Can a PWA app be published to app store and play store

Question

I am creating a React JS web app which will eventually be converted to a PWA so that the users can install it on their mobile devices. Now the client ask to find out a way to push these PWA apps to apple store and google store. So my query is whether we have tools for converting the Progessive Web Apps as apk or ipa files so that we can put them to apple store or play store.

I googled a bit and is right now confused because some say it is possible, some say not possible in Apple store. I also saw some tools like PWABuilder, but I am not sure which one is the right one to use and whether we can publish a PWA app to the app store and play store.

Any help on this will be very grateful.

Thanks

Sitka

Google play has support for PWA's. But you can do both with WebView (or cordova etc.). Here is url for Google Play: css-tricks.com/… – Plascencia

I have heard you can upload PWA app to play store but you have to put the PWA app inside a wrapper or something then upload to play store. medium.com/@firt/… – Inapproachable

Yes, you need to wrap the PWA within a TWA (Trusted Web Activity): developers.google.com/web/updates/2019/02/using-twa – Dichlamydeous

Answer 1

While it is possible in both cases, publishing a PWA on the Apple Store is an incredible difficult journey, because Apple engineers try to build obstacles all the way long. This is by decision as Apple is making profits from its app store and PWAs would indeed subtract some of these gains. This is also the reason why Safari, as browser, is incredibly behind the other competitors in supporting PWAs APIs (PUSH API for example, as they promote their Apple Push Notification Service (APNs)).

Long story short, I would concentrate on Google Play Store, where you can publish a PWA after having wrapped it into a Trusted Web Activity (TWA), allowing Chrome (v72 or later) to run a website in fullscreen mode without a browser toolbar within an APK (Android Package). You can find further details in this tutorial to publish a PWA on the play store.

UPDATE Thanks to PWABuilder publishing to appStore became much easier. Here is a blog article describing this step.

Dichlamydeous

Glad it was helpful Anupam. To the person who downvote the answer: providing a reason for the downvote might help me and others to better understand why you do not agree with my answer. Simply downvoting is just void useless. – Dichlamydeous

One of the main reasons people want to publish pwa s in the appstore is precisely to monetize them. So your argument that apple is fighting this because they would lose profits is a total nonsense. The reason is security - they've invested a ton into making ios secure and making the same for a pwa is quite hard. But it will certainly happen, since both google and huawei are making a good progress there. – Sallyanne

Well, I think anyone can have its own opinion about this aspect. There are plenty on documents showing both theories, therefore I won't add anything to this. I don't think Apple is "innocently" pushing against PWAs in the store just for security reasons... – Dichlamydeous

Have you published PWA on AppStore? – Professionalize

@Professionalize not personally. But I read plenty of blogs of developers complaining about the difficulty in publishing a PWA on Apple Store. Maybe things changed in the meantime, but it seems much more difficult than with the PlayStore. – Dichlamydeous

@Dichlamydeous yeah exactly, actually I was surprised because you said it's possible but hard, no one on the internet is saying it's possible, and I can't figure out how a couple of people did publish PWA to AppStore – Professionalize

I once read an article of a guy describing his PWA published on App and Play store. This was though something like 5 years ago. Apple in the meantime went constantly against PWAs, probably making it from very hard to impossible now. It is a pity as I think PWAs have a great potential....but sometimes big companies have more $$$ in mind than other – Dichlamydeous

The Play Store TWA process still seems vastly overcomplicated. Looks like wrapping the web app in a Cordova app is still the easiest way to go, and also supports Apple devices if you have access to a MacOSX. – Fabled

@Fabled have a look at Bubblewrap or the latest version of PWABuilder. Both solution allow to almost completely abstract from the complexity behind TWA, making it much easier to publish your PWA to the Play Store. – Dichlamydeous

@Sallyanne yes, I think you're right indeed. Plus I found the same opinion in the arctile on medium.com medium.com/neoxia/… "And in 2020, the Safari team published a blog post where they said that some APIs (which means capabilities) will never be implemented for security reasons. This includes: Push notifications, Bluetooth, NFC, Battery status, Background geolocation for instance" There's also a link to the official list of Apple restrictions – Mathi

Hows the PWA support now in 2023 for appstore? Im currently considering a PWA so Im keen to open this discussion again. Thoughts anyone? – Moncrief

It is getting easier too in that direction thanks to PWA Builder. Have a look here: blog.pwabuilder.com/posts/publish-your-pwa-to-the-ios-app-store – Dichlamydeous

Answer 2

You could use Capacitor to create a native App.

It is newer than Cordova.

Here you can see the Stackoverflow TagTrend: Capacitor vs Cordova

... or wait some month. Sooner or later you will get PWAs into the Apple Store. I don't think they are able to stop this process.

Sub

I am not completely sure about the last part of the sentence. Considering what's going on with "Hey" at the moment, I would not be surprised they would keep a hard stand against PWAs on their App Store. But I might be (and I hope so) wrong. – Dichlamydeous

Have you published PWA app on AppStore? – Professionalize

Answer 3

I published my pwa to google play store and apple app store. I used App-bound Domains for ios and Twa for android. I think at this time to simple to publish some pwa to appstore.

Sisco

Answer 4

The real problem is that the TWAs generated for Android devices display the "Running in Chrome" toast popup when you open, which ruins the immersion for users.
I created a PWA and wrapped it for App Store and Play Store using PWABuilder, and the App Store app functions great without any toast popup, while the Android version displays it. I didn't expect the Apple side to give fewer problems than the Google side in this case.

Firebug

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review – Susan