According to a recent report by Comscore, mobile apps alone account for more than 57% of digital media use. Another research study carried out by eMarketer points out that 90 percent of internet time is spent on mobile apps alone.
But most reports suggest that the lion’s share of the time spent with apps belong to the few leading apps. This is why smaller apps from other categories and niches are less likely to gain traction.
So, mobile apps‘ popularity doesn’t influence the traction and engagement of less popular retailer apps. This is why small retailers still depend on the mobile web. On the other hand, the smooth user experience of native apps still can make the job of marketers easy.
What about bringing the benefit of easy accessibility of mobile web and the smooth user experience of native apps together? Yes, that is what Progressive Web Apps (PWA) do.
What Exactly is a Progressive Web App (PWA)?
Progressive web apps (PWA) comes with a cross-platform dynamic approach by bringing a native mobile app experience within a mobile website. PWAs by utilizing service workers or separate scripts that can work on standalone browser threads are capable to manage user requests, data caching and data storing. This in-device caching mechanism can allow easy access right from the device screen. This also helps doing away with the need of downloading a full app as it is required by native apps.
PWAs offer a multitude of ways to improve the user experience. PWAs are websites with an app-like user experience and are considered fast-paced, more reliable, and instantly engaging like a native app.
In many markets where small business apps are high in demand, PWAs are becoming popular. For example, in the context of mobile app development in india , PWAs has arrived as a big reliever for small budget digital marketers.
What are the Key Benefits of a Progressive Web App (PWA)?
Though native mobile apps still offer a relevant and credible option, in many ways, they are outperformed and outpaced by PWAs. Here we explain some of the key benefits that make PWAs better options over native mobile apps.
Instant Loading
As we already mentioned, PWAs use service workers to respond to user requests, for caching web pages and storing shell data. This ensures instant loading of the pages just like a native app. Thanks to local caching, the information is loaded even without the internet, and new data is updated as soon as the connection is restored.
Superb User Experience
PWAs help a business to offer users a consistent user experience across web browsers and mobile app. Thanks to this consistency, users no longer need to be frequented with more than just a single interface.
Lower Development Cost
Developing a PWA to deploy it over multiple platforms and across diverse operating systems is not expensive as developers need to build a single website with the same code. As Juned Ghanchi of Indianappdevelopers mentions, “In complete contrast to the cross-platform approach, native apps built for Android and iOS platforms would require separate development efforts and project budget. This creates a huge cost burden for small business apps.”
Easy Web Access and Visibility
Native apps can be easier to place in the app stores, but PWAs enjoy optimum visibility and ease of access just because they are websites that can open across all devices and platforms. Just because they are websites, they can also take advantage of the search engine optimization or SEO ranking and garner organic traffic and visitor footfall. Thanks to its core web stricture, users can also share the URL of a PWA.
Where are Mobile Apps Beneficial?
Mobile native apps come as handy tools for all kinds of purposes ranging from productivity to e-commerce to listening to music and entertainment to on-demand services to social media. Since the app business is booming thanks to the exceptional user experience of native apps, their benefits for users always stand out.
Easy Collaboration with Other Apps
A key benefit of native apps is that they can easily interact with other native apps. For instance, you can create text content on Google Docs, share and store it on Google Drive and connect it for collaboration on Google Meet.
Robust Tools and Frameworks in Support
When developers build a native app, they have access to a broad range of tools created by other developers, along with the support from the OS. This versatility of tools and technologies powering the PWA development gives native apps a strong technical strength.
Monetization
Native apps, unlike websites, offer a bigger scope of monetization through gated or premium features, premium or paid app versions, in-app ads, in-app purchases and promotions within the app.
App Store Visibility
Native apps are locally validated by the App Store and Play Store authorities and are published for their respective audience in different categories. You can further boost the visibility of the native apps through App Store Optimization (ASO) as well as Apple Search Ads (ASA).
App Security
Just because native apps are closely connected with the native OS platform, they ensure more stringent and time-tested security measures to protect and safeguard app data.
Lower Power Consumption
Native apps by following the respective platform-specific guidelines regarding battery usage consume less battery power.
Conclusion
Both technologies, PWAs, and native apps deliver an array of advantages for businesses. But it is the PWAs that are quintessentially websites and hence are useful for shaping the first digital footprints of an organization at a low budget. But as the organization grows bigger and develops a loyal audience, building a branded mobile app becomes essential.
