Why Progressive web application (PWA) is good for your business.
PWA Definition
A progressive web app (PWA) is a set of mobile web application development techniques that entails building apps that feel and look like native ones. Using a web stack (React and Angular), progressive web apps combine rich functionality and smooth user experience associated with native apps. PWAs are designed to allow users to use native mobile device features without having to visit an app store, make a purchase, or download anything locally. For example, web apps are more discoverable than native apps. It’s easier and faster to visit a website than install an application, and you can also share web apps by sending a link. After the installation, a user clicks on its icon on a device's home screen and gets straight to the website.
Why Build a PWA?
Progressive web apps are calmly taking over the world of web applications, and companies are adopting them with tremendous success. Converting a modern web application into a PWA can fetch many advantages and help users interact more with the application.
Let’s glance at the features of progressive web apps and also view why PWA makes web apps so robust, performant, and reliable, giving the feel to the web app like a native application:
1. Performance
Progressive web apps are loaded from a secure origin connection, i.e., using HTTPS. It helps reduce the app’s load time.
To use a native app, the user has to download and install it on the device. This would require memory from the user’s device, and the user would not want to download a simple application that will be used only twice a month.
Instead of 30 native apps on the phone, 30 progressive web apps are better, freeing up memory from all the devices used. Progressive web apps can be an amicable solution for companies that want to use their web app on devices by just installing it instead of creating a unique native app.
2. Offline
Web apps are developed and designed from scratch to work online. The internet connection might drop or get slow for a few minutes, but once it gets back, every user wants their action to be registered, no matter what. The issue with web apps is that getting them to work offline is not an easy task.
Progressive web apps can work offline because of service workers. Service workers deliver offline capabilities to web apps and are responsible for causing the progressive web apps to work offline efficiently and quickly.
Service workers cache new content from the progressive web app and help to synchronize it as a local modification to a remote server, causing the progressive web app to feel refreshed and up-to-date to the user.
3. Fast installation
One of the main pain points regarding native apps is that they must be downloaded from the store, like the App Store or Google Play store. The user will be mandated to install the app, spend time downloading, creating an account, and arranging everything before navigating to the app.
Progressive web apps are not required to be downloaded from a store; the user can save the app on a device with a click of a button. They can run as a standalone window instead of a browser, making them launchable from the user’s home screen. The ability to have the app saved on their device like a native app makes a lot of difference. It will save memory on the device and only load content when the user opens the app.
4. Development savings
Specialists who follow the progressive web app trend use a web stack for their development. This approach takes less effort and time, so it’s more cost-efficient. The reason is that developers don’t need to build the app for multiple platforms because a single progressive app can perform well on Android and iOS and fit various devices.
5. Reduced installation friction
Discoverability, one of PWAs’ core features, increases their competitiveness over native apps. This advantage is especially meaningful considering that each additional step to download an app reduces the number of its potential users by 20 percent.
Since PWAs aren’t installed on a device or shared via Play or Apple stores, their customers are several steps closer to launching them. They don’t have to visit an app store, click the “install” button, and accept various permissions. All they need to do is
to visit the website, add the app to a home screen, come back to the home screen, and open the website.
6. Easy updates
In addition to skipping the app store, surfing, and installing, PWA users free themselves from updating (or accepting the update offer) for the app each time a developer releases new versions. Users always have access to up-to-date solutions. This feature allows companies to avoid the problem referred to as software fragmentation when they have to maintain old versions of apps or risk the loss of users until they start the update.
7. Higher user engagement
Researchers from comScore also found out that 80 percent of mobile users intentionally move apps to the home screen. So, the ability to be added to the home screen makes PWAs more competitive with web apps. There have to be other reasons people decide to try the app, of course. The frequency of use (61 percent), the simplicity of access (54 percent), and the speed of access (49 percent) are the top factors influencing their decision. The chances for better distribution are, therefore, higher for PWAs. Push notifications also fuel user interest in the app.
Significant companies like AliExpress have already benefited from launching progressive apps. The eCommerce giant’s conversion rates have increased by 104 percent, and the time spent per session increased by an average of 74 percent across all browsers. Besides this, users started visiting twice as many pages each session.
If you are looking to develop a PWA for your product/business and we have you intrigued do check out our case studies here or reach out to us via the form.
