Did anyone try “Chrome custom tabs” yet? Hopefully they’ll get some more attention with the introduction of Android 6.0 “Marshmallow” (they are backwards compatible with 4.x and up though).
https://github.com/GoogleChrome/custom-tabs-client
This could be a very appealing workaround to Discourse’s “JavaScript on Android” performance woes. No, it doesn’t attack the heart of the matter, but it could do wonders for that 90% of your browsing time spent consuming your five favorite sites that you can actually be bothered to install a dedicated app for.
Combined with ServiceWorkers, the distinction between a custom chrome tab app and a native app would be fadingly slim.