Reduce costs by replacing separate iOS and Android apps with a progressive web app (PWA)
Our Senior Developer, Chris Kelly, breaks down the benefits of a PWA vs building and maintaining separate apps for Apple iOS and Android products.
It’s expensive and time-consuming to manage a website plus separate apps for the Apple App Store and Google Play store
Many businesses face significant challenges in delivering a seamless experience across their digital channels. It’s slow, complex and expensive to build separate apps for the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in addition to a browser-based app.
If you’ve ever tried to get an app through the Apple review process, you know just how time consuming it can be to jump through all the review hoops!
Each business handles native app development differently, but it's common to have a dedicated team for mobile that is separate to the web team. Some projects will even have a dedicated iOS team and dedicated Android team.
What’s involved with managing three platforms rather than one?
There are plenty of costs to running three parallel projects for the same app:
the base cost of three dedicated teams – digital squads aren’t cheap.
the high revenue cut the app stores take, which multiple companies like Epic and Spotify have tried to fight.
replicating business logic across three distinct platforms, which may lead to inconsistencies, bugs, and ultimately a loss of trust.
aligning releases across varying review processes. A web app can be instantly deployed, whereas deployment to the Play Store and App Store will be delayed due to the review process.
maintaining a backend that can support multiple versions of an app because there is no guarantee a user will update their app from the store.
additional process and coordination for deployment, especially important for releases requiring short turnarounds, like hotfixes.
less control of distribution.
What is a progressive web app (PWA)?
A PWA is a type of web application built using standard web technologies that can be delivered to a user through a device’s standard browser. This includes things like notifications, location services and camera access.
A PWA can be used on any digital device without fuss. Rather than needing to download an app from Apple Play Store or Google App Store, users can instead add the PWA to the home screen of their digital devices to directly access it.
Why choose a PWA over a standard web app?
PWAs offer advanced functions not normally available to websites, such as:
being able to run offline or in the background
able to display notifications via the operating system on a user’s digital device (push notifications)
running in full screen
dedicated UI without overlapping browser UI.
All of this additional functionality can be used from within the same codebase as the web application, without the need to develop and distribute the app via the app stores – though PWAs can be packaged and distributed this way too. No walled garden, no delayed reviews, no back and forth – just your app, deployed to your servers, on your schedule.
Almost too good to be true! There are some limitations, but those limitations are slowly being reduced as Apple and Google allow PWAs to integrate more closely with their operating systems.
We wouldn’t suggest building an intense 3D multiplayer game as a PWA (though it’s certainly possible using something like this three.js template!), but the majority of web applications are suitable as progressive web apps.
We created a PWA for VicTraffic to display the status of roads in Victoria, NSW and South Australia
To best understand the positive impact of PWA’s, let’s have a look at the VicTraffic Replatform project that Symbiote successfully launched in 2024, for Victoria’s Department of Transport and Planning.
Image 1: The VicTraffic PWA gives road users a friendly step-by-step introduction to help them use and personalise the web app. This looks and works the same regardless of which digital device they use.
The new VicTraffic PWA supports all functionality previously found in the now decommissioned native applications. Functionality such as push notifications were kept, and we added new enhancements such as watch areas and user accounts.
Decommissioning the native applications and rolling out a unified PWA allowed Symbiote and VicRoads to work efficiently and effectively by having a single development pipeline from local development through to quality assurance, automated testing and deployment.
VicRoads significantly reduced their costs and simplified their management efforts by moving to a single PWA rather than maintaining three different platforms and managing in-house or contracted experts to provide support.
Victorian road users now have a convenient way to install the new VicTraffic PWA on all their devices. This enables them to view road closures or disruptions on an interactive map or a list, define the sorts of information they’re most interested in, and get notifications (see Image 2 below) about changed road conditions on their devices while they’re on the go, helping them avoid delays and enjoy safer journeys.
Image 2: PWA push notifications can be enabled by a user who creates an account and watchlist for regions of interest. The notifications can appear on any digital device that uses a web browser once the PWA is added to the home screen.