Everything’s changing. Quickly.
How many apps do you download a month? I’m willing to bet with limited storage, and possible data limitations, not often. In fact, 58 percent of app users become inactive within their first 30 days of downloading the app. After two months, the numbers increase to 71 percent and 75 percent in the third month. So it’s safe to say, apps are slowly, but surely becoming obsolete.
What isn’t dead though, is mobile use. There are 228 million mobile phone users over the age of 13, of those 83.2 million are mobile phone users.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Millions have smart devices, but apps are dead – so how do you appeal to them now!?” quote=”This means there are millions of people with mobile devices in their hands, and therefore millions of opportunities, but they aren’t using apps. So how do you appeal to them? “]
Of course an optimized mobile site is one way, but a more convenient application known as Progressive Web Applications (PWA) is the future for mobile users.
PWAs sound fancy, right?
Don’t get too caught up in names – PWAs, unlike apps that we are used to, are not downloaded from the app store.
Instead, they start out just like any other web app in your smartphone’s browser, but as visitors come more frequently, the browser will eventually invite the user to install the PWA to their home screens.
If the user agrees, the PWA will have its own home screen icon and will launch without having to go through the browser first. This means, no URL bar at the top of the screen, and a full-screen mobile optimized view of the PWA, similar to an app. PWAs can also use push notifications similar to apps we are familiar with now.
Developers are hard at work
Developers are working on perfecting the future of apps so information on how to create PWAs is limited or to be honest, outdated. There is, however a more recent, code heavy, tutorial by Eric Elliot if you’re curious what PWAS look like and can decipher JavaScript.
In the meantime, don’t stress yourself to get a PWA set up tomorrow, rather plan for the future of app development and what that will look like for your company as information becomes more available. Until then, make sure your current mobile site and apps are optimized and running smoothly so those people will want to use your PWA when the time comes.
