this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Arguably, if it was normal to sideload apps it wouldn't be as much of a barrier to users, but they've been conditionned to think they need an app and the only place you can ever get them is the store.
It's a technical hurdle only because Apple decided they want to control everything, and same on Android because of Google's ever increasing war on sideloading. You used to download an APK from the browser and it would go like "This is an app! Install?", but now you have to go enable third party installation and all that, and now the whole Play Protect forcing developer validation coming up.
You are overestimating how technical most folks are. I know kids and older adults, on either side of my age, that have no concept of a filesystem, a URL, an APK to download, things like that, because they've never needed any of that.
Attention is finite.
Hence, web app's aren't really blocked by iOS/Android, but that's still a basically insurmountable hurdle simply because it's not the usual procedure for operating a phone. Defaults and accessibility are king (and Apple/Google know it).