Shipping a PWA as an Android app

Increase the reach of your Progressive Web App by using it as an Android app. In this session, learn about Bubblewrap, a new tool that developers can use to transform their PWAs into an Android application, without having to write native code or learn native tooling. Watch us transform an existing PWA into a native app from start to finish, in just a few minutes.
Resources:
Persistence App → goo.gle/2YBcFPj
Setup an Android device in Developer Mode → goo.gle/31rxy1z
Bubblewrap CLI README → goo.gle/387BRQA
Adding more keys to Digital Asset LInks → goo.gle/386koIu
Related Playlist:
Day 2 → goo.gle/WDL20Day2
Subscribe to the Chrome Developers → goo.gle/Chrome...
Speaker:
Andre Bandarra
#webdevLIVE #PWA event: web.dev LIVE 2020; re_ty: Publish; fullname: Andre Bandarra; product: Chrome - General;

[@tripathiabhay1]

Being an admirer of PWA, it is really cool. PWA is a great way to build products. The only thing that itches me is Apple's unwillingness to fully support PWA

[@jerryf196]

If Apple does support PWAs it will hurt there app store market

[@judewestburner]

If Apple don't support pwa's theres literally no point.

[@HowaYe]

@@judewestburner Depends on where your market is... Globally, Android is by far the more popular OS @79% (Q4 2019) and is projected to be 87% by 2022

[@judewestburner]

@@HowaYe in general (and I'm an Android user) paying customers and businesses tend to be on iPhone

[@abarreir]

Why not "simply" enabling developers to publish their PWA through the URL on the Google play store without any extra wrapping ?

[@abnormi101]

This is called "the Internet" ;)

[@pawepiat6170]

If you mean that androids should run PWA as default then: compability with older versions If you mean gplay should do this process automatically: there might be unforseen problems with generated apps. Better to let developers deal with them i suppose.

[@SiriusFuenmayor]

I agree with you, App stores are the default way users look for apps, if Google created the concept of PWA they could put a category for PWA in the Play Store.

[@davidmaxwaterman]

@@SiriusFuenmayor Also, surely Google Search can be the 'app store' for PWAs...not too good for 'browsing', but for searching it should work well.

[@ashiqdey]

TWA is better than PWA for android kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHebn4OYhM6qja8 Also TWA supports everything that browser supports the file selection, Camera API, microphone API and there is absolutely no perfomance degrade

[@jackiecs8190]

You can also do this without downloading anything, using Microsoft's PWABuilder

[@marcusjt]

Alas not, that creates a PWA from a website, not an APK from a PWA

[@santicros]

So great!!! Let's hope apple treats better PWAs

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

@Y K The EU should fine them for blocking competition

[@davidmaxwaterman]

Yeah, Apple is the big PITA when it comes to PWAs...seemingly little to no interest in implementing anything but the most basic PWA features (ie service worker and add to homescreen).

[@fayezaltamimi1255]

I have been following the PWA path and wrapped my app finally in TWA. However, I'm struggling for weeks to publish on Play Store because the reviewers keeps repeating this information that Web Applications aren't accepted in the Play Store. I have been trying to describe to them that this is not a violation of Google guidelines but rather it is following the guidelines. did I waste my time on this contradiction??!!

[@optimistanoop]

Same here, months gone but not able to figure it out to publish it. Review comments are always same, looks like they are auto generated

[@specy_]

@@optimistanoop have you or fayez ticked the "this app is for children" or said that the app is ok for

[@optimistanoop]

@@specy_ thanks for the reply, this seems helpful, I will try and let you know here.

[@davidmaxwaterman]

@@optimistanoop Well?

[@spguy7559]

which one would you choose masters for cross-platform? 1-bringing web to other device ? 2-bringing other technologies to the web ?

[@JitendraPalJP]

1

[@jhjhj2172]

how to change jdk file path ?? i have written wrong path

[@harithimanshu3927]

bubblewrap no longer generates assetlinks.json

[@alissonreinaldosilva1119]

Got my TWA published on Google Play, but when you open it displays a notification "Running in Chrome". Who is responsible for this notification? It should be removed, users keep asking what it means...that's silly

[@qaedid936]

Yeah thats really sucks, im still trying to find a way how to hide that

[@tipsstudio9707]

did you find any way to remove this notification ?

[@tipsstudio9707]

@@qaedid936 did you find any way to remove this ?

[@razt3757]

Looks fine but why would I use this instead of cordova which builds for multiple platforms not just android?

[@judewestburner]

Beats me. Been a Cordova guy for a decade and whilst it's not always been the smoothest ride it has at least worked the while time

[@davidmaxwaterman]

It is as simple?

[@AyushSharma-2050]

It's years down the line with PWA and TWA's & I am still struggling with the monetization options 😅

[@marcusjt]

It's definitely progress but it's still pretty complicated 🤯

[@nybre8964]

totally agree with you!... the less the clicks the better

[@PratyushRajprats]

Does Google web sign in works with TWA ?

[@jasmeetsingh823]

What are the native features of android we can use with this approach?

[@codekat153]

Thank you for this tutorial. unfortunately, I'm getting the following error: "Bubblewrap is not recognized as an internal or external command".

[@rohitattaluri]

How the same can be possible for iphone's? I'm planning to build a TWA app for apple devices as well. Open for suggestions all the time. Thanks in advance.

[@davidmaxwaterman]

Can this be used programmatically, so I can have a button to make an apk from my PWA using some configuration on my web site?

[@hfe1833]

I have question, in native app I can make UDP message to client or server is PWA Capable for this ?

[@wepranaga]

so we don't have to use ionic/cordova anymore. great

[@arnovanlieshout7537]

You still need it for your iOs app

[@krishnendumondal2743]

i dont need smartphone anymore i need a smart browsing device with all built in native feature and run a PWA with native feature support ..... and make the call and other basre minimum activity in the browser itself

[@alanguevara2288]

Are PWA capable of getting Geolocation from device while in background, if not is there a way to still get the location save it and send it till user opens up the app ?

[@ashiqdey]

TWA supports everything that browser supports do give it a try kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHebn4OYhM6qja8

[@yevheniibutenko8567]

I'm really missing a way how to remove chrome navigation bar. I've tried to set standalone and fullscreen mode, tried to use webview and custom tabs, nothing helps me. Even 20-minutes googling about it didn't help. Any ideas?

[@AlexGuerrero007]

you need to upload correct assetlinks.json inside /.well-known directory on your web server

[@yevheniibutenko8567]

@@AlexGuerrero007 thank you! It helps.

[@ashiqdey]

TWA is better than PWA for android kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHebn4OYhM6qja8 TWA also removes chrome navigation bar do give it a try

[@enzodaneri9731]

Hope this can be simplified and improved!

[@yogeshkad6928]

I dont andustand any think

[@anandharajramasamy4960]

Hi , May I know we can hide/remove address bar. It's possible ? If possible please share here step by step Thanks

[@georgehowarth2388]

Anandharaj Ramasamy change the "display" property in your manifest.json to "standalone" (there are others as well)

[@anandharajramasamy4960]

@@georgehowarth2388 thanks. It's work for me ☺️👍

[@randalvc]

Or just pass the URL to your friend. Done, no need for play store.

[@fail-fixer]

Notification requires permission from user. While this is "Trusted Web Activities" it should have delegated by default.

[@PhatPhunk]

Looks all good.. until you try to bake an APK yourself!! The frustrations that followed when you see the 'Running in Chrome' in the notification shade. What's the point? I mean all these steps to make it a 'native' Android app. . and there's no way to suppress the notification. It is frustrating after hours and hours of work just to discover, oh crap, think i've made a wrong decision to go with PWA. And with all these heavy marketing and talks about PWA... goes down the drain, when users sees that the app they downloaded is merely a website, or worst still, they might have the impression that the app is tracking them via Chrome or such...

[@PhatPhunk]

I think PWA will never be 'Native' apps if it keeps showing the 'Running in Chrome' notification all the time. The Chrome browser remnants got to be suppressed if it is to be a TRUE native app.

[@tipsstudio9707]

did you find any way to remove this ?

[@Pitgisa]

👍🏻👏🏻

[@rishavbhowmik7778]

Should have built it sooner🥵

[@danielrolando6883]

Hola, hagamos un grupo de 5 personas, y le pagamos a algún desarrollador para que nos dé clases

[@LtKyll]

Better title: Let's say HYPOTHETICALLY you want to ship your PWA as an android app.

[@ciroxm]

No thanks! NO ADMOB or ADSENSE/SPA SUPORT!