PWA/"Mobile App" Support

[nkringle]

Before submitting this feature request I have
COMPLETE AND FILL THESE OUT

• Reviewed the documentation and verified that my feature request isn't already a feature.
• Reviewed the existing feature requests and my feature has not been requested.
• Checked the tasks tagged issues and verified my feature is not covered

Please Describe The Problem To Be Solved
Basically I want to be able to have my phone/computer treat mealie like any other app. I created a bookmark on my iPhone which sort of accomplishes this, but with some limitations (there are some layout issues with resolution and mainly the lack of a "back" function - since the homepage bookmark doesn't show the normal safari back button, etc.)

(Optional): Suggest A Solution
It seems like a PWA may be a good solution here. I know there are a bunch of libraries and getting started guides that tie into vue to do this, but I am not personally familiar with implementing them so I won't pretend to know too much 😁.

I'm not really asking for a full native mobile app because I am sure you probably don't want to take that on and I don't know if that would add much benefit. :)

Additional Information

• If the feature is accepted I'm willing to submit a PR to provide this feature
  -> Maybe, I haven't done any vue development so I'm a little hesitant to go this on my own right now.

[hay-kot]

As far as I understand it there is already PWA support for Mealie. Are you saying it's missing features or that it isn't working at all?

I just checked and I have a PWA setup on my IPad and Android device.

I'm not really asking for a full native mobile app because I am sure you probably don't want to take that on and I don't know if that would add much benefit. :)

If I can get 1-2 other core developers I'm 100% down to build a Flutter App for Mealie after v1 get's release. So who knows!

[hay-kot]

Namely, if you go to search for a recipe and click into something, there isn't a way (at least on my phone) to go back to my search.

Not PWA related. Just a poor user experience, Could you create an issue for this? I think it may warrant a change to the flow.

Additionally, the bottom menu is a little funky using an iPhone 13 Pro. (This screenshot does not do a good job of showing the rounded corners but you sort of get the idea that the icons are in the way of the bar that takes you home/edge of the screen. Also the search back arrow is back to my iphone's app search, not mealie search.

This will go away with v1. I had to do-away with the bottom bar because of the new IPhone update :(

Maybe it would be helpful to add a prompt of some kind to install the PWA?

I think this may be a browser thing and they only prompt you if you've visited the site so many times. However there are some articles that suggest it's possible to tie into it. https://web.dev/customize-install/ - at any rate it needs some further investigation.

It also may be the Safari (therefore all iOS devices) don't support the PWA banner anyways. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51160348/pwa-how-to-programmatically-trigger-add-to-homescreen-on-ios-safari

[nkringle]

Not PWA related. Just a poor user experience, Could you create an issue for this? I think it may warrant a change to the flow.

Sure!

It also may be the Safari (therefore all iOS devices) don't support the PWA banner anyways.

I just tried it in chrome and did not get any prompts (and I never use chrome on my phone). 🤷🏻‍♂️

[nkringle]

#931 for the UX/back feature

[hay-kot]

I just tried it in chrome and did not get any prompts (and I never use chrome on my phone).>

All iOS browsers use Safari under the hood so if you're using it on your IPhone you're still bound to Safari's rules/limitations.

For example, I get a prompt right away on Android.

From what I understand this is because of Apple's strong payment terms in the app store that wouldn't apply to a PWA, so they don't go out of their way to make PWAs a first class option for iOS users. So it's likely this will never change.

[nkringle]

I didn't know that! Maybe another vote for a native app then!