Mobile App, Progressive Web App (PWA) For IPB

[Gill]

@Aiwa Majority of Community members are demanding the hybrid solution like PWA not native ones which may IPB team tried but Failed (i don't know IPB team mobile app history) 

PWA solution require just javascript skills not native one like  java and swift which most of web developers already have :)

I hope one day one of IPB developer or IPB TEAM hear all of voices and do something for us to compete against Telegram groups, discord server, Facebook Groups, Whatsapp Group 

and make our communities users more engage to our sities 

thanks :)

[Morgin]

Until iOS supports, I just don’t see it. I dunno about you guys but > 50% of my mobile traffic is iOS

[aia]

Looks like some people in this topic don't understand the main advantage of PWA, so it worth to mention again what PWA is just the existing site itself with some little additions and it does not require a lot of development or support and it's a huge advantage over native apps discussed before. And this topic is about PWA, not standalone apps.

12 minutes ago, Morgin said:

Until iOS supports, I just don’t see it. I dunno about you guys but > 50% of my mobile traffic is iOS

PWA is already supported in iOS 11.3+

Edited July 12, 2018 by Mr 13

[Morgin]

45 minutes ago, Mr 13 said:

Looks like some people in this topic don't understand the main advantage of PWA, so it worth to mention again what PWA is just the existing site itself with some little additions and it does not require a lot of development or support and it's a huge advantage over native apps discussed before. And this topic is about PWA, not standalone apps.

PWA is already supported in iOS 11.3+

No push notification support yet though. That’s all I care about an app for. 

[Rikki]

59 minutes ago, Mr 13 said:

Looks like some people in this topic don't understand the main advantage of PWA, so it worth to mention again what PWA is just the existing site itself with some little additions and it does not require a lot of development or support

In my opinion, to do a PWA well, you need to do more than just take a responsive theme and add a manifest. PWAs are expected to feel like native apps, and so we'd have quite a bit of work to do to meet that standard I think.

We aren't ignoring mobile though, don't worry ? 

[TheJackal84]

I actually use a android application for this site and my own one, it send notifications for new files and so on

 

[BomAle]

just as note on safari push api currently are not integrated https://caniuse.com/#search=push api only for this is raccomanded PWA + native iOS app.

[Gill]

HI GUYS :) 

@Morgin @BomAle   Here My 2 cents for Apple IOS and PWA :

It  Disappointing ios is not supporting push notifications yet  . I think in future apple will revise push notification policy again when PWA become mainstream.  Bigger companies adopting the PWA apps day by day.

 

PWA is not just another Buzz word,  PWA again transferring the power back to Web Developers which was lost during native mobile app era. I think REST API based apps for IPB not right approach, From developers point of views, it will make mobile apps  hard to maintain and compatible with every new version of IPB and updates of hundered of IPB plugins. However PWA just uses Mobile Responsive of Website.

Forums Founders  spent both Time and money to make his/her community sustainable. sometime new users like the forums but forget url and browser history deleted,at that time website looses one member ? this same things happened with me many times and may be other members share the same experience. 

For iOS users or Android users there is more chances, new users of clients Forum website click on App icons  (Installed by PWA ) again than open browser inside the mobile, remember the website URL and hit the enter. No matter whether  PWA support push notifications for particular mobile os or not :)

Moreover for just one mobile OS. it is not good idea not to implement for other too. PWA fully supported in Window 10 redstone 4. We can't ignore the billions machine running  window 10. Window 10 PWA app would be huge opportunity  to keep the website users engage with website. Just imagine clients Forums apps are installed on users PC.  Even They don't open browser and enter forum URL,  with single push notification you can make users again engage to your website ? More and more adopting the window 10

 

@Rikki @Matt @Charles

 

On 7/12/2018 at 5:10 PM, Rikki said:

We aren't ignoring mobile though, don't worry ? 

Thanks IPB team showing positive response toward IPB mobile apps, Hope You Guys will make it possible very soon :) You guys just make mobile apps i will buy without see the price Tag and i think other members also do the same :)

 

Thanks

[TheWorldNewsMedia.org]

Please..... we don't need a Cadillac..... build a bicycle..... then slowly add features....

That is... IF you want to stay in business.

Our success = IPB's success

I think 90% of your customers are clamoring for this.

 

Shall we look at a history of companies that ignored the demands of their customers?

Sears, Blockbusters, JC Penney, and the list is endless.

[Aiwa]

The begging and condescending tone, toward IPS, used in these topics is getting quite old. IPS has weighed in briefly on this and still identifies limitations for PWA. And believe me, they read these topics. The core platform has a mobile theme, I use it daily without issue. 

Is there room for improvement with mobile, sure... But using a tone that comes off as condescending of IPS and demanding for a very specific solution, to a problem for which you may not have the complete picture, comes off as simply an insult, in my opinion, to IPS.

You want better mobile support for your community? Make it yourself... Create a modified mobile theme tailored toward your community. Take some ownership in solving the problem for yourself rather than for every client that all have differing needs. 

It also helps to do your research... IPS had a mobile app at one point in the 3.3.x days, it wasn't successful. I can't answer as to why, but there are still Staff posts and IPS Blog posts about it. I created a summary post some months ago with some of the more relevant information about it. 

[TheWorldNewsMedia.org]

I'm guessing @Aiwa still shops at JC Penney. 

I can see you (as a developer) are siding with the core development team. That is a safe bet for the short term. 

All I can say is "Good Luck!"

How much longer until Google, offers us a fully featured forum software with a PWA built in?   Adsense enabled. Hmm... good idea. Talk about a Blogger upgrade. 

I just might send a message to Larry Page now. 

Friends.. this is how change is started.

[Silnei L Andrade]

 

Responsive design is already outdated simply because most users are accessing the sites through the smartphone.  The web has changed to mobile, it's that simple and there's no turning back! If a software has a "mobile version" it is because it is working with the audience of the past. We are already coming at the time that the sites will have "desktop version".  

The focus is the mobile and this will only intensify in the next few years. See the poll. Everyone is losing audience because of that. That simple.

[kmk]

1 hour ago, TheWorldNewsMedia.org said:

How much longer until Google, offers us a fully featured forum software with a PWA built in?   Adsense enabled. Hmm... good idea.

Something like Tapatalk has their Group feature... 

[Chris027]

1 hour ago, Silnei L Andrade said:

 

Responsive design is already outdated simply because most users are accessing the sites through the smartphone.  The web has changed to mobile, it's that simple and there's no turning back! If a software has a "mobile version" it is because it is working with the audience of the past. We are already coming at the time that the sites will have "desktop version".  

The focus is the mobile and this will only intensify in the next few years. See the poll. Everyone is losing audience because of that. That simple.

Our traffic is heavily weighted toward desktop followed by tablet followed by mobile. 

[Silnei L Andrade]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/07/02/is-your-website-ready-for-mobile-first-indexing/

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/26/google-begins-to-roll-out-its-mobile-first-index/

Quote

By “primarily mobile,” Google is referring to the fact that the majority of people who use Google search today now do so from mobile devices, and have done so since 2015.

https://www.business2community.com/seo/mobile-first-google-indexing-02113610

Edited September 8, 2018 by Silnei L Andrade

[Aiwa]

@TheWorldNewsMedia.org I'm not interested in this topic, or any debate.  Aiming your misguided tone toward me, however, is sorely misplaced. I don't drink the kool aid, and you assuming I do based on a contributor tag is short sighted and, frankly, insulting. 

I made it clear IPS could do better with mobile in my comment. They also haven't ignored it. They may not yet have an answer for the feature set your looking for, but they haven't ignored it. The point of my comment, quit with the whining about mobile and do what you need for your community first.

IPS has stated they aren't ignoring mobile, yet for some reason people like yourself keep belaboring on a topic focused on a specific mobile approach, PWA. 

Instead, would it not be more constructive to focus on the feature set you're looking for? Mobile, that's a broad topic... What about mobile are you wanting solved? Leave out the HOW, and focus on the specific WHAT you need solved.

[Fast Lane!]

How does monetization work with PWA?  Many forums earn the bulk of their revenue through banner ads throughout the site. Will this be impacted?

[RevengeFNF]

6 hours ago, Fast Lane! said:

How does monetization work with PWA?  Many forums earn the bulk of their revenue through banner ads throughout the site. Will this be impacted?

You will have them the same way. 

[socceronly]

Could a PWA access content from two IPS sites?

I don't know why people think this would be simple to do.  It would certainly be easier to do than maintaining a native app across devies and operating systems, but easier doesn't make it easy.

 

[Rabin Rutten-James]

Just came across this and was wanting to see if there was any talk on the here:  https://topicit.net/en/plugins

Quote

To install the Topic'it API easily on your forum, first download the plugin matching your forum version. If no plugin is available for your forum script, please refer to the API documentation. New plugins will be available for vBulletin, Invision, punBB and Vanilla forums within the next few weeks.

Haven't used it, and know nothing about it - but it sure would be handy to have an app for forum members to use.  My forum lost almost all discussion to the sister FB page.

Would be interested to hear if anyone else knows anything about Topic'It.

Rabin

[Gill]

58 Voted YES !!! For IPB PWA or Mobile App 

But still No Positive Response From IPB Team Regarding Mobile App RoadMap,

What Do you Think Guys ? Will we ever Get The IPB MOBILE APP OR NOT ?

Edited October 1, 2018 by Gill

[Morgin]

2 hours ago, Gill said:

52 Voted YES !!! For IPB PWA or Mobile App 

But still No Positive Response From IPB Team Regarding Mobile App RoadMap,

What Do you Think Guys ? Will we ever Get The IPB MOBILE APP OR NOT ?

If and when iOS supports push notifications would be my guess! 

[Silnei L Andrade]

 

I'm following up on all the topics on the subject here in the forum and trying to argue about the importance of "mobile first" as this is a reality and has no back, but so far their only statement on the subject is that "they do not are ignoring the mobile. "

Glad they are not ignoring. Your poll makes it clear that most are losing traffic because of this. I hope we have good news in the next updates.

Not to be unfair, this is not only a problem of IPB, it is of all the old forum platforms.

Edited September 29, 2018 by Silnei L Andrade

[Morgin]

1 hour ago, Silnei L Andrade said:

 

I'm following up on all the topics on the subject here in the forum and trying to argue about the importance of "mobile first" as this is a reality and has no back, but so far their only statement on the subject is that "they do not are ignoring the mobile. "

Glad they are not ignoring. Your poll makes it clear that most are losing traffic because of this. I hope we have good news in the next updates.

Not to be unfair, this is not only a problem of IPB, it is of all the old forum platforms.

How do you propose they fix it?

White label app design doesn't work. App stores don't like multiple versions of the same app with different branding being submitted based on which community is using it.

An omnibus "IPS Forum app" that wouldn't allow users to directly monetize their own communities and requires users to go in and find their community and register to it doesn't appeal to a lot of people either, myself included, largely because they'd need to adopt a "one-size" approach. Invision has also noted they've tried app development and it didn't work out for them, so this is all kind of moot.

PWAs are not supported in a form that is beneficial to >50% of mobile traffic and until apple embraces it, it will never be more than a niche technology. I'm not saying apple is this important, it's just that in markets where a lot of us have large forums, our users are predominantly apple/iOS users.

With the current state of things, the mobile responsive skin is overall pretty good. If you don't like it, you can change it to a different mobile design. I think it can be improved based on some new ideas from other mobile forum skins I have used from other platforms (some of what discourse is doing is quite interesting) but it's not like the IPS mobile skin is outside of the top 3 for forum software.

There is a lot of complaining here, but not a lot of direct actionable items. Why not try suggesting specific things that can actually be achieved?

Edited September 29, 2018 by Morgin

[Fast Lane!]

I think IP Pages should have an option to allow AMP pages. That or at least allow a customer header element to point to an alternate AMP page manually.  The Pages product directly competes with WordPress which has this already.

Be the way. I totally am not a fan of a stand alone web app. It would likely leave out a TON of my community built around IP Pages and custom areas. Folks would not discover them on the app. Also, advertising revenue and customization would take a huge hit. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by Fast Lane!