Progressive Web Apps(PWAs) - A Way to Enhance User Experience

As Apps continue to play a major role in people’s day to day life, Many businesses are now switching over to apps to reach their customers. With the increasing competition, Businesses are focusing more on which type of applications they need to build that will solve customer needs and drive their business to success. This makes them invest more in innovative solutions. 

Progressive Web Apps(PWAs) is one among them which benefits both users and businesses in numerous ways. PWAs are modern technology aimed at providing a seamless mobile experience to the users.

Have you heard of PWA? If you don’t then this article will guide you completely on Progressive Web Apps

Let’s start with the basic introduction of What exactly are progressive web apps?

What are Progressive Web Apps?

Progressive Web Apps(PWAs) are web apps which feel and perform quite similar to native apps but run within a browser. They are very responsive with security features a way ahead of Web Apps. They engage users better than web Apps and also send push notifications to the users. 

Some of the Features of Progressive Web Apps can work on slow network connections or even offline. Users can install them on home screens, docks, and even taskbars. When they are clicked they lead to the app website on the browser.

Progressive Web Apps get automatically updated and are served through HTTPS which makes them secure.  Regardless of which operating systems or device types, PWAs run fast and provide similar user experience.

The Reason why progressive web apps are incredible is because it allows users to enjoy the same experience as an app on their browser when using the Mobile Web Application.

source: web.dev

Examples of Progressive Web Apps:

Pinterest, Spotify, Starbucks, Flipboard, Twitter

Numbers Don't lie, Here are the Number Stats of PWAs

• As per Emergen Research, The global progressive web application market is estimated to reach value of USD 10.44 Billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 31.9%
• Brands using Progressive Web Apps have 36% higher conversion rates than native apps.
• Progressive web apps engage users 50% more than normal apps
• Businesses switching to PWAs saw a decrease in page loading speed of up to 10 times.
• The cost of Progressive Web App Development will be 3-4 times less than building native mobile apps.

How progressive Web Apps help Big Brands reach their Huge Customers?

Pinterest

• Pinterest with more than 300million active users monthly lets them create pins and save images, graphics, GIFs, and more.
• Pinterest launched its PWA which helps them to increase user engagement by 60%. 
• The user-generated ad revenue was increased by 40%.

Twitter

• Twitter, the largest social networking site after the launch of its PWA, allows users the fastest and easiest way to use twitter.
• It saw a 65% increase in pages per session and 75% more Tweets.
• The bounce rate was decreased by 20%.
• Overall the size of their App was reduced by over 97%. 

Flipkart

• Flipkart, India’s biggest e-commerce site has combined their web presence and native app into a PWA which makes their customers have instant access to their store.
• This helps increase their Re-engagement rate by 40%.
• It also records a 70% increase in their conversion rate.

Tinder

• Tinder the famous dating platform introduces their PWA in the market beside their native app.
• The PWA of tinder was 90% smaller than their native Apps.
• It also helps them decrease the loading time from 11.91 seconds to 4.69 seconds. 

MakeMyTrip

• MakeMyTrip India’s largest travel company with more than 8 million active users monthly adds PWA. 
• The addition of PWA increased their shopper sessions by 160%.
• The conversion rate was 3X times larger and loading time of page was increased by 38%.

Progressive Web Apps vs Native Apps

Here we start with the simple difference between the two

A native app is a self-contained program that can be installed and works on the smart phones. Progressive Web Apps are essentially websites that display like native mobile apps and perform the same functions similar to native apps but through the internet browser.

Some of the Key Differences Are

Progressive

As the name implies progressive Web Apps runs irrespective of Operating systems or devices. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) runs on anywhere, any operating system, on any device with a single codebase. The Major advantage of PWAs over Native apps are that they don't have restrictions such as that they can run only on a single platform. Progressive enhancement is a major factor that takes PWAs ahead of traditional
apps. 

Responsiveness

Users use the internet from a variety of devices such as smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and a variety of other devices. PWAs have responsive design which makes then adapt to different types of devices without any compromise in user experience.

Update Delivery

Any updates on the native apps must compile with the app stores regulation and policy before a release. It takes more time for developers to release to the users. But in case of Progressive Web Apps any updates are instant and automated for all users without the app store approval.

Connection Dependency

working of Some native app's functionality fully depends on the internet connection and can be accessible only when online. But in the case of Progressive web app, it works with a connection of any quality and saves some functionality in the offline mode. When there is no internet connection still the user can access those functionalities on the offline mode. offline mode implies that the interface and content are still available even when offline due to caching. 

What makes Progressive Web App a Good choice?

There are numerous benefits offered by Progressive Web Apps when compared to traditional Apps. We have just seen user functionalities such as working offline, push notifications and device hardware access. But there is more. here we'll look at the benefits of PWA over native apps.

Low Data:  An app which takes close to 10 MBs as a native app, can be reduced to about 500KB when made a PWA.

Works in any browser: Progressive web apps can be used on any browser before it's installed.

Responsive to any screen size:  Users can view PWAs on any screen size and all contents are available at any view port size.

Reliable: A reliable Progressive Web App feels fast and dependable regardless of the network.

Sharing is Easy: unlike native apps, Progressive Web Apps can be easily shared with the help of its URL 

Discovered through Search: Progressive Web Apps are easily crawled and Indexed by search engines so that it can be easily available through search.

Speed:  one of the major factors that makes users visit your side is performance. i.e speed. A Website which loads more faster will engage and retain users better than other sites. This is what PWAs are all about. 

Easy to Develop: PWAs can be developed by using programming languages ​​like HTML / JavaScript / CSS. Developers need not to learn new code for developing apps.

Ease of change: Any changes can be easily made by directly to the site code

Fresh: Always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.

Re-engageable: Makes users engaging in the Site through features like push notifications.

Safe and Secure:  PWAs are Served via TLS to prevent snooping and ensure content hasn’t been tampered with.

Conclusion

Hope you have got a clear idea about the concept of progressive web apps. As We, Macandro - Mobile App Development Company have a pool of experts who constantly strives to update themselves with new innovations and mobile app technologies to enrich business growth as well as their skills. Be in touch with us to get detailed insights about mobile apps updates & upgrade you and your business to the new mobile app technologies and transformation.