Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are a progression to web apps and native apps. So you get the experience of a native app from a mobile’s browser. They take up less storage space (the pitfall of native apps) and reduce loading time (the main reason why people leave a website).
In the past few years, PWA has taken everything that is great about a native app – the functionality, touch gestures, user experience, push notifications – and transferred it into a web browser. Antonio Cucciniello’s article on ‘What is PWA?’ highlights some of their characteristics with details on how they affect you as a developer.
Many companies have already started with their PWAs and are reaping benefits of this reliable, fast, and engaging approach. Twitter, for instance, introduced Twitter Lite and achieved 65% increase in pages per session, 75% increase in Tweets sent and 20% decrease in bounce rate. Lancôme has rebuilt their mobile website as PWA and increased conversions by 17%. Most recently, George.com, a leading UK clothing brand, after upgrading their site to a Progressive Web App, saw a 31% increase in mobile conversion.
Still not convinced? Here are 5 reasons why your next app should be a Progressive Web App.
What this means is that PWAs can work with various systems without requiring any special adaptations. As PWAs are hosted online, they are hyper-connected and work across all devices. Developers will no longer need to develop multiple apps across multiple mobile platforms meaning huge savings in app development time and effort.
The user experience provided by a PWA across different devices is the same. You could use a PWA on your phone, switch to a tablet and notice no difference. They offer a complete full-screen experience with help from a web app manifest file. Smooth animations, scrolling, and navigation keep the user experience smooth.Additionally, Web push notifications show relevant and timely notifications even when the browser is closed, making it easy to re-engage with users.
Native apps take a lot of time to download. With a PWA, users won’t have to wait to install and download the app. PWAs use Service Workers and Javascript separately from the main thread to allow apps to load near instantly and reliably no matter the kind of network connection. Moreover, PWAs have improved app cross-functionality. So switching between apps, and sharing information between them becomes less intrusive. The user experience is faster and more intuitive.
PWAs are secured using HTTPS. HTTPS secures the connection between a PWA and the user-base by preventing intruders from actively tampering with the communications between your PWA and your users’ browsers. It also prevents intruders from being able to passively listen to communications between your PWA and your users.
According to a report, over 60 percent of searches now occur on mobile devices. This makes PWA very powerful from an SEO perspective as a simple google search might pull up your website and then launch the visitor into your PWA. PWAs can be indexed easily by search engines, making them more likely to appear in search results.
The PWA fever is on and as long as PWAs increase app functionality and offer more offline capabilities, the list of reasons to consider them will only grow. Perhaps even more than a native app.
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