As the adoption of Progressive Web Apps increases, Google is working to make the installation process more prominent. The latest effort is in Chrome for Android and sees a new PWA install sheet provide an app store-like appearance online.
Currently, users see a snack bar appearing at the bottom of their screen that prompts them to “Add X to Home Screen.” It opens a “Install app” prompt to confirm.
Moving forward, there will be a bottom sheet that includes a description and screenshots. The “Install” button appears in the top-right corner next to the app icon, name, and website. Google and Twitter are trialing this “richer PWA installation dialog” from today onward.
The experience is much more akin to using the Play Store, with users less likely to ignore the PWA prompt and getting a better idea of what they’re about to install.
Site developers can do the same for their PWA by adding the “description” and “screenshots” properties to their site manifest. Full instructions are available here, with Google noting how those two additions are “currently used only in Chrome for Android.”
The experimental flag chrome://flags/#mobile-pwa-install-use-bottom-sheet flag must be enabled in Chrome 90.
Other criteria for images includes:
- Width and height must be at least 320px and at most 3840px.
- The maximum dimension can’t be twice larger than the minimum dimension.
- Screenshots must have the same aspect ratio.
- Only JPEG and PNG image formats are supported.
More about PWAs:
- Old Chat Electron desktop app shutting down this month in favor of PWA
- Google releases separate ‘YouTube Music for Chromebook’ PWA on Play Store
- Firefox discontinues work toward Progressive Web Apps on desktop
- Google joins enterprise-focused Modern Computing Alliance and reiterates push for PWAs
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