What Are Progressive Web Apps?

Progressive Web apps represent a new tech trend that has shaped mobile development over the past few years. In this blog post, we are going to take a look at how this trend came about, as well as giving you some insight into it. 

The theory behind progressive web apps 

The idea for Progressive Web apps first came about with Alex Russell, an engineer at Google, who is credited with coming up with the concept. Essentially, these apps provide a mobile experience that combines the very best of apps with the very best of the web. They supply an app-like experience that is built using modern web capabilities, low friction, hosted on the web, and can become an application on the user’s system over time. 

If you’re interested in building a progressive web app, there is a lot to learn. We would advise starting off by reading up on what is graphql, as this is what a lot of developers use today.

Progressive web apps in reality 

As Russell states himself, these applications are not deployed nor packaged through stores, rather, they are simply websites with “all of the right vitamins”, as he puts it. These applications will start out as a tab on Google Chrome, but they will become more like an ‘app’ with the more people that use them. Therefore, if you use the site regularly, you can expect features such as offline use, notifications, and being able to pin the app onto the home screen of your mobile phone. 

You may be wondering why Progressive Web apps become more ‘app’ like over time. The concept behind this is that these companies need to earn the right to have the privilege of being on your home screen or sending you more notifications. It means that you don’t have the worry of implicitly signing up to something hazardous by clicking on a link, and that you do not have to make any heavyweight choices up-front. The onus is on the company to provide a good service and web experience if they are to unlock any of these benefits. 

These web applications are based on your relationship with the website. Once it becomes stronger, the apps become more powerful. There are two functions that Progressive Web apps rely on for functionality and speed; these are Service Workers and Application Shell Architecture. 

The former is a great way to boost performance by helping to cache and deliver background functionality and content. Service Workers are the foundation of Application Shell Architecture. The shell always stays the same, and thus refers to the minimal JavaScript, CSS, and HTML that powers the interface. 

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of Progressive Web apps. There are many benefits associated with these applications. For developers, it means they can go back to building apps as opposed to spending time waiting to get their app published on app stores. For users, it means they don’t need to go to the app store or install anything on their device.