
Google brings Chrome apps to Android and iOS - bane
http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/01/28/google-brings-chrome-apps-android-ios-lets-developers-submit-google-play-apples-app-store/#!tE8F0
======
callumjones
Link to the source: [http://blog.chromium.org/2014/01/run-chrome-apps-on-
mobile-u...](http://blog.chromium.org/2014/01/run-chrome-apps-on-mobile-using-
apache.html)

(TNW needs to lift their game on making sources more obvious)

EDIT: My source was [http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/28/5355064/chrome-apps-
are-co...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/28/5355064/chrome-apps-are-coming-
to-ios-and-android)

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increment_i
The 'hybrid' silver bullet approach is easier said than done, although if
anyone should take a crack at it, I guess Google's as good a bet as anybody.
I've tried every single hybrid approach known to man thus far, and they've all
felt awkward and forced. Still gonna write native code until I'm blown away by
something.

~~~
Pxtl
Is it possible to make the hybrid approach pleasant? I mean, many apps involve
heavily leveraging native components, but many of them are simple location-
aware mobile-friendly CRUD apps.

For the simple cases - a data-capture app and the like, how well do things
like Cordova measure up? Does it still suffer from the "non-native feel"
problem even though we're mostly seeing textboxes and dropdowns?

~~~
increment_i
I find that for simple apps, a lot of the hybrid frameworks can get you 95% of
the way there in terms of user experience. And if you don't plan on using any
native UI stuff, then you might be fine. But then you'll run into some weird
CSS issue or something that breaks your heart (and your design).

I tried AppGyver's Steroids offering (which is based on Cordova) and was quite
impressed, but ultimately decided it wasn't quite up to snuff, which sucked
because I really wanted it to be.

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rahimnathwani
How is this different/better than what you could already do with Cordova (aka
PhoneGap)?

(Not trolling... this is an honest question.)

~~~
kllrnohj
This is just Cordova with Chrome App APIs. It doesn't run on top of Chrome or
anything like that. So the only difference is you can now have API
compatibility between your real Chrome App, and your "fake" Cordova-powered
"Chrome App"

~~~
ryanolsonx
Unless you're using Android KitKat, then the web view is actually chrome.

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Touche
This is rather disappointing implementation. This doesn't solve the problem is
making web apps first-party apps on the platform, as this is still running on
top of Java. They need to do something to allow non-Java runtimes to have the
same access to system APIs that Davlik has.

~~~
yogo
It would be interesting to see how this plays out but it is indeed
disappointing for an alpha. Regardless of the platform apps need to work with
data. Packaged apps do not have access to websql, and you are pretty much
forced to use IndexedDB, which apparently isn't even a high priority for the
alpha. With Cordova if there isn't an API for something native you want you
can write or find a plugin to do so, e.g. Sqlite, so to me this was sort of a
step backwards given that it's based on Cordova. Of course, if there is some
way to use Java plugins then it might be a different story.

~~~
Touche
WebSQL has been deprecated for a few years now, you should go ahead and pick
an IndexedDB library and start using it.

~~~
yogo
I already use IndexedDB for Chrome packaged apps, you're basically forced to
use it. The fact that there are Chrome-specific APIs means that there could
have been one for SQLite but the NoSQL agenda is pretty strong.

This just feels like it's all over the place because they seem to hint at
being able to use the Cordova plugins from Chrome Apps (restrictive), so I
don't get the write-once-run-almost-everywhere vision. It seems like you will
have to write a Chrome App then write a Chrome Mobile App. This whole thing is
just a weird marriage.

~~~
Touche
Sounds like you really like SQLite. WebSQL is dead and never coming back. It
doesn't make sense for the Chrome developers to maintain an old API that's not
part of the web platform just because some people don't like the alternative.
Eventually someone will create a library that lets you do SQL with IndexedDB
(if they haven't already) and you'll get the best of both worlds.

By the way, Mozilla was the primary party that objected to WebSQL and it
wasn't because of an NoSQL agenda, it's because they didn't want to tie a web
API to 1 specific implementation (SQLite).

~~~
yogo
I don't really care either way, my point is that they pushed out this
announcement without any clear indication about handling data in apps. That
might be intentional. IndexedDB is fine for certain apps but for more complex
apps with non-trivial data relationships it doesn't work. I also don't care
about WebSQL per se. The thing is that they didn't put a SQL database under
the chrome APIs, like they have for chrome.storage. To me the whole thing is
silly because iOS, Android, and WP8 provide SQLite natively and you can access
it via Cordova.

This is not about WebSQL vs. IndexedDB, it's about Chrome Apps not having
access to a SQL database. Btw Chrome itself supports WebSQL, but it was
removed in Chrome Apps.

Packaged Chrome Apps: IndexedDB Cordova: anything that's supported - SQLite
(not WebSQL), IndexedDB, w/e Packaged Chrome Apps + Cordova (the subject of
this whole thread): ???

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jamesjguthrie
I was excited when I seen the headline about Chrome apps, thinking mobile was
getting the same kind of in-browser apps that are available on the desktop
Chrome Store. Mainly because that would give us the ability to write apps
without an Apple Developer Account and we could publish outside of the App
Store to users who aren't jailbroken. Seems like that's never going to happen.

------
Lauricio
In the documentation it says it supports Android 4.x+, but will it still run
on the default WebView instead of Chrome on versions below KitKat 4.4? Cos
then you would have to adapt your CHROME APPS for android 4.1 or 4.0, and if
you look at caniuse.com HTML5 and CSS3 support for default android browsers
its a huge step back. Or am I wrong?

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tmikaeld
This could change a lot, especially for smaller developers that knows
javascript really well.

The one thing it would lack in the end is native performance.

Even with mozillas latest JS magic asm.js:
[http://i.imgur.com/46hCFEJ.png](http://i.imgur.com/46hCFEJ.png)

~~~
pcwalton
It's amazing that Dhrystone is still used in 2014. Some things just never know
when to die [1].

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhrystone#Shortcomings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhrystone#Shortcomings)

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khc
> Today’s announcement builds on...

Where's the link to the actual announcement?

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mentos
Might Apple take issue with this under rule 2.25?

>Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a
manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.

I don't see a world where this could ever replace a native icon/app on an
iPhone, but if it did I'd imagine Apple would bring down the hammer on this.

edit: I didn't realize that these would be wrapped in a shell so they can be
submitted to the app store. I incorrectly thought they'd be run from the
Chrome app

~~~
delinka
Web browsers are allowed all kinds of leeway with the Official Rules. A prime
example is making payments via browsers. Limiting which parts of the actual
web a browser can access would be a detriment to even Apple's walled garden.

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nkg
From a users' point of view, I am enthusiastic about the chrome apps. Having
been using my phone and tablet way more than my PC, I am now used to the
simplicity and ergonomy of mobile apps. Chrome apps allows me to find back
_almost_ the same experience on a PC.

From a developer's point of view, I would also say "so what? Cordova has been
here for a while" but it is not a technological improvement, it's about
releasing your apps to a broader audience.

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sgt
Anyone know when it's going to be released for all developers? I'd like to
start playing around with this as soon as possible.

~~~
iclelland
It's available to everyone right now; go ahead and clone it from GitHub, or
install the cca package from npm -- it's a "developer preview" right now
because some of the APIs are still changing; I wouldn't consider it stable
enough to ship an app to users just yet. We're definitely looking for people
to try it out, though -- we want to know what's working, what's missing, and
what's just more difficult than it could be.

~~~
izolate
> more difficult than it could be

Installing cca. Can't seem to pass the cca checkenv test, because of Xcode
command line tools (I don't want the full Xcode). Problem:

Xcode appears to be installed, but no version is selected (fix this with
xcodeselect)

No solution with xcode-select. Maybe some better docs could help out
frustrated devs like me?

~~~
iclelland
That's not a configuration we'd come across in testing, but I'll check it out.

Can you raise an issue on [https://github.com/MobileChromeApps/mobile-chrome-
apps](https://github.com/MobileChromeApps/mobile-chrome-apps) for this?

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CmonDev
Now make Chrome and Android departments compete with each other!

~~~
robmcm
They are under the same leadership now Rubins went to build robots.

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livejamie
They need to do the opposite, and allow Android apps to work on Chrome

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Eleutheria
We've been reinventing the same widgets all over in every new platform. HTML
showed us the true direction for universality. Then XML came along. All we
need to do is design a standard for widgets based in xml and a standard for
object and platform communication.

I, as a developer, would like a universal platform for developmnet, be it
html, xml, svg, or whatever comes next.

Call it AXIS, Application Xtended Interface Standard.

~~~
notatoad
What you're looking for is web components / shadow Dom. It's a method of
defining widgets in HTML, and then invoking those widgets as if they were a
single element. No need to develop yet another specification for ui

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zobzu
well f. it i'll wait for firefox to do the same. don't want another MS in
town.

~~~
m6t3
firefox can do this since about 1 year ago. Look at this
[https://marketplace.firefox.com/](https://marketplace.firefox.com/)

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ivanbrussik
just found this in the Windows version:

 _Internet Explorer 9 or newer is required._

Couldn't help but laugh.

