One of my startups, Usable Health, is making an iPad-specific version of our web app to be installed in restaraunts. (Side note: watch our CEO talk at Ignite Atl) Since we were going to set-and-forget these applications, we needed a way to prevent people from going to other sites (as this is a web app just running in safari). Then I came across this article by Alex Kessinger. And we realized:
We wanted a native iPad app. So we made a web app.
Alex’s article gets in to a bit too much detail for us. We really only need one line:
<meta name=”apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=”yes” />
This one line of code transformed our web app (built for ipad size and features) into a native-looking app with no Safari toolbars on the top or bottom. Add it to the home screen, and you are off and running.
There are other features of that post that we could use, such as setting a home screen icon, but we don’t care about this, because our app should never be closed anyway while at an installation.
Here are screens of before:
after:
The total time from start to finish to get this working? 26 minutes. This includes me sharing the link, and our developer reading the article.
This is why i believe that for most applications, native apps are becoming obsolete. There are HUGE incentives for more adoption of this method:
- no need for apple developer licence (cheap for small companies)
- don’t have to deal with the app store
There are, however, cons:
- hardware acceleration is spotty. games are mostly out.
- hard to charge to download app. however, can charge for access.
For the people who say that “Well, it doesn’t work on other browsers”. That’s only half true. While this method of removing top and bottom bars only works on iPhone/iPad, the app still functions 100% normally in other mobile browser. Building a mobile app gets you 90% of the way, and adding that ONE LINE gets you the rest of the way for apple browsers.
Here is where you can try it on your ipad (or iphone/ipod touch): http://ablu.us/files/uh_ipad
Follow me on twitter: @helloandre
June 4th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
As a web developer with crazy strong dogma around my markup, I’m always nervous about adding s for implementation-specific targets (i.e. IE8 compatibility mode). In this case, though, I think this would be worth adding to my web app — or conditionally adding to my web app.
June 5th, 2010 at 3:19 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Murat Aktihanoglu, eBot, iphone god, so_white, hkrnws and others. hkrnws said: The death of native iPhone apps with one line of code http://bit.ly/bFt5nN [...]