Discoverable, so the contents can be found through search engines.

There are some key principles a web app should try to observe to be identified as a PWA. By implementing various technological advantages, we can make an app more progressive, thus ending up with a higher Lighthouse score. In addition, there are tools to measure how complete (as a percentage) a web app is, such as Lighthouse. An app could be considered a PWA when it meets certain requirements, or implements a set of given features: works offline, is installable, is easy to synchronize, can send push notifications, etc. It's not that obvious if a web app is a PWA or not from first glance. They represent a new philosophy for building web apps, involving some specific patterns, APIs, and other features.

What makes an app a PWA?Īs we hinted at above, PWAs are not created with a single technology. PWAs, however, provide all this and more without losing any of the existing features that make the web great. Progressive Enhancement and responsive design already allow us to build mobile friendly websites. It's not a brand new concept-such ideas have been revisited many times on the web platform with various approaches in the past. PWAs give us the ability to create web apps that can enjoy these same advantages. You can install a native app so that it works offline, and users love tapping their icons to easily access their favorite apps, rather than navigating to it using a browser. On the other hand, native apps are better integrated with the operating system and therefore offer a more seamless experience for the users. For example, web apps are more discoverable than native apps it's a lot easier and faster to visit a website than to install an application, and you can also share web apps by sending a link. PWAs are web apps developed using a number of specific technologies and standard patterns to allow them to take advantage of both web and native app features.

It's just a shorthand used initially by Google for the concept of creating a flexible, adaptable app using only web technologies. Note: The term 'Progressive Web App' isn't a formal or official name.

Firefox pwa