Progressive Web Apps are standardized web technologies which make web apps look and feel like native apps. They can be added to the home screen, and they have a separate entry in the Recents app switcher on Android. The aim of PWA is to make the experience of web apps them as good as native apps, achieving this by the use of the open technology of web apps.
Firefox 58 also changes the behaviour of how external links are handled: when a user is browsing an installed progressive web app and taps an external link, the page in question is opened in a Custom Tab. According to Mozilla, this keeps the user secure as the URL and safety information are visible, speeds up page load time (a Custom Tab loads faster than the full browser), preserves the progressive web app’s color branding, and is in line with native app behaviour.
Mozilla also plans to add more support for other PWA-related APIs such as Background Sync, Payment Request and Web Share APIs.
Users can try out the “Add to Home screen” implementation in Firefox Nightly for Android by enabling PWA support under Settings > Advanced > Experimental features.
