Is PWA worth it? Poll included!

[sbj]

In XF 2.2 PWA was introduced.

XF 2.2 - Progressive web app

Mobile first. We hear it again and again, and with over half of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, it's more important than ever to provide your mobile visitors with a great experience. Of course, XenForo 2 is built on a fully responsive design that gracefully adapts to any display...

xenforo.com

I am not sure about this feature and need a little bit feedback about this. Have you gotten positive feedback about this? Are your users using it? How is the experience of these "Apps"?

 

[sbj]

It looks like I should enable this on my forum, too.

 

[l3ta]

Yeah, go ahead an enable it. I have it on my mobile and i love to see my alien icon. So kewl. My members like it, too.

 

[Mendalla]

As far as I know, I am the only one using it. And I like it for a quick way to check and respond to activity on my forum. So useful but not the be-all and end-all. But without feedback from others, I have to vote "I don't know" since my own opinion is hardly representative.

 

[Wildcat Media]

On one of my busiest forums, I see that over 50% of visitors are using mobile devices. So I would think that they appreciate the PWA feature.

But I still can't get the "Install" link to appear on Android in the menu. It works OK if I choose Add to Home Screen, and the install link appears instantly in my browsers on Windows 10.

 

[Mendalla]

But I still can't get the "Install" link to appear on Android in the menu. I

I have found it can be in a couple places. On my phone, it has always been at the bottom of the XF hamburger menu. However, on my old (Android 7.something) tab, it was on the Android menu for my site and this one, but on the hamburger menu for another site.

 

[Mr. Jinx]

Another thing you can do with PWA is easily create an app for Android and Microsoft.
This gives some extra exposure to your site in various app stores.

PWABuilder

All the tools you need to build and deploy your Progressive Web Apps.

www.pwabuilder.com

 

[briansol]

You may need to market it a bit. I posted a how-to install and some screen shots.

There's no real way to know what they are using... I tried setting up a tracker in GA but wasn't successful.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I have found it can be in a couple places. On my phone, it has always been at the bottom of the XF hamburger menu. However, on my old (Android 7.something) tab, it was on the Android menu for my site and this one, but on the hamburger menu for another site.

I thought it might be theme-dependent, but even with a stock XF theme I'm not getting it in the XF hamburger menu. I did maybe once or twice, but haven't been able to repeat it. I have the most recent Android builds on my phones, so I don't know how well it would work on older versions.

You may need to market it a bit. I posted a how-to install and some screen shots.

I'll probably do it via notices once I get the bugs ironed out, with links to a FAQ page in the XF "help" system to help set it up.

 

[sbj]

Push.