Nowadays, we use mobile devices for almost everything: we use them even to play classic slots. However, thanks to a new technology called “PWA”, you don’t need to worry about finding a mobile app to play classic or new slot games anymore. With Progressive Web App (PWA), you can transform your entire website into a mobile application and offer the same user experience. If you design your site with this approach, users visiting your website from a mobile browser may feel like they are using a mobile app instead of a website. In this article, we will take a closer look at this new technology and the innovations it brings to mobile platforms.
What Are Progressive Web Apps (PWA)?
Progressive Web Apps (PWA) is a new technology that enables websites written with a special coding technique to be used as a mobile application and accessed even when offline. From the user’s perspective, the only thing needed to use this technology is a modern mobile browser. The developer can start offering this technology in a very short time and without allocating a big budget. In other words, switching to PWA does not require huge financial resources or long downtimes. The same time and budget required for creating a native mobile app can be used for creating a PWA too. From this point of view, it may seem more beneficial to just use PWA instead of creating native mobile apps.
What Are the Features and Advantages of a Progressive Web App?
- Simplicity– Any user can run it without any technical knowledge. Since PWAs work on browsers, there is no need to download anything (but this option is still possible).
- Flexibility– PWAs works on any platform/operating system/device. They can be used on any kind of device with a browser – desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablet PCs, etc.
- Can Be Used Offline– Unlike native mobile apps, PWAs do not require a high-speed internet connection, and they can even work offline.
- Similar Experience– They are like a regular mobile app, which everyone knows how to use.
- Always Up to Date– PWAs can always be kept up-to-date because of their “Service Worker” technology.
- Security– PWAs are delivered via HTTPS, so nobody can tamper with the content or “take a peek”.
- Easily Discoverable– PWAs comply with W3C standards, so they can be found & indexed by search engines. There is no need to create new SEO strategies.
- They Have Notifications– PWAs can send push notifications too, just like native mobile apps.
- You Can Install Them– users can install PWAs to their devices and put a shortcut to their home screen.
- They Are Shareable– Users can easily share them by using simple URLs – there is no need for complex operations.
Are Progressive Web Apps the New Standard?
Google is the “pioneer” of this new technology: The company has invested very heavily in PWAs to deliver a better mobile experience. PWAs aim to provide a fast, reliable and easy to use experience on mobile browsers.
PWAs have the advantage to offer any type of content in mere seconds. To do this, they simply route the requests sent from a browser through a script. The name of this script is “service workers”. It removes the regular steps required for accessing and/or viewing certain features (or information) on a website. PWAs also have the ability to capture and analyze user behavior, which means their notifications and other features can be personalized. For example, they can learn what topics you are interested in and start offering you specific content.
PWAs can work offline because they can save pages of websites on devices. This content is placed in a “shell” and updated only when necessary. Since the majority of the stuff needed to display a page is already stored in the device, it is possible to achieve very fast loading speeds.
Unlike native mobile apps, you can access PWAs from a browser, not from an “app store”. There is no need to make a download or installation (but those options are still possible). Due to these advantages, a lot of industry experts think that PWAs can replace entire mobile websites pretty soon: we may say “goodbye” to mobile browsers and start using the shortcuts on our devices. The overall experience will be faster, better and more enjoyable.
If you can’t allocate time and budget for a native mobile application but still want your visitors to follow your website on mobile, PWAs can be a very good alternative for you. This new technology has not yet become very common among users, but since Google is kind of “pushing” it, we expect that PWAs will be quite common in the future, probably in this generation. In this respect, you should definitely think about skipping native mobile apps and focusing on PWAs instead.
