Google seriously deepens integration of Progressive Web Apps in Android

Google gave the ability to pin website shortcuts to its Google chrome users back in 2015. Now they have planned to integrate Progressive Web Apps in Android Deeply. Google Announced the new feature will be available for the Google Chrome 57 Beta in the next few weeks.

The aim is to make things much more convenient for users by improving the overall integration with the Android OS.

It allowed developers to create web apps that prompt users to add a site on their home screen offering features such as push notifications.

Progressive Web Apps

From Chromium Blog,

For example, Progressive Web Apps will now appear in the app drawer section of the launcher and in Android Settings and will be able to receive incoming intents from other apps. Long presses on their notifications will also reveal the normal Android notification management controls rather than the notification management controls for Chrome.

Once the Google Integrates these Web Apps in its Chrome version they will be handled by Android like the apps found in the Google Play Store.

I wouldn't say you won't be needing an Android App anymore but rather focusing on Progressive Web Apps will increase the overall user experience within the Android.

In order to try the new feature, users will have to install Chrome Canary from Google Play and then open "chrome://flags" inside it, as pointed out in a report by AndroidPolice. Then they have to select Find in page option from the Chrome menu and search for #enable-improved-a2hs. Then users need to switch the option to Enabled and restart their browser.