We all faced a situation where we are out of storage due to the high storage accumulated by apps or by photos, videos etc. We can sync our photos and other multimedia in cloud or in another device or storage medium, but what about our applications? Each application has a set of predefined storage space needed for their processing and storage of media. What will we do? We can’t just buy a new device for installing a new application, right? Well, one of the solution is the upcoming trend of Progressive Web Application.
What are Progressive Web Applications?
Progressive Web Application (henceforth I’ll be referring it as PWA) is a web application that can be installed in a device with faster loading for short. According to the official statement, PWA is a fast, reliable and engaging web applications that can work in your device even when offline by caching using the service workers and provide a native app like experience minus the large storage problem. Currently PWA needs a secure Connection (Https) to perform correctly. So we can rest easy that is secure, right? Well, Not Quiet. These web applications do not meet the standards of the App Store in IOS and Google Play. So its kind of like almost secure now. But I believe that there is going to be a very good update and standardization for these kind of applications. Another flaw for these kind of applications is that currently they can’t give all the native device functionalities that we can get from our native devices. We can use the API and other alternatives, but hope these features also come in the future. To be honest, now that most of the applications work after fetching data from internet, it won’t be an issue. PWA has a lot of ways to go, but now they are definitely able to use the primary needed features like camera and push notifications as these features as already available in the browser. Of course, since most of us are irritated to see the toolbar of the browser and always missing out when a large amount of tabs or windows are opened and get missed out which tab we opened our application, this remedy is a good choice as it can open in a new window as a separate native application. IOS allows about 50mb for progressive app and since it uses low memory-conception its a win in that device too.
Why it’s worth talking about?
For starters, most of the organizations are currently implementing it. Considering a business point of view, Most of the startups or upcoming online businesses do not have enough resources to employ a Web Developer, an IOS developer and an Android Developer for the website at an early stage. Since Apple has allowed PWA from IOS 11.3 and it’s already available on Android, we could say that its a cross native alternative to native apps. Google even gives special consideration to PWA based application. Currently there are millions of android apps in Google Play Store and some of them with an almost similar name too, so it’s becoming difficult to find an app that we need by just knowing the service name from their website. Another issue is that some of the web applications have a web based application and not a one in android or IOS but someone might have created the native application and might be destroying the reputation of the company. If it is possible to get the application directly from the web page its a good experience, right. PWA is not only available for mobile devices, but also desktop devices as well. I have tried it. If you like to dive into it or try it in your system, Here are the steps I tried and experienced.
Steps to reproduce in Desktop – Windows – Chrome
- Open your Chrome Browser
- Go to chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas to enable in the Desktop PWAs
- Go to pokedex.org
- Click the Menu (the 3 dots on top-right corner)
- Install ‘Install Pokedex’ from the menu
- Now you can see the app in your desktop
- With Uninstall, click the Menu (Again the dots on the top) and the click uninstall pokedex
Steps to reproduce in Android
- Open your Browser (Chrome, FireFox, etc.)
- Go to Flipkart.
- You can also find other similar PWA based applications at progressivewebapproom.com or Go to AppScope to try it out
- A small banner in the bottom of the page saying ‘Add “The App Name” to Home Screen’
- Click add and the installation will process in the background
- There is an attached Video below showing the steps performed.
- To Uninstall follow the same step as in normal native apps.
Steps to reproduce in IOS devices
(With OS version equal to and above IOS 11.3)
- Open your Safari Browser
- Go to Swiggy Webpage
- Click the share icon in the bottom
- Click the add to Home Screen Button
- Uninstall the application the same way we uninstall a native application
Conclusion
PWA has been released a couple of years back and It’s currently in its initial stage of growth. I believe it has a long way to go. But it is worth taking into account considering how big it can grow into, as now all of the great OS’s are approving it. Though it has some of the disadvantages, I truly believe it has a room to grow for better and use all the capabilities of the devices.
For the people who are into web development, I would urge you to learn it and I would definitely experiment with it, understand it better and then create a tutorial on this in the near future.
I would love to hear from you all, So comment below.