update…

This idea has been upgraded to "In review" which means it will be brought to our internal teams for review—learn more about The Idea Journey. As soon as we have another update on its status, we’ll let you know right here in the comment section.

Stay tuned 😃

-The Community Team

KadirC
New member

If the PWA doesn't come, I'll have to change the browser. Please bring PWA.

-bitMAN-
Strollin' around

So, was support for WPAs there and later dropped? If so, anyone knows why? I mean, there must have been a good reason for this decision, I just can't see it.

quarkl8
Making moves

The extension works fine, so Mozilla should really be able to do this! Please add this feature. I'm concerned Firefox will lose users, and we cannot lose the last Chromium alternative.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Why Firefox still doesn’t support PWA (Progressive Web Apps)? Most browsers, like: Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, support it.