What are Progressive Web Apps (PWA) and its Pros and Cons.

Even if you are not from the technology world, you would agree that number of people using smart phones for their daily activities is on the rise. A study recently suggested that there will be over 3.5 billion people using smart phones by next year. Isn’t it just staggering!

It is a bit overwhelming even for us in the Information Technology industry to fully comprehend the scale of mobile devices that are on the rise. Add to that there are over 2 million Applications available on App stores for users to download. But, not all apps are accessible, note that only 25% apps are used on a phone daily. There is a space in the market for apps that users can access without a hassle and rapidly.

This is where Progressive Web Apps or PWAs as they are known comes in the picture. Let’s take a look at what PWA is all about.

What is a Progressive Web App?

A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a cross between application and mobile website. It is a hybrid internet revolution that uses new web technologies to deliver application like experience to users.

Technically speaking, PWAs are your regular web pages but they appear like an application to its users. This innovative idea uses best of both worlds of native application development and hybrid app development language for web apps to create an interactively enhanced experience for users.

Why use Progressive Web App?

There are umpteen reasons for a business to develop a PWA but most significant ones are the killer user experience and costs. It is inherently cheaper to develop a PWA and it leverages best of app design tech to build great mobile applications for the users.

The other reasons are for its ability to push the mobile websites forward and bring a level between applications and mobile websites. Another reason is that it follows best practices for mobile app security, the reliability of app and faster loading of pages in PWA.

These are some of the reasons for using PWAs:

Fewer Installation Issues:

PWA circumvents the App Stores altogether allowing developers to show their creativity. Bypassing App store and Play Store publishing rules also allows a PWA to be far more SEO friendly with searchable features on all search engines.

Modern App Features and Performance:

A PWA has all the modern features that businesses want in their apps like:

Offline Usage
Access to Home Screens
Using Device APIs and hardware etc.

Using most modern technology and coding a PWA helps load your pages much faster making it more likely for users to interact and purchase from your PWA.

Structure of PWA

Progressive Web Application has a pre-defined structure shared between Application, Shell and Content as depicted in the image below.

When you should use Progressive Web App?

There are definitely advantages of mobile apps over responsive websites and sooner you build an app the better it will be for your business.

Native Apps can work offline, send push notifications, use native device features and do many other things you would want in your App. On the other hand, a Hybrid app can work on all devices regardless of their manufacturer or OS like iOS or Android. A business has to choose between developing an application between Native or Hybrid platforms and it is not an easy choice to make. A PWA frees a business from all these hassles as it gives a business best of both the app development platforms.

A PWA should be developed when you want your app to be accessible on a web browser typically giving you an advantage by integrating new features, run securely, faster and smoother to increase revenue and profits.

Which App is called PWA?

In a nutshell, Progressive Web Apps can be described as a collection of Native and Hybrid Web development and web design concepts that provide an app like experience on your mobile browser.

To be considered a PWA your app should have following elements.

Offline Support
Your App must be able to work offline, without the internet connection required at all times. It should display message of offline usage and cache app data for offline usage.
Web App Manifest
The name your App will display, splash screens and link to your index.html file with your manifest file that browsers can detect to load your resources detailed in a manifest file.
Service Worker
This is for offline support for the PWA. It provides a coding for the app to cache your app resources whether they are JavaScripts, JSON and data from http requests.

Pros and Cons of Progressive Web Apps:

Pros
No requirement of Installation
App Updates are not required.
Ability to use Offline.
Fresh Content Always Available.
Responsive and Secure Layout.
Reduced file sizes and reduced Storage.
Quick Load and Highly Linkable structure.
Sharable and Indexable file structure.

Cons
Browser Support is an issue.
All Native Functionality Support not available.
Some Native Hardware Functions not supported.
Cross-App Login not supported.
Central Download Store not available.
Less Resources for Coding and Implementation.
Quick Load and Highly Linkable structure.
Sharable and Indexable file structure.

PWA is the next big thing in building Mobile Applications

Improved Performance

Progressive Web Apps are faster, due to the way they underline the technology and serves text, style sheets and other content on the mobile website. Whenever, PWA is launched for the first time, by default the data is stored within the device to get it easily accessible to use the next time. This remarkable feature compliments the mobile-first approach. Which means the eCommerce store developed with PWA will function on mobile devices without any issues creating an effective mobility roadmap for enterprises.

Multi-platform

Unlike regular applications that are demanding technical capabilities of various devices, PWA works everywhere. A single app can satisfy the need of various consumers by providing a uniform user experience on different endpoints.

PWA enables cross-support to users that allows switching between devices by providing continuous experience. Here, the users can access the app using the same setting and data on another device. Along with that PWA can adapt to various screen sizes no matter what the app version is.

Hardware Specific

The next advantage of PWA is to implement push notifications on mobile devices. The developers have full access to control and enforce this feature with regards to advertising new content and promotions.

PWA will help in improving the conversions for new users as it’s a kind of reliable option where the technology allows users to send push notification even after the application has been closed. These apps will update itself every time when the users visit it, thus eliminating the need to download batch changes and installing it.

Enhanced Security

The PWA apps are stored via HTTPS so you needn’t worry about security. This protocol will allow to preclude content tampering and minimize the risk of security issues. As more website are programmed in HTTPS, it will help in easier launching a PWA in a secure environment. Due to this customer will feel safe to add personal information or credit card details.

These features have sparked a hot debate amongst mobile developers and testers about the best app development techniques of Native Apps Vs PWAs and comparisons are being made between the two.

Look at the success stories of PWA in the below picture, you’ll find many examples of companies who have reaped benefits from PWA development technique. Let’s take a look at few success stories of PWA in the below picture.

Conclusion:

As enterprises face challenges in implementing mobility strategies of their choice with either mobile applications or responsive websites, Progressive Web Apps will be an obvious choice for them. The future of the world is mobility and sooner or later every business will have to develop their own apps to sustain and grow, or they will perish like the ones that did with the arrival of websites.

PWA causes a huge increase in user sale conversion rates by adding faster loading time and lowering the server load time. By using this technology, now it’s possible for PWAs to do everything nearly as native apps can do. It’s said that mobility is the future of enterprises, vast choices should be made by either adding mobile applications or responsive websites to sustain growth.

Is your company ready to move one step ahead and jump on the Progressive Web App? If this sound similar, Connect with us.