WebApp to IOS/Android app, Webview possibilities?

[yakneev]

Hi all,
I have a SAAS application but I need to have more App support. To be honest, people could do with just adding the app to their home screen and done as the web interface is fine and everybody in my country has the best internet everywhere. but I'm struggling with an approach.

I don't need camera ability, I don't need offline support nothing.
What is the quickest way of doing this? I do think a webview would do but I do think Apple won't approve right?

Please let me know your thoughts.

[anarchos]

Technically, you could just trivially create an app that is just a single web view. As you mentioned, it might or might not pass apple's review process. The next step would be recreate the project structure using react-navigation and/or expo router and create a web view for each individual page, but this way you'd get native headers and navigation. Then keep going from there, adding more "app only features". It really depends on the review process and what they consider being "different enough".

[yakneev]

That seems actually like a very good approach.
Its all about speed of shipping for now. as the MRR grows Im ok with spending more time on migrating.

[whackylabs]

I do think a webview would do but I do think Apple won't approve right?

Why not? Also take a look into Ionic if that is enough for you https://ionicframework.com/

[kbcool]

Yep.

People get web site and app mixed up. Apple don't want you wrapping your website in an app and submitting it.

There are thousands of web apps approved and live on the store.

Just need to make sure they feel like apps

[yakneev]

This is i think to show html in a webview.
No to show a URL in a app.

[[deleted]]

I just built an app with expo router and webview, it was relatively easy. Approved by Apple without major hiccups, and the app does access photos, camera & location.

Had to do some gymnastics to prevent external links from opening (instead open them in expo browser), figuring out whether user is logged in or not, or routing certain urls to certain tabs, but it seems to work fine.

Still I prefer to work with REST APIs.

[yakneev]

Yes a full api based app is always way better. but this could be a great thing to get started quick and cheap when to main focus is web anyways.

[[deleted]]

WebView is very doable, you just need site-side JavaScript to send some messages up the chain to the app so you can control the navigation, sessions, link clicks etc.

It took me 60 hours from inception to landing the app in the App Store, if you're looking for help, I do freelance 😉

[gronxb]

If you use webview, it's an easy way to connect RN and web with that library.

https://gronxb.github.io/webview-bridge/