Technology enables websites to offer app-like experiences on Apple’s mobile operating system. This involves employing specific web development techniques and standards to provide enhanced functionality, such as offline access, push notifications, and home screen installation, directly from a browser. A typical example would be a news website that can be installed to the home screen and accessed even without an internet connection, displaying previously cached articles.
This approach offers several advantages, including reduced development costs compared to native application creation, broader accessibility as it leverages the ubiquity of the web, and simplified deployment and maintenance. Historically, achieving such robust web functionality on iOS presented challenges, but evolving web standards and browser capabilities have made it increasingly viable, offering an alternative to solely relying on the App Store for distribution.