Progressive Web Apps

As you may know, I like self-hosting things. Cloud storage, recipe books, media, and more. One of the more limiting factors with some of these tools/systems is the lack of a mobile app. And that makes sense. Many times, these open-source developers are building software with limited resources. So having an Android app, an iPhone app, and a web app is a lot. Enter the world of the progressive web application, or PWA.

What are they?

A PWA is a web application that can be installed on a device of your choosing. It's not tailored for just Android or iOS. I think that's pretty cool.

Essentially, your phone's web browser creates a cached version of the website, allowing you to access the site as a standalone app.

Why are they cool

There is an open standard for these, using a "web app manifest" and a "service worker." These define the app and allow it to communicate with the backend server if needed. PWAs are primarily written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — which means they can be developed universally, not limited to a specific operating system.

These apps also take up much less space on your phone. They run faster. They sync to a website, so you're always running the latest version.

Where they fall short

PWAs can't use your phone's hardware as well as a native application. So a fitness app would be limited in what sensors it can use.

Apple doesn't provide full support for PWAs. This is a business decision, as Apple prefers you use their App Store, their own way of enshittifying.

Final thoughts

I think they're neat. I like technologies that help you escape vendor lock-in. I shouldn't have to pick between phones based on what applications I want to use. I should be able to use what I want, on what I want. And PWAs enable that.

Examples worth checking out

Check out the list below of PWAs that I think are neat. Merry Sky in particular is used daily for my weather questions.

Merry Sky - Weather App quickstuff.app - Neat utilities progressivewebapproom - An app store of PWAs guitar-tuner - A guitar tuner

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