Browsers Are Dead! Long Live Browsers! Vision Pro -- January 20, 2024

Locator: 46589APPLE.

Tag: Vision Pro.

The Vision Pro is not even released yet -- but it's close -- and already folks are noting how things might change.

This is for the archives. A nice preview of what we might see. 

Could this affect you? If you don't know, imagine deleting all your "app icons." That should answer the question.

My hunch: Apple has been working this issue for several years.

From the linked article over at The Verge:

But what if you don’t need the App Store to reach Apple users anymore? All this corporate infighting has the potential to completely change the way we use our devices, starting with the Vision Pro.

It’s not like you can’t use Spotify on the headset; it’s just that instead of tapping a Spotify app icon, you’ll have to go to Spotify.com. Same for YouTube, Netflix, and every other web app that opts not to build something native for the Vision Pro. And for gamers, whether you want to use Xbox Game Pass or just play Fortnite, you’ll also need a browser.

Over the last decade or so, we’ve all stopped opening websites and started tapping app icons, but the age of the URL might be coming back. 

If you believe the open web is a good thing, and that developers should spend more time on their web apps and less on their native ones, this is a big win for the future of the internet. (Disclosure: I believe all these things.) The problem is, it’s happening after nearly two decades of mobile platforms systematically downgrading and ignoring their browsing experience.

You can create homescreen bookmarks, which are just shortcuts to web apps, but those web apps don’t have the same access to offline modes, cross-app collaboration, or some of your phone’s other built-in features. After all this time, you still can’t easily run browser extensions on mobile Safari or mobile Chrome. Apple also makes it maddeningly complicated just to stay logged in to the services you use on the web across different apps. Mobile platforms treat browsers like webpage viewers, not app platforms, and it shows.

What makes this more troublesome from my view: there are indications that Apple felt pressure to release the Vision Pro even if it wasn't quite ready for prime time.