Our reliance on technology grows as every day passes. With COVID-19 only amplifying the rapid shift to digitization and artificial intelligence, all signs only point to innovation as the fundamental hope to save us all. New technology may come incrementally, but the impact it leaves leads to an accelerating focus on performance, speed, and experience.
That being the case, tech experts have merged, isolated, and studied every possible solution to nurture a desirable user experience for end-users. One such example is the development of Progressive Web Applications (PWA). To define simply, a PWA is an app that optimizes modern web capabilities to offer users an alternatively competent experience from native apps.
Unlike native apps, progressive web apps are a combination of mobile applications and regular web pages. It’s referred to as progressive because PWAs have the aesthetic and feel of an actual app despite only being opened in mobile web browsers.
Let’s go over a few character traits of Progressive Web Apps.
One of the leading reasons digital entrepreneurs initially take the PWA route is because these apps are designed to be responsive regardless of phone models and web browsers. They’re made to adjust to desktop, tablet, and other mobile device screen sizes.
What’s more, PWAs don’t feel like websites. Because they’re made to resemble native apps, end-users barely notice the difference. When a PWA fully loads in either chrome, safari, or what have you, users can immediately go about them as if they’re just like any other installed smartphone application. And because end-users don’t have to download these apps, developers can quickly improve them, and updates appear real-time. PWAs are also easily searchable. Although they’re semi-applications by design, they’re primarily indexed by search engines because they still identify as websites.
Perhaps one of the breeziest things about PWAs is that they’re a lot simpler to market, too. One of the biggest reasons tech-savvy business leaders enjoy working on PWAs is because all you really need is the URL to pass it around. You no longer have to convince your target audience to open their app markets and download your digital offering—a link will do.
But of course — as with everything in tech — PWAs aren’t without faults.
While they are stellar native app alternatives, their shortcomings are just as evident. So much so, many engineers and traditional developers will encourage PWA-inclined citizen developers to think otherwise. These apps don’t have access to plenty of your phone’s critical features and functionalities. Apart from not being able to open your camera, use your phone’s map, ring your alarm, utilize your face ID, and other crucial hardware components, offline executions are severely limited, as well.
Despite all these, a PWA’s boundaries only ever become a hindrance to entrepreneurs, depending on the app’s intent. Consider apps to be like social beings looking for romantic partners. We’re all wired differently, and so depending on what we look for, setbacks only become potential trade-offs when they don’t meet specific criteria we measure them against.
Conventionally, PWAs are fantastic solutions for content-heavy applications. Prime examples of businesses and industries that would benefit the most with PWAs are online shops, news and blog portals, messaging and texting apps, e-marketplaces, and social media entities like Twitter or Facebook.
From an economic standpoint, PWA technology is also best suited for what experts refer to as the next billion internet users, meaning end-users from developing countries. For most of these people, a 2G network, backed up by a subpar android phone, is their only gateway to the online space. Because progressive apps function in virtually any browser, even the lowest-cost mid-2000’s android phone can accommodate a PWA.
All these mentioned, what your app does, who it’s for, and what it will contain are vast determiners of which application direction you should take.
Is it for me?
The success of PWA pioneer developers is substantial evidence that the technology does pack a full punch. Sure, it’s not for every market, but what kind of app is?
PWAs aren’t as commonplace as native and web apps, but they can be just as powerful, income-generating, and dynamic when appropriately approached.
What, then, is the secret here?
Aside from brilliant marketing, no-code platform providers like bubble.io make or break the app you build. The No-Code movement is more influential today, and for several and domineering reasons. Firstly, the pandemic-stricken globe is frantically keeping up with online, internet, and machine learning trends to survive. Secondly, because of how modern enterprises are designed, most startups and small businesses no longer have easy access to substantial amounts of funding and a lot of time to push through with traditional app development practices.
As a result, the number of tech-explorative entrepreneurs is turning to No-Code to fulfill business needs.
For instance, Bubble continues to expand its clientele with visionaries pushing their boundaries by coming up with software on their own. And because no-code requires zero coding skills, it’s a lot more inviting for non-IT professionals to dive into.
Whether rental unit commodities, digital marketing businesses, or pet-grooming activities, there isn’t a single app type you can’t create with Bubble. Are you looking to build your first PWA? Call us, and let’s make it happen.
