Google Wave, the search giant’s latest experiment in post-email communications, is hardly out the gate, with some of the first 100,000 private beta testers still waiting for their invites. (I just finally got mine today, two weeks after launch). But Google Wave already has a few secrets. The one that surprised me is that even though not that many people can use it yet, Google Wave already works on the iPhone.
There are two ways to get Google Wave to work on your iPhone. The first way is to simply go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone. It warns you that you are not using a browser supported during the preview, but if you click through, it works pretty well. The site has obviously been optimized for Webkit-based browsers like the one on the iPhone and Google’s own Android phones (I tried it on Android, and it works there as well). You can select different conversation “waves” (or threads) and contacts, or dive into a specific wave.
But here is where it gets interesting. In addition to the Web app via the mobile Safari browser, you can get rid of the Safari wrapper altogether. Just like with any Web page on the iPhone, you can save a bookmark on your Home screen, and it creates a little icon which launches mobile Safari to that page. When you save the Wave bookmark to your Home screen, however, something different happens. You go to Wave, but without the Safari wrapper which allows you to navigate to another page or search the Web. Instead, it looks more like a regular app and there is no way to navigate away from it. Everything else works the same as in the mobile browser version.
At least that is what it does for me and one of our readers, Rafael Vargas, who brought it to my attention. For others, like TechCrunch writer MG Siegler, the icon does in fact launch the Safari version. So this might be a bug, or maybe MG is just blessed. Either way, the Google Wave team is obviously putting effort into making Wave work in mobile browsers.
And if what I’m seeing is not a bug, it suggests a different approach to making mobile apps on the iPhone. They become customized versions of the mobile Website which don’t have to go through Apple’s tortuous app approval process. Given the tensions between the two companies following the rejection of some Google apps for the iPhone (Voice and Latitude), doing an end run around the App Store might not be a bad idea.
The screenshot above shows what Google Wave looks like when launched from the icon on the Home screen. Below is what it looks like from within Safari. See the gray bar at the top and bottom with navigation options? Update: Perhaps Google is using this feature for creating full-screen Web apps. Update 2: Google confirms that is indeed the case. When you bookmark Wave it launches in “app mode,” which is an existing option for developers on the iPhone.
Oh wow. A web app.
Awesome.
Could you guys get any more desperate?
It’s what we do. You’re welcome.
One day, you’ll have to write a book about how these stories go from idea to publish. That’s probably more interesting than the story itself.
*You’re* meant to be a writer
Undocumented ?
http://www.devw...ence/index.html
Great comment. If you had read the article you would have seen that what’s notable is the fact that Wave isn’t acting like other webapps once you make an iPhone bookmarklet of it.
This is behaviour known for a long, long time. At least a year: http://daringfi...iphone-web-apps
Good point, to be honest I hadn’t heard about it before this article.
Yah. Been using it on many web apps.
Apple Documentation:
http://develope...plications.html
So why aren’t they adding this meta tag to Google Reader. Would be a much better WebApp without the running Safari!
yes, except it doesn’t work the same for everyone. So not sure if it’s that or a bug, I have a question into Google about it. I updated the post.
You updated the post. Hmm, sounds like Google Wave.
I like Erick’s updates.. Remember many of them
Wow, shoney, every article you write should start with a disclaimer stating that you don’t know shit about technology.
Yea, I dunno why this is news.
Google Talk does the same thing when saved on to the home screen.
I don’t even see much of a point to make an iPhone app anymore when Safari does so much already.
There’s offline storage, HTML5 audio and video, CSS 3D and 2D transforms, CSS transitions, CSS animation, surprisingly speedy javascript (for a handheld device), Canvas Tag support, SVG, etc…
The only reasons I could come up with for making a native app is for better 3D graphics, accelerometer support, more storage space, camera access, microphone access, ad-hoc wireless and push notifications, and a lot of iPhone apps don’t even use these features.
Stop ridiculing him guys..Probably you could do that if it were to be published on MobileCrunch…TechCrunch guys can’t be as iPhone savvy as some of you guys who are into it 24X7..
Yeah. It’s still a web app.
Next.
Whereas this actually is awesome:
http://www.yout...h?v=Rqd2WCFc6mg
Yeah, the iPhone version of Google Wave has been live since last April or so. Been using it for a while on my phone
I’ve been playing with using wave on the iPhone a bit and it is a pretty nice start…. although I must say if you stay on the wave website it uses up your battery faster than anything else I’ve used on the phone.
if you haven’t used all of your invites i would love to try wave out!
paulvinuelas@gmail.com
Thanks
You posted your plainly-formatted email address on one of the biggest blogs on the Internet. Your inbox is about to become a spam hotel.
Even if you do get a Wave invite, was it worth it?
he has a gmail address, best anti-spam on the planet
You should keep a log of the amount of spam activity you have and write a blog post about it. If you do, I (or some other person pretending to be me) will add you.
I still have seven more invitations but I do not want to trick you into doing what I want you to do. Please keep in mind that even after I nominate you, the process is not exactly real-time.
Here’s the exact text:
“Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.
Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.
Happy waving!”
Hahah Hell yeah Erick, I just got my invite today too.. I was sleeping and I just checked my iphone and immediately jumped outta bed
Any extras?
Let’s all bow at the alter that is Google as they hug Apple and the iPhone and leave Steve Jobs wondering where they stuck the knife.
yeah – that’s how the “add to homescreen” button works… chromeless web apps…
not for all websites
For websites that support it, you just insert a line of code into the site.
i am, in fact, blessed.
Amen to that.
Sweet, can a brother get a invite?
No, but you have a Big Brother, now.
Google Wave wants to tie everything together. This is how they are trying to actually BE the Internet, as in “replace the Internet”.
Guess who will know everything about everybody, in the not-too-distant future…
THe Internets are made up by a series of wAves!!!
(yes, the tubes have been replaced)
Wave is decentralized, as in no one company runs the service (like e-mail).
If you want, you can get a server and build your own Wave and it’ll still talk to Googles service.
So it’s not really big brother.
(and how could Google replace the internet? They’ve contributed so much to it, that wouldn’t make any sense)
BECAUSE BLACK HELICOPTERS!
The “safari-less” possibility for web apps is bigger than Wave on iPhone. Even if Wave goes nowhere, this could be a lasting legacy… until Apple kills it.
Anyone want to figure out the js for this?
Here’s the official documentation for it:
http://develope...s/MetaTags.html
Uh, it’s an Apple-provided option, via a meta tag. http://daringfi...iphone-web-apps
Ahhh… so this isn’t a story at all
I’m not a hater but I must admit I like cheering whenever something threatens Apple’s walled garden mentality. Oh well… WITN?
The bigger point here is that the Google Wave team is already spending time making an iPhone Web app, even at this early stage. It shows that they realize they need to get this onto the iPhone, Android, and other mobile phones quickly. It also works on the Palm Pre.
AFAIK, it does not work on the Pre. Where have you seen confirmation of this working on the Pre?
I just loaded it on the pre, I just get the normal (full) site, not a small screen optimized version. Although it does still load… Not to be a jerk, and I love TC, but check some things before you post. It’s getting noticeable.
I’m surprised that you got it to load. All I get is the crash dialog
Google displayed Wave on the iPhone and Android at the I/O conference.
Where have you been? (You’re supposed to be my news)
That’s what I’ve been wondering too…
interesting- yup the bookmarklet works as described for me- I’d like to see more of these.
I have been trying this out and infact this is the case. It is almost like the Fluid App for the iphone… very interesting although you cannot really type or interact very well. So far it is sluggish at best but hey its a start and interesting non the less.
i’m dying for an invite to google wave. i’m looking for a press invite to try it out too. no love from google on this i guess. if anyone can hook me up, it’d be greatly appreciated. damodt@octechnophile.com on the invite please.
wave is just a renamed chatroom. NOTHING is new. “zomg its like teh insant message and teh wiki and teh wikipedia and teh googlez all in one!” no its not, its more like a shitty chat client attempting to be the new email but miserably fialing
failing, oh and no i dont care if i can edit what other people say. pointless
haha it’s already miserably failed?
Yes, lets just completely disregard the opensource aspect and the fact that it is built with html 5, which means it isn’t compatible with Internet explorer yet, unless you use chrome frame.
lol, they actually did that on purpose.
Wave could’ve been made for Internet Explorer, but where’s the fun in that, it’d just slow down HTML5 adoption.
So instead they pushed a plugin for IE that would increase HTML5 adoption without the user even noticing, ala Chrome Frame.
Plus it’s also a contingency plan for the new technologies Google has in the works like O3D and Native Client, pushing them more to being standardized on the web.
The lack of IE support isn’t really a problem here, Google doesn’t want IE to have market share if Microsoft won’t play along so instead Google will force their hand.
Agree.
Q: If Wave is only relevant to TechCrunch readers, can it fulfill its prophesied destiny? Answer: No.
lol, how is Wave failing when it just started (it’s been in open alpha for only two weeks)?
And how is nothing new?
I’ve never used a chat room that had an extension platform, that was both passive and aggressive messaging, that was embeddable within other web pages, that was decentralized, entirely real time, and was developed with a web browser in mind.
Full screen web apps without safari chrome has been a feature in the iPhone for a while. And it only requires one meta tag:
http://bradkell...iphone-web-app/
It’s great to see that Google is doing this, but it’s not really new. Lots of websites support this mode for building iPhone ‘apps’ — it was actually Apple’s approved mode for doing it before the SDK was available. You can do it with any website by adding a special meta tag:
You’d get a chromeless Safari if you added that to the TC site and then made a bookmark on your iPhone. It’s also worth noting that I believe they run outside of the Safari app on your phone, so you’re actually creating a Site Specific Browser.
There are a few other meta tags also supported:
http://develope...s/MetaTags.html
Looks like your comment parser ate the meta tag
(without the spaces after the )
Hmmm. Filtering out all of the angle brackets. Maybe:
<meta name=”apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=”yes”>
or maybe just without the angle brackets and you can put them on yourself?
meta name=”apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=”yes”
You just reminded me, Apple was supposed to add this feature to Safari 4 for Mac OS X.
Yep it works great for me! Thanks for the tip. However, it seems REALLY slow on 3G compared to a lot of other sits. I guess that’s to be expected.
this is the next orkut right here.
ouch
So, are you going no longer happy with MediaTemple hosting ?
I regularly get database connection errors from Techcrunch.
they did the same thing with the google talk home icon
This is actually a standard function that apple’s been talking about since at least one of the version 2s. I think it’s specified via a meta tag or similar on the page. Other developers use it as well. If engaged, once it’s saved as a bookmark, the browser toolbars are hidden when launched from the home screen.
This is an amazing article. I just love my iphone, and learning new things that I can do with it!
That’s really a great thing! Let’s see what else it can does!
Hey Apple (as if they’re listening to me) — How about damn file upload in mobile Safari?
Yes PLEASE. No idea why this isn’t already available.
working for me as “it’s own app”, without launching safari. pretty cool.
Grrr, where is my wave invite!
Drives me nuts, as a web developer, that the external links open in Safari. Which means I would have to recode my webapps so that they only make AJAX calls, since any link is recognized as an external link.
A much better option for Mobile Safari would have been to define an external link as anything with a different domain name.
too much, too busy, to use effectively
Would some one send an invitation to me? Thanks in advance.
looks like google wave is a huge project with not enough current niche’s to answer it’s true potential as of now. granted its still in beta for a while. invite, invite, invite, where’s my invite?
Yay! Its a good news for me… I’m getting addicted to wave and now on iPhone
.. Though a dedicated application for iPhone will be great.
Figure out how to set the subject line in your Waves n00b.
Yep. It works the same for me as it did for Schonfeld and Vargas.
Not a bug, works for me.
The interface needs a little bit of work. It is very difficult to hit the downward arrow on the right side of a blip to be able to reply or edit a part of a wave.
Also, they need to let you know when the wave is in sync, so you don’t leave safari before the wave has had a chance to update
It’s worth noting that they’ve had the iPhone UI since I/O, and that’s awesome, but it’s really, really, really slow.
I just loaded up the wave.google.com version of the iPhone UI, and it took 58 seconds for anything to show up in the UI at all and a total of 2 minutes 7 seconds from start to completely loaded. Clicking a wave from the inbox took 25 seconds to load.
And I was on wifi. Presumably it would be worse on 3G.
If this is how it’s going to work, the Wavers really should put out a native app; it wouldn’t have to download the massive amounts of JS into their web UI, and C code runs about 80x faster than JS on the iPhone. I’m afraid they won’t go native, however, as Google’s mantra is that everything can and should be done in HTML5.
They need to go native, at least for Android. There’s really no way for a web app to notify users of new waves/updates. Android has a great notifications system. It just doesn’t make sense for them to ignore that.
Google is bringing Web Notifications to Gears, so you’ll probably see that in the web app regardless.
(and regarding speed, the V8 engine from Chrome is coming to Android also)
I discovered this a while ago
http://www.macs...om-your-iphone/
That’s why I like AppIt (http://appit.us/). Save it to your home screen, and it puts all of Google’s most popular apps (gmail, reader, etc) in that wrapper. Wave isn’t in there yet, though.
As others have said, Google should be adding that code themselves. Until then, this is a decent solution.
nope, it doesnt work, gives an error page saying “browser not supported by google wave”
meh
click on “continue at your own peril”
… I guess I should expect this kind of unawareness from TechCrunch, but I’m obliged to say that the ability to remove wrappers, etc. has been around for webapps for quite some time.
#FAIL
Sweet! only its too bad I’m still on my trusty dependable 1G iPhone so it crawls on the web browser.
Fever (feedafever.com) works the same way, save it as a bookmark on the home screen, and it launches without the safari wrapper. It’s really slick, been using it for several months and I prefer using it on the iPod.
If someone hasn’t used up all their invites I’d like to try it out too… The Real Doahh at gmail dot you know. Thanks just remove the spaces and use common sense on the rest of it.
> They become customized versions of the
> mobile Website which don’t have to go
> through Apple’s tortuous app approval
> process.
The iPhone has always had 2 app platforms: Web/HTML5 and App Store/Cocoa Touch. They are yin and yang. The whole idea is if one doesn’t work for you, the other will. People who complain about both should develop for Windows Mobile, which has neither a functioning native platform or a functioning Web platform.
I can prove it also works on Android
http://i37.tiny...com/2eqdtmv.jpg
wow…..
MG, Mike & crew didn’t send you an invite when they got theirs??
can some one spare a Google wave invite…
“And if what I’m seeing is not a bug, it suggests a different approach to making mobile apps on the iPhone.”
Erik, this is not a bug and it’s not magic. It is actually already possible for a long time on the iPhone.
Just add:
Which is documented here: http://develope.../TP40002051-CH3
I tried it on iPod Touch a while back.. I took it for granted that it’ll work, what’s the big mystery here? I mean seriously!
^ what’s the mystery here? really no mystery, just the fact that making a bookmark on your device when activated makes the bookmark act as an application rather than a simple bookmark in Safari. Did you read the article or just skim through it knowing that it worked on your iTouch without comprehending what the author was trying to say?
No I did read the whole thing, I’m just questioning the ‘peg of the story’. What you pointed out, the fact that it creates a short cut, the bypassing of Apple’s app policy, should have been the story. It shouldn’t have started off with the fact that it actually works. I forgot to mention this point as I was commenting in a hurry =)
Thank you for introducing Google wave to us, looks very interesting!
I am looking for an invite.