Was having a conversation with a very dear friend of mine a couple of days ago about PWA's and it has been suggested that such an article would be beneficial to others so here it is.

The question was How do I show users a prompt to install the app as a PWA on IOS?

Simple answer is you can't.

Longer answer is a bit more complicated so allow me to add some context.

PWA's get the 'native' application look by having the browser read the manifest and treat the website differently but it's up to the browser to do that and sadly you have no way of impacting this.

Browsers run on different engines depending on what device they run:

• Webkit = Safari and all browsers on iOS, as it’s mandated by Apple

• Chromium/Blink = Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave, Chromium, Edge, Opera, Samsung Internet Browser, Kiwi, etc. that run on anything other than iOS.

• Gecko = Firefox and Thunderbird email client

Chromium browsers have the best support for PWA's, if you browse the web and hit a PWA a pop-up Install App will appear and literally will download and install the app on the device.

This is where the gotchas start, IOS users are not accustomed to such behavior since all browsers on IOS are actually Safari with a skin. In other words when an IOS user downloads Google Chrome they literally just download another Safari with a branding skin on top of it and of course you will not have access to all the features the real browser has to offer. The result of this is that when you hit a PWA on IOS you have no signals that you can install the app and no capabilities to support such features and you are left only with the option of Add to Home Screen that for IOS users feels a bit unnatural. Also, the process is very different as adding a website to Home Screen does not install the PWA but merely creates a shortcut to a webpage.

Currently there are some talks between Apple and EU to tackle this monopoly but so far there is no resolution in sight, and to be honest I am not sure what the ultimate outcome will be. From a business point of view, it just doesn't make sense for Apple to enhance the PWA support on their platforms since their goal is to make you use Apple Store, interact with native applications and spend some money in order for them to make money. PWA's get in the way of this process as they can potentially lose out on a lot of revenue, hence why the experience has to feel strange, unnatural.

Overall if you plan to release a PWA and target IOS users please make sure that you provide adequate instructions for your users, Chromium browsers nothing to worry about - most likely this is where you will observe the highest engagement and the rest are pretty much Safari level when it comes to PWA support.