What is Progressive Web Apps

What are Progressive Web Apps or PWA’s ?

A progressive web app is a website that looks and behaves as if it is a mobile app that are highly optimized, reliable, and accessible completely on the web.

PWAs are built with web technology. With a PWA, an app built once can reach all your target devices with the same code-base.

Web development has advanced remarkably over the years allowing developers to deploy a website or web application and serve millions of people around the globe within minutes. PWA or Progressive Web Apps is a natural progression of this evolution, taking user experience for Internet users a notch higher.

The flow of a typical progressive web app goes as below :

• Open as web page in tabs on the Web browser
• Shows the option of adding to the homescreen of the device
• Progressively starts exhibiting app-like properties such as offline usage, push notifications and background sync

It gives us the best of the web and the best of apps combined.

It often comes down to the following qualities:

• Native look and feel
• Speed & Performance
• Offline Browsing Support
• Easy to Install
• Native App Functionality like receiving push notifications

Popular Companies Using Progressive Web App –  
Several popular companies have upgraded their websites into progressive web apps.

Progressive Web App Examples:

• Twitter Lite
• Flipkart Lite
• Housing
• AliExpress
• Lancôme
• Pinterest
• Tinder
• MakeMyTrip.com

Building Progressive Web Apps is not a difficult thing to do, however, it requires in-depth knowledge of technologies involved and a higher maintenance time. If you already have a working web app therefore you can go ahead include a service worker and a manifest file to get a basic functional PWA.

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