I’m a programmer myself and I’m on a daily basis with my programmers friends looking for ways to potentially consume the consumer in the future.
Web apps
There is now a technology called PWA. PWA stands for Progressive Web Apps. That in turn means that you go to a website and this website can be installed as an app on your smartphone. You have definitely seen this before, but you did not notice it. For example, if you go to the site twitter.com there comes this message:
Add Twitter to the home screen. If you tap on it, a version of Twitter will be installed on your smartphone. This means you will not need the Twitter app in the future anymore.
The biggest advantage of PWA’s
Every smartphone owner knows the problem that certain apps are not published for his mobile phone. Sometimes you have to wait until the release for your system (eg iPhone) or it will never be released.
This has to do with the fact that if you want to program the same app for two different systems, you have to set it up twice. This means that you have to program everything from zero two times. This problem would be erased from the world.
What does this mean for the future?
The answer to this question is quite simple. Soon there will be no more apps to install but you will be able to download the apps from the websites of the providers so on your mobile phone. I think that makes more sense than having an app store where most apps can not even appear. With these progressive web apps everyone has the opportunity to program his own app.
Why is not already?
The whole systems are currently being prepared. This means that Google’s entire team, Apple, Mozilla, and so on are pushing day after day to implement this system.
Currently: If you install an normal app on your phone, this app can access everything on your phone. Of course you have to give your approval first but theoretically an app could reprogram your whole phone.
This does not apply to websites. Websites still have a limitation on what they can access. These restrictions are released day by day. The last one released was that people can log in to Facebook, for example, with their fingerprint. Such features will be released.
What can you do until now?
There is a website where all possibilities of a website are listed. This page is whatwebcando.today. Everything listed there can already be integrated into a website and at the same time into a PWA.
Conclusion
PWA’s are a very exciting thing and, in my view, a big step forward in technology. As a result, apps are no longer stored in a portal but each provider can host his app immediately from his website.
By not having to specially program an app for all phones, app manufacturers can focus on things other than customer support. I hope that the transition to PWA’s will happen as soon as possible so that end users can get used to it quickly.
