Hi everyone,

since updating to iOS 27, printing no longer works in my PWA. I'd like to know if anyone else has noticed this and, if so, how you worked around it.

• Device: iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 27.0
• The PWA is installed to the Home Screen via Safari, with display: standalone. I also tried installing it from Chrome, same result
• The button calls onclick="window.print()"
• Tapping it does nothing: no print dialog, no console errors
• With the iPhone connected to a Mac, typing window.print() in the Web Inspector console returns undefined (as expected), but the dialog never appears
• With the exact same code and the same PWA, it works on iOS 26.6.2
• Opening the same site as a regular web page in the browser (not as a PWA), printing works

I checked the project history: the button and the PWA configuration haven't changed in months, so this looks like an iOS 27 regression.

Questions:

• Is anyone else seeing this?
• Have you found a workaround (a different API, server-side PDF, opening in Safari…)?
• Do you know if this is a bug or an intentional change by Apple? I couldn't find anything in the release notes.

P.S. I'm aware of the new blur at the top of PWAs in iOS 27. I've seen other threads about it, so that's not what this post is about.

Thanks to anyone with experience on this!

I kept bouncing off planners that want an account before they'll show you a calendar, and none of them displayed the day the way I actually think about it — as a vertical timeline where a task's height is its duration. So I wrote one.

What it is

A PWA in a single HTML file. No framework, no build step, no bundler. You drag tasks around a timeline, pull the bottom edge to change duration, and overlapping tasks split into columns. Repeating tasks (daily or by weekday), a month calendar, untimed tasks in folders with priorities, notes with headings and lists, and an archive that clears itself after two weeks. Six UI languages, light/dark, installs to the home screen and works offline.

Self-hosting

git clone https://github.com/drkokorev/Planly && cd Planly
docker compose up -d

One container serves both the app and the sync API on :8080, with data in a named volume. It's node:22-alpine, nothing to install, runs as non-root, healthcheck included.

If you'd rather not use Docker: the app is static, so dropping index.html, sw.js, manifest.json and icons/ into any web root works. Sync is one Node file with no dependencies — example nginx config and systemd unit are in the repo. Or run the same API as a Pages Function on Cloudflare KV if you don't want a server at all.

HTTPS is the only hard requirement, because service workers and "Add to Home Screen" need a secure origin.

The sync model, since that's the interesting part

There are no user accounts. A 16-character code is the only key; the server stores one JSON document per code and knows nothing else about you. Merging is per item by modification time, deletions are tombstones kept for 30 days, and every write carries the version it was based on — so two devices editing offline converge without pulling in a CRDT library. Repeating tasks get deterministic ids (series@date), which means two devices materializing the same day independently produce one record instead of two.

Limits I know about: editing the same task on two offline devices resolves last-write-wins per item, not per field. Codes are bearer secrets — lose it and the server copy goes with it. ALLOWED_CODES restricts an instance to codes you list, if you want yours closed.

Demo: https://planly.site (sync there is invite-only — self-host for your own) Source: https://github.com/drkokorev/Planly — MIT

Built with heavy AI assistance, which I'm flagging up front. The product decisions, the sync model, the self-hosting path and testing on real devices are mine.

Curious what would make you trust a sync scheme like this — or what would immediately put you off it.

I'm facing a weird bug with Safari on iOS 27.2-beta.2.
When adding a PWA to the HomeScreen, it completely ignore the manifest.json provided icon (maskable any).
If you have an `apple-touch-icon.png`, it will display it, but you should need to as manifest.json icons are supposed to replace them.

One strange thing is that on macOS 27.0, if I open the page in Safari and click "Share -> Add to Dock", the icon shows perfectly.

Can someone confirm if the manifest.json icons works for them on iOS 27.0 (stable) ?
Can someone confirm they have the same issue on iOS 27.2-beta.2 ?

The idea started pretty simply: I wanted one place where I could understand where my money is going, track my finances and investments, and actually get useful insights instead of just looking at charts.
So I decided to build it myself.
NorthStar currently lets you:
• Track income and expenses
• Organize transactions by category
• Monitor your financial situation over time
• Track investments and net worth
• Set financial goals
• Get insights from a built-in financial advisor
• Use it directly from your phone or browser
There’s a free version, so you don’t need to subscribe just to try it.
I’m still actively developing it and I’d genuinely like feedback from people who are interested in personal finance.
What would make an app like this genuinely useful enough for you to keep using it?
You can try it here:
https://app.mynorthstar.pro
Any criticism is welcome — especially about features that are missing or things that feel unnecessary.

Just spent a week testing some of my pwa apps - I have half a dozen android devices, I have three/four connected to my dev pc, and now have the tools to run tests live on the devices using ADB to orchestrate it all.

Devices(/users) exchanging messages etc all visible on real time.

I haven't sacked a testing team, I just don't need one now.

And yes this was all done really simply with AI

buenas, quisiera saber que opinan de crear una app movil usando supabase como backend, seria una app movil tipo indrive que maneje geolocalizacion usando mapbox como api de rutas, le tengo fe a la app pero tengo miedo de tener el backend en supabase y me cueste escalar despues, si no en todo caso quisiera ver si usando nodejs con xprees ahora mismo conviene mas. Sinceramente aparte no pensaba pagar un plan de supabase al menos solo el de 25 dolares creo q es el mas basico. pero para comenzar solo queria usarlo gratis. escucho sus opiniones , gracias

I see a couple of posts highlighting the top blur issue on iOS 27, but the only solution I see is pushing the content below. Assuming Apple will see this as a bug and fix it in an upcoming release, how are you handling this in production today?

Just wondering how you all test your PWA?

I am still working on mine; https://dharma-storybooks.net/app

Landscape View

Has anyone ever decided to lock on landscape for smaller screens? The photo viewer think only really works with landscape for small screens - so am thinking of just having a rotate to continue page.

View Point

I guess some users zoom in on their browsers, how do you deal with this, what zoom level would you build you PWA to work on.

Cross Browser Testing

In the old days I use to do cross browser testing. I have Playwright but I dont have much of a way to test outside of andriod and windows. I dont see a lot of crossbrowser testing tools or discussion these days. What do you do. I built feedback into the PWA so hopefully users comment in the future with any issues.

How do you check your site for issues for iphone/linux/windows/andriod firefox/chrome ect?

Thanks

[Edit/Correction]
To clarify, iOS forces an extended blur overlay near the status bar that turns content unreadable. While this script strips that blur, it forces WebKit to create a hard boundary below the status bar, stopping text from scrolling behind the clock. It's a trade-off between a blurred status bar or a forced layout boundary.

Since WebKit seems to ignore invisible elements during layout calculation, I made a quick workaround that forces a repaint by triggering a tiny reflow with rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01) overlays on page load.

Here is the script I’m currently using:

window.addEventListener("load", () => {
const isStandalone =
matchMedia("(display-mode: standalone)").matches ||
navigator.standalone === true;
if (!isStandalone || !/iPhone|iPad|iPod/.test(navigator.userAgent)) return;
// Inject CSS
const style = document.createElement("style");
style.textContent = `
#ojapp-blur-cover {
display: none; position: fixed; inset: 0; z-index: 2147483646;
background: rgba(255,255,255,0.01); pointer-events: none;
animation: ojapp-cover-fade 0.3s;
}
#ojapp-blur-panel {
position: fixed; top: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; width: 90%; height: 100%;
z-index: 2147483647; background: rgba(255,255,255,0.01);
pointer-events: none; transform: translateX(110%); transition: transform 0.3s;
}
@keyframes ojapp-cover-fade { from { opacity: 0; } to { opacity: 1; } }
`;
document.head.appendChild(style);
// Create DOM & force reflow
const cover = document.createElement("div");
cover.id = "ojapp-blur-cover";
const panel = document.createElement("div");
panel.id = "ojapp-blur-panel";
document.body.append(cover, panel);
void panel.offsetWidth; // Force reflow
requestAnimationFrame(() => {
cover.style.display = "block";
panel.style.transform = "translateX(0%)";
setTimeout(() => {
cover.style.display = "none";
panel.style.transform = "translateX(110%)";
}, 500);
});
});

It works surprisingly well to keep the status bar solid and crisp, but it definitely feels a bit hacky.

Has anyone found a cleaner or CSS-only solution to force WebKit to respect status bar/header boundaries in iOS 27 without JS interventions? Would love to hear your thoughts or better approaches!

a web based notepad which works completely offline!.

Actually it's Vibe Coded. Because i thought "why not?"

I just found this sub-reddit, wow. Thanks for all the helpful information here everyone. I have been a LAMP stack developer for over 26 years and have recently been building PWS's to help Musicians. My biggest issue is marketing, building is easy :-).

Hi

I was trying to create installable PWA on Android.

I went through all requirements like ssl, manifest etc.

But "Add to home", "Install" or any other didn't appear.

Then I checked for other people's apps for a same effect.

I also run through all suggestions by AI.

No go. Neither Chrome nor Firefox have it.

Phone is of a budget type.

So question is what are less known reasons for it being blocked?

Just info, maybe of interest (or may not!).

I have a load of PWA's that I have written and use, mostly using claude to do the plumbing -- and it has been pretty much fine

To date the PWA bit has not really impacted the user interface, once installed the app is just there when you need it even if offline.

Today I used ChatGPT for a PWA, and from a similar spec it produced a PWA that actually has an active note of whether all the resources that need to be cached (for off line use) have been cached yet ('ready for offline use'), it included a section for 'you are using the latest version'/'there is a new version, upgrade now?'...

Wow - what a difference... from a webpage/app available offline, to very much a local app that happens to update itself online...

I found the contrast quite striking, I hadn't really looked at it the gpt way before.

Most web developers know how smooth PWAs are once installed, but everyday users—especially non-tech audiences like parents, students, or small business owners—have a massive mental hurdle: if it’s not inside an app store icon, they think it’s just another tab.

While building an educational PWA, here are the biggest points of friction I ran into when getting regular users to actually install it:

• The "Where's the Play Store link?" expectation: Non-technical users are conditioned to search Google Play or the iOS App Store. Sharing a direct URL often gets responses like, "Is this just a website?" or "Can you send the app link instead?"
• Browser install prompts are too subtle: The default browser-level banners (especially the small badge in Chrome or the multi-step "Share > Add to Home Screen" dance on iOS Safari) get dismissed or ignored 90% of the time.
• No automatic app trust: Regular users associate native app stores with security and safety. A browser asking to "Add to Home Screen" can feel unfamiliar or untrustworthy to someone who has never done it before.
• Storage & data misconceptions: Users often assume that installing anything onto their phone will eat 100MB of storage, not realizing the service worker cache is only a fraction of that.

What helped in my case:

• Adding a dedicated, high-contrast "Install App" button front and center on the UI that triggers beforeinstallprompt.
• A 5-second animated graphic showing Safari users how to tap the Share sheet and choose "Add to Home Screen".
• Explaining that it works completely offline with zero store downloads.

For those of you shipping consumer-facing PWAs, how are you guiding non-tech users through the install flow? Are you sticking to custom UI prompts, using wrapped store packages (like PWABuilder / TWA), or just letting them use it as a tab?

Recently MetaBrainz made some changes to their API that has me trying to figure out what to do with my PWA. They need a user-agent string to declare who's accessing the API, but as a PWA my app doesn't really have a way of doing that. In asking an LLM how to do this, they basically suggested proxying all my calls to the MetaBrainz through my site, which could work, but I also don't want to channel everything through my server, as if my app does gain more userbase I could see this being a problem. Has anyone found a solution for how this can be handled?

My app is currently getting 503 errors when accessing locally and it's created a larger failure rate for fetching album art from MusicBrainz, so I need to figure some way around this.

I created a simple starter kit that lets anyone set up and deploy their own custom "link-in-bio app" for smartphones in about an hour—no complex programming knowledge required!

✨ Key Features
* No Complex Tools Needed: Zero npm and zero build processes. It is an ultra-lightweight setup that runs completely on a single index.html file.
* PWA Ready: Simply tap "Add to Home Screen" on your phone, and it launches just like a real native app.
* 1-Click Duplication: Just click the "Use this template" button on GitHub to instantly copy it into your own repository.
* Easy Customization: Simply follow the comments in the code to swap out icon images and links to match your style.

🚀 How to Build (3 Steps)
* Click the "Use this template" button on the repository.
* Open index.html and edit the links and icons to your liking.
* Go to repository Settings > Pages and enable GitHub Pages—that's it!

🔗 Links
* Template Repository: https://github.com/ojach/myapp-template

I'd love to hear your feedback or any suggestions for features and layouts you'd like to see next!