Progressive Web Apps - Here is Why a Business Needs Them

Google had proposed "Progressive Web Apps" in 2015. Google's new technology initially attracted a lot of attention because of the native ease of development and almost instant wins for the applications' user experience. The technology is coming up more and more to the fore these days, with Progressive Web Apps being termed as the future of high-quality web-based apps that could take over the native apps in a not-so-distant-future.

What are Progressive Web Apps? What makes a web-app Progressive? When web apps and mobile apps are significantly helping businesses to achieve online goals?

Progressive Web App (PWA) is a concept of creating a website in a manner that it provides an app-like experience delivered through the browser. The modern standardized web APIs such as Service Workers, Web Manifest and Web Push are used to develop PWA. Progressive Web Apps are used to bridge the gap between mobile applications and the website. An interesting thing is Progressive Web Apps offer user engagement and connectivity even on the lowest speed of the internet.

According to Fundamentals at Google, a Progressive Web App is:

• Progressive - Works for every user, regardless of browser choice
• Responsive - Fits any form factor: desktop, mobile, tablet, or whatever is next.
• Connectivity independent - Enhanced to work offline or on low-quality networks.
• App-like - Feels like an app with the use of App Shell model
• Fresh - Always up-to-date thanks to the Service Worker update process
• Safe - Served via https
• Discoverable - Identifiable as an "application" allowing search engines to find it
• Re-engageable – Allows features like push notifications
• Installable - Allows users to add apps without the hassle of an app store
• Linkable - Easily share the application via URL, no complex installation

Let's find how businesses can benefit by creating Progressive Web Apps.

1. No App Store Submission Requirements

Progressive Web Apps directly install to user's device on the home screen without taking user to an app store. Moreover, these apps don’t require any approval like native or hybrid apps. Additionally, the new update will automatically be downloaded when a user opens the PWA. App developers save much of time that is usually wasted on publishing an app on all app stores like Google Play, Windows Phone and Apple Store.

2. App-like feel

Progressive Web Apps are developed on the app shell model, hence offering the feel of mobile app along with app-style interactions. PWAs enjoy responsive design, thus this also inherits all the benefits of a website. In addition to this, these apps are using URL, so they are indexable and accessible by search engines. This way, PWAs also appear on the first page of Google. This is what all the developers and businesses wished for.

3. Offline

Websites have huge dependency on the internet connections. Internet restricts user interactions within the website in case of non-availability. PWAs are developed to function even in an offline mode via Service Workers. Service Workers are an incredibly powerful technology behind a Progressive Web App which powers offline functionality, push notifications, background content updating, content caching, and a whole lot more. At a high level, a Service Worker is a worker script that works behind the scenes, independent of your app, and runs in response to events like network requests, push notifications, connectivity changes, and more. These are just JavaScript files that give a great control over how to handle these events.

4. Performance

Service Workers maintain cache storage effortlessly that Progressive Web Apps use to serve the data. Developer can manage files within Service Worker to be cached. When a page loads, the data is directly served from the Service Worker. Service Worker conducts its job in the background and does not disturb the app performance.

A building block for PWAs is App Shell which is a simple design concept that provides a basic shell for the UI on the initial load and the actual content loads thereafter. It is more of a design approach rather than a framework or a specific technology. An app shell is cached using Service Workers so that it loads quickly & renders the common components of the web app immediately resulting in significant performance gains and enhanced user experience.

5. Security

It is (https) over which Progressive Web Apps are served. Hence, in terms of snooping and content tempering, these apps are secure. This security concept is enforced by Service Workers which work only on secure websites.

6. Technology Landscape

Angular 2 and React.js are the two most popular frameworks for developing a Progressive Web App. Both technologies are equally powerful. The choice, as always, depends on a lot of factors.

Final Thoughts

Progressive Web Apps bring features we expect from native apps to the mobile browser experience in a way that uses standards-based technologies and run in a secure container accessible to anyone on the web giving immediate access to the billions of mobile web and Google search users.

Many businesses are reaping the benefits from PWAs in the form of increase in user engagement, lower data consumption and better conversion rates leading to increased revenues. Some well-known businesses using PWAs are Twitter Lite, Ola (leading cab aggregator in India), Flipkart (e-commerce giant in India), Wego, Lanc?me and Forbes amongst many others.

The entire Progressive Web App paradigm is still in early stages. With more businesses embracing these technologies and modern browsers adding more capability & support, this space is expected to expand more and gain more popularity.