Building Progressive Web Apps

Chapter 12. What’s Next for PWAs

Let’s take a minute to look at all that we have accomplished.

The progressive web app we created has a prime spot on the user’s homescreen. When launched, it runs in full-screen. It is always available, fast, and fully functional whether the user is online, offline, or anywhere in between. It can even reach out to users after they have left our site and update them when their reservation details change.

Other than the fact that the user does not have to go through an app store, what we have created is indistinguishable from a native app—better than native even.

If you can think of any edge or feature that a native app has that a progressive web app doesn’t, know that it probably already exists or is being worked on.

In this final chapter, we will take a whirlwind tour of some of these new technologies, including the ability to easily accept payments, credential management for easy user sign in, rendering realtime 3-D graphics, virtual reality, and more. This will not be a deep dive into any of these technologies, some of which are still being finalized, but a short introduction with some pointers on where to go to learn more.

Accepting Payments with the Payment Request API

Online payments, especially on mobile devices, are never an easy thing—not for the developer trying to accept payments, nor for the user struggling with long checkout forms.

While the majority of online shopping is already done on mobile, users are much more likely to complete ...