Chrome’s latest update allows PWAs to be installable on Desktop and Future of Desktop Apps!
“Support for Progressive Web Apps arrives for on Mac, bringing support for PWAs to all desktop and mobile platforms, making it easy to create installable apps, delivered through the web” Source
Using Chrome latest update, users can now get installable apps for PWAs on Chrome Desktop. I decided to try it out and write down my experience.
Desktop PWA in Action
I did try installing PWA apps on Chrome Desktop( Note: This works only if you are using latest chrome. chrome://settings/help to check)
Afterward, when you are visiting the PWA website(ex- https://airhorner.com/)
I do like the button mentioning install app in Airhorner.com. You can also add in prompt( details and how to implement: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/app-install-banners/ )
The Desktop app generated felt native and greater experience without the address bar. Having some web apps as Desktop apps make total sense, since navigating among multiple chrome tabs are time draining. Now having it on App launcher, allows it to be just a click away from launching the app. Plus alt-tab (command-tab in Mac) allows to interchange among apps easily.
What's the Future?
The Desktop PWAs are really good and serve a far better experience than normal Desktop apps of web apps.
BONUS:
One can convert any website(not just PWA) to Desktop apps using
Setting-> More Tools-> Create Shortcut (Not distributable)
Or Use open source tools like Nativefier to create electron wrapper.
Or one-click solutions like Web2Desk (Distributable)
And in perspective of PWA, in the past few weeks/months we have seen chrome updates aligned for progressive web apps. The update allowed Full-screen PWA app experience( Thanks to TWA) and uploading on Google play, thus arrived tools like PWA2APK.
Desktop PWA is a once step forward to a larger mission, which is “closing the capability gap between the web and native and make it easy for developers to build great experiences on the open web.”
