What is Progressive Web App and it’s Trends in 2020?

What is a PWA?

It is a new way of developing mobile applications accessible from the web, and that takes advantage of the latest and most powerful technologies in today’s browsers. Thanks to this, a Progressive Web App inherits the best features on the web: instant access, immediate updates, and the facility to share and make them known. Also, a PWA behaves and looks like a native application. Sometimes they are indistinguishable as they offer access to native device functions.

Much has been said about PWA in recent years: what are they? How do you define a PWA? What characterizes a PWA and differentiates it from a standard website? As defined by the Zazz experts, they are “Applications,” “Web,” “Progressive.”

• Application: similar to an app
• Web: executable directly from the browser
• Progressive: they can grow in content and functionalities, without altering the user experience

PWA working is executed directly in the browser that has an experience similar to a native application. The main benefits of progressive web applications are:

• They are light since they do not stop being webs
• They are multiplatform, accessible from any device (computer, tablet, mobile …)
• They are snapshots since the user does not need to download any application on the device, one of the most significant PWA Advantages.

Be careful not to confuse a PWA with a hybrid application, despite having many of these features in common. Everyone knows about hybrid apps, mainly developed with the Ionic Framework, but PWA embeds the web in a native application. PWA runs in a native environment and obtains functionalities that we can expect from a native application. You need to hire App Developers with the proper expertise to maximize these benefits.

What Technologies Do PWA Apps Use?

• Service Workers: allows the execution of background services in web browsers independently of the PWA app, we can use them even if the App is closed.
• Shell Apps: This development technique allows us to separate content from functionality so that we can load containers and content separately. Shell apps speed up PWA load times increasing PWA Advantages,
• App manifests: these files allow you to change the App’s settings on the fly using it to adapt it correctly to each device.
• Responsive design allows you to adapt the PWA design to any device by identifying the screen resolution and the technology used. That is the reason PWA Trend in 2020 is increasing.
• Compatibility: Employs extended base technologies on all devices such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

What are the characteristics of PWA Trend in 2020?

These are the main characteristics that make a Progressive Web App such a powerful technology that many companies are investing efforts.

Develop it Once and Run it Wherever You Want

A PWA is a web application; therefore, when developing it, it can be run on any device that has a browser; that is, both on mobile and on desktop. On the contrary, a native application must be developed specifically for the desired operating system: iOS, Android, etc. This doubles and sometimes triples the cost of application development and maintenance, unlike PWA Trend in 2020.

The Web is the New Native

Thanks to advances in browsers, a PWA looks and behaves exactly like a native application in terms of display, animations, gestures, etc. In addition to this, these applications have access to native functions of the device on which they run: offline storage, push notifications, geolocation, and camera. A PWA app can be installed on the device to access it from its icon as if it were a native App.

The Power of Service Workers

The Service Workers hosting the true potential of PWA working. Thanks to them, the application can use some functions such as offline support, management of the App’s cache, or the reception of notifications. It is a Javascript file that works as a proxy. It is located between the application and the internet, thus capturing all the requests made by our App.

Besides, the Service Workers run in the background. In this way, a PWA can perform tasks even if we do not use the application, such as receiving push notifications. They are also crucial in the offline strategy of the application since thanks to them, content can be served when the device does not have an internet connection. Offline availability is one of the significant PWA Advantages.

Goodbye to App Stores?

A PWA is distributed just like any other web application when it is published on a server; it is already available to any user. The publication and updates of our App will be immediate since you do not have to go through the cumbersome distribution channels of the stores that are much more complicated in the case of applications for companies distributed privately.

In addition to all this, Google has recently announced that it will support PWA on the Play Store. In this way, they can also be available in the store, like any other application. Will we see a similar move by Apple in the future? I would say yes.

A Simple Example of PWA Working effortlessly

WITH NATIVE / HYBRID APP

1. John is traveling abroad in the heart of the city, with a limited 3G connection. Lunchtime is about to come, and he is hungry.
2. A travel companion sends you a link to reserve a table at your favorite restaurant in the area through the native restaurant reservation application.
3. John opens the link, and a dialog appears to download the native restaurant reservation application, without it, he cannot do anything with that link.
4. John accepts and clicks on “Download Application.”
5. It takes him 10 minutes to download a 43MB application to reserve a table at his restaurant.
6. He opens the application.
7. He must go back to look for the restaurant that his partner has passed him, or click the link that his partner sent him 15 minutes ago.
8. John accesses the restaurant page and makes the reservation at the restaurant.

WITH PWA

• John is traveling abroad in the heart of the city, with a limited 3G connection. Lunchtime is about to come, and he is hungry.
• A travel companion sends you a link to reserve a table at your favorite restaurant in the area through the restaurant reservation PWA.
• John opens the link in his browser (a web) and makes his table reservation quickly without downloading the application. A primary electrifying reason for PWA Trend in 2020.
• Note that this does not mean that a PWA is better than a Native / Hybrid Application.

There are cases that a PWA cannot respond to the use that is going to be made of the application, or it is necessary functionalities that a PWA does not have. In these cases, the development of native/hybrid applications should be taken into account. Contact us to know whether your business needs can be fulfilled with PWA or not.

Should My Company Develop a PWA?

We are very supportive of PWA apps and have transformed many businesses with our efficient developers. Our regional offices are all over the United States. Thankfully, we have managed to create a strong fan base in Seattle, New York, and other parts of the country. Recently our San Francisco App Developers have won the best PWA developer award in the region.

Focusing on the business sector and with everything we’ve seen so far, the most important reason to develop a Progressive Web App may be to:

• Reduce its cost
• Development time
• And subsequent maintenance.

It is true that a hybrid application also means excellent savings in development. Still, with a PWA, the time and cost of publishing and updating an app in different stores are also eliminated. With frameworks such as Ionic, strategies can be followed to publish applications in stores and other places. If you have an application development project and have doubts about the best technology to choose from, at Zazz, we can help you.

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