I love Glide so much because I can change my app everyday all day. Am I right tinking that once you’re in de Apple appstore you have to freeze your app and work with submitting updates when you change stuff in your Glide app? In that case I say: I’ll stick to web apps! But maybe I’m wrong?
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That’s my impression as well!
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Yes, that’s what Apple requires.
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I know
I don’t want to have to deal with their update process either, but then we still have the issue of push notifications since Apple doesn’t support unless app is in their store.
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Not if you use the WKWebView functionality. Then it’s just a feed from your website.
Updates will push when you update your site.
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And I understand why people do it, because sometimes clients want ‘real’ apps.
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We could all have our apps in the Apple store very easily via the WKWebView functionality in Xcode. This would allow our apps to feed live from Glide. Meaning when we make changes it will be reflected in the app. Downside is it pulls the content from the web requiring a internet connection. Notifications and transactions is where it could get complicated as it relates to Apples policies. Also, the developer certificates for publishing are a little tough to navigate at first but it’s easy enough to figure out. Tons of material on YouTube.
I’m interested to see how Glide will package it and what their vision is for the process. I think they should stay the course and offer ability to publish to Apple and Google Play. I will use their service for sure once this is live and when they allow for more rows and more storage options. Which they are working on.
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I also think the recent Epic Games lawsuit against Apple & Google is making people aware of how expensive it can be to have an app with in app purchases on their stores and some of the downsides of the current app store model
Albeit there is the potential for broader distribution for app owners but I think we are entering the long tail phase of the app store where it just may not make sense for small and medium sized brands.
Read the emails between Epic and Apple that led to Fortnite’s App Store ban: https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/21/21396313/apple-fortnite-lawsuit-emails-app-store-ban-epic
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Wordpress has a big issue with Apple too
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When I first looked at Glide, coming from many years of native development, I was a tad sceptical about both its capabilities and the choice of PWA. As it turns out, the capabilities are awesome and the PWA has never been an issue. In fact the ability to make changes that are reflected almost immediately has proven to be a massive benefit.
However, I have to admit, there are three issues that still bug me:
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Firstly, we just have to get push notifications (or an equivalent) working. Users of mobile apps want to be told when something happens. It’s just the “norm” and the lack of this constantly frustrates both me and my users. Even deep linking would help, so that I could at least send a text message that was clickable.
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Secondly, there does need to be some way of making changes (whether it be new features or bug fixes) in a “draft” or “staging” environment, where they can be tested before release. It is both unprofessional and nerve-wracking for these to show up during “development”.
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Thirdly, it is not straightforward to create an app for a “sector” rather than a customer and then “cookie cut” this for new customers within the sector. This whole process needs to be much easier.
With all of these in place I can see absolutely no reason whatsoever for me (or my users) to lament the lack of a native app. In fact we would probably rejoice. I know (hope) they’re all coming and it won’t be a moment too soon.
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I could literally not agree more with this list. 
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