Current Offline Mode is a good starting point, but there is still a lot of improvements to make it robust, especially in rural areas with no/almost no internet access. Here are the features I would love to see improved:
Must Have:
Open the app in offline mode (cached version) in case I have opened it already once online, for public app with no sign-in
Open the app in offline mode (cached version) and log in with a stored PIN in case I have opened it already once and registered online, for public app with sign-in
Nice to have
Select the content to be cached and available offline
Know when my last sync has been done
I have not seen other thread on this topic, is it something planned in the roadmap ?
I maintain a policy and protocol manual for first responders in my county and their number one complaint is that if/when they are in an area with little to no service, the app simply won’t perform. Glide made “offline mode” available two years ago but calling it that is a misnomer - it’s more of a “won’t stop working if you lose connectivity AND the app is open at that exact moment” situation compared to a truly offline experience where you can still open and use the app no matter the strength of your internet connection.
PWAs CAN work offline like a .APK or .IPA can and I would imagine that users would gladly set aside a few MBs to permit caching on their device so that they do (and, let’s not forget that the general public is under the impression that this is a REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS APP so they’re probably expecting it to take up some space on their phone anyways). Does anyone know if Glide has any plans to implement data caching so our apps actually work offline?
Either remove offline mode from the documents altogether or make it work!
I was under the impression that if the app is opened and stays in the background, it would work. It is not the case, after some time OS clears it from memory and it requires internet to become operational again.
Here’s an idea, make a wrapper mobile app, that could be used to cache everything the PWA needs.
Publish the wrapper app in the stores and once the potential users install it, they can punch in some secret code to download the needed PWA and run it without internet for extended periods of time.
We’re a construction company pretty deep into a development project on Glide, only to find out the app is so slow as to be nearly useless in the more remote areas in which we operate. We have many plans for more apps on the platform but this will be a must-have.
This has been my major complaint since they shifted their focus to B2B. It’s validating to see that my comment, “B2B users aren’t always sitting in a four-walled environment where wifi signals are five bars strong or are working in a metropolitan area where good signal exists” wasn’t just anecdotal. Thank you for pointing this out - hopefully it gets addressed at some point.