Someone with PWA experience here?
I know that’s really young technology and not much people even know about PWA. But I really want to hear someone who know what it is and can share his experience.
Is it better than simple web or mobile app? What pluses and minuses you noticed?
I'm yet to properly dig into it but we hosted a talk some time ago on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOivy9kcVzY&t=1m40s
The feedback I hear from people going this or similar route has mostly been about synchronizing data. They want to store data on the user's device but also send and retrieve data from a back end. They also want that experience to be seamless and not involve a lot of boilerplate code. Personally, I think as time goes on, this is going to be less of a thing especially as unlimited mobile internet becomes more common.
The speaker in the video I linked mentioned you can install a PWA to a user's home screen. That's a major convenience if it's still possible because it means you can bypass the whole app store thing without side loading.
All in all, the most compelling use case for me right now is html5 games, outside of that I don't see it worth the effort yet. But that's strictly based on my experiences writing software which most times runs in a web page.
Thank you for your reply and sharing the link.
With PWA I want to solve the problem of both type of users: web and mobile. Because not everyone using mobile, not everyone using web. And at the start point with the fact that I am self-funded, I can’t do the both: mobile and web. So PWA is more convenient for me, how I think.
It's unlikely someone will have a smart phone without a web browser, so if feasible for the concept of the app, a mobile friendly web page might be a quick way to at least validate the idea. Some people actually prefer to use their mobile web browser instead of installing yet another app especially when storage space is an issue.
As far as making it a PWA, I guess the benefits are going to be highly dependent on what your app needs to do.
This will be like bulletin board with an extension to the social network in the future
I would do a mobile friendly website then. You could always refactor to a PWA if needed later.
Why website?
Seems like it would be quicker and more cost effective than making a native app or going for a PWA from the start.
A bulletin board is mostly about reading and publishing content, the Web is pretty good for this already.
I have been on that journey in the past. It might definitely be a serious option for an app which does not require native functionality of the device. Offline access is doable, but becomes quite a burden when a synchronization process must be implemented.
I would definitely go this way initially if no access to native functionality is required, if only for the additional resources the development of a mobile app requires. In this regard there isn't really a better or worse, but more of a struggle to effectively distribute resources depending on the goals you want to achieve.
Thank you so much for your feedback!