What is PWA? Progressive Web Applications and how it works
What is a PWA?
Progressive Web Applications PWA! In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about Progressive Web Apps (PWA). These apps are web apps that take advantage of the latest features in today’s browsers, and can be added to your phone’s home screen to make it look like any native mobile app. Therefore, Progressive Web Application is not a new JavaScript technology or framework, but rather a set of good practices and features that should be available in a Web Application, which is similar to the original mobile application we downloaded earlier from the Google Play Store. Mobile phones and the App Store for Apple phones and devices. The goal is to provide users of web applications with a user experience similar to that of native applications. This type of application should be able to work normally in all devices with all technical capabilities. For example, some functions may not be available in some older phones or devices, but it must be ensured that the application can continue to function normally, especially in terms of performance and speed.
Features of Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
1- Secure: PWAs handle many browser-native interfaces, and these technologies only work on pages and sites served through https protocol to protect users from man-in-the-middle attacks against their sensitive data. In general, the use of the HTTPS protocol has become highly recommended for every website owner on the Internet, and even the search engine Google has since decided to adopt it as one of the criteria for ranking search results.
2- Responsive: Progressive web applications must be responsive to all types and shapes of devices. Regardless of the size of the screen on which the user opens the application, handling of the user interface should be easy and accessible.
3- Offline connection: In native mobile applications, we can open the application and see the main parts of the user interface (for example, the top bar) even if the device is not connected to the Internet. There is no doubt that you have tried before entering the Facebook or Twitter app offline, but you have noticed that the app is showing old content that has been cached. This experience is what Progressive Web Apps try to emulate, and the way to achieve this is known as Service Workers.
What is Service workers?
In short Service workers is a code or script (without access to the DOM) in which the browser runs in the background and works separately from the web page. This function is used for application functions that do not require direct interaction with the user. Among those functions that use SW, the most notable are: sending alerts to users through the Push API. Storing certain parts of the application in offline mode. In development mode you can use Service workers through the localhost server, while in production mode you have to install SSL certificate on the server which requires HTTPS . Anyway, Service workers topic is quite long if you really want to know how this technique works, I suggest you visit this link.
4- Installable: The main goal of creating a progressive web application is to enable users to open it from the home screen of the phone just like using the original application. With the application, such as icon, name, screen orientation, etc.
5- Speed: These apps should run very fast, especially while downloading. According to Google, about 53% of users close any website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, so app speed and app agility should be your primary focus and focus when building modern web apps. Only by improving site loading speed have large companies and websites been able to increase the number of sessions per visitor, which means reducing the visitor bounce rate and thus increasing the conversion rate by rates ranging from 10% to 15% in many cases.
Positive Advantages of Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
- Its development and expansion is cheaper and faster compared to the original applications.
- Google is the main supporter of the Progressive Web Applications project, and it alone is enough to ensure the future of applications.
- A friend of search engines
- Its size is small, no more than 1 megabyte in most cases.
Conclusion: There is no doubt that PWA still have a lot to offer, many brands that have invested in PWA have quickly achieved impressive results with new features, and we may see a private store download similar to Google’s native apps.