What is the best Developing PWA optimized for the AMP framework

PWA(Progressive Web Apps)

Progressive web apps are a new approach to the technology which encompasses features of both the web browser as well as the features of a mobile application. PWA is like a web app that has features of the mobile apps and can run accordingly to that.

When a user visits a web page that is optimized for PWA, the web page hits the user with a prompt “Would you like to add this page to your home screen”, if the user hits yes the web app gets added to the user home screen. The next time when a user taps on the web page icon, the PWA loads up rather quickly hiding the browser UI controls and behaving like an app on its own.

Several websites including e-commerce websites like Flipkart, Amazon use this functionality.

AMP(Accelerated mobile pages)

The speed of loading up of any web page is the greatest factor in deciding the bounce rate for any web page. Now speed in web pages depends upon two-time factors basically,

• DOM (Document Object Model) ready time.
• Full-page load time.

DOM ready time – DOM ready time is the measurement of time which includes how much time a website takes to load up its contents, including the HTML code to be loaded at first rather than any other images or videos which are posted alongside on the page. If the loading up of HTML code is slower and takes up a lot of time then the ready time of the website will be affected including the speed of the website.

Full Page load-time – Full page load-time is the time taken to load images, videos, custom fonts, and CSS, etc. A lower DOM ready time and a lower full-page load-time will contribute to a lower bounce rate thereby affecting the overall performance of the website.

What is AMP?

AMP is just a framework designed by Google to help mobile web pages load faster to reduce the overall bounce rate. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, its task is just like the name it has i.e, to reduce the overall time taken by any webpage to load whether it be a desktop or mobile web pages.

Till today more than 71 million domains have AMP and more than 11 billion pages are AMP optimized.AMP project has a common goal which is to build the overall future of the industry together.

Advantages of using AMP in websites are:

1. Speedy Performance- Pages created in the AMP open-source framework load up more quickly as compared to pages without AMP, since the loading up of pages was smooth the visitors got good engagement with the website and are likely sure to visit the website again.

2. Flexibility and result – Businesses get the opportunity upon how and when to publish their content.

How does AMP help PWA?

In short, PWA is the fusion of the best app with the web browser providing all the functionalities which are needed at that period or moment, the entire credit for which should be given to service work which is a script that runs in the background and is the backbone for every PWA. Service worker script has several features including reliable and intelligent caching, push notifications and the most praiseworthy offline functionality to previously cache/visited websites which means that once a website is visited, then next time if the user visits the same website it will load up faster even if the network is poor speeds.

But the question arises: what about the first visit to the website? Will that be fast enough even on slow networks?. Here comes the use of AMP, AMP along with service workers work together to load up the web page faster in the first load only. Once the site is loaded AMP and service workers work together to intelligently generate cache while working in the background also.PWA(Service worker) along with AMP is the best combo suitable for web pages or web apps to work up efficiently.

An example of one such web page is the BMW tech page which uses both PWA and AMP together.

Given below is the list of the top 5 PWA framework you can use to develop a PWA,

1. Angular.js
2. Vue
3. React.js
4.  Ionic
5. Polymer

We can use AMP and PWA together in three ways which are,

• AMP as a Progressive Web App(PWA)
• AMP to a Progressive Web App(PWA)
• AMP in a Progressive Web App(PWA)

Flaws of AMP?

AMP as we all know helps in almost every field of the web development page whether it be making the web pages faster or whether it be the use of PWA in AMP. Everything is based on AMP as a whole but what if this fast approach to web apps introduction brings with it some adverse effects?

Author Bio :

Rick Boklage is working for Focus It Solution. Focus It Solutions helps businesses embrace technology and offers custom web-application services. Our developers create robust and reliable web applications for diverse industries such as healthcare, insurance, banking, manufacturing, and many more. Get in touch with him now for any assistance regarding Web Development. Follow his company, Focus It Solution on Linkedin.