Since last week's iPhone update, a website can store pages for offline use and open from a home screen icon. That suits businesses whose customers return often; most small businesses need a fast website, not an app.

A website that behaves like an app

Last week's iPhone update, iOS 11.3, added two pieces of technology to Safari that Android phones have had for some time.

Together they let a website store pages for use without a signal, load faster on repeat visits, and open from an icon on the home screen without the browser's address bar.

Websites built this way are called progressive web apps. Until now they worked fully on Android and only partly on iPhones, and that gap has narrowed.

For a small business that has been quoted for an app, it is worth understanding before signing anything.

The two pieces

The first is a service worker: a small script the browser keeps for your site, which can save copies of pages and serve them when the connection is slow or missing.

The second is a web app manifest: a short file giving the site's name, icon and colours, and saying whether it opens full screen.

Service workers only run on sites served over HTTPS, so a site still on plain HTTP cannot use them.

What changed on the iPhone

The last matters most in practice. Android phones can prompt a visitor to add the site to the home screen; on an iPhone, the visitor has to know to tap the share button and choose Add to Home Screen.

What a web app is good for

The benefit depends on how often people come back.

A site visited weekly, on the move, gains the most: timetables, class schedules, menus, order tracking, showtimes, anything checked repeatedly from a phone.

Patchy signal strengthens the case. Customers on a ferry, at a trailhead, in an underground parkade or out in the country see the last stored version instead of an error.

Staff tools are another fit, such as a checklist or price list technicians open in basements and crawl spaces where the phone loses signal.

Why most businesses need no app at all

Most small business websites are visited occasionally. People look up a plumber, an accountant or a florist a few times a year, often less.

Nobody installs an app for a business they use twice a year, and few will add a website to their home screen either. For those businesses, a fast, clear mobile site does the whole job.

A native app, the kind installed from the App Store, adds approval rules, separate versions for two kinds of phone, and updates for every new phone system. An app that falls behind looks worse than having none.

What it does not do

A web app does not appear in the App Store, so nobody finds it by searching there. For a local business that is rarely a loss, since customers find you through search and maps.

It cannot send notifications to iPhones, and phones limit how much a site may store, so it suits schedules and menus better than large catalogues.

And it does not replace the website. It is the website, with a few additions.

A worked example

A single-screen independent cinema in a small town had been quoted for apps on both kinds of phone, because regulars kept asking for an easier way to check showtimes.

The regulars checked several times a week, usually on phones, and the cinema's mobile site was slow: a large home page image, a heavy slider, and showtimes three taps away.

Instead of an app, the site was rebuilt around the showtimes page, moved to HTTPS, and given a service worker and a manifest. The week's listings are stored after the first visit, and the cinema's icon opens straight to them.

A note on the showtimes page explains how to add the icon on an iPhone and on Android, since iPhones will not suggest it.

The regulars have their shortcut, the site is faster for everyone, and there is nothing to submit to an app store.

The groundwork comes first

A web app is built on a website, and it inherits that website's faults.

A slow site becomes a slow app. A site with outdated information becomes an app that stores outdated information and shows it offline.

So the order is fixed: HTTPS, a mobile site that loads quickly and reads clearly, accurate content, and only then the extras.

The stale page problem

A service worker that stores too eagerly can show yesterday's page as if it were today's.

For a cinema, that means last week's showtimes; for a restaurant, an old menu; for a shop, a price that has changed. The visitor has no way to tell.

The fix is in how the script is written: pages that change should be fetched fresh whenever there is a connection, with the stored copy used only when there is not.

That needs testing on real phones, online and off, before launch. It is a job for whoever builds the site rather than a switch to flip.

The counter-case

For most small businesses, none of this is a priority yet.

If customers visit a few times a year, the home screen icon will go unused, and the money is better spent on speed and content.

A site still on plain HTTP should fix that first: it is the prerequisite, and from July Chrome will label every HTTP page Not secure.

And some businesses do need a native app, for loyalty schemes with notifications or for features a website cannot reach. For everyone else, a fast website comes first, and a web app only where customers return often.

Before anyone quotes for an app

  1. Ask how often customers actually return.
  2. Check what they return for.
  3. Move the site to HTTPS if it is not.
  4. Make the mobile site fast and clear.
  5. Consider a service worker for repeat visitors.
  6. Test offline behaviour on real phones.
  7. Explain the home screen icon on the site.

Step one decides everything else. A business whose customers come back weekly may well benefit from a web app; one whose customers come back yearly needs a faster website and little more.

On a WordPress site, additions like these belong where theme updates cannot erase them, as covered in child themes and the update that wiped the changes.

Frequently asked questions

What changed for websites on the iPhone?

iOS 11.3 added service workers and web app manifests to Safari, so websites can store pages for offline use and open from a home screen icon.

What is a progressive web app?

A website with two additions: a script that stores pages for slow or missing connections, and a file giving its name, icon and how it opens.

Can a web app send notifications to iPhones?

No. iPhones still do not offer notifications to websites, and they do not prompt visitors to add the icon. Visitors use the share button themselves.

Which businesses benefit from a web app?

Those whose customers return often from phones: schedules, menus, showtimes and order tracking, especially where signal is patchy, such as ferries, trailheads and rural areas.

Does a small business need an app?

Usually not. Customers who visit a few times a year will not install one. A fast, clear mobile website does the job for most small businesses.

What can go wrong with stored pages?

A script that stores too eagerly can show yesterday's showtimes, menu or prices. Pages that change should be fetched fresh whenever there is a connection.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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