The Future of Google Progressive Web Apps

“Your website isn’t the center of your universe. Your Facebook page isn’t the center of your universe. Your mobile app isn’t the center of your universe. The customer is the center of you universe.”???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????~Bruce Ernst

And the center of your universe now engages with their smartphones more than ever before. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged most of the businesses despite the size of the business to strive harder on their digital presence. The shift from brick-and-mortar to the digital arena for most companies was an overnight thing. Yet most of the businesses successfully built an identity thanks to web design and development companies that showed exponential growth during the time.?

Not just this, remote work stimulated the need for web security and “interactive features” in web development.?

Looking at the numbers, the worldwide internet users are expected to grow from 3.4 billion people in 2017? to more than 4 billion people by 2022.?

With so many people over the internet, smartphone interactions are too on a rise. As mobile search is taking the driver’s seat, the need for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and PWA (Progressive Web Applications) has seen a great demand.??

Most businesses choose to invest in PWA as it is a more budget-friendly alternative to developing a mobile application.?

If considering the words of Alex Russel on PWA, the developer at Google clearly focuses on the nine attributes of a website that would reflect well and fall under the category of PWA.?

1. Responsive: The website built should be compatible with any device be it a desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.

2. Connectivity Independent: Solutions are expected to be progressively enhanced to be available offline for the users for better interaction.?

3. App-like-Interactions: The websites must not seem bulky and offer app-like navigation facilities that would make things easier.?

4. Fresh: No one likes to see things outdated. It is essential that businesses run websites that are transparently up-to-date.?

5. Safe: Going online is always a risk. Your website needs to be updated and risk-free for the users to interact with it.?

6. Discoverable: A super cool website that is easily discoverable thanks to the design and the digital equities in place sells several folds more than an ordinarily developed website.?

7. Re-engageable: Let your website engage your customers exactly as your mobile application does. Small notifications now and then won’t do any harm (limit the notification to not make it look pushy).

8. Installable: It must be accessible by the basic browser and let the user save the home page as it is.?

9. Linkable: Decent URLs that reflect the idea of the website would always be appreciated.?

Responsive, connectivity independent, app-like, fresh, safe, discoverable, re-engageable, installable, linkable web experiences.?

Exactly what progressive web apps are supposed to be!

Progressive Web Apps are the future of mobile search and the way the world’s strongest search engine supports it, it is evident that PWA is here to stay. Developed with the mobile experience in mind, Chrome now supports the use of PWAs independent of the operating system.?

With so much going in the industry, it is evident that soon PWA would be your business identity and the mobile applications would take a back seat.?