Progressive Web Apps Build Modern and Offline Apps: A Complete Guide

Progressive web applications (PWA) have become popular in the digital world due to their ability to match the performance of applications built with Vanilla, React, and other similar tools. Moreover, they have come on the top of the radar after Apple allowed some of its features and functions to provide PWA capabilities. With PWA integrated into the mobile applications we use every day, the developers can deliver fast and offline user experiences.

Constant and consistent developments in the web space bring us closer to exploring new possibilities almost every day. With the coming of progressive web app development services, making an application has become faster, affordable, and achievable for every type of business. One of the best things about the PWAs is offline access based on the user’s past interaction with the application.

This guide will explore what PWAs, their main features are, and reasons to build PWAs while helping you choose the top progressive web app development company.

What are Progressive Web Apps?

The basic premise of a progressive web application is using modern web capabilities to deliver a native app-like user experience. The PWAs started from single browser pages to high-functioning and performant applications running with low friction. According to Google, the PWAs are reliable, fast, and more engaging than their counterparts.

Because these systems are not concentrated to work with a specific framework, new applications can be built with an evolving nature. The word “Progressive” signifies the function of continuous enhancement, which keeps the user’s interested and engaged with the applications built with this technology.

The developers at Google have compared a progressive web application to an M&M. We can see the candy shell as a progressive web application. Just as a shell’s color can change and its experience can also change as per the user experience, a progressive web application can also vary.

From easy deployment to significant community support and leveraging a huge ecosystem and plugins, listed below are some incredible features of PWAs that every progressive web app development company will relate to.

Must Read: Mobile App Development Process: Easy Step to Build your First App

Why Choose Progressive Web Application Development?

One of the best parts about working with PWAs is that they are not limited to a specific framework. Either you can use any framework to build the application or none at all. For businesses wanting to deploy their services rapidly, a PWA is one of the best ways to streamline the development process and ensure faster delivery, that too, for every platform.

The reasons why you should get in touch with a PWA app development company.

• Reliability: Better performance is the key to retaining the existing customer base and attracting new customers. That is why every business should invest in building high-performance applications.Progressive web applications are reliable in this sense, as they load faster and even work when there is no internet connectivity. This is especially important when any user is looking for some information, and the time-to-content delay is highly frustrating.This will surely incite a negative response as opposed to the fact that a delay-free experience will stimulate a positive response leading to better connectivity and engagement.
• Faster Response: Progressive web applications have a faster response time, especially when it comes to the basic features. Toggling functions, typing a text, etc., are completed quickly with minimal to no delays.

• Native-Like Experience: These applications are based on the platform’s browser, making them independent of any platform-associated functionality. This makes using PWAs smooth and efficient. The user experience is at par with the native applications. There are options to add custom buttons and features that resemble the native platform.

After going through these aspects, we can say that progressive web applications are akin to building user experience with native platform’s accessibility via the web browser.

Apart from the performance-based aspects of building these applications, there are a couple of executory benefits that you must know.

• Faster Installation: Basically, the progressive web applications are not installed. All you need to do is open the web link, and the application will start working, instead of first downloading the application from the respective application store and then installing it, followed by creating an account.
• Lower Bandwidth Requirement: The installation files of PWAs are smaller as they don’t have much space because these are text-based codes. So, the end-user will have to spend much less time while engaging with these applications.
• Richness of Desktop Applications: PWAs that run on the web browser as a desktop application mimics the UX and UI of installable desktop applications. This gives a memorable user experience creating better engagement.

Amidst all these developments and benefits, the progressive web app development company you decide to work for must fuse innovativeness with the best industry practices and create improved user experiences.

This is because giving these applications a minimum functionality along with the ability to run offline does not make them very much impressive. It is imperative to give them the native appearance and functionality.

Features of Progressive Web Application

The PWA technology has led to the formation of a new type of applications and a new sort of development companies working on this technology. While choosing a progressive web app development company, it will be helpful if you can ask them about the best features of a PWA.

• Single Maintainable Codebase

  The core of a maintainable code is that it is easy to modify and extend as per the requirements. At the bottom of this ability to maintain the code is an easy construction of the entire codebase that is easy to read, implement, and compile.

  Along with this, a maintainable code is blessed with the easy location of a specific set of instructions. Moreover, any sort of change request does not spark a chain of unprecedented reactions creating distortions in the entire codebase.

• Service Worker

  A service worker script runs in the background besides the web page. A service worker script aims to respond to events, including network requests coming from different locations like pages or servers.

  You can also ask this question when you hire PWA developers because of its importance in terms of helping create an offline experience. A service worker script is short-lived. It only runs when there is a requirement and toggles off when the task is complete.

  Its ability to create an offline experience is done by using Cache API to cache resources and recreate to help users get an offline experience.

• Web App Manifest

  Web applications manifest a simple JSON file helping the developers control how the application’s interface looks to the users. Furthermore, with this, the users can get the option to launch the application while helping them decide how they want to launch.

  The purpose of a web app manifest is to give a more native-like appearance to the application, especially on the user’s device home screen. Furthermore, have you ever noticed that some web apps run with a hidden URL bar? That is the work of the web app manifest.

• Push Notification

  The purpose of integrating push notifications in a web application is re-engagement with personalized and user-centric communication. Here you can create web applications that can engage with the users outside of their browser.

  This means that it is not essential for the user to remain active on the browser to receive push notifications. PWAs can be built to send push notifications to the users.

  The development of this feature is driven by service workers and web app manifest. Currently, the PWA push notifications are being used in Chrome.

• Application Shell

  The application shell model is a widely used progressive web app modeling system that allows architecting the application on an outer shell. With this, the application also gains the ability to work offline as it encourages caching.

  Apart from the shell, the content inside the shell is created with JavaScript as per the application requirements.

These are the components that every top progressive web app development company leverages to create the best PWAs. Combined with offline caching, the application architecture, and service workers, PWAs have got their defining offline usage properties.

Characteristics of PWAs

Web applications are meant to deliver an easy user experience, combined with the fast and quick processing of all the elements. From nativity to seamless functionality on every sort of platform, below are the most important characteristics of  PWAs, making them more reliable and approachable for every sort of business.

• Progressive

  The term progressive implies the ability of a web application to work on any sort of device and platform without fail. Not just working seamlessly, a progressive web application leverages the platform-specific features and functions to create a memorable user experience.

• Discoverable

  Another great advantage of a PWA is that it can pop up on a search engine page just like any other website URL. This substantially increases the discoverability of a progressive application. Because they are easily discoverable, the PWAs have an advantage over the native mobile applications as they need to be searched and downloaded separately.

• Linkable

  Because the PWAs are available via a URL, they are easy to link, share, and forward. Plus, just as you can save or bookmark a URL, the PWAs URL can also be bookmarked. The best part is that it will open in the same state as it was saved.

• Responsive

  Any PWA app development company will relate to the fact that these applications have an incredible response to the underlying platform’s dimensions. As a result, a PWA will adjust to the screen size and form factor of the device on which it is accessible.

• Connectivity-Independent

  As we have discussed above, PWAs are independent of a slow or no internet connection. They will work via caching resources from the previous usage and save them only to recreate the same experience in case the user is not connected to the internet.

• Re-Engagement

  This means that just as the native mobile applications are created to ensure that the users keep on coming back to the application, the PWAs are created in the same way. As discussed above, push notifications are sent to the users regardless of their current state and engagement with the application.

• Installable

  The users can install a progressive web application on the home screen of their device and access it from there directly. Subject to the completion of a few requirements, a PWA can be installed on the user’s device.

  The requirements include a web manifest with correct information filled in and a website that has a secure domain under HTTPS. Lastly, it should also allow working with a service worker and enable the app to work offline.

In addition to these features, there are a few other aspects of progressive web applications. These include a fresh interface, and architecture is provided to the users right after any new system changes.

Lastly, we can also call these applications safe because all the requests can be intercepted and investigated by the service workers. Furthermore, to ensure that the application does not have to undergo a man-in-the-middle attack, the application is hosted on an HTTPS server.

PWAs vs. Hybrid vs. Mobile Applications

If you want a straight answer to which type of application development method shall I choose between PWAs, Hybrid, and Native Mobile, note that there is no direct answer. The decision to move forward with a PWA or a Hybrid depends on your purpose and requirements.

However, if your requirements fit perfectly well to make a PWA and then you are choosing a Hybrid or Native development model, then you need to rethink your choices.

When Should I Choose to Build and Hire a Progressive Web App Development Company?

Creating a PWA becomes essential when your users have a slow internet connection and they are using a generic smartphone; you must go for a PWA. This is because PWAs do not require a ton of UI/UX capabilities in a device to function smoothly, and they also do not take up any space, not to mention that they can work even in slower or no internet connection.

Along with this, you can also prefer creating a PWA if your application has a lot of text to read and limited engagement with the users. In this, the users can open the application, load the content, and, if required, read it later in offline mode because the application will cache the resources.

When Should I Choose to Build a Hybrid and Native Mobile Application?

The applications that are not required to load a vast amount of data from the get-go can be built on a Hybrid model. This is where the data can be pooled together and sent to the user when demanded.

Lastly, for applications requiring high performance, an extensive database, and it needs to complete some intense tasks, including complex interactivity systems, you need to leverage a native mobile platform’s SDK to build the application.

In a Nutshell

Creating PWAs satisfies the user’s appetite to work faster, use the least amount of data, and create great user experiences. The best part is that everything happens right in the browser, and the user does not have to go through the lengthy process of downloading the application from the app store.

If that’s not all, these applications are connectivity and platform-independent. They can work in areas that have slow internet connectivity and on any platform and adhere to the platform-specific features and dimensions for the best experience.

Some examples of PWAs that you might have engaged with earlier include Twitter Lite, Trivago, Forbes, etc. These three websites are less data-intensive and based on minimal interactions with the users.

In the end, if you aim to deliver a fully working product based on the business requirements and to establish a presence on the web, contact a PWA development company to create a performant application for your business.