Progressive Web apps: The next breakthrough of Web!

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Definition

Progressive Web apps are the new technology which uses the modern web capabilities to deliver app like rich user experience on any native platform. In other words, they’re regular web pages or websites but appear to users like traditional or native apps. The progressive web application type combines the features delivered by most modern web browsers to the mobile experience with the rich native app like feel.

Evolution

Native apps are the apps developed suiting the best conditions of a particular platform to deliver the rich experience to the end user (Play store apps as in Android mobile OS, Apps on iOS, Web Apps on modern browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera backed with Windows System OS). Native apps provided a better user experience and booted faster compared to having to load in a browser at run-time. Packaged resources and direct access to hardware allowed native apps to perform much faster and to provide more features.Now, Progressive Web Apps have established new trends and hopes for the mobile web app users to experience native-like mobile experiences along with web advantage.

Alex Russell, a web developer working at Google first put the web tab of a web app aside by turning it into a pure mobile app — working offline, desired personalization and touch experience. He had progressively enhanced all the features of the Web app and given a mobile app like rich experience. He thus coined the word “Progressive Web App” which creates a middle ground between a website and a mobile app.

According to Google Developers, these characteristics are:

Progressive — Work for every user, regardless of browser choice because they’re built with progressive enhancement as a core tenet.
Responsive — Fit any form factor: desktop, mobile, tablet, or forms yet to emerge.
Connectivity independent — Service workers allow work offline, or on low-quality networks.
App-like — Feel like an app to the user with app-style interactions and navigation.
Fresh — Always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.
Safe — Served via HTTPS to prevent snooping and ensure content hasn’t been tampered with.
Discoverable — Are identifiable as “applications” thanks to W3C manifests and service worker registration scope allowing search engines to find them.
Re-engageable — Make re-engagement easy through features like push notifications.
Installable — Allow users to “keep” apps they find most useful on their home screen without the hassle of an app store.
Linkable — Easily shared via a URL and do not require complex installation.

Ways to access it

Progressive Web Apps (PWA’s) are installed on the phone like a normal app (web app) and can be accessed from the home screen.Users browsing your website from a supported mobile device will see a “Add To Home Screen” notice (from the bottom of the screen) and will be able to ‘install your website’ on the home screen of their device. Every page visited is stored locally on their device and will be available to read even when they are offline!Your return visitors will experience almost-instant loading times and enjoy the great benefits of your PWA!Open the app from your home screen and you will see the splash screen.Turn off your data and WiFi to go offline and open up the app. You will still be able to see the app and browse the pages you have already visited.Browse to a page that you haven’t visited before. The offline page will be displayed.

Advantages:

1. PWA’s will enable developers to get the best of both worlds: cross-platform app store deployment on iOS, Android, and Windows, along with deployment to the mobile web as a Progressive Web App with the same code.
2. For an app publisher, the biggest advantage is the cost saving in terms of app development and maintenance. Average customer acquisition costs may be up to ten times smaller compared to those of native applications.