Products · Pattern or everyday thing
PWAs on mobile
Raised as a usability problem by 10 people on Hacker News over 7 years (2020–2026), in 10 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Installing a PWA needs non-obvious steps people won't discoverUnreviewed
20202026- Installed PWA breaks after a few weeks for no obvious reason2026-04-07
- Users can't figure out how to install the PWA on iOS2025-10-09
- Installing a PWA requires a non-obvious sequence of steps users won't discover without searching2020-09-23
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 10 complaints
- Web app shortcuts open in the browser and need finding a tab, unlike normal apps2026-07-14
- Installed PWA breaks after a few weeks for no obvious reason2026-04-07
- Offline storage gets wiped every few days, and features break unpredictably2026-02-02
- Users can't figure out how to install the PWA on iOS2025-10-09
- Double tapping the screen zooms the page, and developers cannot disable it2024-03-06
- Web apps have browser-style navigation bars that obstruct the UI and slow things down2024-02-21
- Updating the app is tricky and making users update is even trickier2024-02-15
- IOS PWAs are borderline unusable, at a huge disadvantage versus native apps2023-01-24
- Some PWAs like map and video apps have a terrible experience on mobile2022-09-02
- Installing a PWA requires a non-obvious sequence of steps users won't discover without searching2020-09-23