Progressive Web App: Here’s Everything You Need To Know About PWA
What is PWA?
Put it simply, Progressive Web Apps are web applications that load in a web browser just like web pages or websites. It gives you a rich mobile experience via native-like functionalities such as the ability to work offline, push notifications, and device hardware accessibility.
It feels like a native app and offers the same experience as a native one. There is no need to download it from an app store. It loads, runs, and functions in a web browser.
Progressive Web Apps Promote Mobile-First Approach
According to one Statista report,
The number of mobile phone users is forecasted to reach 4.68 billion by 2019.
Going further, in 2016, an estimated 62.9 percent of the population worldwide already owned a mobile phone. This will round up to 67 percent by 2019.
This represents a clear picture of the mobile-first approach everywhere. The rise of mobile apps also denotes the ‘app-for-everything’ era.
On the other hand, web app development is also evolved to a great extent. Right from static websites to dynamic to single-page web applications, many concepts and technologies have been introduced and used. Web developers are giving priority to responsive web design and exploring ideas like the progressive web app and cross-platform applications.
While there is an app for almost anything, users are finding it difficult to install, maintain, and use various apps on one device.
And here are few useful resources which I think you should look at too.
- Progressive Web App Training by Google.
- Understand the Service Worker & Cache Storage APIs. This will help you understand the code snippet on how offline first experience is done.
- Read about Web App Manifest.
- And also about Fetch API.
Sounds interesting? Here are some Advantages of Progressive Web Apps:
1. Offline usability
PWA offers you the exact same thing on the web. Currently, if you try to load a website without internet connectivity, you get a message saying you are offline. Progressive Web pages enable you to connect to the website, even when you are offline (provided the PWA was visited at least once before, in an online mode).
2. Page Loading Speed
As compared to normal websites, progressive web apps have an instant loading time. As it is based on the method of intelligent caching, the first load, as well as the subsequent loads, are faster. Due to this, the bounce rate for PWA is lower compared to mobile websites.
3. Platform independence
While native mobile apps are platform-specific, and can only be accessed from their respective OS like Android or iOS, PWA’s are not platform-dependent and can run on any OS since they are browser-based.
4. Background synchronization
While mobile applications frequently ask you to re-install or update the apps to integrate new or additional features in the app, the content is updated in the progressive web apps in the background, and new features/updates are automatically integrated within the website, with a simple page refresh.
5. Indexability for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO helps in garnering more visibility to any website that a search engine like Google can index. As PWA is technically a website, it is indexable and can reach a larger audience, by applying SEO techniques.
6.Push notifications that are pop-up boxes, encouraging user action on click for e.g: pop-up for subscribing to a particular feature, etc, is also a functionality a PWA offers (except iOS). You can add a PWA shortcut icon connecting to a website on your desktop home screen, using this feature.
7.Additionally, Progressive web apps are quicker to develop with a lesser developmental cost.
8.Also, you don’t require platform-specific native app development technical expertise, as they run on any OS.
Take a look at the quick comparison here:
PWAs vs Native Applications: What Do You Need To Know?
Responsive Web Design vs Progressive Web App: Clear The Confusion
It is clear that PWA has extra advantages over responsive web design, web app development, and native app development in terms of cots, user experience, time-to-market, and optimization of an app.
PWA And SEO: User-friendly and SEO-friendly For Strong Online Presence
Image: Pinterest PWA SEO Score via Pinterest_Engineering on Medium
“Top Progressive Web Apps Score 85% In SEO.”
Any app needs to have a deeper engagement model to create success stories. It is difficult to maintain the same level of engagement ratio once the app is downloaded.
PWA offers an apt solution to this:
Through push notification and add to the home screen, PWA wins the battle of user engagement. With the notably faster load time, offline running functionality, responsive design, secure structure, and lower data usage, it is very easy to optimize with the necessary keywords in order to reap the benefits of an online presence.
Conclusion
At present, modern technologies have taken web app development to the next level. PWA is a lot more than this. There are many things to consider before its adoption and to take a deep dive into benefits, drawbacks, needs, and results. We hope you enjoyed reading about PWA!
Stay connected for more such articles. We welcome your comments and suggestions!
PWA is gaining popularity don’t wait and miss the tide, but jump onto it with your surfboard ;-)
I hope this article is of good use to you🍻
Until my next article…..
Happy Learning!! 🖒
