The Future of PWA and Web Apps in 2022

Posted by Multi Programming Solutions on December 15th, 2021

Although Native apps are still considered to dominate the software development world, Progressive Web Apps, or PWA, are one of the latest web app design trends. Should you use PWA to streamline your business? To address this question, let’s have a look at the future of web apps, study the main web app trends, assess the PWA pros and cons, and identify the role of PWA in the app development industry.

Progressive Web Apps and their Main Benefits

PWAs lie somewhere between mobile applications and traditional mobile websites, taking the best of both worlds. In their essence, these apps are websites with additional layers of development, which enable them to work as native apps. PWAs can be accessed practically from any device including mobile and desktop and can function within a browser. 

Businesses and individual customers that use PWA can get a range of favors.

• Universality. PWAs can serve any user regardless of the browser, as they are based on the main principle of progressive improvement.
• Swift page loading. A significant benefit of PWA for users is 2 or even 3 times faster page loading compared to regular websites. This feature is attained through such functions as service worker caching, request processing, and more. Consequently, user experience improves, and conversion rates elevate.
• A user has nothing to install or update. Functioning as a conventional website, PWAs require neither downloads nor updates. Unlike native apps, which need to be installed, PWAs can be opened through a browser.
• Offline availability. PWA can work even when the internet connection is low to none, thanks to the caching information in the service worker file. 
• Little space occupied. PWAs are significantly lighter than native apps; therefore, occupy less space.

However, every advanced technology comes with certain caveats, and so do PWAs. Thus, PWA design has some limitations on platform and hardware support as well as limited access to the platform’s capabilities compared to native apps. Nevertheless, support and capabilities are continually developing to address these downsides...