Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Google Chat's old Electron desktop app shutting down this month in favor of PWA

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is the sort of thing that I ponder about. Why, I wonder, is Google switching from a stand-alone Electron app to a progressive web app (PWA) for its chat application? It bothers me, because the PWA won't run on Firefox. But then again, the Electron app was based on Chrome anyways, and ran on its own, and not inside a browser. Could it be related to size or performance of the Electron app? The article says, "The PWA is more secure with auto-updates ensuring users are always on the latest version. It's also easier to distribute for admins and more widely available across desktop platforms." Anyhow, I created an OLDaily chat room (which I'll probably never use) and have been looking at the API to build a Google chat room bot (which tells me that PWAs, unlike Electron apps, can much more easily serve as a platform. for ads, data collection, and other integration).

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 23, 2024 06:19 a.m.

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