Why Progressive Web Apps are slowly replacing native apps?
When mobile apps first launched, they were the next big technological invention to further strengthen digital convenience. Now, these apps are downloadable on mobile devices and can be used offline with an improved user experience which mobile websites could not provide.
However, currently, users are facing the limitations of native apps. Users have to go to the app store every time to download an app, this creates pressure on the device’s memory and utilizes loads of data. According to ComScore's most recent U.S. Mobile Apps Report, consumers are not enjoying the process of downloading apps from an app store, reports indicate that the average consumer downloads zero apps per month.
This is the reason why smart companies are shifting towards a new approach of app development that provides far better solutions to the above difficulties. Termed as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), this is a newly designed technology which easily performs very smoothly on major platforms, so consumers are now independent to downloadable process.
Why users are comfortable with PWAs
At the fundamental level, a PWA is a mobile app that can work almost on every platform. It is independent of the downloadable process. In the background it is enabled with Java-Scripted service workers hence it is able to perform smoothly. PWAs carry out equivalent performance to native apps—enabled with push notifications, GPS services, auto-updates, a secure connection delivered through the web. But PWAs are much more advanced than the general mobile websites. A native app can only be downloadable through the app store and seek several access permissions, a PWA can be used just like a webpage—with a single tap.
As PWAs are dependent on JavaScript, Progressive web apps can perform on any machine or browser framework. Users can retrieve progressive apps on the mobile’s or tab’s home screen, but behind the curtains, their fundamental performances are very similar to bookmarking a website.
According to Gartner, users are extremely satisfied by the number of apps currently they have and their interest to download a new app has reduced significantly. It’s also been predicted that by 2020, PWAs will take over nearly half of the native app market, As more organizations are switching to PWAs, the ones who don’t transform into it will fall far behind in the business race.
Opportunity for developers
Currently, progressive apps are moving ahead of the web, designing an effective PWA is easier. A survey reported that out of 100, nearly 1% of PWA’s score greater or equal to 55. Hence it is an endless opportunity for both designers and developers to make an impact for themselves by creating the best PWA experience. With the implementation of easier tools, the entire development process for PWA can be made easier.
Key pain points that companies face:
Website- Each and every browser-type enabled with different features and advantages, to create and design a website adaptable with all browsers, the development cycle and deriving insights from user experiences had to be lowered to the least similar denominator, making the development process of better user experience is difficult.
Native app- Native apps need constant connectivity to the internet, either wifi or mobile data; making any app-level change requires a new push of the apps on the store, which is a slow process and then customers had to install (or reinstall) the app, causing an unwanted repetitive experience to app developers.
To reduce these issues, many designer tools help users to design a Progressive Web App that enables customers to view high-quality images and videos at a faster pace, retaining these in the background for accessing while in offline mode. Most of the developers are unsatisfied as they need to design separate apps for different platforms like tabs, desktop, and mobile devices. Using advanced tools and solutions, users can design one app that can be accessed across all platforms.
Conclusion
It is obvious that businesses will continue to have the requirement for Native Apps to provide outstanding user experiences, Progressive Web Apps is going to be the best option for organisations as it relentlessly helps in improving user engagement. This can be done by connecting to an additional PWA channel or by advancing their present web applications to PWAs. The three important app platforms—Apple, Google, and Microsoft—are all pushing PWAs. Most of the developers have started believing that in the coming days the implementation of PWA will become very regular, as a result, the rate of PWA adoption is sky-touching.