Everything clearly revolves around mobile phones and the internet right now.
There’s hardly anything you can’t get almost instantly with your mobile phone, from getting groceries to grabbing a movie ticket to getting an ambulance.
The data on mobile adoption is very obvious: consumers see twice as much content on mobile than on desktops, and this clearly presents a great opportunity for businesses to create even better user experiences and generate brand engagements. The clear question here is no longer whether they should put focus on mobile users, but rather, the best way to go about it, using the resources they have available.
Large businesses now have their own apps, government agencies have theirs too, simplifying everything as much as they can, but as we know, building an app, talk more of maintaining it is no small joke. For the longest time, everyone had only two choices: remain on the web only or build a native app. Now, we have a third option called Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
We at Smart Bloks consider them to be lifesavers, but let’s dive in much better and hopefully, you would understand why we think so.
Progressive Web Apps – what are they?
These are apps that are built with our favourite web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They load like normal websites, but take good advantage of all the features that are supported by modern day browsers, like service workers and web app manifests, to be able to access certain user functionalities like push notifications that used to be done by only native applications.
PWAs create a solid bridge between native apps and good old websites, offering anyone the best of both worlds. They are called Web Apps, but they also have the same look, feel and functionality as an actual Native App.
So, what is a Native App?
This software application is developed with a distinct programming language to be placed on a specific platform, be it iOS or Android. They are designed for one device, and built to take complete advantage of all of its features like contact list, camera, GPS etc
In comparison to Native Apps, PWAs are often seen as a better/easier way to develop a mobile presence, and we will be discussing all about that in the rest of this article, but first, more on PWAs.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) couldn’t have come at a better time, because now more than ever, people are frankly overwhelmed by the very many apps on their devices, and as a result, have become reluctant to install new ones.
Many top companies have hopped on the PWA train with their own web apps, like Twitter and AliExpress, which reported over 100% increase in new users’ conversion rate. PWAs are simple and accessible, and generally a good option for organizations who want to undergo some form of digital transformation.
Some advantages of Progressive Web Apps…
In developing areas like Pakistan, Africa, India etc, the cost of mobile data is on the high side, when compared to much more developed countries. PWAs are way smaller than native apps, hence requiring a lot less data bandwidth because they are able to take better advantage of caching.
A good example is Tinder’s PWA which is barely about 2.8 MB in size, and their Android App being about 30 MB.
Fast loading time is a great asset to any organization, because users expect all sites to be fast and highly responsive. PWAs utilize JavaScript files that run very separately from the main browser thread, called “service workers”, and this enables them to deliver much better performance than traditional web apps.
PWAs cannot only be cached by the web browser, they can also be used offline. This is great for businesses that have catalogs for their products because customers can continue to browse and even shop when they don’t have access to the internet. This will invariably lead to an increase in the bottom line, which is revenue.
Not being dependent on App Stores, be it the iOS Store or Play Store, means that you wouldn’t be required to pay any annual fees to Apple or Google for your app to remain published. This also gives you a level of freedom that allows you to build any app that you want, without feeling constrained to the store’s policies.
To use Twitter’s PWA, you don’t need to first go to your App Store to download/install anything. All you need to do is visit mobile.twitter.com, and you can log in without any delays. When Twitter makes any update whatsoever to its PWA, users aren’t required to manually update/install anything because all the new features and updates are made available automatically. This doesn’t only benefit the users, as the company can be sure to receive fewer complaints from users experiencing some issues due to them using an outdated version.
Can we really conclude the advantages of PWAs without talking about the fact that PWAs can enjoy many platform-specific features. An example is that PWAs can sit on a user’s home screen and even enable web push notifications that frankly, function just like the regular push notifications. PWAs can change display orientation, access locational data, run in full screen, and so much more.
As they say, everything that has an advantage most likely has a disadvantage, so let’s look into some disadvantages of Progressive Web Apps
1.Troubles with Legacy Devices
PWA is a concept that has been here for just a couple of years, so it’s not a surprise that older devices with outdated browsers wouldn’t be so compatible with them. This is something that would inevitably become less of a concern in the nearest future, but it may just happen to be a source of user complaints for certain companies.
2.Non-compatible with IOS
Since iOS 11.3, it’s been pretty much impossible to run PWAs on all Apple devices, talk more of older devices. Apple also restricts access to some important features like Bluetooth, altimeter sensor, Face ID, battery information and even Touch ID.
When compares to traditional websites, PWAs are clearly a huge step-up, but even at that, they still can’t do everything that mobile apps can do. They are written in JavaScript, and this makes them less battery efficient when compared to native apps written in languages like Swift.
After highlighting these advantages and disadvantages, it’s pretty obvious that there are more highs than lows when it comes to PWAs. In this short time, PWA as a concept, has managed to create a new outlook on how websites can and should be built, and no company that wants to succeed in this very friendly mobile era that we’re currently in, can afford to actually ignore them.
Between PWAs and Native Apps, there are certain clear-cut differences that place PWAs as a better alternative, so let’s take a quick look at that.
So many high profile companies have continued to hop on the PWA train, and Forbes for example, was able to immediately increase their readership by about 12%, after releasing a PWA that was way better than their previous mobile website that took about 6.5 seconds to load, which is double the time an average person waits for a page to load.
In Conclusion, here’s what we think at SmartBloks…
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a “PWA vs Native Apps” conversation, because the most important thing is getting a product/solution that works to your customers, and both of them have the capacity to aid that goal.
PWAs are an amazing option for businesses that have a good presence online, but also have limited resources. On the other hand, if you have all of what it takes to build a great native app, you can definitely do that, to enable you deliver the best user experience that you possibly can.
The barrier to entry for PWAs is quite low, so make sure to get started with it to enable you tap into the very many benefits that this mobile-friendly era can give to your business.
PWAs haven’t been fully utilized yet, so we’re certain that there are even more functionalities that would be coming out In the nearest future, that would continue to improve customer experiences and keep your users satisfied and happy.
References:
https://appinventiv.com/blog/native-vs-progressive-web-apps/
https://www.gomage.com/blog/pwa-vs-native-vs-hybrid-vs-responsive-website/
