PWA (Progressive Web Applications) are web resources that combine the properties of a website and a mobile application. While maintaining the usability of traditional websites, they also acquire the autonomy of classic applications: you can work with PWA both online and offline.
When you get to a PWA site, it shows you the following message: “Do you want to add this site to your home screen?”
An example of installing pwa on the home screen of a mobile device
If you click “Yes”, then:
the site icon will be added to the screen of the mobile device;
it will be installed by analogy with how a regular mobile application is installed.
What will it give? Firstly, you now have the opportunity to open the site in one click from the main screen of the device. It would seem nothing unusual, because you can add any site to the home screen for quick access using the browser. But that’s not all: unlike ordinary sites, after installing PWA, you can interact with it even offline, that is, in the complete absence of an Internet connection. How? We installed it on our device, remember? In addition, when you are online, PWA can synchronize data and update them in the device cache. The news feed in the Facebook application works in a similar way: when there is no connection, the information is removed from the cache, and you see the content relevant at the last moment of accessing the Internet. But as soon as the connection appears, the application will download the latest information from the server, and you will be able to see the latest entries and photos; the data in the cache will also be updated.
In addition, after installation, PWA will work independently of the browser (that is, it will not open in Chrome, Opera or Safari, but in its own window).
Uninstalling (uninstalling) PWA from the device is carried out in the same way as regular applications.
It is important to note: if you do not want to install PWA on your device as an application, the site will still fully retain its functionality, but will work only in the browser.
Even taking into account the above, a PWA resource is still a website: you can get a link to any of its pages, send it via messenger or post it on a social network; it is also indexed by search engines.
In order for you to better understand how PWA works and what it can do, we have prepared for you an example with the main functions of the technology. You can see it at the link below (the example does not work in “incognito mode”; when you go to the example page, our site will ask you for permission to receive push notifications – please agree. This is only to demonstrate how PWA works – we will not send you any further notifications).