App-like mobile experience on Android
This works with Chrome. Knighthawk 0811 says it works with Firefox as well.
- Go to your Lemmy instance
- Open the browser menu
- Tap on "Install app"
- Tap "Install" in the dialog
- Tap on the newly created Lemmy shortcut on your home screen
I've also gotten an "app like experience" using the Samsung Internet app and selecting the "+ ADD PAGE TO" then "Home Screen"
But it's not as good as Jerboa.
Came to say I'm liking Jerboa so far.
Didn't know about Jerboa. Checking it out now.
E: Seems to work. Some things are a bit dysfunctional but that's to be expected for an alpha.
works with Firefox
only downside is that if you choose to install fire multiple instances the admins need to have customized their setting because Lemmy defaults to always be called Lemmy
One problem at a time. 😂
If you meant instance admins, is there any particular customization? Mine has a unique name but the PWA still created the launcher as "Lemmy"
I'm assuming that's coming from a static value in the served manifest.json but I haven't really investigated or thought about the launcher name until you mentioned it.
I'm not an admin so i don't know where it's coming from but i know i tried making a PWA from Lemmy-ml, Lemmy-one and beehaw and they all had the same icon and same name (Lemmy)
be great if FF just let me customize my own icon myself but they don't.
When I try it with Firefox (ver. 113.2.0, on Android 13 Pixel 6) I can't get my keyboard to work? If I pull up lemmy.ml on the FireFox browser, and go to create a post, I can type all day long and be fine. When I use the "Install to..." To put the page on my home screen like an app, then try and create a post my keyboard flickers on screen for a second and disappears. No clue why.
It does this with other website-as-an-app things (I don't know what to actually call them) too, not just Lemmy.
I'm pretty sure the name is "progressive web app" or PWA.
i wonder if you chosen keyboard could be the problem? I'm using the FF Android on a pixel 6 myself right now as i type this. i think i use the Google keyboard
I'm just using the stock keyboard... 😅 I have two languages enabled at the moment. I can try disabling one and seeing if that makes a difference.
EDIT: No change. Tried disabling the emoji key, still no dice. And it's on any website, not just Lemmy. So strange.
PWAs are so nice. I wish more services used it, instead of pushing us into installing bloated apps.
PWAs are nice but don't let that distract from the fact that they're written in JS which runs on VMs, just like Java on Android. Depending on the specifics one or the other could be more efficient. Generally I'd bet on Android Java apps taking the resource victory.
Definitely. They may be heavier on cpu and, perhaps, ram, but are extremely light on storage. It's always a tradeoff.
Phones with 16gb or less can so easily be overwhelmed by so many apps we're obliged to use, and pwas can help a lot.
Also, I prefer not to install apps for things like businesses and services I rarely use.
On iOS you can do similar.
Go to the homepage of your instance, click the "share" button, then "Add to Home Screen"
Think this only works in Safari on iOS, not 3rd party browsers. I could be wrong.
I'm not sure, but since Apple doesn't allow third party browsers (you can download Chrome, but it still uses Safari's engine for example) it really doesn't matter.
Even if you could do it on another browser it wouldn't change anything. You'll just get an icon that launches a website with no browser UI. Since all browser apps use the Safari backend, it's a moot point.
I agree, I just remember I never saw the "Add to Homescreen" button in the Share menu when I tried it from Firefox some time ago. Maybe it's changed since I last looked at it.
Lmao actually I was just in the App Store checking my updates and Firefox has an update and the notes say "You can now add website shortcuts to the phone Home Screen"
god damn it I have the WORST timing
Jerboa / https://wefwef.app / Memmy are MUCH better.