It’s no secret how rapidly things are evolving inside the web development industry. Technologies have risen and fallen and existing ones have changed for either the better or worse. It’s always good to get a healthy dose of information in regards to these developments and with that in mind, here is an article about PWAs and what they hold for the future!
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
With a look and feel similar to mobile apps, PWAs are web-based applications that utilise the latest web technologies to bring users an app-like experience. Back in 2015, we saw the inception of PWAs and it only took two years for pioneers to transform them into a part of the webs major programming trends. Thanks to new generation progressive apps, developers can now take the power of the web and marry the best of that into mobile apps.
A happy medium between a website and mobile apps, PWAs take the best of the two and merge them to produce dual benefits. Let’s look at some of the features!
- No install required! A PWA can be accessed directly by just typing in the URL of the project’s location.
- They match the latest standards of responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility.
- Does not depend on a network state. Thanks to PWA pre-caching, they are available to offline users.
- App-like experience! Ensuring users spend more time on your website.
- Secure data transfer with HTTPS protocol service integration.
- Lastly, users can actually pin PWAs to their home screens such as an app icon!
So now we know what they can do, let’s break this down a little more, giving some context to what this means for developers.
What is the part that is similar to websites?
For trouble-free linking, PWAs can be accessed in every modern browser without installation. Search engines can also index PWA’s content and can deliver top-notch full-screen experiences regardless of the user’s viewport.
What is the part that is similar to mobile apps?
As identifiable apps, more users can discover them and can load even when the network connection is bad or non-existent. Furthermore, PWAs can integrate push notifications and be added as app icons to the user’s home screen, which massively helps with application engagement. Finally, PWAs are reliable, fast and attractive thanks to the UI and UX components taken from mobile apps.
Overall, PWAs bring huge benefits such as increased engagement, higher conversion rates and improved readability and reliability. Unfortunately, PWAs have not quite become mainstream just yet but are absolutely worth it as few web development solutions give users similar conversion and engagement boosts.
This is one to definitely look out for as we could see multiple businesses taking on these new technologies and using them for massive benefits to not only the company but consumers as well.
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