PWA vs Mobile Web: Which way to go and why?

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Web Which way to go and why?
PWA vs Mobile Web Which way to go and why?
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? Nathan McKinley - ? March 15, 2021 - ? Mobile
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Image source Way back in time when smartphones
just started to gain popularity, responsive
design was embraced as the first design
principle to help websites perform better for
mobile users. Responsive and mobile-optimized web
design quickly became the key requirement for
all websites and soon the vast majority of
websites embraced it to deliver a smooth and
engaging web user experience. This norm soon
went one step further to make standalone mobile
websites the new digital trend. Stand-alone
mobile website versions besides their desktop
version could offer different user experiences
optimized for mobile users. But still, the
mobile web couldnt deliver advanced features
such as offline access, push notification
messages, and native app-like user experience.
This is where Progressive Web Apps or PWAs step
in. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Websites that
mimic native apps Though a progressive web app,
to a great extent, looks and feels like the
native app, it actually isnt an app but a
website. Like a website, it is developed by using
tried and tested technologies such as CSS, HTML5,
and JavaScript. Yes, app prototyping design
tools are also utilized to shape the look and
feel of PWAs, just like native apps. Unlike
regular websites, a PWA, aher detecting the
device screen size, delivers the befitting
version of the visitors target device screen.
In contrast, a mobile website is designed once
and for all with a fixed mobile-optimized layout
considering the common mobile screen dimensions.
Naturally, PWAs offer a more device-optimized
look and feel with a great user experience. Let
us explain other value propositions of PWA that
make it popular over the traditional mobile
web. Push Notification The big differentiator
between progressive web apps and mobile web is
the push notification. Progressive Web App
offers a popup to ask the user to subscribe to
push notification messages. Any user can
subscribe to get the push notifications sent by
the respective website. As and when the user
subscribes, the user gets a unique subscription
ID. This feature puts PWAs at par with the
native apps in direct app-like communication with
the users. For many consumer-focused web
services, PWAs opened opportunities for real-time
communication for marketing and customer
support. This app-like feature is a key value
proposition of PWA that makes marketers turn to
this web technology instead of sticking to
mobile apps. Home screen access PWAs can be
directly accessed from the smartphone Home Screen
by clicking on an icon. Once you open a website,
you can save the web link with its brand icon on
the Home Screen and can access the website just
like any other native app. On Android, the users
get Home Screen icons of PWAs directly, while on
the iOS Safari browser, you need to choose the
option Add to Home screen to save the website
link with its icon. Home Screen access allows a
website to create a more visible digital brand
identity, just like apps. Closer level of device
integration PWAs are more device optimized to
help users get a more smartphone-specific user
experience than many websites. Apart from
running across all types of mobile devices across
multiple platforms, PWAs allows accessing device
features, capabilities, and sensors like GPS,
camera, accelerometer, gyrometer, face
recognition, and location data more easily for a
variety of needs. Faster Loading Speed oGline
access PWAs use App Shell, containing the code
ready to be cached to the target mobile device
when loaded for the first time. Once it is
cached to the mobile device, in subsequent times,
it can load instantly, just like a native mobile
app. Web contents cached locally in the mobile
device, ensure superfast app performance. The
same local caching allows offline access to
content with ease. Thanks to localizing caching
of the data, PWAs can be accessed without an
internet connection, and as soon as the
connection is restored, the app is updated. It
is great for SEO and SEM just like mobile
web Responsive websites and mobile web were
always highly regarded for their output in Search
Engine ranks and Search Engine marketing output.
Even Google search algorithms give importance to
the mobile web for their superior performance
and user experience. PWAs being the same
high-performance mobile websites with more
value-added features, actually fulfil search
engine criteria of performance and ease of use,
just like mobile web if not better. If you employ
the same search ranking attributes, PWAs and
mobile web offer similar mileage in search ranks
and search engine marketing. Awesome mobile user
experience without a huge cost burden Progressive
web apps can give your old website a facelih by
turning it into a high-quality, high-performance,
and feature-rich app while you spend the same as
your regular web development budget. That means
while you actually deliver something closer to
fully-fledged apps, you dont need to spend as
much as the native mobile apps. On the other
hand, hiring the right talents for your project
gets easier since PWAs can develop by using the
same tried and tested web technologies such as
HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You can also stay
clear of the worries over selecting platforms
and the app testing tools. PWA vs Mobile Web
Conclusion So, should you opt for PWA? With such
big advantages and promises on offer, already big
brands such as Twitter, Flipkart, Lyh,
Starbucks, and several others have embraced PWAs.
With the emergence of PWAs, responsive websites
and mobile web are increasingly becoming a thing
of the past. Since PWAs offer everything of the
mobile web and a lot more, the comparison will
always favour it as the cutting edge and most
well-equipped web technology so far. So, if you
want to get the best of web and mobile presence
with one solution, PWA should be your choice.
Nathan McKinley Nathan McKinley is a Business
Development Manager at Cerdonis Technologis LLC,
which helps SMBs and Startups be a custom mobile
app development Chicago company. Apart from being
a Business Developer, he is a tech enthusiast
covering mobile development, business experience,
mobility solution for startups a lot more
about tech vulnerabilities. www.cerdonis.tech/mob
ile-app-development-company-in-usa/
Your comments are welcome!
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