Windows 10 Will Soon Get Progressive Web Apps To Boost the Microsoft Store (techradar.com)

The next major update to Windows 10 will bring Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to the Microsoft Store. PWAs are websites (or web apps) which are implemented as native apps, and delivered just like a normal app through Windows 10's store. According to TechRadar, "The big advantages are that no platform-specific code is required, allowing devs to make apps that run across different platforms, and that PWAs are hosted on the developer's server, so can be updated directly from there (without having to push updates to the app store)." The other benefit for Microsoft is that they will be getting a bunch of new apps in Windows 10's store. From the report: As Microsoft explains in a blog post, these new web apps are built on a raft of nifty technologies -- including Service Worker, Fetch networking, Push notifications and more -- all of which will be enabled when EdgeHTML 17 (the next version of the rendering engine that powers the Edge browser) goes live in Windows 10 in the next big update. PWAs can be grabbed from the Microsoft Store as an AppX file, and will run in their own sandboxed container, without needing the browser to be open at all. As far as the user is concerned, they'll be just like any other app downloaded from the store. Microsoft says it is already experimenting with crawling and indexing PWAs from the web to pick out the quality offerings, which it will draft into the Microsoft Store. The firm has already combed through some 1.5 million web apps to pick out a small selection of PWAs for initial testing. As well as discovering apps via web crawling, developers will also be able to submit their offerings directly to Microsoft for approval.

Comments

Sounds fun

[Lab Rat Jason]

and that PWAs are hosted on the developer's server, so can be updated directly from there

I can't imagine any way that these apps would be compromised by hackers... not a single one!

Re:Sounds fun

[Obfuscant]

And if an update removes a feature or makes it unusable for you, too bad. But then, that's the Windows 10 philosophy.

Re:Sounds fun

[exomondo]

and that PWAs are hosted on the developer's server, so can be updated directly from there

I can't imagine any way that these apps would be compromised by hackers... not a single one!

How is that different to any website or webapp?

Re:Sounds fun

[war4peace]

It's not but since "Microsoft" word showed up, people here on /. would foam at the mouth anyway.

Sounds like more bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Frankly, I'm webbed out. I'm apped out. I'm tired of being the dumping ground for corporate bullshit.

Comparitively, gopher and ftp weren't that bad at all.

Seriously.

Leave it to Microsoft

[taustin]

to invent yet another innovative way to distribute malware.

Push notifications

And spam.

Any bets of whether or not the push notifications will work whether the app is running or not?

Re:Leave it to Microsoft

[taustin]

Leave it to Microsoft

Your "ire" is a bit misplaced. Actually, PWAs are endorsed and will be supported by every major browser vendor other than Apple. They've been covered here on Slashdot multiple times over the last few years. One of those articles mentioned that Google has deprecated the Chrome App Store because they also believe PWAs are the right way to deliver Web apps to the desktop.

Google is an advertising company ("If you're not paying for the service, you're not the customer, you're the product."). Of course they believe that technology that allows them to shove more advertising down your throat is the only possible future.

Push notifications

And spam.

Apologies in advance, I'm going to try to say this nicely, but have you been living under a rock (or not upgraded your browser) for the last 3 years? The W3C Push API and WHATWG Notifications API have been around for at least that long. And I would be really surprised if you haven't seen a website ask permission to send notifications.

Indeed. In order to get the one notification a week you want, you have to allow dozens of ads a day as well. If not today, then tomorrow.

Any bets of whether or not the push notifications will work whether the app is running or not?

A quick search shows that Chrome implemented the ability for a website to send notifications even after the tab is closed almost 3 years ago in Chrome 42.

See above about Google being an advertising company. That is, in fact, one of the bigger reasons why I don't use Chrome much.

I'd be really surprised if Edge didn't implement this capability for PWAs and already support the ability for the user to disable them on a site-by-site basis.

I'm looking forward to PWAs, personally. At the moment, there are pretty much no Google apps (Gmail, etc.) in the Microsoft App Store. This will change that. Besides Google, I'd expect most top-tier web applications will also release as a PWA.

Sure, there will be plenty of junk apps, but how is that different than any app store (iOS, Android, etc.) today? You have to wade through a lot of junk on any platform, but that doesn't mean the concept isn't useful. Having these in the Windows Store at least allows user ratings to help filter out the bad ones.

And the clever companies will put it in the app store, pay grunt labor in India to put in a pile of good reviews, then alter their PWA - without having to go through any review process - to blast spam or malware out constantly. Or some well intentioned hacker will put together something truly useful, and it will get so popular they can't handle it any more, and they'll sell it to some unscrupulous con artist who will do that. You know, like happens now for browser plug-ins and app store apps.

And while Microsoft is not, currently, primarily an ad company, the harder they push into "software as a service" territory, they more of an ad company they will become. They may or may not realize it yet, but it will inevitably happen. There's too many billions of dollars to be had that way. It'd be irresponsible towards their shareholders not to.

PWA is a plan to make it easier and more convenient for ad companies like Google to shove more and more and more advertising into people's faces. Things that like have made the web nearly unusable already.

Re:Stop flogging a dead horse (PWA)

[taustin]

I like having a computer that I can use when not connected to the internet, 'forever'. Not one that can't deal with that.

Then Windows is not for you. I'll be very surprised if it continues to even boot without an internet connection for much longer.