Progressive Web Apps installation in Chrome

Progressive Web Apps: Google released yesterday Chrome 70 with a new feature that allows browser users to install Progressive Web Apps (PWA) in the browser.

PWA applications convert websites and services to the Internet into something that most behaves like apps. This approach has some advantages, e.g. users can start applications from the operating system desktop or even use the offline service, provided the service supports it.

Offline support is highly dependent on the application and functionality it provides. For example, a PWA Notepad can work nicely without a connection, while a service such as Spotify or Twitter will not work or will only work with limited features as it requires an Internet connection to download data to the user's device.

PWAs can also use features provided by the operating system. In Windows 10, for example, applications can make use of the operating system notification center or follow certain operating rules and policies.

Note: Device users with Linux and MacOS will need to enable the policy by setting the following flag to enabled:

chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas

Google plans to provide default support for these systems from Chrome 72.

Google Chrome as we said earlier supports the Progressive Web Application feature from Chrome 70 released yesterday. So if you want to install a PWA application in your browser you should first visit the page that contains the application. For example, we mention its page notepad application. If you now click on the Menu - Install AppName you can install it.

Chrome loads the application into its UI and later adds it to the list of installed operating system applications. Windows 10 users can also find it in the "Start" menu.

Chrome lists all installed PWAs and gives users management options. Google has decided to embed them as browser applications, which means that you can display all installed PWAs by opening the internal page

chrome://apps/

Please note that while PWA support from Chrome is working immediately and is quite simple, Google does not yet have a Store for Progressive Web Apps.

The company could add applications to the Chrome Web Store at some point. But if they do not exist, those Chrome users who want to install PWAs should visit the exact URL provided in PWA and click on the Menu - Installation to install it.

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