Support for PWAs (WebAPKs) in the app drawer

french139

Hey there, I have used GrapheneOS for about 1.5 years, and now it's time I want to switch as many apps as possible to PWAs. Is there currently a way to install PWAs natively (so they show up in my app drawer and not just as a link on my home screen)? I know it is possible on Stock Android via the Chrome Browser, but Chrome is shit, so that's not an option.

If there is no such option, is it planned to be integrated in the future?

Thanks for the response, guys.

calpurtmun

I would love this feature too on the stock launcher. Smart Launcher can do this for now.

chinook

Yeah, it just bit me.

I am writing a small app I want to share files to, but it doesn't work, a properly configured PWA becomes just an URL shortcut :/ I guess I'll have to actually install APKs to achieve it... -- a way to achieve lower exposure to the foreign code (by using PWAs instead of APKs full of tracking libraries) becomes a roundabout way to installing the APKs back (because we can't fully-featured PWAs).

It's also well-known but seems to be blocked on Android project: Vanadium#714, os-issue-tracker#6071.

For my own app I will try TWA (with @bubblewrap/cli), but for anything else? No idea.

chinook

So for my own apps I fixed it with the TWA ("Trusted Web Activity"), which works because Vanadium runs the Digital Asset Links verification as expected, so it became much more than just the website.

It requires a server-side support for the TWA app though, so you can't do it for the third parties, sorry, so that's not a fix for the broken PWA support...