Why is Progressing Web App Development taking over Web development?

2020 (global crisis) has certainly changed the way the users are experiencing and interacting with a brand and taking on goods and services, speeding up the underlying trend already in motion. It is now the need of the hour for the industries to speed-up their digital game and boosts customer experience. No wonder PWA (Progressive Web Apps) are playing a leading role.

Generally, the applications are categorized into two parts; platform-specific applications and web applications.

Platform-specific applications are recognized for being incredibly rich and reliable. They are ever presented on the home screens, docks, and taskbars. They function irrespective of the internet/network connection and launch in their own standalone experience. These applications feel like part of the device they run on.

Whereas,

Web Applications- These are the application software that operates on a web server, unlike platform-based applications, and are accessed by the user through a web browser under internet connectivity. Web applications are accessible to anyone, anywhere, on any smart device with a single codebase.

So, if platform-based applications are best for capabilities and web applications are best for reach, where do Progressive Web App (PWA) fit in?

PWA, the next-generation web application delivers the best of web and mobile apps. They can launch and operate on any platform and present its users with an experience that is similar to what they experience from a native app (those icons that clutter your phone (Android or iOS) screen). Many of the highly engaging and interactive applications are PWAs, including Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify, Uber, and others.

What is Progressive Web Application (PWA)?

PWAs are robust, effective, swift, and app-like.

At its core, PWAs are the web applications that take advantage of the contemporary web techniques for developing a native and feature-rich app-like and flawless experience for the users. These apps are available and run on any smart desktop or mobile device. PWAs are featuring progressive enhancement designed to implement nifty features, such as background sync, caching, splash screen, offline mode, and push notifications.

Why does your business call for a Progressive Web Application?

As per statistics, today, approx 60% of the traffic is operating from mobile devices, which makes it crucial for business owners to present their users with the best user experience to stay ahead in the competition.

The mobile traffic is escalating, but conversion rates are not: mobile traffic still records for only 16% of the combined conversion rates.

When an eCommerce store is shifting to a Progressive Web App, they generally see an overall 20% profit boost. Source- Google.

With a majority of eCommerce businesses yet not adopting this new technology, it depicts a rare and exciting chance to get ahead of the competition. Besides, there are many solid reasons to prove to you that PWA is surely taking over web development and is the future of applications, not just a hype that fades away with passing time.

Enhancing user engagement with push notifications

With PWA features like options to enable push notifications, PWAs can assist users to be tied up and be notified, as per the requirement.

Enhancing user engagement with push notifications

PWA offers a highly engaging customer experience, similar to that of native apps. Besides, they can easily be installed on the home screen, enabling direct access to the user. No manual updates are required with PWAs as they update automatically in the background, assuring users to always see recent content.

Look and feel like native apps

PWA offers an ‘app shell model’ that enables any user to switch to an app-like view or interface on PWA. Besides, it also allows splitting of the app design in terms of functionality and content, which enables any modification, or update (if required) into the functionalities without affecting the content part.

PWAs can enhance your SEO

By breaking down the barrier between the web and native apps, with PWA, users can directly link to the most enlightened digital products, on any device, any time.
Besides, incredibly fast loading time, minimal bounce rates, least data usage, and highly interactive experiences are the by-default boosters for SEO rankings. And PWA marks the right tick to all these.

Offline access

PWA is designed to function offline or on a slow speed network. Therefore, it is independent of the nature or speed of the user’s connectivity to the internet.

Incredibly fast

If your website is loading at turtle speed, customers would give up, causing you to miss out on potential sales. PWAs load exceptionally fast and respond swiftly to user interactions. Enhanced website performance positively affects conversion rates, retention rates, and user experience.

More security

Each PWA provides a secure server, i.e. (in technical terms) each PWA app has to be served via HTTPS to firewall against prying or content tampering.

Progressive

PWA, being platform-independent, operates well, regardless of the browser choice the user made. It is unfazed by the diversity of the users as it “enhances” itself after every time, a user operates it.

Responsive

PWA is friendly with any smart device or hardware- be it a desktop, a laptop, phone, tablet, or any other upcoming medium.

Up-To-Date

PWAs are always up-to-date due to their cache-storage ability.

Shareable

PWA does not call for any complicated installation whenever a user wants to operate PWA, all they need to do is simply share the URL.

Identifiable

PWAs are easily detectable as user registrations enable them to be indexed in search engines, and as a result, search worthy on search engines.

Convenient to Keep

PWA enables its users to keep apps on their home screen and does not require users to access any kind of app store, to have access to them.
As a user builds a relationship with an app by using it repeatedly, the PWA has the inherent programming that enables it to store the cached data, authorizing the app to even load on slower connections.

Best PWA examples for your inspiration

As digital giants (Twitter, Forbes, Uber, etc) switched their roots to PWA, they have become an inspiration for many small and medium-sized industries to opt for better user experience, revenue, leads, minimal bounce rate, security, speed, etc., in a nutshell, PWA.

Here are some PWA use cases for your inspiration:

Forbes: Forbes witnessed enormous potential when they launched their PWA in 2017. With super-fast page load times, push-notifications, immediate transitions, and light design, Forbes was able to enhance their user engagement and enhanced conversions.

Alibaba: Biggest online B2B trading platform with access to more than 200+ countries, when it struggled to build an interactive experience for the mobile web, shifted to PWA. Their aim was to hunt for a source that can deliver an indelible customer experience to not only first-time visitors (to re-engage them) but also repeat visitors (loyal users). Consequently, Alibaba PWA presented them with a 76 % boost in total conversions across browsers.​

Uber: This multinational ride-sharing app when extended to new markets, soon released the caliber of enabling all users to quickly request a ride, irrespective of location, network speed, and device. Aforesaid, Uber rebuilt their web app to PWA, to ensure that the UBER application can operate at just 50kB, allowing the app to load quickly even on slow 2G networks.

The best of both worlds-

At the core, PWAs are just like web applications. Using progressive improvement & new potentials, PWAs are undoubtedly dominating web development. In addition, integrating the in-trend web attributes, PWA enables, what you develop, to be installed by anyone, anywhere, on any device with a uni-codebase.

Why is Hauper the best IT company for your next PWA development?

At Hauper, we have a robust and dynamic PWA development team, who has been developing and delivering reliable PWA solutions, since this technology is set in motion.

Being a leading Progressive App Development company, our team writes the latest code practices and innovates with contemporary programming languages like JSON, to create requirement-oriented PWAs.

Our skilled PWA developers perform meticulous testing of apps before their launch to make sure every app offers a bug-free and seamless user experience.

How Our PWA Developers Do Things Differently