Progressive Apps is a concept which is lesser known to people and is fairly new to many. After the emergence of Mobile Apps a huge part of the internet traffic has moved to mobiles permanantly and are no longer using Desktops or Laptops . It has become very important for companies to get mobile friendly to engage with new customers, But mobile apps are not cheaper option as development and customer acquisition is comparitively costlier and not viable for many organizations.
Progressive Apps are faster and easir to use, Works offline and has direct access to hardware as well upto an extent. Its provides Mobile Apps like features such as push notifications to engage users on regular basis and are comparitively cheaper. Some important features of Progressive apps are
Fast
Reliable
Mobile Apps like Engagibility
Easier Acquisition
Safe
Linkable
Discoverable
Progressive Apps has combined the best features of mobile web and mobile apps. It provides a wider access by using easier distribution model, easier reach , reliable performance and engagibility. Progressive Apps brings new possibilities for business and to understand it deeply lets dive a bit into its API’s
Service Worker : Service workers basically enables reliable performance. Using caching api’s it enables rich offline experience and faster load time. Combined with AMP it negletcs the heavy web componets for the first load and provides ligtening fast load for the first load as well.
APP Manifest : It allows to install our app to homescreen. We write a manifest file in our main HTML and modern web broswers identify that this app is installable to mobile homescreen.
App Shell : Its a modern design concept which allows a mobile web app to load a basic shell of app UI, the content of the app is loaded later.
In the conclusion, We can say that with the help of Background workers, Service Workers , App Manifest and App shell the mobile web is coming closer and closer to Mobile Apps by including best of its features like Push Notification, Offline Support and Faster load time.