Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Progressive web apps
Raised as a usability problem by 70 people on Hacker News over 12 years (2015–2026), in 62 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Installing a web app takes many steps and hunting for Add to Home ScreenUnreviewed
20152026- Installing a web app to the home screen requires a maze of submenus2026-08-28
- Getting a PWA onto the home screen is not user friendly or is hostile2026-07-14
- Making a PWA home screen icon is too much work for normal people2025-10-28
Web apps are confusing for non-technical users to understandUnreviewed
20152026- PWAs are intrinsically confusing for non-technical users to understand2026-01-01
- PWAs are slow to respond to interactions, since most developers fail to keep interactions under 50ms2023-04-23
- Average users don't know PWAs exist and would struggle to install one2021-03-11
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Installing a web app to the home screen requires a maze of submenus2026-08-28
- Users must close Safari and reopen the page from the home screen icon2026-07-14
- Getting a PWA onto the home screen is not user friendly or is hostile2026-07-14
- Browser interface feels clunky and less smooth than native apps2026-04-27
- Many PWAs lack tabs or back arrow, making navigation awkward2026-04-06
- PWAs are intrinsically confusing for non-technical users to understand2026-01-01
- Making a PWA home screen icon is too much work for normal people2025-10-28
- Installing PWAs on iOS requires user instructions and is hard to do2025-10-09
- Must manually pin the web app after every tablet restart, through a convoluted gesture sequence2025-07-26
- Can't add a specific page to home screen, only an install prompt; workaround needed2025-04-30
- User can't tell what works offline, and install options are buried in browser menus2025-02-11
- Install option is buried in browser menu and offline behavior is unpredictable2025-02-11
- PWA animations don't look consistent or match native apps2025-01-23
- PWAs have bad UI on Linux, so the commenter used .desktop files instead2024-10-16
- Managers need someone to walk them through creating the full-screen home screen shortcut2024-07-14
- Installing a PWA requires many hidden steps through the share menu2024-07-14
- Web apps on mobile are slow, janky and barely usable for most tasks2024-07-04
- Installing a PWA takes many steps and hunting for the Add to Home Screen option2024-06-19
- Installing a PWA is confusing, especially on Apple systems, and needs an unnecessary extra step2024-06-19
- PWA push notifications are not delivered in the background or to the lock screen, so users miss messages2024-03-02
- Saving a page to the home screen is replaced by an install-app prompt, forcing a workaround2024-02-26
- Terms like 'PWA', 'progressive' and 'install' confuse people about standalone web apps2024-02-18
- Installing a PWA via "Add to Home Screen" on iOS is unintuitive for users2024-02-15
- Installed PWAs are scattered across browser-specific folders and hard to find later2024-02-09
- Adding a PWA to the home screen is odd and cumbersome, needing explanation for inexperienced users2024-01-17
- Swipe-to-navigate-back stutters; bottom navigation bar moves with nested scrolling2024-01-09
- Demoed feature set doesn't work, navigation is broken2024-01-09
- Non-tech users can't find the share button or the 'Add to home screen' option2024-01-08
- Swipe back gesture plays a duplicate animation, with the page jumping and sliding again2024-01-08
- Simple pages load huge overengineered JavaScript just to show text2024-01-08
- PWA versions feel slow and use too much memory for users2024-01-02
- Can't open links in a second tab from within the PWA2023-12-29
- PWAs feel less smooth and give a worse experience than native apps2023-09-29
- Web apps on phones are often hard to use, such as maps that are impossible to use2023-08-27
- PWAs are slow to respond to interactions, since most developers fail to keep interactions under 50ms2023-04-23
- Average users struggle to find the install button for web apps2023-04-05
- PWAs and Chrome-wrapper apps can't do basic things like find correctly2023-02-23
- PWA caches homepage so live-updating scores page goes stale and stops working2023-02-17
- Web apps would prompt installation spam on websites, making the mobile web more annoying2023-02-16
- Installing a site as an app is hidden in a relatively buried browser menu2022-09-28
- Add to home screen option missing in SFSafariViewController share menu, unlike real Safari2022-09-28
- Mobile web pages and PWAs feel less smooth to use than native apps2022-09-08
- Carousel can't be navigated by scrolling or clicking the dots on desktop2022-07-14
- Users must read several tutorials to figure out how to add a PWA to the homescreen2022-07-03
- Web apps lack native-feeling UX, so users find them poor to use2021-07-27
- PWAs stop working when the browser exits, so the browser or a tab must stay open2021-06-01
- Users don't know how to add the PWA to their Home Screen, so they retype the URL each time2021-04-13
- Average users don't know PWAs exist and would struggle to install one2021-03-11
- Users must do a convoluted dance to install the app to their home screen2020-12-31
- Web apps' accessibility is woefully worse than native apps2020-11-01