<commit_before>---
title: Progressive Web Apps – standard or buzzword?
image: /articleimgs/adult-books-business-coffee.pexels.jpg
tags: [PWA, Service Worker]
description: Progressive Web Apps (PWA) is modern way to build applications, including mobile ones, using purely web technologies and relying purely on the capabilities and strengths the Web platform. Historically, it was the lack of these capabilities on the Web that caused the boom of the mobile apps, using so-called "native" (platform-specific) development approaches.
weight: 2
---

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) is modern way to build applications, including mobile ones, using purely web technologies and relying purely on the capabilities and strengths the Web platform. Historically, it was the lack of these capabilities on the Web that caused the boom of the mobile apps, using so-called "native" (platform-specific) development approaches. 

The time has passed and the Web is now fighting back with the new, strong capabilities, in many cases not worse than what the native platforms can offer. And now, there's a growing trend of considering Progressive Web Apps as a viable strategy for the mobile presence for many brands.

However, still, there also seems to exist a decent misunderstanding about what PWA term really constitutes, what does it mean for the application to become one and what changes in terms of the Web Platform's building blocks. The fact that PWA term was never officially defined by any authority does not help clearing out this unclearness. Let's try to sum up the facts on our own.

## Fact 1 - PWA is only a buzzword

![Progressive Web Apps – standard or buzzword?](/articleimgs/adult-books-business-coffee.pexels.jpg)

Progressive Web Apps as a term was [coined in 2015](https://infrequently.org/2015/06/progressive-apps-escaping-tabs-without-losing-our-soul/) by [<NAME>](https://fberriman.com/about/) and [<NAME>](https://twitter.com/slightlylate) as the name for the new class of experiences utilizing the Web Platform in the new ways, allowing it to serve as the only technology required to achieve the native look-and-feel on mobile. It was rather a loose idea, and actually it stayed to be such. Even though most of the browser vendors use the PWA term in the developer-facing communication, no standard definition exists and no standard definition will probably exist in the future. 

Progressive Web Apps is mostly the marketing term to cover the idea that most of the applications do not have any real reason to be implemented and packaged as native apps. Nowadays, the capabilities of the Web platform include [home screen installability](https://whatwebcando.today/installation.html), [offline capabilities](https://whatwebcando.today/offline.html) and the wide range of features and OS-level integrations that used to be available only for platform-specific development. Apart from this, with Web-first approach, the app owners might benefit from what the Web had always offered as its core functionalities - lack of troublesome and centralized distribution model via app stores and the ability to share it via the simplest and most well-known mechanism - links.

## Fact 2 - PWA does not revolutionize the web development

Progressive Web Apps are still "just" the web applications. The term itself emphasise it well enough. Apps are things that the non tech-savvy people tap on their home screens and "just use it". Thus, Web Apps are these that use the Web as the technology of choice - but there's nothing for the end user to care about. The key is in "Progressive" part - these apps take advantage of as much app-specific features as they need and as many as there are available on the current device. Some apps might only need [push notifications](https://whatwebcando.today/push-notifications.html), others might only need [offline access](https://whatwebcando.today/offline.html). And some might not necessarily need any of these but might benefit from them as an additional non-crucial features when they are available.
<commit_msg>Fix for missing words in Progressive Web Apps – standard or buzzword?<commit_after>---
title: Progressive Web Apps – standard or buzzword?
image: /articleimgs/adult-books-business-coffee.pexels.jpg
tags: [PWA, Service Worker]
description: Progressive Web Apps (PWA) is a modern way to build applications, including mobile ones, using purely web technologies and relying purely on the capabilities and strengths of the Web platform. Historically, it was the lack of these capabilities on the Web that caused the boom of the mobile apps, using so-called "native" (platform-specific) development approaches.
weight: 2
---

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) is a modern way to build applications, including mobile ones, using purely web technologies and relying purely on the capabilities and strengths of the Web platform. Historically, it was the lack of these capabilities on the Web that caused the boom of the mobile apps, using so-called "native" (platform-specific) development approaches. 

The time has passed and the Web is now fighting back with the new, strong capabilities, in many cases not worse than what the native platforms can offer. And now, there's a growing trend of considering Progressive Web Apps as a viable strategy for the mobile presence for many brands.

However, still, there also seems to exist a decent misunderstanding about what PWA term really constitutes, what does it mean for the application to become one and what changes in terms of the Web Platform's building blocks. The fact that PWA term was never officially defined by any authority does not help clearing out this unclearness. Let's try to sum up the facts on our own.

## Fact 1 - PWA is only a buzzword

![Progressive Web Apps – standard or buzzword?](/articleimgs/adult-books-business-coffee.pexels.jpg)

Progressive Web Apps as a term was [coined in 2015](https://infrequently.org/2015/06/progressive-apps-escaping-tabs-without-losing-our-soul/) by [<NAME>](https://fberriman.com/about/) and [<NAME>](https://twitter.com/slightlylate) as the name for the new class of experiences utilizing the Web Platform in the new ways, allowing it to serve as the only technology required to achieve the native look-and-feel on mobile. It was rather a loose idea, and actually it stayed to be such. Even though most of the browser vendors use the PWA term in the developer-facing communication, no standard definition exists and no standard definition will probably exist in the future. 

Progressive Web Apps is mostly the marketing term to cover the idea that most of the applications do not have any real reason to be implemented and packaged as native apps. Nowadays, the capabilities of the Web platform include [home screen installability](https://whatwebcando.today/installation.html), [offline capabilities](https://whatwebcando.today/offline.html) and the wide range of features and OS-level integrations that used to be available only for platform-specific development. Apart from this, with Web-first approach, the app owners might benefit from what the Web had always offered as its core functionalities - lack of troublesome and centralized distribution model via app stores and the ability to share it via the simplest and most well-known mechanism - links.

## Fact 2 - PWA does not revolutionize the web development

Progressive Web Apps are still "just" the web applications. The term itself emphasise it well enough. Apps are things that the non tech-savvy people tap on their home screens and "just use it". Thus, Web Apps are these that use the Web as the technology of choice - but there's nothing for the end user to care about. The key is in "Progressive" part - these apps take advantage of as much app-specific features as they need and as many as there are available on the current device. Some apps might only need [push notifications](https://whatwebcando.today/push-notifications.html), others might only need [offline access](https://whatwebcando.today/offline.html). And some might not necessarily need any of these but might benefit from them as an additional non-crucial features when they are available.

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