Why are the devs developing a Flutter app instead of just improving the PWA?

Recently it was announced that a new app will be created in Flutter for Lichess.

While I think they this is great news I cannot avoid thinking: why not just improving the PWA? I'm currently using it and it works already great.

Are there features that the PWA cannot handle and the app can? Just kidding the PWA could save a lot of resources.

what's PWA?

@giords said in #1:
> I cannot avoid thinking: why not just improving the PWA? I'm currently using it and it works already great.

am just assuming it as version 2 of the previous mobile app (hope you find some relief)

To me that sounds like a good question.

@MohammedElasha said in #2:
> what's PWA?

I had to google it. The "Portable Web Application" is just the lichess website.

@giords said in #1:
why not just improving the PWA?

At least here in America, the corporations are constantly encouraging people to download their apps, even when perfectly good websites exist. This leads to the perception that apps are "better" than websites. (Indeed, I would not be surprised if apps are better maintained because of this pressure.) I suspect that that conditioning is working, and that is why demand for a lichess app is up. Demand is the only justification given in the lichess blog announcement.

Does it really matter? If Flutter works for them it's probably the best option anyway.

@MohammedElasha said in #2:
> what's PWA?
@mcgoves said in #5:
> I had to google it. The "Portable Web Application" is just the lichess website.

It's not just the website actually.
PWA is an emerging standard (see developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps) that aims to make it possible to make mobile websites usable as apps.

That means for example:
- receiving push notifications
- controlling screen lock
- working offline
- access hardware features

That makes it possible to make a web application way more powerful and feel pretty much like apps.

Lichess already implements part of the standard. If you open Chrome on your phone, go to lichess.org, open the menu and select "Install", Lichess will be installed as an app (PWA app) on your device.
Currently it doesn't support offline though, but for example it keeps the screen always on while playing a game.
I use Lichess as a PWA on my phone, I don't use the official app. This way one can access all the features on the website and there's no need to wait that they are ported to the app.

IMHO by fixing Lichess website to be fully PWA compatible, a lot of resources would be saved, the app would work pretty well (the website already works great on mobile as it is) and one would never have to wait the app to catch up with the features of the website.

There's already an issue for tracking the PWA progress on GitHub: github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/5492

@giords said in #7:
> for example it keeps the screen always on while playing a game.
Alas for me, not puzzles. :(

@mcgoves said in #5:
> I had to google it. The "Portable Web Application" is just the lichess website.

That's what I was thinking it sounded like...but I hoped that nobody was really that pretentious.

@giords said in #7:
> If you open Chrome on your phone, go to lichess.org, open the menu and select "Install", Lichess will be installed as an app (PWA app) on your device.

Interesting. This worked on my android phone, but not on my Windows 10 PC. But I could "install" via Edge. I guess, as you say, it's still a work in progress.