What is a progressive web app (PWA)? In order to answer that question, we must first consider the state of app development in the meantime. An app is a versatile tool these days, as it can do almost everything. Now, every business has its own app, even our governments are starting to offer services through mobile apps. The existence of PWAs boost this process.
Making and keeping an app up to date can be hard, and it can be expensive for small businesses. How do they make ends meet? By relying on new changes in technology, particularly the progressive web apps. PWAs are a way to make business services that are both useful and affordable. They do this by combining the features of mobile apps with the standard web development technology.
In the first section, let’s delve further into the definition of a progressive web app.
What Is A Progressive Web App?
Progressive Online Applications, or PWAs, are a type of web application that can work as both a mobile app and a web page on any device. It’s a great fix for both the bad mobile experience and the low conversion rates of your online store. The Progressive Web App (PWA) project uses standard technologies to give users an experience as close to that of a native app as possible, even when their Internet connection is spotty.
PWAs are written in three languages: JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. They look the same and work the same as regular web pages (which means they are searchable in Internet browsers). But they also do things that mobile apps do, like being quick, working offline, sending push notifications, and using the device’s features. Also, PWAs can be sent to big app stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Recommended reading: Why Google advocates Progressive Web Apps
The Origin Of Progressive Web Apps
Google was the first company to use PWA, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given how popular the company is. Alex Russell, who worked for Google in 2015, came up with the idea. PWAs are similar to web apps, but they have more features. PWA has the potential to break down the wall that Google and Apple have built around their data gardens by combining web- and mobile-like user experiences (UX). Apple isn’t in as good of a position here as Google, which can do it because it stores almost all of the data on the internet.
But more than a decade ago, Steve Jobs came up with the idea of making the mobile user experience the main focus of attention. A lot of people are now using this approach. During the launch of the iPhone in 2007, Apple’s CEO gave a presentation about the idea of third-party apps. At the time, the mobile revolution had just begun, and it seemed obvious that third-party apps would be a way to profit from the new Apple device’s growing popularity. Jobs hoped that by offering incentives, developers would make them.
5 Essential Characteristics A Progressive Web App Has
Progressive web apps can be thought of as mobile-optimized versions of regular web pages. They can be downloaded to a user’s mobile device through their web browser. They are like traditional programs, but users don’t have to download them from an app store. But enough with the broad definitions; let’s take a closer look at the most important parts of PWAs.
1. Responsiveness
As a developer, it’s your job to make sure that everyone who uses your product has a good time with it. The size of the screen on an electronic device depends on who made it. So, it’s a good idea to make sure your app can fit any size screen and that its content is viewable no matter how big the viewport is.
Progressive web apps aren’t the same as responsive applications, even though they can be responsive by nature. No matter what device you use, they will act the same way, and they will change to fit any screen size.
2. Engaging
With push notifications and other features, PWAs let users stay engaged with the app even when it’s closed. So, it is possible to organize information in a way that makes the app seem more valuable and adds touchpoints that users can use to customize their journey through the app.
Also, people who use mobile apps are more likely to use them again and again. Progressive web apps, which include features like push notifications, can also achieve the same goals.
3. Installable
Recent research shows that people are more likely to use the apps they have downloaded than to go to the official websites. When you use a PWA as your product, it looks, acts, and engages customers the same way a traditional app does.
Progressive web apps that have been installed work in a window that is separate from the browser, not in a tab. Depending on the situation, you can launch them from the user’s home screen, dock, taskbar, or shelf. You can look for them on a device and switch between them with the app switcher, which makes it seem like they are part of the device.
After you install a web app, you’ll be able to use more of its features. When you’re using a browser, you can use keyboard shortcuts that are normally not available. Progressive web apps can sign up to accept content from other apps or to be the default app for certain file types.
4. Connectivity
PWAs can use the hardware features of your device, like the camera, GPS, and file systems, to their fullest. You will also be able to make payments through your device’s built-in payment systems, like Apple Pay or Google Pay. Because progressive web apps use the same codebase as their web-based counterparts, they can get updates wirelessly and don’t need to be downloaded from the app store.
PWAs can work even when there is no internet connection or the connection isn’t very good. This is probably the most noticeable thing about these apps. When you turn on the web app, it will download a few parts that you need to be able to use whenever you want. PWAs are much more reliable and much faster because of this.
5. Discoverability
When you install a PWA, it will show up on your home screen, just like a native mobile app. You can think of it as a portable web page that you can look at with a single click (or tap). Also, as Google keeps pushing people to use progressive web apps, the value that these apps bring to search engine optimization (SEO) is growing a lot.
Since most PWAs are just converted web pages, it makes sense to make them searchable. This will help bring more people to your app. This gives it an advantage over native apps, which search engines like Google or Bing don’t show.
Recommended reading: Progressive Web App Tutorial for Beginners in 2023
Why You Should Use Progressive Web Apps Instead Of Native Apps
Progressive web apps (PWAs) look the same and have the same number of functions as traditional apps. However, they are much faster and easier to use. These progressive web apps can send push notifications and come with an icon that you can put on your desktop.
When combined with progressive enhancement, a progressive web app works in a way that is very similar to how a native app does, and it also has other benefits. The way a progressive web app works is just like how an HTML file with JavaScript frameworks works. Progressive web apps are a core at a lot of well-known companies and they’re worthy of it.
Below are some notable advantages of using progressive web apps.
7 Specific Advantages Of PWA:
1. Cost-Effective:
You will spend less money building and maintaining your app if it works on multiple platforms with just one codebase.
2. Easy To Set Up
You don’t have to go through the process of distributing the software through an app store to get it to users.
3. The UI & UX
Important parts of that make the excellent PWA “native look and feel” include, among other things, layouts that look good and are easy to use, bright animations, and smooth scrolling.
4. Faster Loading
Progressive web apps are more effective than regular web pages because they give the end user a better experience.
5. High Compatibility
Progressive web apps are compatible with all devices, platforms, and browsers when making websites. PWAs usually don’t weigh more than 1 megabyte, so users can get them in a fraction of the time it usually takes.
6. Higher Reach
Progressive web apps (PWAs) can reach more people than traditional native apps because they are easier to find and have a bigger impact on SEO. Because they are smaller, they are also easier to get to in places with slower network speeds and less people.
7. Offline Mode
Mobile apps can work even without connecting to the internet because they have their own local storage and can easily sync their data with the cloud. When an internet connection is available, these kinds of apps often store data locally.
Recommended reading: 6 Best Progressive Web Apps Examples (PWAs) over the Past Decade
5 Notable Examples Of Progressive Web Apps
Before deciding whether your next app should be a progressive web app, you should first find out about your users. This means discovering who your users are and what their most important behaviors are. This will help you decide the best thing to do. A progressive web app works in all browsers and gets better every time the user’s browser is updated. This is because the progressive web app itself is “progressive.”
If you want to decide if you should use PWAs on your website, it’s a good idea to look at some of the most successful PWAs that are already out there.
1. Facebook
The year 2021 was a turning point for technological progress. Facebook is now Meta, and they are still the most popular social media network. In 2018 they started trying out PWAs. At this early stage of PWA, Facebook were able to implement a version of their app that made the platform more accessible for millions of users around the world who had trouble with their internet connections. They achieved this with the help of push notifications in PWA.
Facebook has had a big impact on the PWA revolution in a big way. Millions of people around the world were able to use Facebook even though their internet connections were slower because of the progressive web app version. In 2021, a new version of the Facebook app was quietly released as a progressive web app (PWA). It looks like Meta, which is what Zuckerberg’s company is now called, will put more strategic focus on its PWA. TechCrunch says that the company wants to combine Oculus’s virtual reality (VR) devices with their two-dimensional progressive web app.
2. Tinder
Tinder is a popular and well-known online dating service among people in their 20s and 30s. This group of people has a strong preference for only using mobile devices. In fact, their main selling point is that you can swipe left or right on a possible match. More than 60 million people use it each month around the world, and it is another example of a successful PWA app.
Tinder Online was first released as a PWA app in 2017 with the goal of reaching a larger number of users. Since Tinder started using its progressive web app, it has done a lot of great things. Also, they wanted the set of features of the old native app to be exactly the same as those of the new one.
3. Starbucks
One of the most cutting-edge PWAs is at a well-known coffee brand that has locations all over the world. Starbucks has never made it easier for customers to place orders and pay for what they buy. If you like Starbucks, you may already know about this feature, even if you haven’t thought much about the technology behind it.
To be more specific, Starbucks’ PWA came out in 2017 with the goal of giving their customers a responsive experience. They came up with a solution in the form of an app that doesn’t rely too much on an internet connection, and has graphics and animations that move smoothly. Even if a customer doesn’t have the Internet, they can still look at the menu, see what’s in it and how healthy it is, and change their orders. Since the start, the number of people who use Starbucks every day has grown by two times.
One of the most impressive things about this progressive web app is that the app itself is 99.84 percent smaller (just 233 kilobytes) than the iOS version that is currently available. The software is easier for more people to use now that its size is smaller. Because of these changes, Starbucks was able to get more than twice as many online orders every day.
4. Twitter
Twitter is one of the most influential social media sites because hundreds of millions of people tweet every month. When it first came out, the social media giant was designed to be used on mobile phones. Even though Twitter was at the forefront of the mobile revolution, it has always had a strong presence in the native application space. But, just like other fads, they will lose their popularity and show their flaws in the end. Twitter had a harder time getting new users in emerging countries because people there often had less access to the internet and mobile devices.
With the help of progressive web applications, they were able to use websites more effectively. This gave them a new way to do so without giving up mobile features like push notifications. They wanted to get as close as possible to the functions of mobile apps that were already out there. Since the release of their PWA, Twitter has been constantly working to improve the user experience. Right now, the company is in the process of replacing its native apps with its PWA.
5. Flipboard
Flipboard is the most popular social magazine in the world. It gives its users a place where they can track all of the news, topics, and events. The website puts together news and stories from all over the world in the form of a magazine. The stories and news items are chosen based on what the user is interested in. Users of Flipboard can make their own Flipboard magazines and store articles, photos, and videos from their favorite sources in those magazines, where they can view them later or share them with other users.
Flipboard is one of the most famous examples of a PWA made for online news. The PWA cuts down on the amount of data that is used so that browsing is smooth, and quick, and has a beautiful user interface. Before the launch of their progressive web app (PWA), Flipboard was only available as a mobile app. Because of this, the Progressive Web App (PWA) now lets Flipboard offer a similar experience to their full-featured native app on the web, making it available to desktop users as well as mobile users.
Conclusion
Using the latest technology and the right tools to get started with PWAs can help you sell more of your product and make more money, whether you are an individual or a business. They run quickly, can work even when without the internet, and act just like regular native apps. This gives your users a great experience and makes sure they are completely happy.
As a final word, we hope that with this article from Designveloper, you’re able to more accurately answer the question, “What is a progressive web app?” Contact us if you wish to know more or want to work with us on a PWA!
