Google Chrome Now Lets You Install PWAs As Regular Apps on Windows 10
- Mehedi Hassan
- Oct 16, 2018
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57
Google today started shipping Chrome 70 on Windows. The latest upgrade to Chrome brings a major new feature: support for desktop progressive web apps or PWAs.
With desktop PWA support, Chrome now lets users install PWAs as regular apps on Windows 10. You can, for example, install Starbuck’s PWA app as an app from the Chrome menu and it will then show up on the Start Menu in Windows 10. You can then launch the app as a regular app, add it to your desktop, or pin it to your taskbar for quick access. And with Chrome now using Windows 10’s native notifications and the Action Centre, these apps won’t feel any different from regular Windows 10 apps.
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When you open a desktop PWA, it doesn’t have an address bar like Chrome — instead, it appears to be a native Windows app. As long as a PWA meets the “standard” criteria, these apps will work seamlessly once installed and look almost exactly like native apps in Windows which is pretty cool.
“Desktop progressive web apps can be ‘installed’ on the user’s device much like native apps. They’re fast. Feel integrated because they launched in the same way as other apps, and run in an app window, without an address bar or tabs. They’re reliable because service workers can cache all of the assets they need to run. And they create an engaging experience for users,” Google noted in a page outlining desktop PWAs. The support for desktop PWAs is expected to arrive on Mac and Linux with Chrome 72, with Google’s own Chrome OS supporting it since Chrome 67.
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Conversation 57 comments
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skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#354013">In reply to SvenJ:</a></em></blockquote><p>Nothing is truly cross-platform by definition or otherwise. If PWAs can't be "installed" on Windows 7 or 8/8.1 they are trivially not cross-platform.</p>
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dontbe evil
<blockquote><em><a href="#353917">In reply to Hypnotoad:</a></em></blockquote><p>no that's chrome os</p>
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Bats
<blockquote><em><a href="#353917">In reply to Hypnotoad:</a></em></blockquote><p>LOL….that's funny.</p>
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skane2600
<p>So what advantage does a PWA Starbucks app have over just using a browser on a Windows PC? Browser bookmarks seem to fulfill the same role as the Start Menu. </p><p><br></p><p>In fact, unless these "installations" can be synced across multiple Windows PCs the way Chrome bookmarks can, it's actually a weaker solution.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#354011">In reply to SvenJ:</a></em></blockquote><p>You fill up the browser with bookmarks, you fill up the Start Menu with PWAs and programs, it's essentially they same problem. </p><p><br></p><p>Even on mobile, I doubt there are many people who say "There's no app so I guess there's no way to figure out what the State road conditions are. I wonder what this multicolored round icon with blue in the middle is for?" </p><p><br></p><p>On Windows and the Mac, I think it's safe to say nobody takes this "app or nothing" approach.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#354057">In reply to Markiz von Schnitzel:</a></em></blockquote><p>PWAs either have to be at least partially running in the background or if not, have to be loaded from disk or RAM. Running in the background or preserved in RAM requires system resources be consumed. Whether that is faster than loading a web page depends on the specific "app". </p><p><br></p><p>Gmail in the browser already supports notifications, so there's no advantage to PWAs in that respect. A gmail browser page can be separated and minimized so that it isn't "in the way".</p>
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lalit12
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think "win" is a bit of an exaggeration. It doesn't really add much value. As far as syncing PWAs is concerned, there's a big difference between syncing within Chrome or Chrome apps across multiple computers and sticking things in the Start Menu automatically across multiple computers.</span></p><p><br></p><p><a href="www.wifinames.xyz/">Funny WiFi Nammes</a></p>
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lalit12
<p> <a href="wifinames.xyz/">Funny WiFi Nammes</a></p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#354171">In reply to Angusmatheson:</a></em></blockquote><p>"PWA work the same everywhere"</p><p><br></p><p>They said the same thing about Java. They said the same thing about web apps. Perhaps we should wait until PWAs have a significant presence before concluding that they are truly cross-platform or that they are going to eliminate Windows "lock-in".</p>