Re: [manifest] About Installations: API vs Signals — ¿case for Desktop-only API? (#359)

> I think the "Standalone" experience is essential if we want to offer a complete "app experience" from The Web against native and closed-platform apps, and these heuristics are setting a high barrier on entry for devs who want to offer them.

That's by design. Consider the same high barrier to create an iOS app or an Android app. There should be an expectation that web apps also be of high quality. 

> Maybe I'm "splitting hairs" here, but what about more screen real estate? I feel one of the reasons "install me!" banners are definitely a bad idea on mobile, is because of the bad UX based on the space they'd take if an API is abused. That is not necessarily an issue on desktop, or at least not at the same level.

That's misunderstanding the problem a bit. The banner problem is that, apart from screen real estate, you need to create a unique browser banner per browser (and even sometimes browser version, as happened with changes to iOS's UI). Yes, the install API would get rid of that problem, but would still bring a bunch of "install me" buttons everywhere.

We are wanting to experiment with the installability signals first (say, over the next year), and see if it works out ok. If it all fails spectacularly, we will of course introduce an install API.  


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