Metal Storm now has PWA support. That means you should be able to install the site to your favorite mobile device's desktop and launch it from there instead of having to open a browser to visit it.

PWAs are a thin veil around websites so there won't be anything fancy like native notifications or any other kind of mobile OS integration. It's a mere launch convenience and UI candy thing at this point. We've instructed browsers to theme their UI with our menubar blue for a while now and this will hide browser UI completely where supported.

I've been testing on iPadOS and Android. It's not perfect (MS is super old after all and we're still slowly catching up to more modern web technologies) but it does the job for me. I'm looking for input if you're willing to test it.

To make this happen on iOS/iPadOS, point your Safari to MS's home page and chose "Add to Home Screen" from the share menu. The site's title and an icon are automatically pulled and you'll end up with an MS icon on your home screen.

On Android open Chrome and choose "Install app" from the options menu. Other browsers should have support as well. For example, my mobile Firefox has a menu option "Install" that does the same thing.

Not all browsers have support for all options. So play around a little with your favorite ones to find the one you like the most

Interesting.

Quote:
On Android open Chrome and choose "Install app" from the options menu

Yes, this worked for me

I will keep old school way, a Google Chrome browser works super fine.

Written by Bad English on 22.01.2023 at 14:46
I will keep old school way, a Google Chrome browser works super fine.

Nobody cares, k7. Please go to the general forum to leave your opinion on things and keep this one on topic.

Great, works for me too.
I would be interested in upsides against the browser environment. So far I miss (or dont find) an option to open older tabs I have navigated to recently (which I find in my browser), so I can directly jump to threads I have been following recently.

Written by Redel on 23.01.2023 at 09:01
I would be interested in upsides against the browser environment. So far I miss (or dont find) an option to open older tabs I have navigated to recently (which I find in my browser), so I can directly jump to threads I have been following recently.

PWAs in general come with some OS integration but that has to be implemented. I‘m not sure if we should go that route or package a thin app consisting of a WebView and some boilerplate code. At any rate, the UI has to be overhauled to be more touch-compatible. I‘m mainly experimenting with this on my own, but why not make available to everyone at the same time
We do have a watch feature for thready, by the way

Also I enjoy eye-candy like browser UI that adapts its color to that of the site. I find the appearance of MS on iPad very pleasing right now

Written by corrupt on 23.01.2023 at 10:25

We do have a watch feature for thready

What is this?

Written by Redel on 23.01.2023 at 10:44

Written by corrupt on 23.01.2023 at 10:25

We do have a watch feature for thready

What is this?

A typo. I was meaning to say „threads“. You can click a „Watch Topic“ button in each thread and they will appear on top of the forum view so you can easily keep track of your favorites.

Written by corrupt on 23.01.2023 at 13:30

You can click a „Watch Topic“ button in each thread and they will appear on top of the forum view so you can easily keep track of your favorites.

Right, using it now for the first time.

How do you reload the page currently displayed in this app, for say to see whether new posts came in?

Written by Redel on 23.01.2023 at 14:16
How do you reload the page currently displayed in this app, for say to see whether new posts came in?

Oh good point. My iPad has a keyboard, so cmd+r works, but I can see if I can implement a pulldown-refresh on mobile devices actually my mobile chrome does that. Pull down from the top to refresh the site.

Written by corrupt on 23.01.2023 at 15:06

My iPad has a keyboard, so cmd+r works, but I can see if I can implement a pulldown-refresh on mobile devices actually my mobile chrome does that. Pull down from the top to refresh the site.

A keyboard I dont have on my Android phone, so I usually use the pull down function in Chrome browser too. In this app though a pull down does not seem to reload the page for me.

Now pull down in the app works for me. Thank you.

Written by Redel on 24.01.2023 at 09:33
Now pull down in the app works for me. Thank you.

I didn‘t change a thing

Written by corrupt on 24.01.2023 at 14:33

Written by Redel on 24.01.2023 at 09:33
Now pull down in the app works for me. Thank you.

I didn‘t change a thing

Even better if the app is programmed to adapt the users desires without being explicitly asked to.

@corrupt, MS PWA works like a charm in Firefox mobile on my Pixel 6! Cheers!!