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Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Tech N Trends Logo for progressive web apps blog post

In our latest Tech N Trends, we talk about Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and their growing popularity.

There’s an app for that…

Is a throwback phrase you occasionally may hear someone say, probably ironically, when searching for information.

More likely you’ll hear ‘we need an app for that’ when discussing how to launch a new product or service.

However, you wouldn’t be surprised to find out, we have come a long way since apps became the answer to all our problems.

Try not to feel old but it was 2009 when Apple used the ‘There’s an app for that’ slogan and, to the uninitiated at least, it’s how we access information on our phones. However, these days, progressive web apps (PWAs) are becoming more and more prevalent.

 

What is a PWA and how do they work?

Increasingly what is going on behind the screen isn’t an app at all but what is called a progressive web application, commonly known as a PWA.

A PWA is a type of application software delivered through the web, built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

There are several advantages to a PWA including them being light on data usage and storage, the ability to work offline and a quicker loading time. Users can add the ‘app’ to their home screen and it’s ready to go, almost instantaneously.

Progressive Web App

A PWA loads much faster because it runs scripts in the background separately from the web page. That means they don’t contribute to page load times.

Add on the fact that PWAs are platform and device agnostic and it starts to become clear that they’re seriously worth considering.

And that’s before we talk about the cost benefits. Because a PWA uses common programming language (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) it’s far easier finding a team experienced in web development simply because the web has been around longer.

You’d think that the most popular web applications that we use all the time would jump on PWAs. Well, they have.

Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, Uber and The Washington Post – to name just five – all use PWAs to overcome users who are on slow connections or to improve load times.

In our experience our clients benefit from using PWAs because they offer the greater flexibility with what a web application can do.

We can expose some of their internal business processing to their customers, by way of offering additional services such as document access, approval processes, product or information requests.

This puts them ahead of their industry in terms of service to their clients and customers.

Our primary focus at Vivid Creative is to deliver profitable and sustainable marketing models for our clients. Everything we produce is designed to perform and the flexibility provided by PWAs is a perfect example of that.

Learn more about our website design and digital services or click here to read why Vivid is a leading creative marketing agency.

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