The surprising identity problem with PWAs
One bright morning in January 2020, I realized there wasn’t an app to monitor the unfolding COVID-19 situation. I bought the domain coronavirus.app (having trouble accessing it? see here), collaborated with a few friends to develop the app as a PWA, launched it, and soon after, millions of people were using it daily.
Since the launch, we’ve been inundated with emails from users expressing a very peculiar concern:
“I’ve searched App Store/Google Play and I can’t find it. Where is the app?”
“Where is the app?”
A significant number of our users, primarily everyday individuals rather than tech enthusiasts, find it challenging to understand that what they access at coronavirus.app is the actual app. There’s no need for a download. Simply visiting the URL, whether on mobile or desktop, gives you the full app experience.
This has genuinely baffled many. Years of conditioning by Google and Apple have ingrained the idea that apps must be acquired from app stores. However, nowadays, this notion isn’t as straightforward as it once was.
The solution? Not another app store
With Progressier, it felt like it was time to build a solution to that problem. But… I’ll stop you right there. The solution is not “an app store for PWAs”. There have been multiple attempts at this, and none of them ever really took off— simply because, by design, PWAs don’t require a traditional app store.
People look for apps that solve their problems. The form factor — native or PWA — is irrelevant. An “app store for PWAs” is, in my opinion, fundamentally flawed, because it only resonates with those intrigued by PWAs as a technological concept, which is just a small niche of web developers.
Fundamentally, app stores are meant to serve two functions:
- A distribution channel: by listing your app on an app store, you can tap into a larger audience.
- An infrastructure provider: app stores streamline standard processes that are consistent across apps, such as installation, updates, payment processes, reviews, and so on.
For PWAs, the latter role doesn’t hold much weight. The functionality to install is already integrated within the browser itself (though if you’re seeking a browser-neutral approach, that’s where Progressier steps in).
And the first role, well… app stores no longer fulfill that role anymore. Not for PWAs. And not for native apps either.
App distribution in 2021
You have to go back in time to understand why app stores became so ubiquitous. Ten years ago, you would publish an app or Google Play or the App Store — and this alone would get you new users. Being in every store was a winning user acquisition strategy for early players in the market like Evernote.
Nowadays, there are between 2 and 3 million apps in each of these stores. Many categories are so saturated that without additional efforts (e.g. advertising), chances are that your app will steadily remain at… zero downloads.
App stores are no longer a distribution channel. Today, they’ve exclusively become more of a hosting provider/payment processor combo. App stores help your users download, install, update, and pay for your app — and that’s about it. They certainly no longer help you reach new customers.
That’s why Google and Apple have recently been forced to drop their 30% commission on in-app revenue to 15%. Taking a 30% commission makes sense when you bring in the customer. It doesn’t if all you’re doing is “processing payments” — especially when pure payment processors like Stripe or PayPal only typically charge 2 to 5%.
Where the experience breaks
PWAs have three major weaknesses:
- They can’t access all device features that a native app can access
- They’re a pain in the butt to set up properly across browsers.
- Users aren’t familiar with the installation process
Progressier solves #2 and #3. And #1 is a work in progress led by browser vendors. It’s getting better every year, but if your app must access your user’s accelerometer to work properly, a PWA probably isn’t an option.
In every other case, PWAs are vastly superior to native apps: they’re easier to develop (especially when built with a no-code builder like Bubble), faster to access for your users, completely hassle-free to update, and cheaper to maintain.
Now the issue is: people are still awfully conditioned to having to download apps from third-party app stores. So when you tell users that they can just click [Install] in the top-right corner, they don’t feel like they’re downloading an app. From a user experience perspective, it’s almost… too direct. Too invasive. It lacks wrapping and finesse. And perhaps more importantly, it conflicts with what users have grown accustomed to in the past decade. This is where the “PWAs are apps” magic sort of breaks.
Enter… the PWA Installation Page
With Progressier, your PWA gets a unique installation page that looks like this:
Give users an app store experience — a third-party site promoting the installation of your PWA — so that they understand that they’re in the process of installing your app.
Of course, it’s completely customizable. You can add screenshots, modify the URL, SEO-friendly descriptions, and so on. Everything you would expect from an app store listing.
That installation page alone won’t get new users. Nobody will find your app from that link. We‘re not an app store. We simply provide you with a tool that makes it easy for your users to install your PWA once they’ve already found you.
But that’s okay. Because if you publish an app on Google Play and the App Store in 2021, well… you’ll have to take care of finding your own users too.
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