Comprehensive Guide For Progressive Web App Development

Today, users’ expectations from a website are extremely high. A website can be a social network, grocery store, chatting place, location finder, and whatnot. A website means everything for users who look for online services.

On the other hand, apps continue to play a lead role in our day-to-day life. Many businesses are convinced of the power of versatile apps. But, developing native apps does not always fit everyone’s budget as their development and maintenance are quite expensive.

So, how to get an app with a native-like experience with less investment? Is there any alternative with the combination of native and web apps? Yes, Progressive Web App is the ideal option!

Do you know a popular online travel booking portal Goibibo has achieved a 60% increase in conversions with a highly functional PWA. If we talk about a leading telecommunication service provider Orange, it has also switched to PWA and achieved a 52% increase in conversions via mobile device. This implies that progressive web apps are helping different industry domains to achieve their milestones.

The demand for PWA development services has increased as businesses find it a great way to generate more revenue. Let us move ahead and know why PWA has become the hottest trend in the app development industry

What is Progressive Web App?

The progressive web app is an ultimate combination of web technologies that include JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It gives a native-like app experience. Thanks to some add-ons, you can transform almost every website into a progressive web app.

This implies that you can construct a PWA rather rapidly compared to a native application that is quite hard to create. Moreover, you can offer features of native apps e.g. offline support, push notification, and much more with a PWA. PWAs are gaining huge popularity.

Let’s simplify this, progressive web apps are defined as web apps that combine the basic features and functionalities of web and native apps. Reportedly, the market size of PWAs is expected to reach USD 10.44 Billion by 2027. It won’t be wrong to state that progressive web apps are the future of the app development industry.

Idea Behind Progressive Web Apps

Created by Google in 2015, progressive web apps are developed to deliver the experience of both web and native app features. But, the idea of PWA is not new as Steve Jobs presented the concept in the frontline during the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Jobs wanted app developers to develop innovation using standard web technologies.

Later, Berriman and Russell observed a class of websites that were offering a better user experience than traditional web applications. They termed this new class of apps as “Progressive Web App”.

5 Real-Time Examples Progressive Web Apps

Flipkart Lite

India’s leading eCommerce site has favored progressive web app development and this results in a 70% increase in conversions. Flipkart Lite leverages new open web APIs, to ultimate mobile web experience with the fast loading speed, less data consumption, and re-engage users.

The Weather Channel

Considering the mobile web success with PWAs, The Weather Channel. It has introduced PWA in 62 languages across 178 countries. The company looked to PWA to deliver timely, accurate real-time weather notifications.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post relies on progressive web apps to publish content that takes less loading time anywhere across the mobile web.

Twitter Lite

Twitter developed Twitter Lite to offer an enhanced user experience that exclusively focuses on fast loading, lower data consumption, and user engagement. Lite Version of  Twitter has become the least expensive and most reliable way to use Twitter.

Facebook Lite

Facebook has decided to offer an uncompromised user experience and avoid space constraints on the phone without modifying the size. The launch of Facebook Lite encourages more visitors to download the Lite app.

PWA v/s Web App v/s Native App

	Progressive Web App	Web App	Native App
Installation	PWA can be easily installed on the selected device whether it is mobile or desktop.	Web applications are designed to operate inside of a web browser and cannot be installed on a device.	The native app’s prompt installation allows users to quickly download the app on their devices directly from the app store without leaving the browser.
App-like Experience	PWA utilizes the same technologies as used by web apps which include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., and offers an excellent app-like experience. PWA can utilize most of the device features like push notifications regardless of the web browser used.	A regular web application showcases a responsive or adaptive design experience in different browsers and devices. Unlike PWAs, these web apps do not provide a native app-like experience.	Native apps can tie into the underlying operating system. It can perform more calculations by accessing the device hardware and delivering an enhanced user experience.
Security	PWA serves on HTTPS hence it ensures highly secured content delivery.	A web application firewall or WAF helps protect a web application against attacks like SQL injection, cross-site forgery, and cross-site scripting.	Native apps are built on strong security protocols and prevent them from various security vulnerabilities.
Real-Time Data Access	Progressive web apps have the ability to self-update. While any changes take place, these apps get updated on their own.	A web app is a website itself so it also supports auto-update functionality.	It requires a manual update. Whenever any changes occur in the app, it releases its updated version, and users need to update it on their device.
Performance	PWA loads much faster. It enables you to add to the home screen, load it quickly and use it offline or on an imperfect network connection.	It minimizes the overall load time by optimizing the web pages to deliver fast performance.	Native apps are very fast and responsive because they are built for a particular platform and compiled utilizing core programming languages and API.

Optimal Progressive Web App checklist

The Progressive Web App checklist portrays what makes an application easy to install and usable by different users, regardless of input type or size. To make an extraordinary Progressive Web App that feels like a feature-rich application, you need something other than the core checklist.

The ideal Progressive Web App checklist makes your PWA feel like it is specially built for the device it is running on. So, let’s find the optimal checklist to develop PWA:

Provides An Offline Experience

PWA does not pay great attention to strong internet connectivity and works the same offline as it does online. When we see from the user’s point of view, they look for authentication in offline mode so it’s better to design for offline authentication. An offline PWA offers an amazing app-like user experience. Once you observe what are the key features users expect in offline mode, you will be required to make your content adaptable to offline context.

Fully Accessible

The vast majority of users eventually in their life will need to take benefit of your PWA in a manner that is covered under the WCAG 2.0 accessibility needs. People’s capability to connect with and comprehend your PWA exists on needs that can be temporary or permanent. By making your PWA easily accessible, you guarantee it’s usable for everybody. It is recommended to go through manual accessibility testing.

Can Be Discovered Through Search

Probably the greatest benefit of the web is the capacity to find sites and applications via search. The greater part of all website traffic comes from organic search. Ensuring that canonical URLs exist for content and search engines can index your site is basic for users to discover your PWA. This is particularly evident when adopting client-side rendering.

Works With Any Device Type

Devices provide a wide array of input options and users should have the convenience to easily switch between them while utilizing your app. Input options should not be based on the screen size, which means large viewports are required to support touch and small viewports need to support mice and keyboard. Make sure that your PWA and its set of features to support any input method.

Provides Context For Permission Requests

API-based permission prompts to engage in the easy adoption of data-efficient functionalities that require users’ data such as location. Adding permission prompts with valid context increases the overall app credibility.

Follows Best Practices For Healthy Code

There are tons of factors included in building a cutting-edge progressive web application. Stay tuned with the latest trends and keep your codebase solid that makes it simpler for you to deliver modern features that meet different objectives.

7 Frameworks For PWA Development in 2022

ReactJS

Introduced by social media giant Facebook in 2013, ReactJS is highly preferred among developers. It helps in creating both single-page and multi-page apps and offers an extensive JavaScript library.

AngularJS

Released by Google in 2010, AngularJS uses the JavaScript ecosystem for building scalable and reliable PWAs.

VueJS

VueJS has the potential to develop complex and dynamic applications. It simplifies the development process with features like simplistic coding, high-speed rendering, and routing.

PWABuilder

Founded by Microsoft, PWABuilder is an open-source PWA framework that provides rapid development elements for responsive web apps across several platforms and devices.

Polymer

Developed by Google, Polymer offers excellent documentation and enables full web app stack support that includes responsive layouts, data tier, and routing.

Svelte

This component-based framework offers faster page loading, syntactic analysis, and execution using a leaner code.

Ionic

Introduced in 2013, Ionic’s massive library of components for both Android and iOS makes it an ideal option for robust progressive web app development.

How Developing a PWA Can Be Beneficial for Your Business?

An app publisher finds it a great accomplishment to develop and maintain an app with less investment. Hence, PWA is considered a smart idea as it is simpler to develop a site than an Android/iOS application. Businesses can opt for PWA development services to build PWA that will be fluid and functional like native apps.

Like other applications, progressive web apps are not bound to a specific platform. It implies that one doesn’t need to make a different application adaptation for varied platforms. Indeed, progressive web applications deal with different platforms. Businesses can opt for PWA due to other reasons like:

• Quick Response to clients
• Full responsiveness and browser compatibility
• Reliable despite Network flaws
• Improve user engagement
• High-Performance Website
• Fully Secure

Key Features Of Progressive Web Apps:

• App-like Interaction: Based on the app shell model, these apps offer an app-like interaction.
• Progressive: As the word “progressive” defines that it performs for every client regardless of the selected browser. Hence, this one is the key feature of this innovation.
• Easy Installation: Users do not need to navigate to the app store and they can easily install the site like an app on the home screen.
• Easy To Share: Instead of a particular installation process, progressive web apps can be easily shared through URLs.
• Responsive: It can potentially perform on different devices like desktop, mobile, and tablet.
• Updated: It can self-update. Users are not required to spend time on timely updates like iOS and Android apps.
• Fast Loading: Progressive web apps come with quick availability.

What are The Top PWA Trends in 2022?

PWAs are gaining the limelight from prominent platforms, thanks to many features and benefits, such as native-like, easy implementation, faster process, security, low storage, efficient performance, etc. Such platforms utilize the ability of PWA to expand their businesses and reach out to a broader target audience.

This tremendous popularity of PWA is giving rise to futuristic trends and propelling tech-leading industries to make innovations in this modern technology.

Here are some of the top progressive web app development trends in 2022.

Easy Conversion Websites Into PWAs

PWA allows websites to become standalone apps because it is developed from web technologies rather than native app-development environments. Simply discarding the browser elements limiting the user base, PWA can provide a more native-like app experience.

You can easily spot PWA on websites through “Add to Home Screen,” “Install App,” or “Add to Screen” links.

Moreover, certain web apps work better as PWA, enabling benefits like quick access, fast loading, less memory usage, etc. Therefore, this trend will continue to be forward in 2022.

Integration of Augmented and Virtual Realities

AR/VR provides remarkable opportunities for establishing effective interaction between the world and the data around them. As progressive web apps are replacing desktop applications, it will be no surprise to see some innovations using augmented and virtual reality web app integration.

For example, PWA is making its way into Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2, the virtual reality (VR) headset created by Oculus.

Magento PWA

One of the revolutionary innovations in the field of PWA is Magento Progressive Web Application. With Magento PWA, you can easily integrate PWA features into your Magento website and experience its lucrative benefits. Thus, Magento PWA will be in trend this year.

You can hire PWA developers to elevate the website experience to a whole new level, especially for a mobile shopping experience.

Getting Innovations From Major Platforms

PWA has its support from industry leaders like Google and Microsoft. And prominent applications like Spotify, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook are already leveraging PWA features.

With PWA finally making its way onto the iPhone, Apple is working towards their beta software toggles “Built-in Web Notifications” and “Push API” features inside Safari. However, it is not functional yet, but we can get an idea that PWA features are to be modernized soon.

PWABuilder For Facilitating PWAs

Google and Microsoft are putting efforts to provide improvements in the PWA market. Google already supports facilitating PWA and offers Bubblewrap technology for its development.

Microsoft has recently released PWABuilder, which will be using Google’s Bubblewrap technology. It will help progressive web app developers build robust PWA and deploy it on the Google Play app store.

Factors That Determine The progressive Web App Development Cost?

Development Team (Outsourcing v/s In-house)

While planning for PWA development, you’d need to consider a team of talented minds who can deal with PWA development complexities. Now the question is what to choose: outsourcing or an in-house team. It totally depends upon your project needs. If you are looking for platform-specific expertise then you can outsource your project. If you are looking for convenience for office and regularly project-related discussion in person then favor the local company. The choice is yours!

Features and Functionalities

PWAs provide users with a mini version of a web application. This version, which we call PWA, would comprise some basic yet the most fundamental features of the application. The role of these features and functionalities is as crucial as in any other type of application i.e. native apps or web apps. Due to this reason, the development of PWAs is relatively more affordable than any other type of application.

UX/UI Design

A boring app design is a way to the underrated app. Must ensure that your progressive web app design is creative, engaging, and simple at the same time. Your app design should grab the user’s attention and help them to easily navigate. Hire a creative app designer who can add attractive visuals and customize your app design as per users’ needs.

QA Testing

Before you launch your app, ensure that it includes zero bugs. Follow standard quality assurance protocols and test your app in every possible way. You can also avail of mobile app testing services to ensure great performance and prevent any future bugs.

PWA Deployment

Once your app is completed get it deployed on the specified platforms. It takes some additional charges for the deployment of an app. You will be required to pay accordingly.

Sum-up!

Easy internet accessibility and an increasing number of digital services are some obvious reasons behind the exponential growth in mobile phone usability. With the surprising growth in mobile usage, the optimization for user experience becomes more essential.

Also, web browsing on mobile devices is rising at rocket speed. When it comes to digital media usage, mobile apps have witnessed exponential growth than websites. This led to the shift in business focus from website to apps to deliver more quality content and enhanced user engagement.

Progressive web apps are an ideal match to market your business. These apps are the hottest trend in the online market as it brings uniformity among native and web apps.

Sparx IT Solutions is the leading PWA development company that caters to global business needs. They are a team of skilled developers who are committed to meet the project needs and clients’ expectations. You can connect with them for the successful completion of your PWA development.