Sam Thorogood from our team writes:
You've designed a webapp, built its code and service worker, and finally added the Web App Manifest to describe how it should behave when 'installed' on a user's device. This includes things like high-resolution icons to use for e.g. a mobile phone's launcher or app switcher, or how your webapp should start when opened from the user's home screen.
And while many browsers will respect the Web App Manifest, not every browser will load or respect every value you specify. Enter PWACompat, a library that takes your Web App Manifest and automatically inserts relevant meta or link tags for icons of different sizes, the favicon, startup mode, colors etc.
I was amazed by this library, and I'm glad to see it getting a bit more attention. It was the first time I actually saw the Splash Screen on iOS work in the last 5 years and he generates them in a really neat way - he generates the image on the fly based on the exact screen size of the device and base64 encodes the image... it also fills in a lot of the rest of the gaps in the Safari Add To Homescreen story.
If you're building a PWA I would include it.
I lead the Chrome Developer Relations team at Google.
We want people to have the best experience possible on the web without having to install a native app or produce content in a walled garden.
Our team tries to make it easier for developers to build on the web by supporting every Chrome release, creating great content to support developers on web.dev, contributing to MDN, helping to improve browser compatibility, and some of the best developer tools like Lighthouse, Workbox, Squoosh to name just a few.
I love to learn about what you are building, and how I can help with Chrome or Web development in general, so if you want to chat with me directly, please feel free to book a consultation.
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