There are many operating systems available today, from Windows to macOS, Linux, Android to iOS, too much for developers, especially solitaires, to support equally. There’s also no shortage of frameworks and tools, like Qt or Google’s Flutter, designed to make it a little less painful, but the only platform for that really permeates all of this is the Web. That’s basically the appeal of the new generation of web apps, called Progressive Web Apps, and two of the world’s largest software vendors are working together to make PWAs more like first-class citizens of the Google Play Store. .
Many of today’s most popular applications and services are web-based, designed so that they can cover as many bases as they can, sometimes even in mobile web browsers. However, that doesn’t instantly make them PWA, as they still have to be properly integrated with the specific features of the underlying operating system. That’s what Microsoft’s PWABuilder and Google’s Bubblewrap are designed for, and now they’re joining forces to spread the good news about PWAs on mobile devices.
Google’s Bubblewrap is basically a tool for creating Google Play Store packages from PWA, while Microsoft’s PWABuilder does the same for most app stores. PWABuilder is now using Bubblerwrap under the hood, says Microsoft, and, in turn, is returning some integration features to PWAs on Android.
Specifically, PWAs packaged for the Google Play Store will be able to support web shortcuts that allow users to jump directly to specific sections or parts of the web application. In Windows, these shortcuts appear as jump lists when you right-click the icon on the taskbar. This same list will appear on Android when you press and hold the app icon. Additionally, PWAs will be able to control the appearance of the status bar, such as changing its color to match the theme of the app, just like normal native Android apps.
Google and Microsoft are leaning towards PWAs a lot for their own reasons. Microsoft is trying to make up for the lack of apps in its Store by allowing existing web apps to be published there as PWA. Google, on the other hand, benefits from PWAs by having a single application history that spans all of its existing platforms and uses the platform it knows best: the Web.
