Software: PWA, perhaps the future of apps?

Surely somewhere you may have heard the acronym PWA and wondered, what is a PWA?, or what could I do with a pwa?. Well, let's start from the precept that if a business does not have a website or an application, it does not exist, it sounds a little weird, but it's that simple.

Considering that approximately 67% of people around the world today have a mobile, it is normal that many companies, if not most, make an investment in having their own apps either for their employees or for their customers. But before knowing what a PWA is, let's start by remembering that nowadays something of the most common are native apps where they are basically applications developed for an operating system, either Android or iOS (the most common) and where they are optimized for said platforms. But…

What is a PWA?

Just as we have native apps, there is another type of applications called PWA (Progressive Web Apps), which are a type of applications that are not developed for any operating system, but are developed on a web page in a browser. In particular, PWA has some features, for example:

1. They are installed on users' smartphones or tablets.
2. 
   
   They work offline using caching content.
3. 
   
   They deliver automatic notifications for users (available only on Android).
4. PWA combines the best features of the site and the mobile application. In practice, this means that the site can work with an application similar to the user's, and not necessarily an Internet connection.
5. 
   
   The process of installing this application as simple as possible with a single click directly from the browser, which is why PWA had several advantages.

PWAs work with Service Workers and other technologies that allow them to behave more like normal applications than web applications. Through the Service Workers they can continue running in the background without having to live inside the browser.

Unfortunately, this type of applications has some shortcomings mainly on iOS platforms, and this because that's where you can only keep local files and data up to 50 Mb, as well as, it is not possible to have access to some functions, such as Bluetooth, serial port, touch ID, face ID, ARKit, altimeter or battery information.

Gradually, such large companies as Apple and Google will empower PWAs, given the evolution of the Internet, cloud services and web technologies, PWA can complete the consideration of many software developers. Probably someday even to replace us the usual native applications.