I forgot about PWAs (Web apps that have stepped out of the browser)｜AIアプリ開発塾のYuumi3
I am Hiromi Yoshida from the AI App Development School where I support people who want to build apps using AI.
I forgot to mention a technology that I should have included in my post a while ago about Web apps that have stepped out of the browser, which is PWA, so I am writing about it now.
Do you all know the term PWA?
PWA stands for Progressive Web Apps, but you don’t need to memorize that; it is a technology that allows you to treat web apps like smartphone apps.
What is a PWA? by AI
I had AI (Claude Sonnet 5.5) summarize what a PWA is (though I trimmed it down quite a bit).
In a nutshell,
“It is a homepage (website) made to be usable like a smartphone app.”
Without needing to download anything from the App Store or Google Play, you can launch it from an app-like icon just by selecting “Add to Home Screen” on a site opened in your browser.
PWA is a mechanism that takes the best of both worlds: the “ease of a website” and the “usability of an app.” While it is not as versatile as an app via a store, it is a strong option when you want to provide an app experience quickly and at a low cost.
What you can do with a PWA
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Launch from the home screen : Just tap the icon just like an app
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Full-screen display : The browser address bar disappears, giving it an app-like appearance
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Offline support : Even without a signal, you can use pages or some features you have already opened
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Push notifications : You can send notifications for new information or updates
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Fast startup and display : Because content is saved to the device once loaded, subsequent visits are faster
Benefits
For users
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Can start using it immediately without going to a store
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Does not use much smartphone storage
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Always able to use the latest version automatically
For providers (companies)
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There is no need to create separate versions for iOS, Android, and Web; since one version suffices development and maintenance costs are reduced.
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Can be published and updated without waiting for store review.
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No store fees (approx. 15-30% of sales) are incurred.
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Can be found via search engines (a strength not found in regular apps).
Disadvantages
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Not listed in stores : No opportunity to be discovered in places where people look for apps.
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Limited functionality on iOS : Compared to Android, there is a tendency for fewer available features and less flexibility.
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Device feature limitations : It may not be possible to integrate as deeply with the device as a regular app, such as with Bluetooth, certain sensors, or advanced camera features.
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“Add to Home Screen” is not intuitive : It is hard for users to notice unless you guide them on how to do it.
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Unsuitable for high-performance needs : Regular apps are better suited for things like 3D games.
Let’s try making a PWA
PWAs are easy to make, so if there is a web app you use often, please try turning it into a PWA.
Regular Web Apps
For regular web apps, I think you launch the browser and specify a URL or select one from your bookmarks.
Here, since I have the iPhone Safari tab display set to the bottom, buttons and the URL input field are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Creating a PWA
The steps to create a PWA are a bit confusing, but they are not difficult.
1. Tap the ≡ button → 2. Tap Share → 3. Add to Home Screen → 4. If the app name is fine as is, tap the Add button. (These steps are for iOS 27.)
Here, the iPhone Safari tab display is set to the default Compact mode; if the tab display is at the bottom, you can start from the share button.
Running a PWA
There is an app icon on the home screen, so tapping it launches the web app.
However, the browser’s URL bar and various buttons are not displayed.
Also, back there is no button, so if it is a poorly made web app, you might have trouble returning to the previous screen. 😅
The history of PWA
Did you all know about PWA? You might not know the term, but some of you may have used Add to Home Screen. (When I asked an AI to look into it, it said that in past surveys, the awareness of PWA was about 5%.)
PWA is a wonderful technology that allows you to easily use web apps like smartphone apps, but its history has not been smooth. The following is the history of PWA summarized by an AI.
The history of PWA
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2007 : Before the iPhone was released, Apple announced that iPhone apps should be created as web apps.
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October 2007 – 2008 : Apple announced a native SDK, and the App Store era began.
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December 2014 : Service Workers (a mechanism for running offline) were first implemented in Chrome 40 Beta.
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2015 : Alex Russell and Frances Berriman of Google coined the term “PWA”.
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2016 : Russell organized the technical standards for PWA (such as requiring HTTPS).
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March 2018 : Apple supported the necessary technologies for PWA in iOS 11.3.
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2018 and beyond : Chrome added support for installation on desktops and Android.
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2020 : Tools for publishing PWAs to the Google Play Store appeared.
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2023 – 2024 : iOS 16.4 added support for push notifications. In 2024, there was a commotion when Apple announced it would disable PWAs in the EU, only to retract it.
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2026 : While improvements continue in iOS 26 and others, general awareness remains at about 5%.
In short, the origin of PWA was created by Apple for the iPhone. However, smartphone apps (App Store) were a huge success, and Apple became passive about PWA. On the other hand, Google continued to improve the technology, and it became a standard web technology.
And since 2018, Apple has also started to support it, albeit with some restrictions, and it is being improved little by little.
Summary
As the AI wrote in the summary, PWA is a mechanism that takes the best of both “the ease of web apps” and “the usability of smartphone apps.” It is not as versatile as apps via the store, but it is a strong option when you want to provide an app experience quickly at a low cost.
Although there are various limitations, I think PWA is a valuable technology that allows you to easily create apps that run on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac.
