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Issue 913283 link

Starred by 3 users
Status: Assigned
Owner:
srahim@chromium.org
Cc:
hwi@chromium.org
tsteiner@google.com
yfried...@chromium.org
dominickn@chromium.org
█ bgalbs@google.com
pcovell@chromium.org
Components:
EstimatedDays: ----
NextAction: ----
OS: Android
Pri: 2
Type: Bug



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"Add to Home screen" string on Android inconsistent with desktop and doesn't distinguish WebAPK/shortcut flows

Project Member Reported by mgiuca@chromium.org, Dec 10 
On Android, we use the menu item "Add to Home screen" for installing both a PWA/WebAPK (full app experience) and a home screen shortcut for non-PWAs. These give very different user experiences and it's hard to know which one you'll get in advance.

On desktop, we use the string "Install $APP" for the former, and "Create shortcut" for the latter.

Android should probably standardize on these strings, however, the "Add to Home screen" string has a long history and changing the string may confuse people.

Internal only tracking sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15LM5rPjDYkxqhNjGNpcONBLIJeL__sbKlGMJ5bdDwxs/edit

We discussed this change with srahim@ in March but we never proceeded. Shimi, can you figure out what we want to do here?

Comment 1 by dominickn@chromium.org, Dec 10 

There are a couple of longstanding challenges on Android that perhaps we've changed our minds on now.

We experimented with "install" for app banners in 2016/2017 and found that CTR significantly decreased. This may have been due to a combination of users being familiar with "Add to Home screen", and the heavier-weight connotations of the "installation" concept on Android. Maybe now we're okay with this change.

Also, WebAPK installation can also fail in many more ways (due to the extra client-server communication) than add to shelf on desktop. Even if we distinguish the strings up front, the user may not end up with a WebAPK if minting failed or we couldn't get a timely response back from the server. Maybe WebAPKs are reliable enough now that we don't need to worry too much about this.

Comment 2 by mgiuca@chromium.org, Dec 10 

#1: If WebAPK minting fails, does the created shortcut open in a standalone window or a browser tab?

If window, does that mean there are three possible states:

a) Non-PWA = Shortcut in browser tab
b) PWA where minting failed = Shortcut opening in standalone window
c) PWA normal = WebAPK opening in standalone window

If so, (b) and (c) are probably closer to each other anyway to warrant the same "install" string. However, the difference between (b) and (c) is so subtle that maybe if it's reliable enough, we just want to delete (b) and have "Installation failed; please try again."

Comment 3 by dominickn@chromium.org, Dec 10 

If minting fails, the created shortcut will open in a standalone window. It won't appear in the Apps list though.

Comment 4 by mgiuca@chromium.org, Dec 10 

So #2 is correct?

Comment 5 by tsteiner@google.com, Dec 10

Cc: tsteiner@google.com

Comment 6 by yfried...@chromium.org, Dec 10 

We did improve install success rate by 10pp this year: https://uma.googleplex.com/p/chrome/timeline_v2?sid=a2b61712491ff0fbbb84a3d10ea2ed2e

Still not entirely where we'd like it to be the remaining issues are fairly device level and probably impossible to move without user intervention.

Yes, #2 is correct wrt to WebApk but can't you simply just add a meta tag and still get fullscreen: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/native-hardware/fullscreen/ 
This would have to be from the settings menu though, as we wouldn't show a banner.
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