I think especially for enterprise applications with many different mobile devices and OSs PWAs could be very interesting. However, I wondered if there already is a way to easily deploy enterprise PWAs via a mobile device management solution? Telling all users to go to a specific website and click on the "Add to homescreen" banner seems inconvenient to me. On iOS with Safari the user even has to manually add a shortcut to the home screen.
Android: Google Chrome already generates Web APKs. Maybe these could be extended to allow such deployment scenarios. Are such features planned for the future?
iOS: Does this already work when simply adding a shortcut to the specific URL of the PWA to the homescreen via a MDM solution?
Related
Recently I just started to learn Android Instant app. As far I research, it make me feel that it behaves like a Web App, which used to replace mobile websites.
This may be a dumb question, but I want to figure out whether Android Instant app is a Web App or not. And, any difference between both of them ?
Android Instant Apps allows Android users to run your apps instantly, without installation.
Web apps or Now most used as Progressive Web Apps are user experiences that have the reach of the web, and are: Reliable - Load instantly and never show the downasaur, even in uncertain network conditions
Differenrences between Webapp and AndroidInstantApp:
Web apps have lack integration with some smartphone features like contacts,Bluetooth, flashlight etc. AIAs always have.
Web apps can be crawled and discovered by search engines. While they don’t need to be developed as fully fledged apps, they still need to
be developed as web apps that meet Google’s standards.Whereas AIAs only need to be upgraded from the already existing
native mobile app.
You can also got more info here:- Android Instant Apps
Native Android apps, without the installation
Instant Apps are Native applications.
The description says:
Native Android apps, without the installation
An evolution in app sharing and discovery, Android Instant Apps allows
Android users to run your apps instantly, without installation.
Android users experience what they love about apps—fast and beautiful
user interfaces, high performance, and great capabilities—with just a
tap.
You can see the official documentations from here.
A android instace app can be run without internet and ... not a web app :)
On windows we have different hooks, by which we are able to interact with any running programs. for example one can get a running apps handle and then change some its properties, etc .
I want to know if similar functionality is present in android systems.
for example one can get a running apps handle and then change some its properties, etc .
Yes, malware authors think that this facility is great.
I want to know if similar functionality is present in android systems.
No, for blindingly obvious security reasons. On rooted devices, something like the Xposed Framework offers some of this sort of thing.
does android allows for browser plugins
No. Neither does Windows, macOS, or Linux. Web browsers can allow for browser plugins. The exact details of how one implements a browser plugin will vary by browser and OS.
can apps communicate with a specific plugin in a browser
That would vary by browser. My guess is that the answer is "no", but you would need to contact the developers of your browser of interest for confirmation.
Each app in Android OS run in it's own sandbox.
You cannot change behaviour of any other app.
You can only communicate with other apps if they have
the feature to do so, like when you want to share
something in the app, then a lot of sharing app opens.
Like facebook, whatsapp, twitter etc.
Beacause they are intended to do so. With the Deep Linking we can
make out app to be connected with other app.
I am thinking of building a new tab page for chrome which works for both desktop and mobile devices. I know that the chrome extensions do not work for mobile devices but the mobile app can be integrated with other apps on the mobile device as found here. Hence, I was thinking whether an android app can be used as a workaround which overrides the new tab page. Is this possible? If yes, how?
What you want is not possible if the Google chrome does not provide you an API for that. It is because all the Android applications are prepared to be as a single app package that can't know anything about other apps but the things the OS (Android) provides to them. For example, you can query the OS to know what apps can answer to a question (Intent) like: "Who can open an email?".
Imagine what would happen if what you want could be possible. I am an attacker that for some reason wants to inject a behavior in another app. This app can't have the control of what it is doing anymore and we can inject, bypass permissions or whatever, without the user agreement.
However, some kind of modifications of this type can be done by adding some files in a rooted device. Anyway, this is a complex situation and something that cannot suit your needs.
I want to deploy an Android app in a similar fashion as the Wireless, Over-The-Air method that exists for iOS devices. That is, setup a web page and the user clicks a link from his device that includes the manifest (xml) file, containing information on how to download the app. This works well on iOS devices, and I thought Android may have something similar.
How do I go about this?
Thank you for any help.
Please the comments above. Have the correct MIME settings, link to the apk, and make sure unknown sources is checked on the device to allow non-market apps.
Since you seem to imply an app market / store is not involved in the iOS case, it seems you might be talking about an offline-cacheable "web app" rather than a native iOS application.
The android equivalent is: on devices where the offline web app capability exists, just visit the same web page (referencing an html5 manifest with appropriate mime type, etc) you are using for iOS. Perhaps you will ultimately end up with platform-specific refinements, but the basic idea is portable.
Or perhaps you just mean that a desktop/laptop need not be used to open obtain the app. On Android, that has been the case since day 1 - the primary market client is on the device, with over-the-air install. You can send an android device to the market with a market:// url. The ability to trigger an install from a web browser running on something other than the device is a more recent and still secondary capability on android.
Finally, android does offer the ability to side load native applications, something that has no iOS equivalent outside of jailbreaking or having a developer account. Most of the responses seem to concentrate on this, but it's not clear if that is what you are actually asking for.
We will be developing a free tool for our existing customers. I have no experience with iPhone and Android but as far as I'm aware you can't just put a file online and add a download link to it.
I'm wondering what are the best options to deliver this application to our customers? Should we just place it in App Store and Android Market (even though it might confuse the people who stumble upon the app and have no idea what or who it's for)?
I'm also aware of Apple's Enterprise Program. I'm not sure how it works technically but it sounds like it can be distributed from local network only, or am I wrong? The app should be obtainable online.
Is it possible to put app in App Store/Market without making it searchable & browseable in the app list of the Store/Market but accessible via direct link only?
Thank you for any suggestions.
For iPhone you need to use the iOS Enterprise Program to create your private market as long as the devices are not jailbreaked.
For Android you can distribute the installation file (.apk file) over your website. You have to tell the users to check the option "Install apps from unknown sources" (look here) in their preferences.
It really sounds like a "mobile web app" is what you're looking for.
There are several toolkits for styling web pages to look and act like an iPhone/Android app.
The user simply navigates to your site, and you can detect if they're browsing from a mobile device and render the page(s) based on that or redirect them to device specific sites.
Users can bookmark your site to create an icon on their home screen.
If your app doesn't depend on a remote connection, you can also just do everything in Javascript and the user can use your app offline.