Progressive web apps:
a love story

@nolanlawson

@nolanlawson

A story about mobile

2010

Pokédroid

• ≥ 440,000 downloads
• ≥ 9,700 reviews
• 4.8 stars
• Top 50 in category "Entertainment"

Why was Pokédroid so popular?

Many alternatives on the web

• Bulbapedia
• Marriland
• Serebii
• GameFAQs

What made Pokédroid unique:

OFFLINE!

It's so nice to be able to be on the road playing Pokémon and having a quick reference without all the large guidebooks.

Super awesome-o. I use this all the time for Pokémon instead of having to go online to Serebii.

3.5MB SQLite database

2011: Pokédroid DMCA'd

Why DMCA?

• Publishing to app store asserts IP ownership
• Nintendo wary of apps
• Web sites okay

In 2011, you could not build Pokédroid using web technology alone.

RIP Pokédroid 😢

The web? 🤔

The web! 😍

Bruce Lawson – Progressive web apps
and the future of the web

HTML [is] in direct competition with other technologies intended for applications deployed over the web, in particular Flash and Silverlight.

Steve Jobs, "Thoughts on Flash" (2010)

Alex Russell – Progressive web apps

[The web] won on desktop, just in time for mobile to eat the world.

2016: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Coined by Alex Russell

Profile of a PWA

• Works offline
• Launches from home screen
• "Feels" like a native app
• Push notifications (optional)
• Background sync (optional)

What changed?

Putting it all together

How?

Server-side rendering

FLIP animations

Tips from a native mobile developer

1. Prefer offline
2. Use background threads

Pokédex.org IDB: 4M Chrome, 5.6M FF

Galaxy Nexus (2011), Android 4.3

In 2011, you couldn't build a high-performance, immersive offline app with web technologies.

In 2016, you can.

https://pokedex.org

Thanks! 👋