Originally published April 26, 2019 , updated on September 9, 2024

Do you know about progressive web apps?

Have you ever seen an “Add to Home Screen” banner, while browsing a website? When you click the button, the “application” installs itself in the background. When you open this application that now sits in your app drawer, you can browse the same experience you were doing on your browser, but now right in your mobile phone.

What you have now is a mobile app that was downloaded from a web application. All this, without even have to see the face of an app store.

Getting the app was so easy! But that’s not even the best part. When you open this app, you will be able to browse the content even when you do not have internet. You have offline access to the app! How cool is that?

What you’ve come across is Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). A PWA lets you install the application from the browser window itself, is available on your phone like a native app, and works offline, just like a native app.

But what does it really mean for a web app to be progressive? Let’s take a deeper dive into what progressive web apps are, why I think they’re better than native apps, and what makes them different from traditional web apps.

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