Thoughts on PWAs
For a while now, I have been working on this new app (ClearMoney)...
I decided to challenge myself to build a useful and functional Progressive Web App (PWA for short) in order to explore how similar the experience is to native apps.
The idea was to replace my good-old budgeting spreadsheet with an app that could track my expenses and balances automatically. Then, I added some charts to visualize my cash flow and spending categories. And then, I added a way to set my budget and saving goals.
It's finally starting to feel stable and I'm looking for people to help me test it and give feedback! More specifically... how are you tracking your budgets, and how does it compare? Does it meet your requirements and what do you think about the UX?
The entire discovery and download process happen on the landing page (clearmoney.io instead of an app store) but I would argue that it's less friction.
PS. Have you created any PWAs? What are some things you did to make it feel frictionless? And does your app support notifications?
Hey Adrian 👋
I built a PWA habit tracker a few years ago, it didn’t support notifications at all. I didn’t promote it or share it with anyone - just used it for my own needs.
The biggest letdown I see with lots of PWA apps is a lack of consideration about how people can share them easily from within the app itself once it’s “installed”.
I used one just the other day that I wanted to share and I just gave up in the end as it was more effort than it was worth. Obviously not ideal for organic growth.
Make sure it’s super easy for people to share once installed is my 2c.
HTH
🍻
very good point, I will figure out some kind of referral mechanism to make it easier to share it with others. Thank you!
Just as an FYI, it's not installing for me, maybe I have to sign in first.
I think PWA is just fine, at least until you hit a limitation you can't overcome
the current install flow is triggered from the home page, which takes you to a login screen, and you should see the install prompt at the top of the page. clicking on that Install button gives you the instructions. I don't trigger a custom install UI or a prompt, rather just tell the user the steps to add to home screen.