Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps

The mobile app development and maintenance process is overwhelming, time-consuming, and expensive, especially for small businesses. But that’s all about to change, thanks to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). This new web app development standard helps to improve online business performance and profitability. But what exactly are Progressive Web Apps? Read on to learn more.

What Are Progressive Web Apps?

Progressive web applications leverage the power of web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to merge web and mobile apps. It’s an application that offers you the best of both worlds, meaning it works like a web application but acts and feels like a native app.

PWAs work on platforms that utilize standards-compliant browsers like your phone and desktop. Basically, it’s a web app with better capabilities, and it requires no distribution or separate bundling. In terms of web app maintenance, PWAs are way easy to maintain, unlike native apps, and deliver reliability and instability.

PWAs are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to the ease of development and great user experience. As a fact, big companies already use Progressive Web Apps, including Starbucks, BMW, Uber, Spotify, and Pinterest.

Progressive Web Apps Are the Future

There are several reasons PWAs are here to stay. They include:

Enhanced Capabilities

Web technologies like WebAssembly, modern APIs and upcoming APIs are making web apps applications more capable than ever before. For instance, today, developers can easily build a simple video chat app using push notifications, WebRTC, and geolocation. Over time, the capabilities of web apps and PWAs will grow significantly and top those of platform-specific apps.

Easy Installation and Discoverability

You can discover Progressive Web Applications via regular search engines, including Bing and Google. You don’t have to go through an endless list of applications in app stores to locate the app. Also, the installation of a PWA is a breeze; it can get installed in the background as you work on other things.

More Security

PWAs take advantage of the latest web technologies, like HTTPS, meaning they’re more secure. The user’s credit cards details, social security numbers, and contacts will remain encrypted on a PWA app. So, users can have the peace of mind they desire.

App-Like Look and Feeling

PWAs combine the capabilities of native or platform-based apps with the reach and open nature of web apps. Like native apps, PWAs can have start menus, get pinned to the taskbar, run user sign-ins and handle files. PWAs behave just like a native app. The differences only come in during launching, updating, and maybe sharing.

Final Thoughts

As we said earlier, PWAs give you the best of web and native applications. Compared to native and web apps, PWAs are more capable, reliable, and installable. Plus, they’re easier and less expensive to develop. Many big companies like Twitter have seen increased results after launching Progressive Web Apps. PWAs provide developers the chance to deliver an exceptional user experience. They also bring enhanced capabilities to the table. Rest assured, PWAs are here to stay.

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/progressive-web-apps-chromium/

https://web.dev/what-are-pwas/

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/08/a-beginners-guide-to-progressive-web-apps/

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-are-progressive-web-apps/