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9 Comments

Anyone has ported their web app to Android?

I'm considering it but never did it before.
What would be the easiest way of doing so?

  • Cordova?
  • Mobileview inside a native app?
  • PWA page?

Any experience on it?

  1. 2

    https://www.pwabuilder.com/

    This is the easiest way to turn your webapp into an android app

    It also creates the files to publish on Microsoft and macOS store

    1. 1

      Awesome! Thanks I'll take a look at it!

      1. 1

        Kind of curious how it went? Don't know how complicated your site is/if it's a full blown app with storage and all that. Wondering how that pwabuilder site would handle it.

        1. 1

          I haven't started with this yet :)

  2. 1

    I've done all three!

    If you're only targeting Android, PWA could be the best option.

    You'll have to try it out and see if there are any "gotchas" in your app that make this a no-go (like requirements that make Cordova a better option, usually deeper hardware integration).

    You shouldn't have any need to go the DIY mobileview route in 2020.

    Cordova is still a really good option if you do it right. Hardware is blazing fast nowadays, and you don't have to do as much work to optimize for performance as you used to.

    I would start with PWA though, if you're only targeting Android.

    1. 1

      Awesome! Thanks for that Futhey! I'll spend some time today trying to see how to convert it into a PWA!

  3. 1

    If your app happens to be built with ReactJS it is pretty easy to make it into a PWA. (generally just build/deploy to https domain) then user can add to screen. Some caveats if you need offline storage(may need something like IndexedDB).

    I'm curious how far you would go to "port" something as far as changing code. I've also worked with React Native and it is slightly different than ReactJS regarding the elements "html like" aspect. So it's unfortunately not like Electron where you can just dump a built RJJS app into it and it works.

    edit: actually the PWA thing used to be bundled with create-react-app but I just noticed it was taken out.

    1. 2

      Not using React.
      And just want a "quick fix" to see if I can easily allow people to use it form Android. Looking for the fastest way possible.

  4. 1

    Even I'd love to hear about that!

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