Are Progressive Web Apps a greaty Choice for Businesses? Yes, they are indeed the best choice for the strategies to promote businesses. With the changing world, technologies are evolving the world into digital globe. It’s been a decade since the beginning of the age of smartphones. And that age certainly started with native mobile apps. Then came cross-platform apps that soon took over the hearts and business plans of enterprises. While both the kinds of mobile app development have enjoyed the place they should because, well, both works fine, it is the budget that bothers a considerable number of businesses.
And when you also have a website up and running, all you are looking at is cost. How do you create and maintain multi experience and still not spend a fortune on a website and native/cross-platform apps?
There is an option that blends the upsides of a native mobile app with usability on other platforms plus the ease of a website—the progressive web app or the PWA.
Some go as far as calling PWAs the apps of the future. Some people believe that progressive web apps will gradually take over traditional native mobile apps.
While others believe that these apps could be another engagement tool accessible to companies—a tool that remains beside websites and traditional apps, rather than replacing them.
But what are progressive web apps, why should you care, and how are they different from native apps?
Progressive web apps are the ones that offer an immersive full-screen experience, live on the user’s home screen, respond quickly to user interactions, and load instantly, in spite of the network state.
Google, the creator of PWAs, ensures that with this concept the content only has to be made once and not separately for Android, iOS, and website or any other platforms. The UX will accordingly be optimized for the device on which the user is using PWA so that the functionalities come out best.
The Building Blocks of PWAs
It doesn’t take much to set up a progressive web application. There are a few things that you need to provide before developing a PWA that differentiate these apps from the traditional web or mobile applications.
Secure Connection (HTTPS)
Progressive web applications work only on secure connections. It means you need to serve them over a trusted connection for security reasons, not to forget that it also acts as a key factor for users.
Manifest File
The manifest allows PWAs to have different icons, display mode, default orientation, metadata configuration, and all other kinds of essential application configurations.
The manifest file, also known as the JSON file, contains the vital information on how your PWA should appear on the screen and its function. It helps you determine the colours, icons, descriptions, name, etc., of your application.
Service Worker
A service worker is a script that runs in the background to allow PWAs to work even without internet connectivity.
This makes it possible to provide a pleasant offline experience by handling the cache and network requests for your PWA, making it possible to perform more complex work.
Web Storage
It allows the PWAs to manage the browser sessions of any user since they are not directly opened through browsers.
Database Libraries
Similar to all mobile apps, database libraries are used by PWAs to store data efficiently with the help of non-relational databases like RxDB and PouchDB.
The Essential Benefits of PWA
Low Development Costs
Because content only needs to be produced once, PWAs do not require separate app versions for different platforms.
So, it decreases the number of efforts and amount of time utilized by developers for creating content separately for a website, Android, and iOS or any other platform. As a result, the cost of developing PWAs decreases substantially.
PWAs Count Towards Search Engine Optimization
The content in a progressive web app is included in the search results, hence contributes to SEO. It is possible—with additional tools from Google—to test the search results of your PWA.
Important factors here are the loading time and the safety of a PWA. In addition to that, the content must be unique and relevant as always is the case of SEO.
Sleek and Swift
Progressive web application comes with a sleek, intuitive, and powerful framework that offers a seamless user experience that you’ll probably never get from any native mobile app.
PWAs are usually very swift, unlike many web apps that may lag due to multiple reasons such as heavy dependencies and slow internet speed.
Reliable
Every web app requires internet connectivity to perform. However, the good part of working with PWAs is that the lack of internet connectivity won’t hinder their performance.
They can easily work well even with the slow internet speed, giving them an upper hand over other forms of web apps.
Low Usage Threshold
The threshold value of a PWA is quite low because you don’t need to download a new app. Allowing your target group to test your app without any obligation. Moreover, it takes up less memory as compared to traditional native mobile apps. All this makes it an ideal solution for any business model.
Engaging
While many web apps may have a simple push notification, progressive web apps developed by a trusted offshore web development company India allow you to continuously engage your users through several other means—immersive full-screen experience with web push notifications—that allows the user to control the appearance of your app.
Easy on Storage Space
In most cases where a regular mobile app may require around 50–100MB of storage space, a progressive web app will require much less than that. In some cases, you’ll find a PWA consuming only 1–5MB of storage space on a user’s device.
No Updating Issues
Unlike native/cross-platform mobile apps, PWAs have a specific functionality that allows them to automatically update, without bothering the users with unnecessary permission requests. PWAs update themselves every time you go online. It eliminates the need for updating the batch changes.
Platform and Device Independent
Unlike traditional web applications that have a very hard time maintaining the operating systems and other technical capabilities of various devices, PWAs work almost everywhere.
A simple app can accommodate the needs of numerous consumers and provide them with a uniform experience on multiple devices. These apps are highly responsive as they accommodate accurately to various screen sizes.
Conclusion
Should you like to learn more about progressive web apps or to build a future-proof mobile or web application of your own, our experts are happy to assist you. Connect with a web App development company.