Ionic 3 Publish Ios App Without A Mac

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Previous: Building out your app

Mar 30, 2016  There are a few different ways you can use the platform to style an app. Learn how to implement platform classes, use JavaScript to style your app, or use dynamic templates in the Ionic documentation. Building with Ionic. Normally when authoring an Ionic application, a lot of time is spent on writing the markup of the components. I have developed an IOS App using Xamarin.Form From Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 10 and a mac book is connected in same network. I have also purchase an Apple Developer Program Account. My ios app is running perfectly in IOS Simulator. Now i want to publish ios app to AppStore.

Step 3— Create a basic Ionic 4 app I have covered this topic in detail in this blog. In short, the steps you need to take here are. Make sure you have node installed in the system (V10.15.3 at the time of this blog post) Install ionic cli using npm (my Ionic version is 4.7.4 currently) Create an Ionic app using ionic start. Apple: First, buy a Mac; you can’t build an iOS app without a Mac. Install XCode and these build tools and frameworks, acquire a certificate from our developer program, create a profile on a separate website called iTunes Connect, link it up with the certificate you generated on. If you don’t want to tinker with cross-platform tools, or rent-a-Mac in the cloud, and just want to get started with iOS development: get a Mac. A simple search on Ebay shows you 1-3 year old second-hand Mac Mini’s for as little as $250. Any newer, decent second-hand Mac Mini will set you back around $450.

Now that we have a working app, we are ready to push it live to the world! Since the Ionic team already submitted the Todo app from this guide to the app store, chances are you’ll want to follow this chapter with a new app that you make on your own.

So first, we need to generate a release build of our app, targeted at each platform we wish to deploy on. Before we deploy, we should take care to adjust plugins needed during development that should not be in production mode. For example, we probably don’t want the debug console plugin enabled, so we should remove it before generating the release builds:

To generate a release build for Android, we can use the following cordova cli command:

This will generate a release build based on the settings in your config.xml. Your Ionic app will have preset default values in this file, but if you need to customize how your app is built, you can edit this file to fit your preferences. Check out the config.xml file documentation for more information.

Next, we can find our unsigned APK file in platforms/android/build/outputs/apk. In our example, the file was platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/HelloWorld-release-unsigned.apk. Now, we need to sign the unsigned APK and run an alignment utility on it to optimize it and prepare it for the app store. If you already have a signing key, skip these steps and use that one instead.

Let’s generate our private key using the keytool command that comes with the JDK. If this tool isn’t found, refer to the installation guide:

You’ll first be prompted to create a password for the keystore. Then, answer the rest of the nice tools’s questions and when it’s all done, you should have a file called my-release-key.keystore created in the current directory.

Note: Make sure to save this file somewhere safe, if you lose it you won’t be able to submit updates to your app!

To sign the unsigned APK, run the jarsigner tool which is also included in the JDK:

This signs the apk in place. Finally, we need to run the zip align tool to optimize the APK. The zipalign tool can be found in /path/to/Android/sdk/build-tools/VERSION/zipalign. For example, on OS X with Android Studio installed, zipalign is in ~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/VERSION/zipalign:

Now we have our final release binary called HelloWorld.apk and we can release this on the Google Play Store for all the world to enjoy!

(There are a few other ways to sign APKs. Refer to the official Android App Signing documentation for more information.)

Google Play Store

Now that we have our release APK ready for the Google Play Store, we can create a Play Store listing and upload our APK.

To start, you’ll need to visit the Google Play Store Developer Console and create a new developer account. Unfortunately, this is not free. However, the cost is only $25 compared to Apple’s $99.

Once you have a developer account, you can go ahead and click “Publish an Android App on Google Play” as in the screenshot below:

Then, you can go ahead and click the button to edit the store listing (We will upload an APK later). You’ll want to fill out the description for the app. Here is a little preview from when we filled out the application with the Ionic Todo app:

When you are ready, upload the APK for the release build and publish the listing. Be patient and your hard work should be live in the wild!

Updating your App

As you develop your app, you’ll want to update it periodically.

In order for the Google Play Store to accept updated APKs, you’ll need to edit the config.xml file to increment the version value, then rebuild the app for release.

This section is a part of the article Ionic Framework: A definitive 10,000 word guide written by our community member Nikola Brežnjak for Pluralsight.

First, you need to enroll in Apple Developer Program. As with Google, if you have a personal account with Apple, you can create an additional one for your applications.

Connecting Xcode with your developer account

After you receive your developer status, open Xcode on your Mac and go to Preferences -> Accounts and add your account to Xcode by clicking the + button on the lower left hand side, and follow the instructions:

Signing

Now that you linked Xcode with your developer account, go to Preferences -> Accounts, select your Apple Id on the left hand side and then click the View Details button shown on the previous image. You should see the popup similar to the one on the image below:

Click the Create button next to the iOS Distribution option.

You can learn more about maintaining your signing identities and certificates from the official documentation.

Setting up the app identifier

Next, through the Apple Developer Member Center we’ll set up the app ID identifier details. Identifiers are used to allow an app to have access to certain app services like for example Apple Pay. You can login to Apple Developer Member Center with your Apple ID and password.

Once you’re logged in you should choose Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles option as shown on the image below:

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On the next screen, shown on the image below, select the Identifiers option under the iOS Apps.

On the next screen, shown on the image below, select the plus (+) button in order to add a new iOS App ID.

On the next screen, shown partialy on the image below, you’ll have to set the name of your app, and use the Explicit App ID option and set the Bundle ID to the value of the id in your Cordova config.xml tag.

Additionally, you’ll have to choose any of the services that need to be enabled. For example, if you use Apple Pay or Wallet in your app, you need to choose those option.

You can learn more about registering app identifiers from the official documentation.

Creating the app listing

Apple uses iTunes Connect to manage app submissions. After you login, you should see a screen similar to the one on the image below:

Here you have to select the My Apps button, and on the next screen select the + button, just below the iTunes Conenct My Apps header, as shown on the image below:

This will show three options in a dropdown, and you should select the New App. After this the popup appears, as shown on the image below, where you have to choose the name of the application, platform, primary language, bundle ID and SKU.

Once you’re done, click on the Create button and you’ll be presented with the following screen where you’ll have to set some basic options like Privacy Policy URL, category and sub category.

Now, before we fill out everything in the listing, we’ll build our app and get it uploaded with Xcode. Then you’ll come back to finish the listing.

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You can learn more about managing your app in iTunes Connect from the official documentation.

Building the app for production

In the root directory of your application execute the following command:ionic cordova build ios --release

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If everything went well you’ll see the BUILD SUCCEEDED output in the console.

Opening the project in Xcode

Now, open the platforms/ios/SuperSimpleCalculator.xcodeproj file in Xcode (of course you would change SuperSimpleCalculator with your own name).

Once the Xcode opens up the project, you should see the details about your app in the general view, as shown on the image below:

You should just check that the bundle identifier is set up correctly, so that it’s the same as the value you specified earlier in the app ID. Also, make sure that the version and build numbers are correct. Team option should be set to your Apple developer account. Under the deployment target you can choose which devices your application will support.

Creating an archive of the application

In Xcode, select Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme to open the scheme editor. Next, select the Archive from the list on the left hand side. Make sure that the Build configuration is set to Release as shown on the image below:

To create an archive choose a Generic iOS Device, or your device if it’s connected to your Mac (you can’t create an archive if simulator is selected), from the Scheme toolbar menu in the project editor, as shown on the image below:

Next, select Product -> Archive, and the Archive organizer appears and displays the new archive.

At this point you can click the Upload to App Store.. button, and if everything goes fine you’ll have an uploaded app, and the only thing that’s left to do is to complete the iTunes Connect listing and submit it for review!

If you get an email from iTunes Connect shortly after you uploaded the archive with the content similar to this:

Finishing the app list process

Now you should head back to the iTunes Connect portal and login. Next, click on the Pricing and Availability on the left hand side under APP STORE INFORMATION.

You don’t have to worry about forgetting to insert any crucial and required information about your application, since you’ll be notified about what’s missing and what needs to be added/changed if you try to submit the app for review before all details are filled in.

Next, click on the 1.0 Prepare for Submission button on the left hand side, as shown on the image below. When we uploaded our archive, iTunes Connect automatically determined which device sizes are supported. As you can also see on the image below, you’ll need to upload at least one screenshot image for each of the various app sizes that were detected by iTunes Connect.

Next you’ll have to insert Description, Keywords, Support URL and Marketing URL (optionally), as shown on the image below:

In the Build section you have to click on the + button and select the build that was uploaded through Xcode in the previous steps, as shown on the image below:

Next you’ll have to upload the icon, edit the rating, and set some additional info like copyright and your information. Note that the size of the icon that you’ll have to upload here will have to be 1024 by 1024 pixels. Thankfully, you can use the splash.png from the second tutorial. If you’re the sole developer then the data in the App Review Information should be your own. Finally, as the last option, you can leave the default checked option that once your app is approved that it is automatically released to the App Store.

Now that we’re finished with adding all of the details to the app listing, we can press Save and then Submit for Review. Finally, you’ll be presented with the last form that you’ll have to fill out:

After you submit your app for review you’ll see the status of it in the My Apps as Waiting for review, as shown on the image below. Also, shortly after you submit your app for review you’ll get a confirmation email from iTunes Connect that your app is in review.

Apple prides itself with a manual review process, which basically means it can take several days for your app to be reviewed. You’ll be notified of any issues or updates to your app status.

Updating the app

Since you’ll probably want to update your app at some point you’ll first have to update the build and version numbers in the Cordova config.xml file and then rebuild the application and open it up from the Xcode and follow the same steps all over again.

Once you submit for the review, you’ll have to wait for the review process again. It’s pivotal to note that if your changes aren’t too big you could use Ionic Deploy to update your application without going through the review process.

by JudahGabriel Himango

One month of work, several hundred dollars, and lots of red tape.

I recently published Chavah Messianic Radio, a Pandora-like music player, as a Progressive Web App and submitted it to the 3 app stores (Google Play, iOS App Store, Windows Store).

The process was both painful and enlightening. Here’s what I learned.

Why?

First, you might wonder, “Why even put your app in the app stores? Just live on the opened web!”

The answer, in a nutshell, is because that’s where the users are. We’ve trained a generation of users to find apps in proprietary app stores, not on the free and open web.

For my web app, there were 2 big reasons to get in the app store:

1. User demand
2. Web app restrictions by Apple hostile mobile platforms

User demand: My users have been asking me for years, “Is there an app for Chavah? I don’t see it in the store.”

They ask that because we’ve trained users to look for apps in proprietary app stores.

My response to my users has up until now been,

“Aww, you don’t need an app — just go to the website on your phone! It works!”

But I was kind of lying.

Real web apps only kinda-sorta work on mobile. Which brings me to the 2nd reason: web app restrictions by Apple hostile mobile platforms.

Mobile platform vendors, like Apple, are totally cool with apps that use your phone to its fullest. Access your location, play background audio, get your GPS coordinates, play more than one thing at a time, and more.

Apple’s totally cool with that.

But only if you pay Apple $99/year for the privilege.

If you want to do any of those things in a regular old web app, well, goshdarnit, Apple won’t just deny you these things, it prevents you from even asking permission.

For my Pandora-like music player app, this horrible brokenness showed up in numerous ways.

From minor things like “iOS Safari won’t let you play audio without first interacting with the page” to major, show-stopping things like, “iOS Safari won’t let you play the next song if your app is in the background or if your screen is off.”

Ionic 3 Publish Ios App Without A Mac Password

Oh, plus weird visual anomalies like typing in a textbox and seeing your text appear elsewhere on screen.

So, to make my HTML5 music app actually functional and working on people’s mobile devices, it was necessary to turn my PWA into an app in app store.

Barriers to entry

In the ideal world, publishing your web app to the app stores would look like this:

Ionic 3 Publish Ios App Without A Mac Free

• Your Web/Cloud Host or Continuous Integration Provider
• You’ve published a Progressive Web App. Publish to app stores?

☑ iOS App Store

☑ Google Play

☑ Windows Store

(Or alternately, as Microsoft is experimenting with, your PWA will just automatically appear in the app store as Bing crawls it.)

But alas, we don’t live in this ideal world. Instead, we have to deal with all kinds of proprietary native BS to get our web apps in the stores.

Each of the app stores has a barrier to entry: how difficult it is to take an existing web app and it in the app store.

I list some of the barriers below.

Cost

• Apple: $99/year to have your app listed in the iOS app store.
• Google: One-time $25 fee to list your app in the Google Play Store.
• Microsoft: Free!

Don’t make me pay you to make my app available to your users. My app enriches your platform. Without good apps, your platform will be abandoned.

Apple used to understand this. When it first introduced the iPhone, Steve Jobs was adamant that HTML5 was the future and that apps will simply just be web apps. There was no native iPhone SDK for 3rd parties. Apple has since abandoned this vision.

Google asked for a token $25 one-time fee. Probably to avoid spammers and decrease truly junk apps from entering the store.

Microsoft seems determined to just increase the total number of apps in their app store, regardless of quality.

Winner: Microsoft. It’s hard to beat free.

Adding native capabilities

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write a single extra line of code for my web app to integrate into the OS. Or, as Steve Jobs said back in 2007,

“The full Safari engine is inside of iPhone. And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax apps that look exactly and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone. And these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services. They can make a call, they can send an email, they can look up a location on Google Maps.”

-Steve Jobs, 2007

For me, that means my web app plays background audio using standard HTML5 audio; that works just fine on all OSes.

My web app declares what audio is playing, and the OSes pick up on that, show currently playing song info on the lock screen.

My app controls audio using standard HTML5 audio API; the OS picks up on that and provides play/pause/next/volume/trackbar controls on the lock screen.

But sadly, we don’t live in this ideal world. All the things listed above don’t actually work out of the box on all 3 platforms.

My web app needs to play audio in the background. And load URLs from my CDN. Sounds reasonable, right? And bonus, how about showing currently playing song info on the lock screen? And controlling the audio (play/pause/next, etc.) from the lock screen? How hard is this?

Three very different approaches taken here:

• Apple: We don’t give web apps a way to declare such capabilities; you’ll need to write a native wrapper (e.g. with Cordova) to interact with the OS.
• Google: Web FTW! Let’s create a new web standard that shows audio & controls from the lock screen. Background audio? Sure, go ahead!
• Microsoft: We’ll inject our proprietary API, window.Windows.*, into your JavaScript global namespace and you can use that to do the things you want to do.

Going into more details here for each store:

For iOS app store, does your web app need to play background audio? Use a Cordova plugin. Need to show currently playing song on the lock screen? Use a Cordova plugin. Need to control the currently playing song from the lock screen? Use a Cordova plugin. You get the idea. Basically, Cordova tricks Apple into thinking you’re a native app. And since you’re not a yucky web app, Apple lets you do all the things native apps can do. You just need native tricks — Cordova plugins — to let you do it.

For Google Play, it’s nice that I can just write JS code to make this work; no Cordova plugins required here. Of course, that JS won’t work anywhere except Chrome on Android…but hey, maybe one day (in an ideal world!) all the mobile browsers will implement these web APIs…and the world will live as one. I’m almost ready to bust out some John Lennon hippie utopia tunes.

For Windows Store, do you want to play background audio? Sorry! That is, unless you declare your intentions in our proprietary capabilities manifest file (easy) AND you implement this proprietary media interface using window.Windows.SystemMediaTransportControls (not so easy). Otherwise we’ll mute you when your app goes to the background.

Winner: Google. I want to be able to just write JavaScript, and let the OS pick up cues from my app.

Runner-up: Windows. I can still write plain old JavaScript, but I need to talk to a proprietary Windows JS API that was injected into my process when running on Windows. Not terrible.

Loser: Apple. They don’t care about web apps. Actually, it’s worse than that. It feels like they are actually hostile to web apps. iOS Safari is the new Internet Explorer 6. It has lagged behind in nearly every web standard, especially around Progressive Web Apps. This is probably for business reasons: web apps disrupt their $99/year + 33% in-app purchases racket. So to make my web app work on their platform, I have to basically pretend I’m a native app.

App Store Registration

Submitting your PWA to the app store requires registration, business verification, and more red tape. Here’s how the 3 app stores fared:

• Apple: You must prove that you’re a legal, registered business. This verification isn’t done by us — but by a 3rd party, which may or may not know about your business.
• Google: You want your app in our store? Cool by us.
• Microsoft: You want your app in our store? Cool by us.

The biggest pain point for me was getting verified as a legal business by Apple.

First, I went to the site and registered for Apple’s Developer Program. I filled out my name and company information. (Aside: I guess Apple won’t let you submit an app unless you have a registered, legal company?)

I click next.

“The information you entered did not match your D&B profile.”

My…what?

A bit of Googling showed that “D&B profile” is Dun and Bradstreet. I’ve never heard of this group before, but I find out that Apple is using them to verify you legal corporation details.

And apparently, my D&B profile didn’t match what I put in my Apple Dev registration.

I google some more and find the Apple dev forums littered with similar posts. Nobody had a good answer.

I contact Apple Dev support. 24 hours later, I’m contacted by email saying that I should contact D&B.

I decide to contact them…but Apple says it will take up to a few days for them to respond.

At this point, I’m thinking of abandoning the whole idea.

While waiting for D&B support to get back to me, I decide to go to the D&B site, verify my identity, and update my company information which, I assume, they had taken from government registration records.

Did I mention how sucky this is? I just want to list my existing web app in the store. Plz help.

I go to D&B to update my business profile. Surprise! They have a JavaScript bug in their validation logic that prevents me from updating my profile.

Thankfully, I’m a proficient developer. I click put a breakpoint in their JavaScript, click submit, change the isValid flag to true, and voila! I’ve updated my D&B profile.

Back to Apple Dev –> let’s try this again. Register my company…

“Error: The information you entered did not match your D&B profile.”

AREYOUFREAKINKIDDINGME.

Talk to Apple again. “Oh, it may take 24–48 hours for the updated D&B information to get into our system.”

You know, because digital information can take 2 days to travel from server A to server B. Sigh.

Two days later, I try to register…finally it works! Now I’m in the Apple Developer program and can submit apps for review.

Winner: Google and Microsoft; both took all of 5 minutes to register.

Loser: The Apple Developer registration was slow and painful. It took about a week to actually get registered with their developer program. It required me contacting support from 2 different freaking companies. And it required me to runtime debug the JavaScript code on a 3rd party website just so that I can get past their buggy client-side validation, so that my info will flow to Apple, so that I can submit my app to the store. Wow, just…wow.

If there is any saving grace here for Apple, it’s that they have a 501c3 non-profit program, where non-profits can have their $99 annual fee waived. I took advantage of that. And perhaps this extra step complicated matters.

App Packaging, Building, Submitting

Once you have a web app, you have to run some magic on it to turn it into something you can submit for App Store review.

• Apple: First, buy a Mac; you can’t build an iOS app without a Mac. Install XCode and these build tools and frameworks, acquire a certificate from our developer program, create a profile on a separate website called iTunes Connect, link it up with the certificate you generated on the Apple Dev center, then submit using XCode. Easy as one, two, three…thirty-seven…
• Google: Download Android Studio, generate a security certificate through it, then package it using the Studio. Upload the package to Android Developer website.
• Microsoft: Generate an .appx package using these free command line tools, or Visual Studio. Upload to the Microsoft Dev Center website.

The good news is, there’s a free tool to do the magic of turning your web app into app packages. That awesome free tool is called PWABuilder. It analyzes a URL, tells you what you need to do (e.g. maybe add some home screen icons to your PWA web manifest). And in a 3 step wizard, it lets you download packages that contain all the magic:

• For Windows, it actually generates the .appx package. You can literally take that and submit it on the Windows Dev Center site.
• For Google, it generates a wrapper Java app that contains your PWA web app. From Android Studio, you build this project, which generates the Android package that can be uploaded to the Android Dev Center site.
• For Apple, it generates an XCode project which can be built with XCode. Which requires a Mac.

Once again, Apple was the most painful of all of these. I don’t have a Mac. But you cannot build the XCode project for your PWA without a Mac.

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I don’t want to pay several thousand dollars to publish my free app in Apple’s app store. I don’t want to pay for the privilege of enriching Apple’s iOS platform.

Thankfully, MacInCloud costs about $25/month, and they give you a Mac machine with XCode already installed. You can remote into it using Windows Remote Desktop, or even via a web interface.

It wasn’t enough to just build the XCode project and submit. I had to generate a security certificate on the Apple Developer site, then create a new app profile in a separate site, iTunes Connect, where you actually submit the package.

And that wasn’t all: since Apple is hostile to web apps, I had to install some special frameworks and add Cordova plugins that allow my app to do things like to play audio in the background, add the current song to the lock screen, control the song volume and play status from the lock screen, and more.

This took at least a week of finagling to get my app into a working state before I could submit it to the app store.

Winner: Microsoft. Imagine this: you can go to a website that generates an app package for your web app. And if that’s not your thing, you can download command line tools that will do the job. GUI person? The free Visual Studio will work.

Runner-up: Google. Requires Android Studio, but it’s free, runs everyone, and was simple enough.

Loser: Apple. I shouldn’t have to buy a proprietary computer — a several thousand dollar Mac — in order to build my app. The Apple Dev Center –> iTunes Connect tangling seems like an out-of-touch manager’s attempt to push iTunes onto developers. It should simply be part of Apple Developer Center site.

App Testing

Once you finally did all the magic incantations to turn your existing web app into a mobile app package, you probably want to send it out to testers before releasing your app on the unwashed masses.

• Apple: For testing, you have your testers install Test Flight on their iOS device. Then you add the tester’s email in iTunes Connect. The tester will get a notification and can test your app before it’s available in the app store.
• Google: In Android Dev Center, you add email addresses of testers. Once added, they can see your alpha/beta version in the App Store.
• Microsoft: I didn’t actually use this, so I won’t comment on it.

Winner: Toss up. Apple’s Test Flight app is simple and streamlined. You can control alpha/beta expiration simply on the admin side. Google wasn’t far behind; it was quite painless, not even requiring a separate app.

App Review

Once your app is ready for prime time, you submit your app for review. The review is done using both a programmatic checklist (e.g. do you have a launch icon?) and by real people (“your app is a clone of X, we reject it”)

• Apple: Prior to submission, XCode warns you about potential problems during build. The human app review takes about 24–48 hours.
• Google: Anybody home? Android Studio didn’t tell me about any potential problems, and my app was approved within minutes of submission. I don’t think a real human being looked at my app.
• Microsoft: Upon submission, a fast programmatic review caught an issue pertaining to wrong icon formats. After passing, a human reviewed my app within 4 days.

Winner: Apple.

Sure, as a developer, I like the fact that my app was instantly in the Google Play store. But that’s only because, I suspect, it wasn’t actually reviewed by a human.

Apple had the quickest turnaround time for actual human review. Updates also passed review within 24 hours.

Microsoft was hit or miss here. The initial review took 3 or 4 days. An later update took 24 hours. Then another update, where I added XBox platform, took another 3–4 days. Best digital photo enlarging software mac.

Conclusion

It’s painful, and costs money, to take an existing PWA and get them functional on mobile platforms and listed in the App Store.

Winner: Google. They made it the easiest to get into the app store. The made it the easiest to integrate into the native platform, by attempting to standardize web APIs that OS platforms can pick up on (hello, lovely navigator.mediaSession)

Runner-up: Microsoft. They made it the easiest to sprinkle your web app with magic, turning it into a package that can be submitted to their store. (Can be done for free using the PWABuilder site!) Integrating with their platform means using the auto-injected window.Windows.* JavaScript namespace. Not bad.

Loser: Apple. Don’t require me to buy a Mac to build an iOS app. Don’t force me to use native wrappers to integrate with your platform. Don’t require me to screw around with security certificates; let your build tools make them for me, and store them automatically in my Dev Center account. Don’t make me use 2 different sites: Apple Dev Center and iTunes Connect.

Final thoughts: The web always wins. It defeated Flash. It killed Silverlight. It destroyed native apps on desktop. The browser is the rich client platform. The OS is merely a browser-launcher and hardware-communicator.

The web will win, too, on mobile. Developers don’t want to build 3 separate apps for the major platforms. Companies don’t want to pay for development of 3 apps.

The answer to all this is the web. We can build rich web apps — Progressive Web Apps — and package them for all the app stores.

Apple in particular has a perverse incentive to stop the progress of the web. It’s the same incentive that Microsoft had in the late ’90s and early 2000s: it wants to be the platform for good apps. PWAs undermine that; they run everywhere.

My software wisdom is this: PWAs will eventually win and overtake native mobile apps. In 5–10 years, native iOS apps will be as common as Win32 C apps. Apple will go kicking and screaming, keeping iOS Safari behind the curve, blocking PWA progress where they can. (Even their recent “support” for PWAs in iOS Safari 11.1 actually cripple PWAs.)

My suggestion to mobile app platforms is embrace the inevitable and either automatically add quality PWAs to your app store, or allow developers to easily (e.g. free, and with 3 clicks or less) submit a PWA to your store.

Readers, I hope this has been helpful glance at PWAs in App Stores in 2018.

Have you submitted a PWA to an app store? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments section. And you can read more of my blog posts on my blog.