Have you considered a Progressive Web App?
Before we get onto what a progressive web app is and the potential advantages over the apps you are more familiar with, let’s step back a bit and consider the world of mobile customer experience.
Despite the Apple fans revisionist view of history, the app existed before the smart phone. Apps were created for PDA devices like the Palm Pilot and these days apps can also sit on gaming consoles or smartwatches.
For 10 years, since the first iPhone, there has been a conflict between efficiently developing mobile experiences and the business models of Apple and Android.
The cost of developing and maintaining apps on at least two different codebases and frameworks as well as developing and maintaining a mobile responsive or adaptive website means that apps only make sense for a certain type of business.
Do you need a mobile app at all?
It depends.
- How many times a day, week, month… does your customer interact with you through your digital channels?
- Does your customer need functionality that can only be delivered through an app e.g. fingerprint security.
- Does your customer need to use the app offline or do they have access to 24/7 High Speed data?
If your customers use your website daily, or several times a week then an app may simplify their customer experience. If your app is heavily reliant on the functionality of the phone – ie. the app utilises the accelerometer or camera or contains in-app purchases, then the case for a native app on iOS and Android can still be made,
If on the other hand, you sell a product once a year to a customer, or your mobile website is designed in such a way that your customers find it useful without having to download an extra piece of software, then there may be a new solution.
Benefits of a Progressive Web App
Simply put, a Progressive Web App sits somewhere between an App and and a mobile website. There are benefits for customers and companies alike. (if you want to get technical – there is a discussion about what a Progressive Web App is at the bottom of this article….
- Low Data Usage: Not everybody lives in Dubai, London or San Francisco. Despite WiFi being available more freely and reducing costs of data, a large percentage of phone users are grateful if you don’t use up all their data allowance. The difference can be a staggering 92%. Most PWAs also don’t need a lot of storage on the device either. Again, when you have a slightly lower end model phone or one full of bloatware, or if you just prefer to use your space for photos, this is a good thing.
- No Updates Required: This is a good thing for both developers and users. Developing an app is not the end… As operating systems change, apps require updating. Many Native Apps don’t have great CMS capability, so sometimes changing things requires a complete rebuild of the app code to make a change. In many cases, these new app builds require approval from the relevant app store, slowing things further. Not with PWAs. Updating an app from the customer side can also chew up a lot of data for force them to find a WiFi connection.
- Lower cost. The cost of developing a PWA is much cheaper than developing a native app. The progressive nature of a PWA means that by definition it works on all devices, therefore only one version needs to be built. Developing both an Android and iOS app can cost $20k – $80k while a PWA can be developed for a fraction of this cost at around $6k – $10k (or even less!)
- PWAs Are Great For SEO: Google has stated openly that websites that are optimised for mobile will rank higher than those which don’t. A PWA loads fast – which has an impact on the ranking in Google. Native apps are a bit of a black box. Its very difficult to provide a URL for a ‘page’ inside an app, wheras a PWA is discoverable by search engine bots.
- Use. Downloading an App from an app store creates friction in the customer journey. If a customer wants to do something, they don’t want the interruption of being sidetracked to the app store, remembering their password, waiting for an app to download, using data. This is especially true for a company that you are new to or have infrequent dealings with.
Disadvantages of Progressive Web Apps
So what’s the downside?
Apps as we know them don’t necessarily exist to benefit consumers. The biggest winner from the App boom has been Apple. It stands to reason then that Apple doesn’t really want to play the PWA game.
Google Chrome supports PWAs – which is good, because they have a big market share of the browser market, however Safari and Microsoft Edge don’t support the ‘service workers’ that make the PWA more app-like. You can use a PWA on Safari, its just not as cool.
Some functions – like ‘geofencing’ are currently not possible, however that’s not to say that they won’t be.
Our Recommendation? Talk to Us.
So which option is right for you? It depends. What are your requirements? Who is your customer? You might be lucky. You might be a club or organisation that wants an App for members – a PWA makes a lot of sense. You might be a takeaway food aggregator – PWA might not be the best for you… why not have a web-chat with us…
What is a Progressive Web App – The Techie bit.
The term was coined in 2015 to describe an app-like experience using new ways of coding mobile websites, including APIs. A PWA is device-agnostic, requiring only a web browser and no interaction with an app store.
Google has embraced the concept of the Progressive Web App, offering developers tools to help create them and making available tools like LightHouse which provide a checklist. In general, a PWA should have the following qualities.
- Progressive: they must work for every user, regardless of browser.
- Responsive: they must fit any form factor: desktop, mobile, tablet, or forms yet to emerge
- Connectivity independent: through the use of service workers, they must work offline, and on low-quality networks. Offline functionality can be limited to certain features only.
- App-like: they must feel like an app to the user, with app-style interactions and navigation.
- Fresh: they must always be up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.
- Safe: they can only be served via HTTPS, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks, and ensuring that content hasn’t been tampered with.
- Discoverable: they must be identifiable as “applications” through the inclusion of a W3C compliant web app manifest, and the service worker registration scope, allowing search engines to find them. This gives PWAs a significant advantage over native apps, which are not searchable.
- Re-engageable: they can make re-engagement easy through features like push notifications. However, use of push notifications is a feature, not a requirement.
- Installable: they must allow users to “keep” any apps they find most useful on their home screen, without the hassle of an app store.
- Linkable: they should be easy to share via a URL, and not require a complex installation.
Chat to us…