Progressive Web Apps are a promising technology for simple apps, but won’t replace complex native apps anytime soon

&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;92 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><strong>What is a Progressive Web App or PWA&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Google define it as follows&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em>A Progressive Web App uses modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like user experience&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A progressive web app is essentially just a web page that can work offline&period; The point is that you can leverage everything that makes the web great&period; On top of that&comma; you get to utilize a lot of the features of a native app on the phone&period; Compared to native apps&comma; PWAs are smaller in terms of size&comma; have fewer steps to getting your user to use your app&comma; and are quicker and cheaper to develop&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Google defines 3 aspects for PWS&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reliable &&num;8211&semi; Load instantly and never show the downasaur&comma; even in uncertain network conditions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fast &&num;8211&semi; Respond quickly to user interactions with silky smooth animations and no janky scrolling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Engaging &&num;8211&semi; Feel like a natural app on the device&comma; with an immersive user experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This new level of quality allows Progressive Web Apps to earn a place on the user&&num;8217&semi;s home screen on their phone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>How are they different from apps in an app store&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PWAs are different from apps in an app store as they are not installed via an app store&period; They live on the web&comma; built with HTML&comma; JS&comma; CSS&comma; and may have some API integration&period; PWA&&num;8217&semi;s will cache data on the device&period; Thus&comma; they can have fast load times and be able to work offline&comma; among other things&period; They are accessed via a browser&comma; and while they may visually look more like a native app than a mobile website&comma; they are in fact just a mobile website that employs and takes advantage of advances in modern web development technology&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The main point of WPAs is to bypass the app stores entirely&period; Why put a simple app that is just html&plus;js in its own Phonegap wrapper&comma; which slows the startup time&comma; adds file size&comma; and adds ram usage&quest; PWA features fill in some gaps to make the web app feel more like a native app so that Phonegap isn&&num;8217&semi;t needed &lpar;though not in all use cases unfortunately&rpar;&period; Some of these features are like home screen icons&comma; splash screens&comma; push notifications&comma; and camera access&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To see what features PWAs are capable of&period; Check out this link&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;whatwebcando&period;today&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;whatwebcando&period;today&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Still some issues&excl;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are some drawbacks for PWAs&period; It is still cumbersome to actually <em>persist<&sol;em> data reliably for when the network is down&period; Most methods to persist this data face the risk of getting data deleted from the local cache when your app reaches certain quotas&period; Some everyday functionality is also basically impossible at the moment&period; For example&comma; embedding street maps for offline usage is impossible&period; This is because almost all HTML-embeddable maps are built to work only when there is a network connection available&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What are the requirements for PWAs&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PWAs have these three minimal requirements&colon; Web Manifest File &comma; HTTPS&comma; and a Service Worker&period; When this happens Chrome on Android will prompt the user to add to the home screen of their phone&period; With just A Web Manifest  &amp&semi; HTTPS you can add your website to the Windows Store&comma; which gives you access to some platform APIs&period; Ultimately&comma; how far you apply the Service Worker capabilities is up to you&period; Lastly&comma; keep in mind learning how to apply cache is a very complex experience to master&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Here is a checklist for PWAs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is the baseline&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;developers&period;google&period;com&sol;web&sol;progressive-web-apps&sol;checklist">https&colon;&sol;&sol;developers&period;google&period;com&sol;web&sol;progressive-web-apps&sol;checklist<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is exemplary&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;developers&period;google&period;com&sol;web&sol;progressive-web-apps&sol;checklist&num;exemplary">https&colon;&sol;&sol;developers&period;google&period;com&sol;web&sol;progressive-web-apps&sol;checklist&num;exemplary<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Good News Everyone&excl;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PWAs are now on iOS&excl;&excl;&excl;&excl;&excl;&excl;&excl;&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;92 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad2" id&equals;"quads-ad2" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medium&period;com&sol;&commat;firt&sol;progressive-web-apps-on-ios-are-here-d00430dee3a7">https&colon;&sol;&sol;medium&period;com&sol;&commat;firt&sol;progressive-web-apps-on-ios-are-here-d00430dee3a7<&sol;a>&NewLine;

Joseph Patrick Brady is a designer and developer who prefers the K.I.S.S. aesthetic. He recently graduated Drexel with a degree in Interactive Digital Media and Web Development with a minor in Computer Science.
Joseph Brady

Joseph Patrick Brady is a designer and developer who prefers the K.I.S.S. aesthetic. He recently graduated Drexel with a degree in Interactive Digital Media and Web Development with a minor in Computer Science.

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