A first look at progressive web apps
Progressive web apps are an innovation of modern web development, pairing the ubiquity of web browsers with the richness of native applications. Specialized features such as service workers increase the complexity of development as compared to a typical web UI, but they provide an enormous benefit in exchange: cross-device, native-like features delivered inside a web browser.
Features of progressive web apps
If you consider the difference between a typical web browser application and an app installed on a laptop or mobile phone, you get a sense of the gap that progressive web apps bridge. A defining feature of installed apps is that they run on the device when there is no network connection. Progressive web apps support similar offline functionality within the browser.