8 awesome PWAs

4 min readJun 7, 2021

Progressive web apps are a special kind of web app that can be installed and deliver a similar experience to native apps on mobile or desktop.

Here’s a look at some of the best examples to quickly get a sense of who is using PWA technology.

Tik Tok

Joining the PWA club in March this year, experiencing tick tock doesn’t require a visit to the app store. Launch the website on your mobile here, then touch the rotating avatar in the lower right corner to install.

Instagram

One of the early adopters of PWA, Instagram uses push notifications (on Android) and delivers a rich user experience with a fast, light weight PWA. The other advantage of the PWA approach is avoiding app store revenue commissions and annoying rules. Visit here to install.

YouTube

Launched in early ’21, you can install YouTube on your desktop using Chrome by clicking the install icon at the right end of the web address area.

In chrome on Windows, click the install icon.

YouTube will now show in the Windows 10 start menu as recently added.

YouTube ready to launch as an installed desktop app thanks to PWA technology.

JustWatch

If you’ve ever needed help picking great movies or shows, JustWatch is a useful tool. Available as both a PWA and hybrid native app, there’s many ways to install JustWatch. Try it out here.

Google Photos

You can install Google Photos on your mobile or desktop. Like many PWAs, the product uses a SPA (Single Page Application) to avoid reloading the page. When the app needs more data, it’s fetched from an API, rather than by loading a new URL. See it in action here or read more about the launch here

Twitter

Launched in early 2018, the Twitter PWA is a tiny 329KB. Size is one of the appealing aspects of PWAs, making them quick to install and less demanding on limited device storage. Designed to make the mobile web experience great, their PWA delivered in spades:-

- Pages per second increased by 65%
- Tweets sent increased 75%
- Bounce rate down 20%

Spotify

The world’s premier music streaming app is available as both a hybrid native app and a PWA. Using web technology at the core of an app allows new features to be rolled out across all platforms quickly, reducing cost and complexity.

How to install the Spotify PWA

Visit open.spotify.com
You’ll be prompted to add the app to your home screen. Tap Add Now.
Confirm by tapping Add.

An early adopter with a strong case study in optimisation of the user experience, Pinterest social engagement profile made it a perfect fit for the low friction on boarding process offered by a PWA. Part of that is possible thanks to the tiny size of PWAs. Full case study