Hermit and Chrome Progressive Web Apps

Chrome’s Add to Home Screen

Chrome allows web sites to be added to your home screen, like Hermit, but that’s where the similarity ends. We believe Hermit offers superior customization and control that Chrome does not, while Chrome offers background app processing & push notifications that Hermit does not.

Apps in the App Drawer

Chrome announced in February 2017 that Progressive Web Apps can now be added to your app drawer, just like a native app. This way, Web Apps can appear anywhere that Native Apps can.

We think this is a wonderful development, and happy that Chrome has chosen to pursue this path too!

Can Hermit use this?

At present, Chrome has not announced any kind of API or Developer Documentation about this feature, so we have no details to announce either.

In contrast, we have several reasons why we think integrating Hermit with this would not be in the best interests of all our users. Here’s why.

• Chrome requires you to allow the installation of native apps from Untrusted Sources. We think this is a big security hole for most users. It is possible that future versions of this feature will not require this, but at present, we do not recommend that users turn off this important Android security feature in order to avoid getting malware on their phones.

• Chrome requires every individual web site to take steps to support this. The following specific criteria must be satisfied before any Web site can be added to the home screen this way:
  • Web site must have a web app manifest defined.
  • Web site must define a 144x144 PNG icon in the manifest.
  • Web site must have a Service Worker registered.
  • Web site must be served over HTTPS.

  We believe that the percentage of sites that satisfy all these criteria is very small at the moment. Of course this will change over time, but many major publishers’ Web sites are not compatible with this new feature right now.

  Contrast that with Hermit, where every single Web site on the Web can be turned into a Lite App.

• Apart from web app icons being available via the app drawer, we see no obvious improvements to the user experience that this feature provides.

  • No sharing from other apps to PWAs.
  • No way to stop background processing in order to conserve battery.
  • No way for users to customize the created app.
  • Notifications only work if every site independently builds support for it.
  • No way to block popups or those pesky app-install malware that opens Google Play when you’re browsing.

• All of the unique Hermit features that you have come to love and appreciate won’t work. Because web apps loaded this way will load in Chrome, not Hermit. Which means:

  • No Ad Blocking.
  • No Dark Mode.
  • No Reader Mode.
  • No Frameless Mode.
  • No Full-screen Mode.
  • No control over Images or JavaScript.
  • No control over Do Not Track, Data Saver Mode, Third-Party Cookies.
  • No control over individual permissions such as Location, Camera, Microphone, File Uploads, etc.
  • No way to customize Theme Colors.
  • No way to change the site icon.
  • No integrated Search
  • … and the list goes on.

But … App Drawer

Although Hermit Lite Apps cannot be added to the App Drawer, they can be added as Shortcuts to any launcher. All launchers support adding Widgets, so consult your launcher’s documentation about how to add a Widget.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve the Hermit user experience, so if you have suggestions, definitely get in touch with us via email!