Progressive Web Apps (PWA) using the Trusted Web Activities (TWA) API are finally supported on the Google Play Store following its 2017 announcement.
TWA is an API for PWAs that permits online page to be displayed in full screen with system-level options and restricted native code.
Some can note the existence of PWAs like Facebook lite, Instagram lite, and Twitter lite on the Play Store. The applications mentioned above uses Web View and needs plenty of additional native code for things like notifications.
TWA permits web developers to publish PWAs with native options while not having to write down plenty of additional Java/Kotlin code.
As detected by developer Maximiliano Firtman, Google is currently permitting PWAs to be published and discovered on the Play Store.
In a post explaining the benefits of PWAs on the Play Store, Firtman highlighted the subsequent possibilities:
- It offers Home Screen convenience i.e. Widget
- It offers Application Shortcuts (when you long press the icon of the application) and different deep integrations with the OS
- It offers a wear OS companion app or android automatic extension
- Possesses background services accessing native options(communication with the PWA remains limited — more on this later)
- Monetization of the Application — limited these days, a lot of this later
- It will have some native screens mixed with PWA content
- Ability to distribute over one PWA icon within the Launcher and/or home screen inform to totally different URLs (within a similar host)
- It has better internationalization support
Overall Maximiliano Firtman says that “The idea that we can make PWAs to be published in the Google Play Store is really a game changer. It’s very obvious that we are in the early phase of the API right now and we definitely need a higher level plan for this. I really want to see a tool whereby if a PWA’s URL is entered, an APK will be automatically generated.
Source: Medium
