While there are undoubtedly many benefits to creating a progressive web app for your business (we’ve covered user benefits, business benefits, and marketing benefits in our previous posts), we now need to address some of the current challenges, downsides, and even threats of developing a PWA at the wrong time.
Consumer behaviour may need to change before PWAs can become the go-to platform for all users – many are unfamiliar with progressive web apps as they’re not the most common type of app on the market and also may look like a website, meaning visitors may not use the PWA to its full capability. Users are also still searching for apps in the app store itself, so having a presence in the app store is still important alongside providing a great online experience on the web.
Hybrid apps are providing a way to bridge this gap, however, this adds an additional expense for businesses in the short run as additional development and maintenance will be required to keep an app in the relevant app stores and there may be annual fees for having a listing, even for free apps.
For PWAs to be able to flaunt their capabilities, it’s important for all browsers to support features that directly interact with users’ devices, from opening the camera to accessing their location, or biometric approval on login. Lack of support from browsers could unexpectedly impact client experience, however, the good news is that with Google leading the way for PWA support and with Chrome being the most popular web browser globally with over 65% of the market share as of November 2021, browser support issues will soon become a thing of the past.
Over the last few years, Apple’s Safari browser has also improved support for PWAs with permissions now extending to push notifications, Touch ID, and Face ID – bringing it closer in line with competitors such as Opera and Firefox.
It seems everywhere you look you get a different answer when it comes to PWAs! Unfortunately, the faster something develops, the slower online resources may be in keeping up with trends – either due to “churnalism” where writers recycle stories and ideas; or simply due to outdated content maintaining a high rank in search engines.
Whatever the reason, it’s easy to find conflicting information online and wonder if you’re making the right decision – this is why we recommend speaking to our specialist teams at Zudu about the capabilities and limitations of progressive web apps to find out whether they are suitable for your project idea (or if there’s a better way to achieve the results you’re looking for).
Looking to enhance your business offering with a progressive web app or mobile app? Email contact@zudu.co.uk to book a consultation to get the ball rolling for your next project.
