Firefox will abandon PWA applications
The beauty of web browsers is that no matter what browser users use, they can get a consistent experience. At the same time, each browser has its own differences. For example, the Chromium kernel browser headed by Chrome focuses on introducing various new technologies that other browsers have not adopted, while Firefox continues to improve the privacy protection capabilities of the browser. Now, Firefox and Chrome have produced a new difference.
In recent years, many browsers on the market are embracing Progressive Web Apps (PWA). This feature can transform daily browsing websites into independent applications on mobile phones or desktops, and web pages into applications. Unfortunately, Mozilla will no longer support PWA on Firefox for the desktop version.
Mozilla calls this feature Site-Specific Browsers (SSB). This feature has been experimental so far, but on the latest version of Firefox, this feature has been hidden by default. Mozilla explained to the public that, according to statistical data, the SSB function is not used frequently in the user community and is not enough to prove the need for continuous maintenance. In the future, PWA support will no longer be provided in Firefox on the desktop, but PWA will continue to be supported in the Android version of the browser. Mozilla will shift the focus of desktop development to features that they believe are more beneficial to users.
Firefox is not the only one on the market that only supports PWA on mobile devices. The same is true for Apple, which has strict management of its own devices and software ecosystem. At present, Apple only allows users to install PWA applications on iOS devices, while desktop Safari does not support this feature.
With the gradual increase in PWA applications in recent years, it remains to be questioned whether abandoning PWA at this point in time is the right choice. Firefox for the desktop version will abandon PWA applications, will this also cause users to abandon Firefox?
