What is a Progressive Web App?

It seems like any new field goes through an inevitable growth spurt that involves “defining the damn thing.” For the first few years of the IA Summit, every second presentation seemed to be about defining what Information Architecture actually is. See also: UX. See also: Content Strategy.

Now it seems to be happening with Progressive Web Apps …which is odd, considering the damn thing is defined damn well.

I’ve written before about the naming of Progressive Web Apps. On the whole, I think it’s a pretty good term, especially if you’re trying to convince the marketing team.

Regardless of the specifics of the name, what I like about Progressive Web Apps is that they have a clear definition. It reminds me of Responsive Web Design. Whatever you think of that name, it comes with a clear list of requirements:

1. A fluid layout,
2. Fluid images, and
3. Media queries.

Likewise, Progressive Web Apps consist of:

1. HTTPS,
2. A service worker, and
3. A Web App Manifest.

There’s more you can do in addition to that (just as there’s plenty more you can do on a responsive site), but the core definition is nice and clear.

Except, for some reason, that clarity is being lost.

Here’s a post by Ben Halpern called What the heck is a “Progressive Web App”? Seriously.

I have a really hard time describing what a progressive web app actually is.

He points to Google’s intro to Progressive Web Apps:

Progressive Web Apps are user experiences that have the reach of the web, and are:

• Reliable - Load instantly and never show the downasaur, even in uncertain network conditions.
• Fast - Respond quickly to user interactions with silky smooth animations and no janky scrolling.
• Engaging - Feel like a natural app on the device, with an immersive user experience.

Those are great descriptions of the benefits of Progressive Web Apps. Perfect material for convincing your clients or your boss. But that appears on developers.google.com …surely it would be more beneficial for that audience to know the technologies that comprise Progressive Web Apps?

Ben Halpern again:

Google’s continued use of the term “quality” in describing things leaves me with a ton of confusion. It really seems like they want PWA to be a general term that doesn’t imply any particular implementation, and have it be focused around the user experience, but all I see over the web is confusion as to what they mean by these things. My website is already “engaging” and “immersive”, does that mean it’s a PWA?

I think it’s important to use the right language for the right audience.

If you’re talking to the business people, tell them about the return on investment you get from Progressive Web Apps.

If you’re talking to the marketing people, tell them about the experiential benefits of Progressive Web Apps.

But if you’re talking to developers, tell them that a Progressive Web App is a website served over HTTPS with a service worker and manifest file.

Why We Create Progressive Web Apps: A Conversation with Jeremy Keith

This is a really nice write-up by Sydney of the chat we had on her podcast.

Decoded: The When, Why, and Why Not of Progressive Web Apps

I really enjoyed talking to Sydney Lai about progressive web apps, resilient web design, and all my other hobby horses.

Alas, there’s no transcript and I can’t find a direct link to the RSS feed or the individual audio file on the podcast website so it’s not huffduffable.

Add support for defining a theme color for both light & dark modes (prefers color scheme)

There’s a good discussion here (kicked off by Jen) about providing different theme-color values in a web app manifest to match prefers-color-scheme in media queries.

PWA asset generator based on Puppeteer.

Automatically generates icons and splash screens based on Web App Manifest specs and Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Updates manifest.json and index.html files with the generated images.

A handy command line tool. Though be aware that it will generate the shit-ton of link elements for splash screens that Apple demands you provide for a multitude of different screen sizes.

Jeremy Keith: Going offline - YouTube

Here’s the opening keynote I gave at Frontend United in Utrecht a few weeks back.