A Brief Introduction

Progressive Web Application (PWA) is an application is an enhanced version of a web app that is built and lives on the web but has native app capabilities. It functions more and more like a native application. Being a PWA gives your web app extra capabilities such as offline usage, self-updates, and an app-like interface besides being easily installable on mobile devices and computers.

Progressive web apps will give you a broader reach of the web as well as the engaging features of the native apps with a single code base instead of three, eliminating the need for native apps on Android and iOS on the web. Plus, you get a seamless installation on your mobile devices. Hence, no app stores and downloads are needed. PWAs can work offline and can be uninstalled easily.

Why does Google want PWAs?

Progressive web apps are the future of mobile and online businesses. Since progressive web apps were introduced by Google, Google is more supportive of them as they’ll assist you to search engine rankings or better SEO scores. Google’s business model is on the web. It’s not really an app store nor it is selling Android devices. If every company created their own native application and it pulls data directly from the website without going through the web, that actually hurts Google’s bottom line. Apps really don’t count against web traffic and Google wants this to happen because in using a progressive web application, you’re using their web, analytics, and their ads. You are using everything that counts towards SEO so it shows up in search, and all this benefits Google. Google wants people back on the web for all these reasons.

Why does Microsoft want PWAs?

Microsoft wants to see progressive web apps as the future of app development. Microsoft plans to put progressive web apps directly into their online store through the universal Windows platform. This will resolve any discoverability issues that the customers might have so they’ll simply launch a Microsoft Store and look for apps like Uber or Twitter and what they’ll come across will be technically a PWA. Many of such progressive web apps will be a replacement for Android apps.

Microsoft is putting hundreds or thousands of websites in their online store without having to take any permission from anyone given that the websites meet certain standards and criteria. Once the entire process gets more advanced and works well in terms of quality and user feedback, Bing Crawler would be able to package these things up and put them into the store automatically. All the major companies are embracing this because they hate paying app developers and rather have a web developer make a PWA website and get the ball rolling. Hence, it is cost-saving to a substantial degree.

To wrap it all up, progressive web apps are a means of delivering web content as native experiences. There is increased engagement, a larger audience, and minimal development cost associated with it. A lot of companies are getting their apps converted to PWAs. PWAs are Google-friendly and can support your business’s ranking position. When customers find your business on Google, they’ll click on your PWA guaranteeing the best possible mobile user experience with great features they’ll love, use, and need. Progressive web apps are not the perfect apps but are far more flexible to use, decentralized, run cross-platform, and have a lower footprint than web apps, websites, mobile apps, and desktop apps. For many businesses and companies, it may be a lot of work to make a switch to PWAs right now but will be very rewarding in the long run.

CRM Masters Infotech LLP is a premium ZOHO Partner & Salesforce partner specializing in the customization, implementation, and support of CRM systems. It has a certified team of 60+ professionals and has delivered over 1000+ projects in more than 18 countries around the world including the US, UK, France, Italy, Canada, UAE, India, Germany, Ireland, and Australia.