What I am starting to learn about Progressive Web Apps

As far as I can tell, this is a Google initiative originally based around Chrome. The idea is that you design a website with certain abilities to allow it to be used on an Android device home screen as well as Windows 10 and Linux based desktops as an seemingly native desktop application. It appears to utilize background service workers to download and store data from the website in such a manner as to make the site appear to be quick and able to be viewed when not connected to the internet.

This does not sound like a new idea, but Google is working behind the scenes to add further functionality that allows the desktop and mobile devices able to use some of the native features like camera and file management abilities.

As of 11/23/18, I have only done a cursory view of this information and found a solid code example provided by Google that might give me some more insight into this. I will test out the code example and expand upon this post.

For now, I can envision using this for some simple applications like the Tracker software I am working on (initially to track physical files for smaller law firms), and also maybe an mobile application for the blockwatch that would allow me to share more pertinent information as things happen. I might be able to create a simple mobile application that can be used by the Masonic lodges that I am a member of to share upcoming dates or education topics.

This is promising, but seems limited at the moment in that Apple desktops are not able to utilize this functionality yet.