PWAs - What are they
PWAs - What are they?
PWAs. Otherwise called Progressive Web Apps. It’s a term and name you will start to see more and more off in this new decade. So what are they, who do they matter to and why do they matter?
What are they?
Originally announced in 2015, and first launched in 2016, PWAs have been around for a while, but in recent years started to gain traction, and will continue to grow in usage moving forwards.
PWAs blend websites and applications into a single experience. They are websites, but with the potential for limited access to local resources (like the camera or location of your phone, even push notifications).
They “install” on computers, phone and tablets and launch like an app, but unlike a traditional app, they don’t require updates from the Play Store or App Store (what seems like every other week with some apps - we all know those prompts about application X needs an update), they take up much less space on your device, and unlike a website, they don’t launch your entire Web browser to run.
Think of them as the bit parts of a website with the best parts of having apps.
Who do they matter to?
The answer is everyone. If you have a website, they matter, if you are a developer, they matter, and as end users, they matter because they will become more prevalent moving forwards - so it’s handy to know what they are.
Why do they matter?
Before PWAs, if you had a website and wanted people to easily access it - well that wasn’t really possible. People needed to bookmark the site, and load the full web browser every time they wanted to access it. You could build a companion app of course, but that would often cost multiple times more than what it cost for the website itself, and then that app needed to be constantly maintained and updated.
If you were a developer, you had to use something like Xamarin Forms to build your app to run across Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, etc, or you had to build specific versions for each platform, requiring a lot of effort to do so.
By developing and using PWAs, you get the best of both worlds. People can interact with the website directly in their browsers, just like before (except the website will load quicker), or they can “install” the PWA and interact with it like an app.
In closing
So if you are a website owner, and your website doesn’t support PWAs, or your hosting platform (for example Squarespace) doesn’t natively support PWAs, then it’s a good time to consider switching to one that does (like ours or some of the other platforms like BigCommerce). If you are a developer, it’s a good set of skills to pick up to compliment your existing app development or web development skills.
PWAs aren’t suitable for all uses, but there is an increasing number of scenarios where they are - any website can benefit from them, and apps like Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Gmail, Google Drive, etc are all moving towards them or already use them, and Microsoft is even publishing them in the Microsoft Store on Windows.
PWAs are supported across all browsers (Chromium based, Safari and Firefox), and all platforms.
We will do more articles on PWAs throughout this year, and in the meantime if you have a website that isn't hosted with us, and you would like to discuss PWAs and how you can benefit from them, please feel free to reach out to us .
