March 22, 2026
Web cage match inbound
Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari continues
Safari’s Big Block: Fans Cheer the Lockdown, Devs Cry Foul
TLDR: A new site claims Apple limits Safari on iPhone to push people toward App Store apps by blocking many app‑style web features. Comments split: some cheer Apple for nixing “creepy” web permissions and prefer real apps, while others slam the walled garden and mock limits like not setting a custom search engine.
Apple just caught another round of side‑eye after pwa.gripe claimed the company is kneecapping Safari on iPhones and iPads to keep you in the App Store. The site lists missing tools that make websites act like apps—background sync, push alerts, Bluetooth, NFC—many available in Android’s Chrome. Cue the slap‑fight: open web fans say Apple is stalling progress; Safari loyalists call those features creepy, battery‑draining, and better left off.
In the comments, one Safari superfan bragged they disable most of these anyway, happy Apple’s refusal stops sites from demanding them. Another went nuclear: “Fuck giving websites motion data or push notifications.” On the flip side, critics dragged Apple’s walled garden, with a zinger about not even letting users set a custom search engine—“won’t someone think of the children?” One more meta‑take accused “Safari bad” posts of shilling for Google.
Bottom line: this isn’t just tech, it’s ideology. Team Lock It Down wants fewer permissions and actual apps you download. Team Let It Breathe wants powerful progressive web apps (installable websites) that sidestep Apple’s fees. The only consensus? A cage match over who steers your phone—Apple’s rules or the browser’s open road.
Key Points
- •The page compares Chrome 145 on Android with Mobile Safari 26.4 on iOS/iPadOS for PWA and web API support.
- •It lists many APIs as unsupported on Mobile Safari, including Background Sync/Fetch, Web Bluetooth/NFC, WebXR, Protocol Handling, and Contact Picker.
- •Mobile Safari has partial support for PWA installation, Notifications, Web Push, Barcode Detection, and Device Orientation.
- •Both browsers support core capabilities such as Service Workers, IndexedDB, Media Capture, WebAuthn, Web Share, and Payment Request.
- •The table notes Picture-in-Picture as fully supported on Mobile Safari (partial on Chrome), while both lack File System API and Screen Capturing.