Would You Like a Progressive Web App?

By Cory Maki Cory Maki has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on September 5, 2022

Modern developers of web applications should always stay alert, because the digital world is changing every day and you need to adapt to the realities of the market. One of such developments that changed the global IT market was the emergence of progressive web applications – PWAs. 

In order to decide what your future project needs, you need to understand the advantages of PWA as well as their disadvantages. And here you can count on the help of Inoxoft company. This term refers to a new generation of web applications that can load in the same way as regular websites, but at the same time use the functions of modern browsers, including service workers. Thus, users have access to offline work, push notifications, and other features. Usually, these are functions that are associated only with standard applications. Thus, we get something in between a mobile application and a website, collecting all the best of these worlds. 

When users need a practical and user-friendly interface, like in mobile applications and advanced settings as on websites, PWA comes to the rescue. At the same time, the conversion rate of new users increases significantly – this is confirmed by such conglomerates as AliExpress and Twitter. 

Progressive Web Apps – pros and cons

All the main pros and cons of Progressive Web Apps come from the fact that PWAs unite the convenience and widespread policy of the web with the functionality of native mobile apps. So, let’s go directly to the main advantages of such applications: 

  • Autonomous mode

PWA applications are used offline and cached by the browser. By potentially increasing user engagement by making a product catalog available online, for example, you increase sales and revenue in your own company. 

  • High performance

PWAs use service workers, which are JavaScript code files and control the caching of resources. It is this factor that can ensure better performance, and the client will not need to wait for the website to load or scroll down to the desired location. Google says that half of the users leave a page if the website takes longer than 3-5 seconds to load. Therefore, efficiency is a positive dynamic for an increase in the number of users. 

  • No installation or self-service updates 

Users don’t need to visit the Play Store or App Store to download a new update. They can simply go to the site or use the app without any hitches or delays. All new features or fixed bugs are presented already in an updated form, without requiring manual settings from users. Of course, not only end users benefit from using PWA applications, but also the companies that produce these applications. With PWA, you as an owner have fewer support requests from users. Thus, the owner has freedom of action, he can release updates in sufficient parts, while not embarrassing his users.

  • Specific program functions

The functions of the PWA application have a profitable advantage, they can use the functions of specific platforms. Thus, they have the ability to appear on the user’s home screen, just like regular push notifications. They can work in full-screen mode, change the orientation of the display, and access location data. 

  • Reducing the data layer

PWA mobile data is significantly less than in mobile apps and requires less bandwidth to operate. In this way, they take better and better advantage of caching. This is a huge plus for those who can not use Wi-Fi often enough, but have to use the mobile Internet. 

  • Freedom from the App Store 

As a PWA owner, you don’t have to pay any application storage fees. Also, you get freedom of action, and you can release any updates or create new applications, and not refer to someone’s security or business policy (for example, Google and Apple).

Along with a large number of advantages, applications such as progressive web apps have a number of undeniable disadvantages. When choosing which application to create for your future idea and project, it is worth considering all aspects of web design and development. So, let’s take a look at the disadvantages of such applications:

  • Poor compatibility with iOS software system

Starting with iOS 11.3, you can run PWA on Apple devices and devices, but it will not work with older communication devices. Also, PWA applications do not have access to many functions on Apple devices (Touch ID, Face ID, ARKit, Bluetooth, serial port, altimeter sensor and even battery information). 

  • Incorrect work with obsolete devices

Since PWAs appeared quite recently, it is not surprising that outdated devices and web browsers do not work correctly and do not support them at a sufficiently high level. Today, this problem may increase the number of customer complaints, although in the near future it may not become at all. 

  • PWAs can’t do a lot of services

Despite the fact that PWAs are compared to traditional web applications, they still can not do everything that mobile applications can do. Because they’re written in JavaScript, they’re not as efficient at working with battery-rich functionality as apps written in native languages. 

Their performance is also not as good as that of native applications, which is largely due to the fact that JavaScript is a single-threaded programming language. At the moment, access to some important functions of the device is still missing, including such an important function as Bluetooth, proximity sensors, advanced camera elements and others.

Conclusion

After listing the main pros and cons of progressive web applications, it becomes clear that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Even though they’ve been around for a relatively small amount of time (even when it comes to web technology), PWAs have already created a new philosophy for building websites, and no company that wants to be relevant in the mobile era can afford to ignore them.

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By Cory Maki Cory Maki has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Cory Maki is a former Staff Editor and the Business Development Manager at Grit Daily.

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