The Progressive Web App
The platform can be installed on a device like an app — an icon on the home screen, its own window, no browser chrome.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Configuration:
- Site Settings — the Progressive Web App and Service Workers option groups
Architect Panel → Layout & Pages:
- Dependencies — the files the site loads, and what the offline cache is built from
Architect Panel → Background Messaging:
- Push Notifications — the VAPID keys web push needs
Configuration is in Site Settings rather than on a dedicated console. There are two option groups: Progressive Web App and Service Workers.
What it gives you
- An icon on the home screen, launching straight into the app.
- Its own window without an address bar, which makes it feel like an application rather than a website.
- A defined starting page, so it opens somewhere useful.
- Remembered position, so a user returns where they left off.
- Optional offline caching and push notifications, through the service worker.
What it is not
Not a native app. It does not appear in an app store, cannot use device features a browser cannot reach, and is installed by the user choosing to add it rather than by downloading it.
If you need store distribution, biometrics, camera capture or background location, that is the mobile app builder, not this.
The trade is real though
A progressive web app costs almost nothing — a few settings on a site you already have — and needs no store review, no release process and no build. For a lot of internal tools that is the right answer.
Two settings, then the service worker
The web app itself is two settings: the home page and whether state is remembered. Everything else — offline caching, push — comes from the service worker engine, which is separate and switched on independently.
Installation is the user’s choice
Which is the main practical limitation. Nobody gets the app unless they add it, and most people do not know they can.
If you want adoption, tell people how — a short instruction with screenshots for each platform is worth more than any amount of configuration.
Test on a real device
Installed, not in a browser tab. The installed experience differs — no address bar, different navigation, different back behaviour — and problems only appear there.
Worked example
A field service organisation runs its job app as an installable web app with a defined home page and state remembered, offline caching on for the app scope only. Staff were sent a one-page instruction with screenshots for adding it, and adoption reached almost everybody within a fortnight.
Recommendations
- Set the home page before promoting the app.
- Tell people how to install it — nobody discovers it.
- Test installed, not in a tab.
- Use the mobile builder if you need device features or store distribution.