PWAs are the Future of Apps. Period. (Premium)

I’ve written a lot about Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and my belief that they are the future of apps in Windows 10. But, the truth is, I’m underselling it. PWAs are the future of apps, period. On all platforms.

To be clear, this idyllic future is not imminent.

Looking just at Windows 10, we know that the code to enable the long-awaited Windows and Store integration with PWAs is available now to Windows Insiders who are testing Redstone 4 (RS4, or Windows 10 version 1803). But despite this, we’ve seen no real movement on PWAs in RS4, no real access to test PWA apps in the Store. Not yet. It will happen.

But looking more broadly at Microsoft apps, the possibilities are tantalizing.

Consider this week’s news that Microsoft has completed a years-long effort to share as much code as possible between the Office apps on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. This is a big deal, as it allows the firm to make these different app versions as functionality identical as is possible (and necessary), while simplifying the process of doing so. It lets users have a more consistent experience, too, as they move between device types.

But as I only half-joked on Twitter today, there is a much more profound way that Microsoft could align the codebases of these apps across those platforms. It could simply transition the Office apps into PWAs.

Now, I get it. The PWA deniers in the audience—and I hear from these folks every single time I write about PWAs—will jump in here with their (mistaken) belief that PWAs simply aren’t sophisticated enough to handle such complicated and full-featured solutions as Word and Excel. And, for good measure, they’ll point out that, even if PWAs could handle such tasks, they still won’t replace native apps because games, video editors, and other high-end solutions will always require native code.

Well now. Even a casual Google search will show that there are incredible games and video editors on the web. But I will grant this much: Native code is never going away. So no worries there: You will probably be dealing with native code on your favorite platforms for the durations of our lives. Nothing is absolute. PWAs are absolutely the future. But that doesn’t instantly negate that fact that other codebases will live on too. So if you’re not a fan of PWA for some reason, you can relax.

Getting back to Office, though, I was recently trying to compare the experience of running the Android versions of Office apps vs. the web-based versions on a Chromebook. But you don’t need a Chromebook to test this for yourself: You can do so on Windows 10 too. The lackluster Word Mobile app for Windows 10 is almost identical to the Android version. And Word Online is the same across platforms because it is a web app.

Because it is a web app.

Think about that for a moment. Transitioning Word Online to a PWA would be a fairly trivial exercise. And this is particularly notable because Word Online is much more full-featured and capable than Word Mobile. Much more like Word 2016 on Windows. Much more.

Here’s another thing to consider: Microsoft just replaced Windows PowerShell, a Windows 10-only version of its scripting runtime environment, with PowerShell Core. That latter product lacks some Windows PowerShell features, which may or may not appear over time, but it works across platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux. If Microsoft can do that, why couldn’t it transition Word Online and the other Office Online apps to PWAs and then eventually replace all of the native code versions of Office? (Office 2016 on Windows and Mac. And Office Mobile everywhere else.)

They could do so. They are probably not working on that right now, given that Microsoft previously announced that they were working on Office 2019. But they could be. Should be.

This possibility points to why I think PWAs are so exciting.

That is, when we speak about apps and app development, we often ignore that there is a very big difference between new app development and maintaining exist apps and existing codebases. On Windows, for example, we know that no developer, not even Microsoft, has created a major new Windows app in several years. (Major being something like Photoshop or Chrome.) This is the reason why the Microsoft Store is such a wasteland: With developers focused on mobile and web for new app development, Windows is where we go to run still useful but older and legacy apps. Office. Photoshop. Apple iTunes. That kind of thing. So the Microsoft Store has shifted from new apps to figuring out ways (like Desktop Bridge) to get popular existing apps into the Store.

But PWAs represent a way for developers to bring both new apps and existing apps to Windows, and to other platforms, and to do so at the same time, and with a single codebase. Moving Office to PWA doesn’t solve the Microsoft Store problem per se, but it does solve a wider problem for Microsoft, in that it must maintain several different codebases for many of its Office apps. Bringing PWA to the Microsoft Store does, however, solve the new app problem in Windows 10: Now, developers won’t have to do anything, or much at all, to make their new apps work in Windows. PWA is a win-win.

So, deny PWA all you want. But this technology is coming. It’s on Android today, and will be expanding on that platform, and on ChromeOS, to support bigger screens. It is coming to Windows 10 and to the Microsoft Store. And Apple, secretive as they are, is also known to be working on PWA support in Safari, which would bring this technology to macOS and iOS. I’d be surprised if they did not announce this at WWDC this year. It’s overdue.

Put simply, PWA really is the future. And it’s a bright future, and not just on Windows.