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Answer

Can a website know if a user uninstalled its PWA?

Short answer

There is no standard browser event that fires when a user uninstalls a PWA, so a site cannot reliably detect uninstalls directly. In practice, teams infer it indirectly — for example, a push notification send failing with an "unsubscribed" or "gone" error from the push service, or a previously frequent user simply stopping all visits, are the closest available signals.

By InstantPWA engineering·Reviewed July 25, 2026

What is not possible

There is no JavaScript event equivalent to a native app’s uninstall callback; the page has no way to run code after the icon is removed.

Indirect signals

A push subscription becoming invalid (the push service returns a 404/410 on send) is one practical, if imperfect, signal that the PWA — and its subscription — may have been removed.

Related event that does exist

The appinstalled event does fire when a user installs the PWA, giving reliable install analytics even though the reverse uninstall event does not exist.

Sources

Related
How do you uninstall a PWA?
On iPhone and Android, uninstall a PWA by long-pressing its home-screen icon and choosing "Delete" or "Uninstall". On Windows and macOS, open the installed PWA, click the three-dot menu in the title bar and choose "Uninstall". The site itself is not affected — only the installed shortcut and its service worker cache.
Can a PWA send push notifications on iOS?
Yes. Since iOS 16.4 (March 2023), a PWA can send Web Push notifications on iPhone and iPad — but only after the user installs it to the home screen. Push in a regular Safari tab is not supported, and the user must explicitly grant notification permission from inside the installed PWA.
Do PWAs need App Store approval?
No. A PWA installs directly from the browser, so it never passes through Apple App Review or Google Play review. You publish changes by deploying your website, and users get them on the next launch. Review only applies if you deliberately package the PWA into a store listing.
What is a PWA?
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a regular website that meets three technical criteria — HTTPS, a Web App Manifest and a service worker — so browsers let visitors install it on their home screen. Once installed, it launches like a native app, works offline and can send push notifications.
Do PWAs work offline?
PWAs can work offline, but only for content their service worker has explicitly cached. Registering a service worker does not automatically make a site offline-capable — you decide what to cache (app shell, API responses, images) and what strategy to use (cache-first, network-first, stale-while-revalidate).