Epic: Better iPad Support

[svenefftinge]

We see many iPad users working with Gitpod. Once the migration to VS Code is done, we need make sure that the iPad experience is excellent as well. Most importantly removing any hard showstoppers and painful edges.

[huw]

Big iPad user here—my gitpod-io/roadmap#1 friction point is around the ‘app’-ness of the product. Using it in Safari directly sucks, but it’s not immediately clear that I need to add it to my home screen as a web shortcut to access all of my keyboard shortcuts. But even then, it’s not a great platform citizen—long start times, lack of direct OS integration, etc.

An easy solution would be to wrap the web app in a native app that provides good OS integration (multi-window, keyboard shortcuts, push notifications, maybe even Siri Shortcuts?). Cheap to do and you wouldn’t even have to hire an iOS developer IMO.

[ghuntley]

👋 I've just put in an expense claim for an iPad Pro and will be dogfooding Gitpod over the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Happy to pair with any engineer and/or with product to share insights.

[akaFTS]

As an iPad user, it seems to me that the only way to provide a decent experience is with a proper app, mixing some native views (e.g. the dashboard) and a webapp for the editor itself. Mobile Safari support for PWAs is horrible as of now and we'll probably see zero advancements at least until iPadOS 16 comes out in June next year, so relying on it will remain cumbersome for quite some time.

I'd be happy to also dogfood it and share insights when the time comes.

[jwpjrdev]

+1… a native app would be really nice

[Foxhoundn]

Was this just moved because of my 4 added emoji reactions? @svenefftinge :D

I am currently migrating everything I can to gitpod, mainly because of owning an iPad, and so far it's great. Native app would be fantastic indeed (at least some native wrapper for webview because the "Add to home screen" PWA isn't all that great).

[dannluciano]

Maybe this will help: https://blog.pwabuilder.com/posts/publish-your-pwa-to-the-ios-app-store/ https://blog.pwabuilder.com/docs/ios-faq

[ghuntley]

Hey folks, Geoff here from Gitpod, and I’m full-time building Gitpod with Gitpod on an iPad. Two weeks back I dumped my brains over at https://ghuntley.com/anywhere on the topic.

Since then have opened up https://github.com/gitpod-io/gitpod/issues/6447 to start planning and discussions about what a better experience for iPad users would be. Our application to join the Apple developer network has been approved and infrastructure is coming into place to enable releases.

If you are interested in Gitpod w/iPads (or Tablets) please come hang out at https://www.gitpod.io/chat/ in the #mobile-and-tablets room.

[ghuntley]

Safari extension is coming. In the iPadOS and iOS ecosystem browser extensions are distributed as applications and that paves the way to future expansion.

https://twitter.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1463492555878719502

[alefragnani]

The main reason I look to Codespaces and Gitpod is the possibility to use my iPad for development. Specially my own VS Code extensions.

I finally started using Gitpod, at first focusing on validate the compatibility of my extensions, and I would like to congratulate you for enabling something that Codespaces coudn’t deliver yet:

I’m able to debug my VS Code extensions on my iPad!

I’m not sure what you did but, it just works. So please, don’t touch that 😆

Thank you

[jennraeross]

I really appreciate the work you all have put into this, In most regards, it seems to be the best option for developing on my tablet. There is one minor rough edge that I thought I'd bring to your attention that specifically relates to using it on the ipad.

While it can be installed as a pwa, it retains the bar on the top of the screen (Which for whatever reason, apple insists on making more obtrusive than the default safari bar) which typically appears when a pwa accesses a page outside of the scope in its manifest. Conversely, if one were to open up a project in vscode.dev, it fills the whole screen, saving the limited real estate and blending in more seemlessly.

Example

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[jwpjrdev]

Can't resize windows in browser VS Code on iPad. Seems to be a VS Code issue because it also is a problem in Codespaces.

[Siddhant-K-code]

While adding support for PWA, we should also remember that we should also modify the mainfest.json. Currently, we are shipping default file that we get with the VS Code Browser & it should also be updated.

Our mainfest.json should look like following (as our dashboard):

https://github.com/gitpod-io/gitpod/commits/HEAD/components/dashboard/public/manifest.json

Currently, Gitpod VS Code Browser mainfest.json looks like following:

where, All icons are defaults (& not Gitpod's), also names & descriptions.