All Posts • Charles Harries

Hi! My name's

I'm a software developer working on the web in the North East of England.

I write software at NHS Digital. Previously I worked at Komodo Digital in Newcastle and Creator in Castle Eden. After hours I write a bit of Go, watch more movies than I ought to, and read less than I should.

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Wednesday, 10 Aug 2022 7:30 pm | Stream
Meta's in-app browser tracking

Counterargument to yesterday's post about PWAs vs. native apps: Instagram and Facebook are injecting tracking scripts to their in-app browsers! It looks like they're doing this by using a webview, rather than the embedded Safari view, to show the web within the Instagram/Facebook app.

This is eminently not a problem if you're using Instagram or Facebook in the browser, rather than using the mobile app. Similarly, if you use the "Open in Browser" option for links in Instagram/Facebook, they won't be able to track you there, either. The tracking code is only embedded in webviews launched by the Instagram/Facebook app.

Obviously blame lies at least a little bit with Apple for making this sort of thing possible—which sort of works at cross-purposes to their argument that Safari is the only viably secure browser on iPhones.

(Interestingly, this tracking behaviour isn't found on the in-app browser on WhatsApp—another Meta property.)

Web Security Apple Apps
Tuesday, 9 Aug 2022 10:49 pm | Stream
Play.gl

PWAs are great! They allow applications to be deployed across a whole range of devices with extremely little overhead. But it feels like most mobile web-based applications—like Notion, for example—eventually go the way of native mobile applications—like Notion, for example.

Every now and again, though, an application really gets the web experience right: proper support for touch events, smooth animations, no tap-vs-click jank.

Play.gl is one of those apps. Okay, it's not particularly sophisticated: it's an app where you jump from pillar to pillar based on how long you hold down your finger. But it feels good; it feels immediate in the way that native apps feel more immediate. When you're done, it presents you with a carousel of benefits of Galeries Lafayette's Go for Good initiative, and the carousel feels native. It feels exactly the way that it would in a native app.

Talking about how things "feel" probably isn't helpful, but the difference between PWAs and native apps is hard to quantify. But you know it when you feel it.

Play.gl, Galeries Lafayette

Web Design Apps

Meta's in-app browser tracking

Play.gl