Convenience, engagement, reliability, speed... These are all terms that characterise better experiences. As you might have guessed, progressive web applications can offer you many of those features.
Get ready for a fancy term: progressive enhancement. Essentially what PWAs bring to the table is more engagement, reliability and speed, compared to regular web pages or native applications on your phone. It’s okay if you’re not excited yet, just keep scrolling!
Want to offer a better experience, both online and offline?
First world problems, but still...
Native applications that require a permanent internet connection in order for them to function, can be seriously frustrating.
Here’s how a PWA does better:
When launched from the user’s home screen, service workers enable a progressive web app to load instantly, regardless of the network state. It basically pre-loads the entire thing in advance, at some point where you did have internet access.
Are loading times driving away your customers?
People might die before your page loads.
Time perception is a peculiar thing. Sometimes 10 seconds can feel like 10 days and nothing should take 10 days to load.
Here’s how a PWA does better:
53% of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, that’s just straight up facts. Remember that service worker we mentioned earlier? Well, that bad boy has already pre-cached the whole application for you!
Want to make things a little more personal, again?
Why don’t you stay a little longer?
People always start freaking out when they see bounce rates of their web pages. Fear not, you’ve got options.
Here’s how a PWA does better:
Make your application stick, with the addition of a home screen icon, push notifications, access to devices features, and more. Getting people glued to their phone is no small feat, but PWAs can definitely improve the experience.
Uber was in need of an application that could be used by anyone regardless of device and network speed. Building a PWA variety did jus that, it mimicked its native applications in functionality, but came at a significantly lighter weight.
Bringing the latest news to you, only faster.
Flipboard’s PWA minimizes data usage to deliver a slick and fast browsing experience, in a clean interface. The launch of the PWA also meant Flipboard was now also available to desktop users, which wasn’t the case before.
Score dates, even when you're offline.
Tinder recently swiped right on the web. Their new responsive Progressive Web App, Tinder Online, is available to 100% of users on desktop and mobile, and includes performance optimization, service workers for network resilience and push notifications.
That double latte macchiato waits for no one.
Aiming at providing accessible, user-friendly online ordering to all of their customers, Starbucks built a PWA of the ordering system on the web, which delivers a similar experience to their existing native app, but this time around it also works offline.
