Mobile user experience is excellent, with low development costs and cross-platform functionality. Progressive web apps (PWAs), which are digital product solutions, tick all the right boxes. Combining an app-like user experience with mobile web accessibility is possible.

In recent years, major brands have developed successful PWAs, including Alibaba, Twitter, and Starbucks. These projects have had impressive results, which have significantly impacted business key performance indicators (KPIs).

Are progressive web apps the future for digital products and is the native app dead?

That’s exactly what this article will reveal.

What is Progressive Web App?

A progressive web application is an application that uses web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. A PWA is accessible through a web browser. It does not require installation on a device. Native apps offer a more engaging and intuitive user experience than the mobile internet, but PWAs bridge that gap by offering app-like functionality. PWAs, for example, can be added to a device’s home screen, can send push notifications, and can even work offline.

What Should You Do About PWAs?

Nearly 90% of mobile screen time is attributed to native apps, but it can be difficult for consumers to download new apps. Progressive web apps enhance customer experience by combining the advantages of native apps with the accessibility of the mobile web.

PWAs have been adopted by many of the most prominent brands, publishers, and social media platforms around the globe. Let’s look at three of the most important PWA projects.

BMW

In 2018, the premium brand of automotive redesigned its website. BMW wanted a mobile website that would offer the same smooth, reliable, and fast experience its customers associate with their vehicles.

BMW reported that the PWA had led to a 40% increase in click-throughs to sales pages, a 50% rise in mobile users, and a 49% increase in organic traffic after the launch.

George at Asda

To improve the mobile shopping experience for George, a UK clothing brand, a PWA was launched in 2018. George saw a 31% rise in mobile conversions and 20% more page views per visitor after upgrading to a PWA. There was also a 28% increase in average time spent on the site.

Forbes

Forbes, the renowned publisher, wanted to improve its mobile user experience. With more content being consumed via mobile devices than ever before, Forbes was able to offer a better user experience. Forbes’ PWA was launched and saw a dramatic increase in user engagement. Scroll depth increased by 300%, and readers completed articles by 600%.

PWAs are being used to great effect in a variety of industries to provide measurable business impact. More examples of successful PWA projects can be found on the Google Developers Blog.

Progressive Web Apps vs. Native Apps

PWAs provide an app-like experience with lower development costs. PWAs can’t replicate certain functions in native apps, at least not yet.

Development Cost and Time

A PWA offers many advantages for companies. It is quicker and more affordable than native apps.

Native app development requires you to create two versions of your digital product to make it available to Android and iOS users. This requires a larger team of developers and a larger budget. This also means that product development takes longer because you have to work on two code bases.

Cross-platform functionality is possible with a PWA. Users can access your web app via a web browser from any platform, whether it’s iOS, Android, or desktop. Development is usually faster and cheaper when there’s only one codebase.

A PWA makes it much easier to create and implement new features and patches after launch.

No App-Store from Third Parties

A PWA does not require a third-party intermediary. A user can access a PWA by simply visiting the URL from their web browser. Users can add the PWA as a native app to their home screen once they have visited the web app.

To access a native app, the user must open the app store and search for the app. After waiting for the app to download, the app can then be installed.

PWAs eliminate the need to install large apps and a third-party store.

Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company, launched its PWA. It discovered 60% that customers who had uninstalled native apps returned to using its PWA.

Increased online visibility

The pages of native apps cannot be indexed by search engines. This means that organic search results are no longer a source of traffic or new users for native apps. You will need an additional website to increase downloads and user numbers.

PWAs have the advantage of being indexed by search engines and listed on websites just like other websites. SEO can be used to increase online visibility, drive organic traffic to your PWA, and Google even provides links within the web application.

Are PWAs an Alternative to Native Apps?

Many companies have replaced native apps with PWA for compelling reasons. PWAs can be lighter and more compact than native apps, but they cannot replace native apps.

PWAs are not yet fully compatible with iOS devices. Apple allows PWAs to save up to 50Mb of data offline, but this limits some offline functionality. iOS also deletes any cached files that are not used for more than a week.

Native apps have more access to the device hardware than native apps. PWAs cannot access Bluetooth or Face ID, for example. A PWA might not be as useful if your digital product needs to access this hardware.

Although it might be prohibitively expensive, many companies have developed both a native app as well as a PWA. Two of the most popular brands, Uber and Tinder, rely on both technologies to reach different audiences. Regular users have access to the native app. Those who don’t have it can still enjoy the app-like experience via the PWA accessible from their web browser.

PWA vs. Mobile Web

PWAs have many advantages over native apps. The mobile web is where technology has had the greatest impact and is expected to grow the fastest. PWAs are replacing responsive websites.

Mobile web users can enjoy an app-like experience while still having the website’s accessibility. There is also a strong business case. Already, we’ve seen how a PWA can improve a variety of KPIs for George, Forbes, and BMW.

These are the top benefits of Progressive Web Apps and the reasons they are the future of the mobile web.

Use offline

PWAs offer content and functionality to end-users even when they are not connected to the internet. This is one of the greatest benefits. PWAs make use of service workers to store data offline.

JavaScript files called service workers can be used to run the web app independently. The service worker checks the internet connection of the user’s browser and redirects the request to a cached URL.

A PWA cannot provide all functionality offline. A user can access the Starbucks PWA offline and view the menu, modify their order, and add items to their cart, but they won’t be able to place an order without internet connectivity. The PWA can redirect users back to the app if they try to access a feature, page, or page that is not available offline.

Push Notifications

Service workers can be used to enable push notification functionality, just like native apps. This is a significant advantage over mobile websites. Google research shows that 58.9% of mobile users permit PWAs to send push notifications:

Users who allow push notifications are more likely to be engaged. Localytics’ study found that push-enabled users log 53% more sessions and are 2x more likely than those who deny pushing notification permission to use an app within 3 months.

Improved user experience

PWAs offer a seamless user experience comparable to native apps. PWAs have a much better UI and UX than mobile website. The average bounce rate of a PWA is 42.86% less than that of a similar mobile website.

PWAs load much faster than mobile websites. The use of pre-caching and service workers allows for lighter loading times. A PWA loads in 2.75 seconds on average, which is 8x faster than a mobile landing page.

A better user experience and faster speeds translate into higher SEO performance and improved organic search rankings.

The Future of the Mobile Web is PWAs

PWAs cannot replace native apps. They can replace responsive websites, however. They offer a native-app-like experience, which is faster and more intuitive than mobile websites. Push notifications and the “add to your home screen” functionality increase engagement and offer more sales opportunities.

PWAs are a powerful tool to gain a competitive edge in the digital economy, where companies compete primarily on their experience.

Conclusion

While native apps have their place, PWAs are the future of the mobile web. PWAs could eventually replace native apps, as Android and iOS both increase their support for them with each update.