<story><title>Home Screen Advantage</title><url>https://infrequently.org/2024/02/home-screen-advantage/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JimDabell</author><text>&amp;gt; Removing persistent storage&lt;p&gt;They aren’t making any policy changes relating to storage.&lt;p&gt;Apple have been progressively locking down methods websites use to persistently track people for privacy reasons. All forms of permanent storage (e.g. cookies, local storage) are limited to a seven day lifetime unless the user interacts with that website &amp;#x2F; web app. If the user keeps visiting the website &amp;#x2F; web app at least once a week, the storage remains.&lt;p&gt;Another thing Apple have been doing is using the act of installing a PWA as a signal that it should be trusted more than anything you happen to come across in a browser. So the seven day lifecycle doesn’t apply to PWAs that you install to the home screen.&lt;p&gt;What is happening now is that because PWAs installed to the home screen are no longer available in the EU, people use those PWAs through a web browser. And due to this, the seven days lifetime without user interaction starts to apply.&lt;p&gt;It’s a problem, but this &lt;i&gt;specific&lt;/i&gt; thing isn’t a recent policy change from Apple regarding storage, it’s fallout from PWAs not having the elevated privileges from being installed to the home screen.</text></item><item><author>phartenfeller</author><text>I think removing persistent storage and the ability to add websites to the home screen makes it obvious what their strategy is. The EU shows that they want interoperability for big players like they do with messenger interoperability in the DMA. The web is such a fundamental standard and its interoperability is so important I guess the EU will fine Apple for such behavior. The question is how soon this will happen.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>the_gipsy</author><text>So - &lt;i&gt;effectively&lt;/i&gt;, apple is crippling PWAs exactly as being said. Got it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Home Screen Advantage</title><url>https://infrequently.org/2024/02/home-screen-advantage/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JimDabell</author><text>&amp;gt; Removing persistent storage&lt;p&gt;They aren’t making any policy changes relating to storage.&lt;p&gt;Apple have been progressively locking down methods websites use to persistently track people for privacy reasons. All forms of permanent storage (e.g. cookies, local storage) are limited to a seven day lifetime unless the user interacts with that website &amp;#x2F; web app. If the user keeps visiting the website &amp;#x2F; web app at least once a week, the storage remains.&lt;p&gt;Another thing Apple have been doing is using the act of installing a PWA as a signal that it should be trusted more than anything you happen to come across in a browser. So the seven day lifecycle doesn’t apply to PWAs that you install to the home screen.&lt;p&gt;What is happening now is that because PWAs installed to the home screen are no longer available in the EU, people use those PWAs through a web browser. And due to this, the seven days lifetime without user interaction starts to apply.&lt;p&gt;It’s a problem, but this &lt;i&gt;specific&lt;/i&gt; thing isn’t a recent policy change from Apple regarding storage, it’s fallout from PWAs not having the elevated privileges from being installed to the home screen.</text></item><item><author>phartenfeller</author><text>I think removing persistent storage and the ability to add websites to the home screen makes it obvious what their strategy is. The EU shows that they want interoperability for big players like they do with messenger interoperability in the DMA. The web is such a fundamental standard and its interoperability is so important I guess the EU will fine Apple for such behavior. The question is how soon this will happen.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rictic</author><text>&amp;quot;I didn&amp;#x27;t delete your files, I moved them from the bucket where they aren&amp;#x27;t deleted to the bucket where they are deleted, and then according to my own policies, I deleted them. This change is mandatory.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a policy change that impacts storage and has the practical effect that PWAs on iOS in the EU have had the persistent storage feature removed with no replacement.&lt;p&gt;Seems fair to gloss that as &amp;quot;Removing persistent storage.&amp;quot;</text></comment>