Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): Bridging the Gap Between Web and Mobile Apps

Introduction

Have you ever wished for a mobile app experience without the hassle of downloading one? Enter Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), the innovative technology that merges the best of web and mobile applications. As businesses strive to deliver seamless user experiences, PWAs have emerged as a game-changer in the software development landscape.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, where user expectations for speed, reliability, and engagement are at an all-time high, PWAs provide an answer. They offer app-like functionality while maintaining the accessibility of websites. For instance, companies like Flipkart have seen a 70% increase in conversion rates after implementing PWAs. Starbucks, another notable example, has doubled the number of web users placing orders daily after adopting a PWA. This blog explores the origins, evolution, and impact of PWAs, highlighting their relevance in transforming modern software development.

History and Evolution

The concept of Progressive Web Apps was first introduced by Google in 2015. At the time, businesses were grappling with the limitations of traditional web apps, such as poor offline functionality and sluggish performance. Native apps, on the other hand, required significant development resources and posed barriers to user acquisition due to app store dependencies.

PWAs were envisioned as a middle ground—combining the discoverability of websites with the robust functionality of native apps. The goal was to address issues like slow load times, lack of offline capabilities, and the high costs of maintaining multiple app versions.

As Google characterises PWAs as FIRE, an acronym that means:

• Fast – responds quickly to user interactions without any content jumps and freezes during scrolling
• Installable – can be installed on any device
• Reliable – loads instantly even with a weak internet connection
• Engaging – feels and behaves like a native app on mobile devices, providing users with smooth experience

Since their inception, PWAs have evolved significantly. Early implementations focused on basic offline capabilities and push notifications. Over time, advancements in web technologies, such as Service Workers and Web App Manifests, have made PWAs more powerful and versatile.

Key milestones include:

• 2017: Major companies like Twitter and Pinterest launched PWAs, showcasing their potential to improve engagement and retention. Twitter’s PWA, for instance, takes up only 3% of the storage of its native Android app.
• 2020s: Apple extended support for PWAs on iOS, broadening their reach. The rise of frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js simplified PWA development, while improved browser compatibility made them more accessible.

Today, PWAs are widely adopted across industries.

Problem Statement

Traditional web apps often struggle to meet user expectations for speed, reliability, and engagement. They lack offline functionality, have slower load times, and are less engaging compared to native apps. Meanwhile, developing and maintaining native apps for multiple platforms is resource-intensive and costly.

For businesses, this creates a dilemma: How can they deliver rich, app-like experiences without incurring the overhead of native app development? This is particularly relevant in industries like e-commerce, where user engagement and conversion rates are directly tied to the quality of the digital experience.

For developers and businesses alike, understanding PWAs is crucial. Developers can leverage PWAs to build scalable, cost-effective solutions, while businesses can use them to enhance user engagement, reduce churn, and improve ROI. For instance, Trivago’s PWA resulted in a 97% increase in click outs to hotel offers, and Starbucks’ PWA allows customers to browse menus and customise orders offline, significantly enhancing user convenience.

Technology Overview

At their core, PWAs are web applications enhanced with modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like experience. Key components include:

• Service Workers: A service worker is a client-side JavaScript file that determines how to handle network requests. This technical element is responsible for offline mode, background information syncing, push notifications, content fetching, etc.
• Web App Manifest: Web app manifest is a JSON file containing information about a PWA’s look and behavior. Browsers need this information to provide the native-like interface of the app and to show the Add to Homescreen prompt. The web app manifest includes metadata like the short and long name of an app, icons, description, display mode, and orientation, etc. You can also add a splash screen, theme, and app colors to the file.
• HTTPS: Ensuring encrypted data exchange between the web app and servers.

PWA Features

Speedy loading:

Is your website taking more than 3 seconds to load? If so, you might be losing 53% of your visitors. According to Google, that's the percentage of users who abandon a site if it takes too long to load.

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are significantly faster than traditional websites, thanks to client-side rendering. Simply put, the client’s browser uses JavaScript to display the content. Instead of the server sending a full HTML file with every request, it delivers a small data string along with a JavaScript file that renders only the required parts of the page. This approach allows PWAs to load content much faster than conventional websites. On average, PWAs achieve two to four times faster page speeds. Case studies reveal that businesses implementing PWAs have improved performance by 63% compared to their mobile-optimized websites.

Offline mode:

Offline mode is among the most impressive features of PWAs. With a built-in caching system, information from visited pages is automatically stored. This allows customers to access previously viewed content even without an active internet connection. Instead of encountering a network error message, users can continue browsing the product catalog and even place orders. These offline orders are seamlessly processed as soon as the connection is restored.

Lightweight:

PWAs are built to be lightweight, consuming only a fraction of the storage space required by native mobile apps. The image below highlights the size differences between the progressive web apps and mobile apps of Tinder and Pinterest. This efficiency ensures that PWAs can function smoothly even on low-bandwidth networks.

Platform Agnosticism:

A single PWA operates seamlessly across all operating systems and devices, a feature known as platform agnosticism. This approach significantly reduces development costs and accelerates time to market. Instead of creating and maintaining two separate native apps, you can develop one PWA that delivers a consistent and smooth user experience, regardless of the platform or device customers use.

No updates required:

Updating an app through an app store can be a time-consuming and challenging process, especially when ensuring all users install the latest version for a consistent experience. PWAs simplify this by eliminating the need for manual updates. Any changes made to a PWA are applied in the background, seamlessly and without user intervention. The next time customers visit your PWA, they automatically enjoy the latest updates and the best possible experience.

Linkability and indexability

Similar to websites, PWAs have URLs that can be crawled and indexed by Google. This means users can discover your PWA through search engine results pages (SERPs), enabling you to leverage the power of SEO to promote your store effectively.

Lower development costs & faster time to market:

A merchant needs only one development team but gets a 3-in-1 package: a website, Android, and iOS app. PWAs can help you reduce development costs by up to six times on average.

Practical Applications

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have been instrumental in enhancing user engagement and performance across various industries. Here are some notable real-world examples:

Starbucks:

Starbucks developed a PWA to provide fast, responsive performance for its customers. The PWA allows users to browse the menu, customize orders, and access nutritional information, even without an internet connection. This initiative led to a significant increase in daily active users.

Twitter Lite:

Twitter's PWA, known as Twitter Lite, was designed to offer a faster and more reliable mobile web experience, particularly in areas with limited internet connectivity. The PWA consumes less data and occupies less storage space compared to the native app, making it accessible to a broader audience.

Pinterest:

Pinterest transitioned to a PWA to improve user engagement. The new PWA led to a 60% increase in user engagement and a 44% rise in ad revenue rates, demonstrating the effectiveness of PWAs in enhancing business performance.

Trivago:

Trivago saw an increase of 150% for people who add its PWA to the home screen. The increased engagement led to a 97% increase in clock outs to hotel offers.

Tinder:

Tinder cut load times from 11.91 seconds to 4.68 seconds with their PWA. The app is 90% smaller than the compiled Android app

These examples illustrate how PWAs can effectively bridge the gap between web and native applications, offering users a seamless and efficient experience while providing businesses with a cost-effective solution to enhance engagement and performance.

Challenges and Limitations

Here are the challenges of Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) based on the article:

Limited Support on iOS Devices

PWAs have restricted functionality on iOS compared to Android. Features like push notifications, offline mode, and background sync may not work seamlessly. Apple has been slower to adopt full PWA support, which limits their potential for iPhone and iPad users.

No Access to Device-Specific Features

Unlike native apps, PWAs cannot access certain device-specific hardware features, such as Bluetooth, NFC, and advanced camera capabilities.This limitation can make PWAs unsuitable for applications requiring deep integration with device hardware.

Lack of Visibility in App Stores

While PWAs can be added to the home screen directly from a browser, as they are not prominently featured in app stores like native apps. This reduces their discoverability, trust and may impact user acquisition.

Greater exploitation of the battery

Developers use high-level code to create PWAs, therefore battery power gets quickly run out. Those who are greatly concerned with the battery life will make sure they avoid apps that make their phone work harder.

Future Outlook

As we enter 2025, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are poised to redefine user interactions with technology, heralding a new era in application development. By blending the strengths of web and mobile applications, PWAs are leveraging technological advancements to address growing user demands.

1. Broader Adoption in E-commerce: E-commerce platforms increasingly integrate PWAs to deliver faster load times, offline functionality, and app-like experiences, boosting customer engagement and retention.
2. Expanding Reach in Developing Markets: PWAs are thriving in regions with limited internet access and lower-end devices, offering offline capabilities and smooth performance on less powerful hardware.
3. Improved User Engagement: Features like push notifications, home screen installation, and background sync are becoming standard, driving higher engagement compared to traditional websites.
4. AI and Machine Learning Integration: Incorporating AI and machine learning enhances PWAs with personalized experiences, enabling advanced functionalities such as voice search, chatbots, and predictive analytics.

In 2025, PWAs will not only meet current technological expectations but also set the stage for future innovations, solidifying their role as a transformative force in application development. Notably, the global PWA market is projected to reach approximately USD 10.44 billion by 2027, according to Emergen Research.

Conclusion

Progressive Web Apps represent the future of web development, offering a powerful solution to the limitations of traditional web and native apps. By combining speed, reliability, and engagement, PWAs empower businesses to deliver exceptional user experiences while optimizing costs.