Apple released the first beta version of iOS 15.4 to developers and volunteer beta testers last week. The update, which includes numerous new features, hints at some welcome changes in Safari. More specifically, Apple is finally working on enabling push notifications for web apps on iOS and supporting the WebXR API for AR/VR headsets.
As developer Maximiliano Firtman reported, the iOS 15.4 beta introduces new features that can be used by websites and web apps. One of them is support for universal custom icons, so the developer no longer needs to add special code to provide a web app icon for iOS devices.
For four years, Safari on iOS has supported the Web App Manifest (as of 11.3-March 2018) but the icon declaration was always ignored (a lack of support that was never documented by Apple or WebKit, by the way). This resulted in many Progressive Web App installations on iOS being without a proper icon, since you can also with rel=apple-touch-icon in your HTML, and not every PWA developer has done that.
Apple is working on push notifications for websites and web apps on iOS
The most notable change is yet to come, however - and that is push notifications for web apps. While Safari on macOS provides notifications to websites when the website is running in the background (or in some cases even when the app is closed), Apple never integrated this feature on iOS. But that now seems to be changing. As Firtman reports, the iOS 15.4 beta adds the new "Built-in Web Notifications" and "Push API" options to the WebKit Experimental Features in Safari's settings. Neither option works in Beta 1, but this is a clear indication that Apple will finally enable push notifications for websites and web apps on iOS.
iOS 15.4 includes new API for AR/VR headsets
Since some developers have been forced to publish their apps as web apps on iOS due to App Store policies (e.g. the xCloud app), these improvements will certainly make the experience of using web apps on iPhone and iPad a little better. Interestingly, the iOS 15.4 beta includes the WebXR API, which provides support for augmented and virtual reality headsets on websites. The API is disabled by default. However, even if it is enabled, there are currently no AR/VR headsets that work with iOS. Since rumors say that Apple will unveil its first mixed reality headset later this year, the new API could be related to Apple's new device. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
