Category: Progressive Web Apps

Just in case you missed it, fundamentally because I certainly did, Spotify has released their Progressive Web App in Chrome and it is pretty darn good.  Like other PWAs, you install it from the menu in Chrome 67 or later while on the Spotify web player page.  This will install the app on your laptop so you can quickly access it with a single click.

For those of you who may not know what a Progressive Web App is exactly, it is a web page in an app-like experience.  The idea being that you can install it instead of a full fledged app to and get that experience.  Chrome 67 introduced support for Progressive Web Apps and you can install them in Chrome OS and other platforms.

Google Photos is the latest Google service to receive a Progressive Web App treatment.  With the release of Chrome 67, you can now install Photos onto your Windows, MacOS or Linux computer and have an app-like experience in a web page.

For those that are new to Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, they are web-based versions of an app but they act like a full fledge version of that app.  The idea is to get a touch friendly app experience without having to actually install anything.

Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, are the next big trend in browsing tech.  Designed to give an app-like experience on the web, PWAs are something that Google has been pushing hard as well as Apple and Microsoft.  All three companies, as well as Firefox are all planning to roll out support for the technology this year but Google appears to have the jump.

With Chrome 64, you have the ability to change flags within the browser to enable Progress Web Apps.  While technically not support – generally most flag settings are officially supported – it does work and you can give it a try to see what all the hubbub is about before it gets here in full swing later this year.  In this How To, I’ll show you which flags to enable to try out a PWA experience.