the progressive web and its new challenges - confoo montréal 2017

The Progressive Web and its New Challenges

Chris Heilmann @codepo8, Confoo Montréal, February 2017

PROGRESSIVEWEBAPPS

PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS

Future facing - looking into solving upcoming problems.


Not set in stone - improves over time.


Not relying on an environment…


Start with the most basic use case and interface…


Improved experiences in advanced environments…


Improved experiences with subsequent visits…


The web has always been a progressive environment…


We have forgotten about that as we have become used to it…


We’re building on great hardware with fast connections…


Developer convenience and fast turnaround trumps too often end user experience…


When the mobile factor became the main use of the web, the web showed its issues…


Unreliable browser support for accessing mobile hardware…


Doesn’t work offline


Feels like a burden to support all the possible environments users may have…


Native Apps promised to solve all these issues.


They work offline, they give you access to the hardware, they give you control over what the user can do.


A bespoke solution for a closed environment.


Which means, its own issues…


The “App revolution” isn’t something worth mimicking…


Native apps as a form factor have failed and are only kept alive by VC injections and hype…

Users spend 80% of their time using just 5 apps.

marketingland.com/report-mobile-users-spend-80-percent-time-just-five-apps-116858

“PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS

http://marketingland.com/report-mobile-users-spend-80-percent-time-just-five-apps-116858

http://marketingland.com/report-mobile-users-spend-80-percent-time-just-five-apps-116858

80% of users who download an app fail to become active users.

http://andrewchen.co/new-data-shows-why-losing-80-of-your-mobile-users-is-normal-and-that-the-best-apps-do-much-better/




…of the >1.5 million apps in the Google Play store, only a few thousand sustain meaningful traffic.





94% of app revenue comes from 1% of publishers

https://sensortower.com/blog/app-store-one-percent


https://sensortower.com/blog/app-store-one-percent

60% of apps in the Google Play app store have never been downloaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUthgV-U05w&t=1m56s


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUthgV-U05w&t=1m56s

The average user downloads less than 3 apps per month. Half of US smartphone users download zero apps per month.

http://www.recode.net/2016/9/16/12933780/average-app-downloads-per-month-comscore


http://www.recode.net/2016/9/16/12933780/average-app-downloads-per-month-comscore

Users try out a lot of apps but decide which ones they want to ‘stop using’ within the first 3-7 days.





The average app loses its entire userbase within a few months…





Native app install friction blocks 74% of your potential customers before they ever see your app.






And even the money isn’t what we’ve been promised…


▶ Pricing race to the bottom (99 cents) ▶ Lock-in into the store with its own rules

and restrictions ▶ Revenue share with store/OS provider ▶ Updates are hard and may be delayed

by the store rules


It is time to rethink the concept of Apps and their distribution outside of stores…

▶ Frictionless installs / updates ▶ Small initial payload ▶ Form factor supporting content and

interfaces ▶ Offline/Flaky connection support ▶ Using the power of the device



And that is what Progressive Web Apps are…


The distribution model is the link…


The technology stack is web standards that progressed…


The first step is to harden your servers by moving away from HTTP to more secure protocols.


The second step is providing an App Manifest.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest


▶ Describes document as an app ▶ Defines look and feel (fullscreen, colours,

screen orientation) ▶ Access to platform-specific functionality ▶ Standardised version of older, similar

approaches

App Manifest


The big breakthrough is a Service Worker…

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API


Service Worker▶ Intercept fetch events, respond with cache ▶ Intercept push events ▶ Intercept sync/periodic events▶ Offline ▶ Push notifications ▶ Background Sync


Great things are happening here. Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, all take part in this…


So what does that mean for you right now?


The web is coming back – big time.


Time to brush up what you have and slim it down…


It means you will reach lots of of new users on badly connected devices without locking them out.


And you make your current products work more reliably for everybody.


This is proper web technology - you can try it out in parts of your products and move the rest later.


Search engines can find your solutions and flag them up as PWAs (indexing manifests).


As with any web technology, a lot can be automated…http://www.pwabuilder.com

http://www.pwabuilder.com


Don’t wait, don’t waste more time on duplicating efforts for closed environments…


…when there is a web to be used that keeps you in control!

THANKSVERYMUCH

Chris Heilmann @codepo8

christianheilmann.com

http://christianheilmann.com

the progressive web and its new challenges - confoo montréal 2017

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