TikTok Android Sideloading
We’re enhancing ways for our community to continue using TikTok by making Android Package Kits available at TikTok.com/download so that our U.S. Android users can download our app and create, discover, and connect on TikTok.
Via John Gruber:
I suspect something is going to give on this standoff. Either (a) China relents and actually sells to a U.S. company, and TikTok comes back to the App Store and Play Store; or (b) Trump’s extralegal extension expires with no sale and Oracle and Akamai are forced to pull the plug on ByteDance’s cloud services in the US.
[…]
If I’m wrong and TikTok remains in this half-zombie state in the US — unavailable in the App Store or Play Store, but operational if you have the app installed on your phone — it’ll be interesting if TikTok is the app that makes the mass market actually care about the lack of sideloading on iOS. It’ll be interesting too if sideloading on Android goes mainstream because of this.
Does app vs. Web make that much difference if you’re just consuming the videos?
Previously:
3 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
As much as I hate for TikTok to be the example of this, my thought was exactly the same as yours. We used to have these things called web pages. I don't understand why everything has to be an app. Apple was too successful, and Google with them. People don't even remember that these are all just websites with extra steps.
I've been watching youtube through their webpage on my phone for two years now. In the beginning there was something I missed from the app. Now I can't remember what it was.
It has the fullscreen, tap to skip ahead/back double speed etc.
As long as notifications isn't super important (and I can see why they would be) I think most social media apps could work really well as webapps.
The app is more about the companies getting information about their users than providing benefits for them
And in principle notifications (webpush) should be working now if the PWA is on your home screen.
Responsive, smooth UI? Simple installation process from the store?
Nah. In the end, and although I find the use of the web as an app delivery platform distasteful, ultimately there's no principle reason that PWAs should not be feasible on iOS.
But easy sideloading would be better.
