The Future of Web and Mobile Apps

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Browsers started as text-based applications, there were no graphic content. Then they started to allow embedded images. They were not targeting mobile devices, because, there weren’t any. Browsers were only used to view text and images.

In 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone. It was impossible for a browser based app to compete with a native mobile app. They were able to access the device storage, work offline, utilize the sensors and much more. Browsers could not compete with desktop apps neither.

Fast forward to today, now browsers are capable of doing everything that a native app can do.

• They can cache some information and work offline.
• They can store content such as images in device storage.
• They can send notifications in real-time.
• They can render high-performance 3D apps via WebGPU or fetch real time video input via WebRTC. It is possible to play resource hungry games in a browser with Nvidia Now.

And they can do more.

• There is no need to install a web app. All you need is a browser.
• They will feel same in all platforms. No need to develop and maintain multiple apps.
• They work in a sandbox and they are secure. They can’t erase data from the device, they can’t use your camera or other sensors without permission.
• No dependencies. For a desktop app, you may need dependencies like Python or GTK. Everything a web app needs is inside the browser.

There are some trade-offs, though.

• Web apps should work in every device, so they have to be responsive. It might be hard to build an interface that will be easy to use in both little phones and giant screens. But once you do that, you don’t need to create seperate applications for different platforms.
• Marketing web apps and monetizing them might be harder than a mobile app.
• You depend on the browser. I consider this as an advantage but it can be a disadvantage as well. In desktop, you can pick your own dependencies. In mobile you can decide which programming language you will use. In browser, you have no other choice than CSS and JavaScript. There are many frameworks and flexibility is enough in my opinion but this can be a disadvantage for some situations.

CONCLUSION

I think web apps are the future. In the future, you won’t need a GPU for gaming. You will use cloud computing in your browser. I don’t know if mobile apps will disappear completely but i believe web apps will be the majority of apps we use. There will be less desktop apps, websites will be enough for most of the things.

I don’t need to install Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop anymore, for example. I can use Office Online and Photopea instead. I think they are much more convenient to use. They are already better alternatives. They can do everything i need. For more professional use, they are not enough, probably. But they will be in the future.