Re: [w3c/manifest] New Boolean members to control interaction with related applications (#658)

@kenchris :

> We could also make the precedence depend on the value of https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/#prefer_related_applications-member

This would only apply to the notifications case. (prefer_related_applications already hints that the web app install prompt not be shown, so there would be no change there.) I agree, this could be a useful signal; if prefer_related_applications is false, you continue to get notifications because the developer has instructed us not to prioritize the native app over the web app. If it is true, we turn off web applications if the native app is installed, because the developer has asked to prioritize.

My concern with this is that it could incentivize the use of prefer_related_applications (to deduplicate notifications), which in turn results in fewer web app installs. Which is why we proposed it as a separate Boolean, so the developer can ask for notifications to be de-duplicated *if* the native app is installed, while still promoting the web app over the native app if neither is installed.

@mounirlamouri :

> In general, I'm worried about the Web Platform putting other platforms first but it may also be a very surprising behaviour for a user.

I'm worried about this too, but if we want to de-duplicate notifications, then this is the only direction we can do it. If the user doesn't have a native app installed, nothing will be different. If they do have the native app installed, then subsequently installing the web app will create a terrible notifications experience, so this approach allows installation of the web app without creating a broken experience.

> Trying a web application (if they can install it) will sound completely broken because they already had the native application installed and might not realise it.

"Completely broken" is an overstatement. This proposal will stop just one thing from working, notifications (which you will already be getting to your native app). The other thing we would disable is the install prompt, which doesn't affect the installed-app experience.

> There are also various privacy issues as these behaviour changes could be detected by the website and they would be able to more easily track users and know more about them.

I think this is minor. Firstly, the site will not easily be able to detect these changes, as there could be other reasons why notification permission is blocked, or install event is not firing. Secondly, if they do, they will only be able to detect that their own app is installed. They already have the knowledge that the user uses their native app.

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