Progressive Web Apps & How To Use it

Have you tired of using browser to access “online apps” frequently? But you also don’t want to install heavy apps suite on your computer, right? Well, there are some attempts made to resolve that issues, such as Chrome Apps, MS Store Web Apps, Progressive Web Apps, and many more. In this post, I will explain what is Progressive Web Apps (PWA), and how you should use it instead of online browser apps if applicable.

Here’s some examples. You’re using Google Docs frequently, and of course using Browser. If you have a deadline or you need to hurry up, you can’t. Why? Because the process is long, let’s trackdown that steps:

1. Starting Up computer
2. Opening preferred Browser (like Chrome/Firefox)
3. Typing “Google Docs” in google search, or opening it from bookmarks
4. Wait until Google Docs Dashboard is loaded.

A long steps. The longest one is waiting for browser to start up, because these days modern browser are heavy (especially ones with Chromium-based code). The good news is, Microsoft decided to include PWA features in Edge Chromium (the new Edge). It is simple to configure, no need to opening Chrome web store, or even installing Python to use this feature in Firefox.

How does PWA differs from Desktop Apps and Online Apps? Its basicaly the middle of both. PWA have its own window, you can make shortcut to desktop (like normal apps), but it is still online. Also it is lightweight, the size of PWA is about 1MB-5MB.

How to configure Progressive Web Apps on your favorite Online Apps
First, open Edge Chromium (don’t use Chrome, you’re not gonna find these tools).

Second, Open your favorite website (examples, Google Docs).

Third, navigate to right corner of browsers, go to settings (the 3 bullet buttons) -> Apps -> Install this site as an app. Here is the image instructions:

You’re done. Now open it from start menu to see if its worked. If you wish to uninstalled it later, then uninstall it (like normal apps) by going to Settings/Control Panel. Thanks for reading this short tutorials, I hope this solves your simple problem. See ya on another post!

Advertisement