Tag: progressive web apps
Progressive Web Apps: New Cutting-Edge Trend in Web Development
Speed and convenience have become crucial in keeping online shoppers engaged. Progressive Web Apps development is a solution that allows the shopper to enjoy an app-like experience via a website (using web browsers). Users can install the PWA application from the browser window and access it just like a native app. In addition, progressive web apps improve the quality of your web applications, making them reliable, fast, and engaging.
Are you considering PWA for your business growth? Is it worth exploring this option? This blog will help you take a closer look at why Progressive Web Apps are turning to be the new cutting-edge trend in web development.
What is a Progressive Web App?
Frances Berriman and Alex Russel coined the buzzword “Progressive Web Apps” in 2015. To date, PWA has been a big player in this mobile-first world. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) have caused digital marketers to rethink how they design and deliver sites.
Progressive Web Apps can deliver a blazingly fast and slick app-like shopping experience to the end-user. It combines the best of two worlds: your website and the native application. It can be called a hybrid app as users can now browse your website on their mobile. Besides, PWA promises to solve two vital issues:
- Performance and usability
- Mobile-web conversion rates
Read more: Native Apps vs. Web Apps: Choosing the Best for Your Brand
Business Benefits of Progressive Web Apps
Several companies that focused their efforts on PWAs instead of having a separate native app have experienced increased conversions. A best case in point is the world’s largest online B2B trading platform, Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com increased its conversion rate by 76% across browsers after upgrading its website to PWA.
Here’s how your business can benefit from PWA:
1. High-performance rate
Response time is crucial for audience engagement and better conversion rates. PWA responds quickly as the browser uses caching to save the elements of the layout that are repeated in the template. This improves the speed of downloads and reduces page load time. Subsequently, better performance leads to a better user experience, which in turn increases customer retention rates.
2. Ease of use across multiple devices
Progressive Web Apps are built with a responsive layout in mind for an improved user experience. A responsive design will fit into any size of the screen with ease. In other words, PWA will adjust the experience as per the device screen size. You can further improve the user experience with a PWA manifest file that controls the full-screen view.
3. Seamless browsing experience
A traditional website is virtually useless without a stable internet connection, but not a Progressive Web App. PWA can be easily viewed offline as service workers automatically cache important application features and information from the user’s last online access. This way, the user can access it without any network. Plus, you can add a brand logo, product descriptions, and few advanced features to your offline page.
This is an additional incentive for shoppers to choose businesses with a Progressive Web App over those that use native apps. Such a seamless browsing experience rewards you with better engagement rates and customer retention.
4. Resembles native-built applications
PWAs can be designed to look and behave like native apps, or they can be designed to let users know they are browsing the Progressive Web App. Regardless of the developer’s choice, it can contain a complete set of traditional app functionalities with database access. The best part is that you can seamlessly integrate the application into an existing website or an app.
Watch Video: Fingent software development experts can help you choose the right mobile app development approach by evaluating your requirements.
5. No installation is needed
Shoppers can download your app directly onto their devices. Once downloaded, it gets its own icon on the screen, just like a traditional mobile application. This will avoid the slow and complex installation process, improve user experience, and reduce user abandonment.
Here is another way it can benefit you: users can easily access the PWA via a URL. In other words, a user can easily share this link with a friend contributing to increased leads.
6. No manual updates are required
Native apps must be updated periodically through mobile internet or a WIFI connection. Such updates can consume large amounts of data, which may be costly for some users. Fortunately, Progressive Web App updates are performed “on-use,” much like how a website is updated.
7. Low development cost
Developing a mobile app can be a costly process, especially for small businesses and startups. Thankfully, PWA development is much cheaper than traditional app development but provides a better option for companies to generate a positive ROI.
Read more: Mobile app development: 4 tips to consider
8. Wide range of features
The most prominent feature of PWA is push notifications. Publishers and developers can use this feature to implement creative advertising solutions. As the push notifications appear on a shopper’s device screen, it is read more often than emails or updates on social media. This can lead to valuable brand awareness and promote products or services.
9. Improved app and data security
Security has been a concern for both users and developers. According to new standards of web design, all customer information must be moved to HTTPS. So it is highly convenient to launch Progressive Web App within a safe environment. Moreover, it builds customer confidence in the security of their personal information as they enter sensitive data into your PWA.
10. Low data and low storage
Data is costly in some developing nations. That is why it is a bonus that Progressive Web App consumes only a fraction of data usage compared to native apps. Moreover, it does not take up significant storage space on devices, so users are more inclined to use a lighter app on their smartphones. Also, it contributes to better performance.
Read more: Building a Business Mobile App in 2021? Here’s What You Need to Know
Progress with Progressive Web Apps
Progressive Web Apps are the future of web-hosted apps as they can overcome the inherent limitations of web performance and insufficient or unavailable internet connections. Since PWAs can run on any modern platform, soon they will overtake truly native apps. Yes, PWAs have the potential to change the way the web works. However, Progressive Web Apps will not replace websites and mobile apps altogether. It is still in its infancy. To know which option is best for your business, have a chat with the technology experts at Fingent.
Are Progressive Web Apps A Better Choice Than Native Mobile Apps?
Mobile Apps not only dominate electronic space on our mobiles but also play a dominant role in our lives. Many people around the world tend to start their day not with a morning cup of coffee but with a mobile app. Decisions as simple as which fitness routine to choose to critical financial decisions are often based on information obtained from mobile apps. More than ever before, people are downloading and using a large number of apps which are not only helping them find what they want instantly, but also assisting them in accessing information, buying products, availing services, and staying updated about new offerings.
With apps dominating the market, it is no longer relevant to ask if your business needs a mobile app development. The question is which mobile app is better for your business. If a native mobile app is what you have, should you be concerned that progressive web apps might topple native mobile apps? This blog will discuss these questions in detail.
Are you looking forward to building an innovative mobile app to boost your revenue?
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Why Choose The Right App Development Strategy?
Mobile apps are like route maps to your business. A wrong app design could confuse your customers. This either results in them losing interest in your product or worse yet, leads them right into the arms of your competitors. Therefore, choose your app development strategy carefully. Between a native app, a web app or a hybrid app, consider which of them would be appropriate for your business? The technology you select is what determines how your app will be developed and how users will interact with it. Choosing the wrong technology can be an expensive mistake resulting in inaccessibility or poor performance. Here are a few answers to questions that will help you choose the right technology.
What is a progressive web app?
Web Apps which blend the best features of Native and Web Apps are called Progressive Web Apps. They are called progressive because as the name suggests, they are progressing constantly, it is an evolving technology.
How does PWA work?
PWA works in the background, making the user experience smooth. When the user interacts with the app, it loads all the necessary resources. Since PWA uses JavaScript, its code gives the app the ability to work offline and helps load the website faster than native apps. The latest improvements in scripting languages have made it easier to convert or build your website into a PWA. Also, it is gaining more attention from designers and developers.
Related Reading: Check out these four top secret tips to consider while developing a mobile app.
How does PWA have an Upper hand over Native Apps?
In the wrestle between Native and PW apps, many aspects give PWA an upper hand. Here are some of them:
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Adaptable
Because PWAs are built with progressive enhancement, they work for every user, regardless of the type of browser used. It can automatically adjust to various types of devices such as a desktop, mobile, tablet and so on. In other words, PWAs are not limited to a specific platform. Therefore, you need not develop separate versions of the app for different platforms.
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Auto Update
Updates are a data consuming and often frustrating aspect of any app. Progressive apps auto-update in the background without disturbing your in-app experience and with minimal data consumption.
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Easy to Install
Without taking the user to an app store, PWAs allow users to install the website as an app on their home screen. The size of apps that we install from any store varies, but they are quite often in the MBs. With PWA, you don’t need to waste much-needed disk space and internet data because it takes up less than a megabyte of space and it takes less than a second to install. Also, they can be shared easily via a URL and do not necessitate complex installation.
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Budget-friendly
In terms of app development and maintenance, the biggest advantage for an app publisher is the cost saving. Building a mobile app is not the most budget-friendly thing to do. It takes time and money to build a mobile app. And for it to be popular, it has to be present on all platforms, which further hikes up the price. The PWA alternative is not only, budget-friendly, but can be done in a relatively short time. As it is progressive, it will not need further customizations.
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Web Push Notifications
PWA is capable of supporting Push Notification API. Studies show that push notifications have a 50% higher opening rate and 7 times higher click rate than email messages.
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Discoverability
Perhaps, we have spent hours on an app looking for something that we eventually never found. If you want search results from more than one app, you will have to go to each individual app to search. PWA’s however, can be crawled by search engines. You can search for something on Google and get appropriate results from the content inside your progressive app.
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User-friendly
Progressive Web Apps are available instantly. Since it is built on the app shell model it feels like a mobile app with app-style interactions. To ensure content is securely delivered it is served via HTTPS.
Related Reading: Read on to know whether React Native stands a better chance in mobile app development than Flutter.
Embrace Progress
In a progressive era, such as this, we cannot ignore the importance of mobile application development. The variety of applications we have, suits all kinds of users whether young or old. The PWA market has solutions for each user. Advancement in technologies has also played an important role in the success in PWA. Whether it is business, entertainment, health or education, today each sector is experiencing the benefits of PWAs. PWA technology is improving every day with new functions and features in the making. Advancement in PWA and its technologies may one day pin down native apps.
Read more on top technologies to be used for mobile app development.
Whether it topples native mobile apps or not, it is definitely a good tool in your business arsenal. If that’s what you want, give us a call at Fingent and allow us to help you implement it in your business.
Read More: Mobile App Development : 4 Tips To Consider