In macOS Sonoma you can create Web Apps where you can view your favorite or most used sites in their own app instead of a full browser. This not only makes going to these sites more convenient and app-like, but also enhances privacy.
Greg: If a site automatically logs you out in Safari, then it will automatically log you out in a web app. It isn't defeating anything, it is just how the site works.
lauren
7 months ago
thanks so much for this gary. I had been employing this option since you talked about it in one of your recent posts but I didn't like the default google logo and wanted to change it and I didn't know I could.
Greg Turnbull
7 months ago
OK, I get it. Poor choice of words by me.
It “defeats” one of the purposes/advantages of using web apps, that is cookie maingenance.
In the meantime I’m testing whether and when it makes a difference if you “quit” the web app vs merely closing it.
Greg: So the way cookies on websites work is that they have an expiration time. A social media or shopping site may set that at 2 weeks or more. Some at a year. Sites where security is a first priority, like bank sites, usually set them very low, like 20 minutes or even 5 minutes. Doesn't matter if you close the site (or quit the web app) the cookie expiration is the same. This doesn't change with Web Apps (I imagine if it did there would be a worldwide security freak-out about it).
Bill Braun
7 months ago
Gary,
What about sites that require 2-factor security? The first time I log in, I get the code in messages and then create a web app. Will I be able to get back in the next day using that web app? Does it again ask for that 2nd authentication, or does it remember and use the one I did the first time I logged in?
Bill: Two-factor works the same. Logging into websites works the same. If the site is one that logs you out after a time, it will log you out after the same amount of time in a Web App as it does in a regular browser. That doesn't change. Of course it can't "remember' the two-factor code and use it again, because the whole point of two-factor codes is they change. So you need the updated code the next time, just like in a regular browser. If you have your two-factor code generated through an SMS message, then you'll do the same the next time. I don't know how long you are logged in for with that site. Could be weeks or months (social media, shopping), could be minutes (banks, financial). But it is the same for a Web App as in a regular browser.
Ian Waddington
7 months ago
It seems that Safari extensions are not support in Web Apps therefore 1Password does not work the same as it would in Safari resulting in the need to cut and paste, ID, Password and MFA from 1Password. This seems enough to make Web Apps less usable just now, certainly for web pages that require a login.
Ian: So use the built-in password manager for those. I use both 1Password and the built-in password manager. If you have, say, 200 passwords stored, you wouldn't even need to have those all in the system password manager, just the one you need for that one site that is part of that Web App. If you have 3 Web Apps, it would just be 3 passwords.
hult
7 months ago
Not sure why complicated questions about this simple thing. To me, it's just an iconification of the plain old bookmark. Plus, separate history maintenance to that specific bookmarked site. That's it! Hard for me to see much of value of this feature, as one can always go to a bookmark in private/normal (user's choice). Sites will work as usual depending on site's feature, nothing to do with this app. In fact, I don't feel like calling it app at all :)
Also, already in iOS since long time. Thank
hult: Also, separate website data. That's the main part. So you can have two web apps for a social media site, each logged into a different account.
hult
7 months ago
yeah, thanks Gary!
Wallace Aiken
7 months ago
Hi Gary,
For some reason I couldn't make the "auto login" feature work with this. I tried 4 different websites. I logged in and then saved the app just as you show. Every time I ran the app from the dock, the site would want me to log in again. No big deal, I still like and can use the "using Safari without using Safari" concept. Thanks!
Wallace: There is no "auto login." It works the same as in Safari. For instance, if the site logs you out automatically after 20 minutes, it will do that in Safari or a Web App. The Web App doesn't override that.
Elizabeth Allgood
7 months ago
Gary - in relation to Wallace's comment above, at approximately the 6 minute mark you say "when you Quit the WebApp and then launch it again it remembers all of the website data. So you'll still be logged in."
This appears to be false. If you click "quit" on the app it logs you out in my testing.
Elizabeth: Right, it remembers all of the website data. But it is the same website data as in a browser. If the website data expires, then you need to log in again. If the website data doesn't expire then you may still be logged in. Exactly the same if you were doing it in a browser and you quit the browser and the next time you launched the browser the website data has expired.
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Thanks bunches
It appears that sites that automatically log you out defeat the cookie feature (e.g., Banks, insurors, medical portals. Or am I missing something?
Greg: If a site automatically logs you out in Safari, then it will automatically log you out in a web app. It isn't defeating anything, it is just how the site works.
thanks so much for this gary. I had been employing this option since you talked about it in one of your recent posts but I didn't like the default google logo and wanted to change it and I didn't know I could.
OK, I get it. Poor choice of words by me.
It “defeats” one of the purposes/advantages of using web apps, that is cookie maingenance.
In the meantime I’m testing whether and when it makes a difference if you “quit” the web app vs merely closing it.
Greg: So the way cookies on websites work is that they have an expiration time. A social media or shopping site may set that at 2 weeks or more. Some at a year. Sites where security is a first priority, like bank sites, usually set them very low, like 20 minutes or even 5 minutes. Doesn't matter if you close the site (or quit the web app) the cookie expiration is the same. This doesn't change with Web Apps (I imagine if it did there would be a worldwide security freak-out about it).
Gary,
What about sites that require 2-factor security? The first time I log in, I get the code in messages and then create a web app. Will I be able to get back in the next day using that web app? Does it again ask for that 2nd authentication, or does it remember and use the one I did the first time I logged in?
Bill: Two-factor works the same. Logging into websites works the same. If the site is one that logs you out after a time, it will log you out after the same amount of time in a Web App as it does in a regular browser. That doesn't change. Of course it can't "remember' the two-factor code and use it again, because the whole point of two-factor codes is they change. So you need the updated code the next time, just like in a regular browser. If you have your two-factor code generated through an SMS message, then you'll do the same the next time. I don't know how long you are logged in for with that site. Could be weeks or months (social media, shopping), could be minutes (banks, financial). But it is the same for a Web App as in a regular browser.
It seems that Safari extensions are not support in Web Apps therefore 1Password does not work the same as it would in Safari resulting in the need to cut and paste, ID, Password and MFA from 1Password. This seems enough to make Web Apps less usable just now, certainly for web pages that require a login.
Ian: So use the built-in password manager for those. I use both 1Password and the built-in password manager. If you have, say, 200 passwords stored, you wouldn't even need to have those all in the system password manager, just the one you need for that one site that is part of that Web App. If you have 3 Web Apps, it would just be 3 passwords.
Not sure why complicated questions about this simple thing. To me, it's just an iconification of the plain old bookmark. Plus, separate history maintenance to that specific bookmarked site. That's it! Hard for me to see much of value of this feature, as one can always go to a bookmark in private/normal (user's choice). Sites will work as usual depending on site's feature, nothing to do with this app. In fact, I don't feel like calling it app at all :)
Also, already in iOS since long time. Thank
hult: Also, separate website data. That's the main part. So you can have two web apps for a social media site, each logged into a different account.
yeah, thanks Gary!
Hi Gary,
For some reason I couldn't make the "auto login" feature work with this. I tried 4 different websites. I logged in and then saved the app just as you show. Every time I ran the app from the dock, the site would want me to log in again. No big deal, I still like and can use the "using Safari without using Safari" concept. Thanks!
Wallace: There is no "auto login." It works the same as in Safari. For instance, if the site logs you out automatically after 20 minutes, it will do that in Safari or a Web App. The Web App doesn't override that.
Gary - in relation to Wallace's comment above, at approximately the 6 minute mark you say "when you Quit the WebApp and then launch it again it remembers all of the website data. So you'll still be logged in."
This appears to be false. If you click "quit" on the app it logs you out in my testing.
Elizabeth: Right, it remembers all of the website data. But it is the same website data as in a browser. If the website data expires, then you need to log in again. If the website data doesn't expire then you may still be logged in. Exactly the same if you were doing it in a browser and you quit the browser and the next time you launched the browser the website data has expired.