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The Future of Web Development: Embracing Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Nikhil Pandey on May 21, 2024

Introduction The landscape of web development is ever-evolving, with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) standing out as one of the most significant advanc...
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Philipp Rich

PWA are really good in theory, but unfortunately, they are facing serious obstacles in practice:

  • Browsers and browser plugins tend to block annoying PWA prompts like "install this app" and browsers' native "install PWA" features are very difficult to discover by common user.
  • Apple does not support PWAs in Europe after recent legal issues.

So, I do not think PWA will become a big thing. They have existed for a pretty long time but haven't gained enough momentum. Probably big-tech try to kill 'em because they compete with traditional android/ios app markets

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sarthak

Apple reversed their decision to not support PWA in Europe
medianama.com/2024/03/223-apple-ba...

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Philipp Rich

That's good, but I still feel anxious. They might officially support it, but create some "barriers" for real use of them. They are famous for doing such things.

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James McGril

I'm actually a PWA developer and I can say I haven't seen this issue but then again I'm developing for internal enterprise which is a phenomenal use case. Also, I believe PWAs will continue to gain traction and grow once more folks realize the cost benefits and development benefits.

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Philipp Rich

Yeah, for internal enterprise use PWA could be great. I didn't think about such a use case. They probably will stay the niche products. My thoughts were about mass market adoption - this will not happen i believe.

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James McGril

I actually believe PWAs are going to explode. Once you get past the learning curve you realize the power they bring. Most devs just want some framework to make building easy and fast so they see challenges with PWAs and back away. But once you build a few the lightbulb goes off. I'll be creating a micro SaaS next using PWA and database less architecture! I think it's the future of the Internet.

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James McGril

Good write up and I can say from personal experience having developed PWAs that maintaining one code base is so so nice! The only thing that has been bothersome for me has been Firefox with some feature implementation. Other that I love PWAs... phenomenal way to deliver your apps!

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Thomas Leon Highbaugh

You mean Rust, Rust is the future of web development long term. Shit is blazing fast compared to anything JS

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James McGril

So is Phoenix on Elixir. Think of Whatsapp. Scales and is fast. Built on Elixir. But it's not one language over the other... it's about the use case 😉

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Gad Iradufasha

PWA is another thing when every person has modern and strong device!

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James McGril

I develop PWAs and run them on devices like 5 years old and have no issues. I think there are so many advantages to PWAs. One code base is sooo worth it!

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Rense Bakker

Tbh unless Apple finally stops sabotaging PWAs, or if people finally stop using iphones and Apple products altogether, PWAs are doomed.

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Akindejihill

Gretchen, stop trying to make PWA's happen. It's not going to happen.

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James McGril

It's already happening! 😉