Android does allow sideloading APKs and installing third-party app stores (ex: https://f-droid.org/), though iOS does not. An unvetted mobile app is less risky than an unvetted traditional program (with full user-level access), but still more risky than a web app.
If Android and iOS (and Windows, Linux, macOS...) put in the effort to where loading a program was a safe as visiting a webpage, that would essentially be fine. I would prefer a world in which you could write for a single platform and then run on any device with a browser, but it’s the gatekeeping I’m most concerned about.
On the other hand, I can’t see iOS doing this when they don’t even allow custom browsers.
Android does allow sideloading APKs and installing third-party app stores (ex: https://f-droid.org/), though iOS does not. An unvetted mobile app is less risky than an unvetted traditional program (with full user-level access), but still more risky than a web app.
If Android and iOS (and Windows, Linux, macOS...) put in the effort to where loading a program was a safe as visiting a webpage, that would essentially be fine. I would prefer a world in which you could write for a single platform and then run on any device with a browser, but it’s the gatekeeping I’m most concerned about.
On the other hand, I can’t see iOS doing this when they don’t even allow custom browsers.