Is the Browser Ready for its Close-Up?
Betteridge’s Law aside, it’s time to ask the question again…
A provocative post today by Figma CEO Dylan Field, throwing down a gaunlet that development of popular apps and services, such as Figma, on the web is not only ready for prime time, it’s the way of the future:¹
Zooming out, the browser isn’t just about better workflows or improved collaboration. Working in the browser is part of a multi-decade global shift from physical spaces to digital spaces, massively accelerated by COVID-19. Like physical spaces, digital spaces help us connect to one another. Unlike physical spaces, digital spaces have no walls: by default they are non-hierarchical. Everyone is invited to brainstorm, build, and play together.
There has long been this simmering tension, especially in the Apple community: is it “native” or is it “web”… Meaning, of course, is the software built using native code to run on macOS, or is it built using web code to run in a browser (and perhaps wrapped in a shell to run as a Mac app)? The two camps largely seem to hate one another; it’s almost religious.
A big part of the tension is performance. Native code people would say that web code can’t run as well, and they’re not wrong. But with machines now as fast as they are — Apple’s new M1 chip being the latest pinnacle of this — this distinction continues to fade. I believe native code people may always see it, but the masses won’t. They simply won’t care.
Others would say that web code apps aren’t designed as well. This is more subjective, of course. But in my experience, they’re also not wrong. An app built for macOS from the ground up is likely to be better designed for that system than, say, one built to be cross-platform on the web. But that distinction is also fading with time, in large part because Apple now has an operating system that is far larger than macOS: iOS.² And while the lines between the two of those are slowly blurring, they still obviously have very unique design and usability traits.
This debate is also likely to get even more heated soon with Microsoft needing to bring their Xbox subscription gaming service to Apple devices through the browser this Spring (because Apple won’t allow them to ship a “native” version for dubious reasons at best).³ Gaming is going to be a real test for the browser-based world view because it’s so performance-driven. We’ve been hearing for years that the browsers were ready, but it hasn’t played out that way, to date. But perhaps it was simply because they weren’t being tested enough by large enough developers. Microsoft certainly qualifies.
As does Figma. As someone with an Apple bent myself, I’m sort of conflicted by the stance — I think a fully native Figma app could be brilliant (the current app is Electron) — but I appreciate the rationale and the thoughtfulness behind the stance. And I do think it will be the right one for the long term, eventually.
Aside: whomever wrote this post a decade ago was prescient 😉:
¹ Yes, I think I’m destined to keep coming back to this turn-of-phrase.
² And this is a far more complicated debate when it comes to iOS mainly because of screen size, real estate, and touch. It’s why a company in the GV portfolio, Universe, came into existence: it had been basically impossible to do web development on a mobile device even a decade after the launch of the iPhone, so they had to create a new interaction paradigm (a grid) to make it work.
³ One could see a world in which this is a self-own by Apple, in the long run.
