Should You Have a PWA in Addition to Your Native Mobile App?

You’ve probably heard about progressive web apps and are wondering if you need one. This post covers some of the reasons why adding a PWA to your existing native app is a good idea. For many enterprise brands, the upside of adding a PWA is overwhelmingly compelling — easily justifying the time and cost of building one. The obvious values? Discoverability and access. Less obvious? Unexpectedly delighting your users.

Depending on your company’s objectives and user needs, there are many different ways PWAs can gain as a business by providing more value to products, services and brands. For example, Twitter has created a PWA as a way to offer faster access to their service even on shaky networks while reducing data consumption by 70%. Trivago thinks their PWA will help them reach their next billion users in the highly competitive travel bookings space. They are streamlining different functions like “reading reviews” and “reviewing pricing” — enabling users to get to “booking” faster.

If you already have a native app, you can provide your users with more value through instant access, reduced bandwidth usage, speed, key functionality and branding. Progressive web apps can help bridge between your web and mobile app experiences — providing the best of both worlds. Starting out with a good understanding of what your users need will put you in a good position to quickly create the right road map for your PWA.

Where’s the friction?

• On-boarding? People don’t know the real value of your app until they try it, but at face-value, your app might sound too similar to apps they already have, or have tried. With a PWA, users can check out your value without committing to a download, which makes is great for new brands that need to establish value.
• Storage? Mobile space is scarce for new apps. Adding a PWA will give your users more choice.
• Offline: What kind of offline experience do you want to provide your users? Do your users have limited connectivity at times, maybe during commutes or while hiking or on beaches? Would you gain an edge being able to connect with them at all times? Conversely, how will you compete if your competitor beats you to market with this functionality? As PWAs gain in popularity, people will expect your app to work offline.
• Bandwidth and speed? If connectivity is poor, your app may not be as fun as you’d like. The goal is to delight users, even when it’s unexpected.

What does a PWC cost to build — in time and money? Every apps is built a little differently and that’s also true of PWAs. In order to figure out your costs and timeline to building an app, we suggest beginning with the end in mind. What does success look like? How do you envision your users tapping into your app when they are offline? What unique values can your app bring through a PWA that may not have been possible before? Ready to ask some hard questions that will help you determine an accurate budget and timeframe? Feel free to reach out. 

Inevitably, PWAs will take app and web technology to the next level. How excited are you about delivering it? Contact our San Francisco app developers today for more information.