Progressive web apps are becoming more relevant in our society, Apps like Facebook, Twitter, and some games have become a household name among everybody that uses gadgets, but how much do you understand these apps and put them into good use? Before we proceed to the main reason for the article, let me explain what a Progressive web app is.

What is a progressive web app?

Progressive web apps(PWAs) are typically apps that are enabled by the internet and can be accessed through the web browser of different phones or laptops. It is a product of the fusion of webpages and native mobile apps. With a progressive web app development, small companies can provide their customers and users with good user experience and at the same time, advertise their products.

Benefits of having progressive web apps

1. No App Store: you don’t need to be logged into any mobile app store to access or download progressive web applications; they are directly accessed from your browser. Depending on what mobile operating system you are using, Android will prompt you to install the PWA while in iOS, you need to add it to the home screen manually.

2. Offline Use:  once your browser saves cached data, you can access PWAs even when you are offline, you can fill forms and save them, you can also save content from it but once you want to submit a query, you need to be reconnected.

3. Updates: unlike native apps that need to be manually updated by the user, PWAs get automatically updated for the user and even from the developers’ end, it is a lot easier than updating a native app.

4. Easy Access: progressive web apps are less network demanding unlike native apps and therefore uses less data, PWAs loads faster even when the user is on a 2G network, this is particularly beneficial to business because, with this feature, they can be accessed from any part of the world especially from the developing nations where 4G is not yet in use.

5. Cost and compatibility: it is considerably cheaper to build a fast PWA page than to build a native mobile app platform. In progressive web application development, one app works across all platforms while in native apps, you have to develop an app for the different platforms that you want it to run on.

You may like to read: 10 Ways Progressive Web Apps(PWA) will Replace Native Apps

How PWAs affect a business

Every business aims to make a profit and be accessible by its target clients, with modern technology and the ease of compatibility in web languages; it is easier and cheaper to build a PWA that will be functional, fluid and responsive like a native web app.

A company that deploys the use of a PWA will be able to reach more customers no matter the version of Android or iOS they are on, this will, in turn, promote awareness of the brand. When the audience has been captured, it is also easier to manage the content on the PWA and put it out to the users all at once, if there is an update, once the user refreshes the webpage, the latest content gets updated, in the native apps, the users have to update the app before enjoying the updated features. PWAs work seamlessly in virtually every gadget, the web browsers optimize the pages and make the user experience smooth thereby reducing the efforts that should go into quality assurance and when all these are checked, it directly gives the company a boost in their income.

Think Compatibility, Thing PWAs

Considering the supported platforms, it is evident that Native web app developers are making their apps able to run seamlessly across platforms, this means the major job is done by the app developers like Google. While all you have to do is to write your PWA.

PWAs are gradually replacing the need for Chrome apps platform, so when you develop a PWA, it can be installed by Google Chrome browser, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Samsung browser and a host of many other apps. Recently Google announced the development of a new technology called the WebAPK. With this, they want to make PWAs an executable file which can be installed onto an Android device like other native mobile apps.

Some big players in the business of PWAs are, Twitter lite which reported that it experienced a 75% increase in the number of tweets, a 65% increase in page sessions and a 20% decrease in bounce rates, Ali Baba the retail giant also recorded a 76% increase in mobile web conversions, 14% more monthly users on iOS and 30% more on Android and 4 times higher interaction rate.

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that Progressive Web Apps(PWAs) are very beneficial to businesses if you are looking to advertising your brand or driving more traffic on your website, the PWA is the way to go. They provide convenient solutions for businesses that want to establish a lasting and reliable mobile presence amongst its customers without having to make them break the bank.

Take your business to the next level with ISHIR’s Progressive Web App Development services.