Progressive Web App – an Application in a Webpage

Till now most of are not familiar with the term Progressive Web App, but soon it is going to change the way we use mobile apps. The surge in the number of mobile user, has created great demand to connect the users with the custom made apps providing them an interactive experience.

There are many mobile OS in the market but Apple’s iOS andGoogle’s Android have maintained their dominant position as top mobile operating systems. Apple and Google have their own App Store and Play Store respectively to publish the apps for their OS.

Both have their own licensing fees and technical requirements which are to abide by developers to avoid rejection on the store. So to reach out an extended audience, one needs to have their apps designed for these two completely different operating systems.

Native Apps

Applications those are developed for the use on a specific platform are Native Apps. These are coded in specific language such as Objective C for iOS and Java for Android operating systems. These apps relies on the capabilities of the devices to run. These are created to deliver user a captivative experience which is different from the browser of OS. At LetsNurture, we have been providing apps on both iOS and Android to our clients for their business development.

Limitations of Native Apps

• Lack of cross functionality – app made for iOS cannot be used in Android or vice-versa.
• Delays by app stores while allowing new features to be smoothly integrated in apps.
• Structures of the native app environment makes it difficult to offer some effective design.
• In an era things are increasingly found and shared through social media, discovery in the app store is a nightmare of its own where there are many similar apps.

Changing trend towards Progressive Web Apps

It has been seen that some of the entities find it difficult to keep and maintain two completely different mobile applications, it’s not just the cost of development of these apps but to keep them regularly updated according to OS updates and user interactions.

Now, Progressive Web Apps have emerged as a solution to worries of such entities. First of all it doesn’t require any download or any installation. They work completely on the browser’s capabilities to render the application. Progressive Web Apps are created on HTML, CSS and Javascript. In simple words a Progressive App is just like a Web Page.

One may think that how can a web page replace the functions of an app, but that is the point of making a progressive app. A web page that looks and behaves as equivalent to the native app. All you need is the url of the progressive app. There are three things that makes a normal web page into a progressive app :

• Responsive layout as per the screen size.
• Potential to work on offline mode.
• Shortcut bookmark to be deployed on the home screen or desktop.

Why Progressive Web Apps ?

The most fascinating part of the progressive web app is the elimination of the size constraint and still being able to receive the push notifications. Most importantly they can be used in any supported browser irrespective of operating system and device. You can have it on your phone or desktop machine, that too in browser of your choice. It eliminates the posting of regular updates of the app on the store, all is to be done is on the web page. The reason these web pages are called progressive is that the regular use of these apps makes them more and more efficient to use. The use of Service Workers in the browsers gives the apps an edge of being used offline and providing push notifications that was missing with the AppCache.

Challenges for Progressive Apps

• Few browser support is available till now, hence are efforts to be made by the browsers to integrate features like Service Workers. 
• Adding the higher security to the APIs with HTTPS which even bigger players like Amazon.com have not used yet completely.
• Engagement with the user to use the web page more and more for better performance during offline mode or slow internet speeds.
• Native Apps that work completely offline cannot be converted into Progressive apps.

How can it benefit the business

With FlipKart Lite being launched, it has opened a new arena for the development of progressive apps. This may be just beginning but it seems that downloads may again become thing of past but till then let us know if you need an iOS or Android app.

LetsNurture has a team of experts providing you a complete range of website, mobile application and other tech solutions like SEO, SMO, PPC, etc. We will be happy to hear from you, mail us for any information regarding our services or get a quote for your product.