The Rise of Progressive Web Apps: Revolutionizing Mobile App Development
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are gaining the rapidly growing attention of developers from around the world due to their ability to improve user experience. These apps are faster, eliminate the hassle of installations and updates, and are suitable for almost all smart devices that can run a web browser.
An Emergen Research report published by GlobalNewswire suggests, by 2027, the global Progressive Web App Market size is expected to expand to $10.44 billion at a CAGR of 31.9%. PWAs are well known for their qualities that cater to the requirements of developers and users both. In the modern digital age where every industry is facing a cutthroat competition due to the rise of new digital technologies, PWAs are currently working as a hack to grow through the competition for their owners.
Now, to understand why software development companies in the USA and around the world are such big fans of PWAs, we have some highlights to share.
Let’s have a look!
1. Faster App Development and Deployment
PWAs save developers time by allowing them to write codes once and deploy their applications on any device that supports web browsers. This saves time, and money, and helps developers build digital applications with the least resources. Not only that, once the app is deployed, cross-platform compatibility saves developers from spending money on platform-specific maintenance or upgrades as well.
2. Smoother Cross-Platform Syncing of Data
From users’ perspective, they don’t need to create separate accounts or sign up repeatedly on separate devices to use their accounts. Instead, they can simply login into these apps from the device of their choice and enjoy features without having to start from the ground up. Cross-platform syncing also lets users continue their app usage journey from where they left off on other devices.
For instance, if they added some products to the cart or wishlist, they can resume shopping on the other device without having to find these products again. As a user, anybody will find such abilities super useful and businesses involved in e-commerce, streaming, etc know it very well.
3. Enhanced Visibility on Search Engines
PWAs can be found on search engines as well which gives developers and app marketers a great opportunity to make their apps popular. App developers can optimize SEO and increase the probability of making their apps visible on search engines like Google.
4. Improved App Insights and User Statistics
Due to the deployment nature of PWAs, it is easier to track their statistics to find out load times, bounce rates, session durations, conversion rates, and more. Developers can use these insights to optimize the user experience and improve the quality of their apps further. These analytics can be very useful in understanding the nature of app users and working on improving the app accordingly.
5. Easy Updates and Maintenance
You can maintain and update these apps without disrupting the user experience or without having to ask them to re-install their apps every time you make a change. You can just make the update and deploy it and whenever the user reloads the app, they will see the new version. So, instead of using annoying popups that block users from using the app unless they update, your app will just keep working.
6. Easy Accessibility and Fast Loading Time
PWAs can be added to the home screen of a smartphone for faster access. Users can select the feature Add to Homescreen to access their favorite PWAs every time they want but faster. Apart from that, PWAs are well known for their fast loading time as well.
These apps use JavaScript files that run on their own separately from web browsers. And as these files are cached and stored in the device whenever the user accesses the app for the first time, reusing apps get faster especially to load the app content.
7. PWAs Support Offline Modes As Well
If you thought PWAs lack offline abilities because they are web-based applications, you might be surprised to know that these apps can run offline too. Components of PWAs are cached on devices which makes it possible to access their resources even without an internet connection.
However, the unavailability of internet resources will not let apps load new content like video, or product catalogs that are not cached yet, etc. But it can be helpful for PWA gaming apps, reading apps, and other such categories to keep their user engagement rates up.
Wrapping Up
PWAs have several abilities to cater to your long-term business goals. If you are a startup owner or have a lower app development budget, again, PWAs are the best option to secure growth with a high-quality digital product. These apps have been known to upscale the business requirements of several brands including names like Twitter, Starbucks, and Alibaba among others. So, if you are planning to meet your digital requirements using PWAs, hopefully above points made it easier for you to make the final decision.