Progressive Web Apps vs Native Mobile Apps. What do you think the future holds for either tech?

Question

David Carroll

I recently did some reading on Progressive Web Applications (or PWA) and seems it may replace native mobile apps.

I've been wanting to dive into mobile app development a little more and I like xamarin. However, if PWA is eventually going to replace most native apps I personally don't see any reason to spend time on native apps anymore (at least where an app doesn't demand heavier graphics resources. I build for business and don't intend to build any games)

Do you have any insight on this topic? What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Mike let me just put the link to the post where it all started so that people can get an idea where exactly the discussion started 👇
https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/2435768/?ref=app

Answer 2

Mike Here's a quick tip :
just put an "off topic" tag in your question heading so that people don't bombard this post by saying that this is an open ended question.

Answer 3

A progressive web app is a website that functions much like a native app. The key difference between progressive web apps and native apps is that a Progressive Web app runs in a browser, so there's no need to download it from an app store. PWAs can store data in the cache on a user's device, thanks to service workers.

Answer 4

Matiyas Sirak I'm aware of what a PWA is. My question asks to discuss what the future has in store for PWA and Native mobile. But thanks for answering none the less since I'm sure others don't know what a PWA is

Answer 5

Many businesses are looking towards PWAs for so many reasons:

1. The installation process is easy unlike native apps. So that means more users will install it.
2. They are indexed by search engines. Some app stores even index them. Marketing is very easy.
3. A single solution for both web and mobile. That saves a lot of cost. (Developer pov: Why make a website when you can make a PWA for double the cost?)
4. They can look like native apps. Push notifications, background sync etc.

I don't make native apps. I have only worked with PWAs so I may be biased here but I think you should certainly give PWAs a try.

However you don't have to quit native apps too. Why not do both? It is not likely that PWAs completely take over native apps anytime soon.

Answer 6

This may be helpful
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/native-and-pwa-choices-not-challengers/

Answer 7

Ore Yea, I generally build web apps and all my customers are small to medium sized businesses. I haven't found a use case yet that demands building a native mobile app. I'd much prefer to maintain one PWA vs 3 projects; an android, iOS and website/web app.

I'd love to see PWA completely overtake mobile in future. The only other thing I have against Native mobile are the app store fees. Apple seems to really gouge app developers. But I'll stop there... dont want this to go far off topic lol

Answer 8

Mike That's interesting. Most of my customers too are small to medium sized businesses and PWAs have been of great advantages.

Still I believe native apps still have their place if cross-platform is not needed. Platform specific apps like download managers, widgets etc should be built with the native language, Swift/objC for iOS and Kotlin/Java for Android.

On the flip side, if you just need a touch of native(e.g voice assistant, push notifications) but need cross-platform, a PWA is a good idea.

Answer 9

Stevan Jovanović do not spam.

Answer 10

Arsenic done ... I don't often ask questions, but feel other experienced developers in this community can answer, and at the same time serve to educate the less experienced.

Thanks for the tip 🙂

Answer 11

I think Pwa is just a step and we will have further ideas in future.
Pwas don't work, if we need access to quick changing data.
also code is open source.
But administrating browser cache is coming up for sure.
(pwa is exactly this for 80%)

Answer 12

My opinion is that both of native and PWA will be present in future. Also if you already made natice app, don't switch to PWA unless you have good reason to.

Answer 13

Stevan Jovanović you've been reported. Please avoid spamming threads in future.