An app store for web apps

#productivity #web

Welcome to this article. Today, I'm excited to share my latest discovery with you: store.app. In a world increasingly dependent on web applications, this platform is a game-changer.

Summary

An app store for web apps
What is an installable web app?
The impact on the web ecosystem
Conclusions

An app store for web apps

store.app is a project backed by PWA Labs lead by Morgan Bender and its team.

The concept is simple to understand: it acts as a hub for content creator to publish their web apps, and for web users to find them.

Web apps are categorized by labels (AI, Games, Crypto, ...). You can filter only on installable web apps as well (more on this later).

Developers can register on the platform and start publishing their web apps in a few minutes. The whole process is smooth and satisfying (I personally published Predzo, a collaborative shopping list app).

Store.app will then proceed with an automated scan of the published website to extract various meta data like the icon and images and other basic information. It will also perform a Google Lighthouse scoring test to be displayed for users that search for your app. If you web app is installable, it will also display a badge beside the name of your app.

What is an installable web app?

A few years ago, web browsers started to support the PWA standard. Progressive Web Apps become more and more supported, and the web gets new capabilities, closing the gap between native apps and web apps.

New APIs come to the light, like the Geolocation API, Notification API, Bluetooth API, and many more.

When we talk about progressive web apps, the main things that come to our mind are:

It feels like a native app (thanks to the web manifest, you can instruct a web app to be displayed without the web browser UI)
It is resilient to connectivity fluctuations like a native app (thanks to the service worker that can cache whole responses and render the cached response in case of network interruption)
It can take advantage of the physical device features like a native app (you can take a look at what PWA can do today to have a glimpse of what is possible)
It adapts its UI to the device viewport, like a native app

What it means is that with a few configuration, you can turn virtually any web apps into installable apps, which helps creating a true seamless and uniform experience across devices.

The impact on the web ecosystem

The web evolved from being a simple platform to display information on a web browser to becoming the first entrypoint to finding content online.

Think about the last time you installed an app on your smartphone. Was it last month? Maybe last year?

And when was the last time you used a web browser to find content online? Probably a few minutes ago if you read these lines.

The point is that the web is the dominant hub for finding and interacting with the world. And big actors have understood this which explains the effort put to push installable web apps as a first-class citizen of the web.

In this picture, store.app plays a unique role by orchestrating the efforts into a single source of information. It become easier to find the next great app that will help you get more productive, have more fun, or discover new opportunities.

The impact will also go beyond the web frontier, as it will tighten the gap between websites and users by increasing the engagement: imagine getting native notifications from dev.to, just after you browsed it and registered.

Installable web apps also offer killers features that more and more users will find convenient:

They take way less space on the device (for example, the web Twitter app is 0,30 MB, the native Android app is more than 30 MB)
They do not require manual updates (the server automatically serves the most up-to-date version of the app), which reduces frictions and also helps consuming less space in the device
They get installed in a few seconds, which also reduce the bounce rate and increase the engagement opportunities

Conclusions

I always was a web enthousiast, since as much as I can remember. When I started studying computer science 10 years ago, I immediately knew I would become a web developer.

The instant feedback loop and the ease of use was amazing and I knew this was the future of digital interactions.

I'm thrilled to have bet on the right horse with the advent of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). It's evident that all signs point to a future of seamless web experiences.

I always wanted to create a web app store (I even still have the project idea on my Google keep!), and once I found store.app, it was a relief to know other people also care about the same goal I have, and also great to know there is now a solid team toward this effort of bringing the best of the web.

Store.app is a promising venture that holds the potential to reshape the web ecosystem. Its dedication to making web apps more accessible and user-friendly is commendable. I encourage you to explore this platform and join us in making the web a better place.

Last one for fun, take a look at what installable web apps look like on an Ubuntu!