Recently Pinterest announced the launch of Pinterest Lite, a Progressive Web Application aimed to improve user experience for users in low-bandwidth regions in Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Mexico, by significantly saving the storage space and reducing download time.

Pinterest wasn’t the first to release a PWA version of the service, though. In fact, you may be surprised to discover how many services we all use on a daily basis already have a Progressive Web App.

What is a PWA?

Before we jump straight to the point, let’s first recap what is a Progressive Web App?

A PWA (Progressive Web Application) is a website that has all the features of a native app. Sometimes referred as a “hybrid of website and mobile application”, a PWA is a web-based app developed using Javascript. The integral part of Progressive Web Apps is a service worker — a script that runs separately from a user’s browser in the background, allowing Progessive Web Apps to provide features like offline browsing, push notifications and other great features, and providing this native app look and feel.

Here’s a list of selected examples of some great services we all use and love that actually have a PWA version.

Twitter

With over 80% of users on mobile, Twitter was among the pioneers of Progressive Web Apps. Way back in 2017, the famous microblogging service introduced Twitter Lite, a Progressive Web App version that combined all the best features of web and native apps.

Seeking to provide better experience for mobile device users, with PWA Twitter ensured instant loading, lower data consumption, and increased user engagement for mobile users.

According to the case study published by Google, after implementing the “Add to Home screen” prompt asking users to add Twitter Lite to their home screens, Twitter has seen 250,000 unique daily users launch the app from the home screen 4 times a day on average.

Putting aside big data-usage savings for mobile devices users, after the launch of the Progressive Web App, Twitter was able to achieve significant results:

65% increase in page views per session

75% increase in Tweets sent

20% decrease in bounce rate

How to install Twitter PWA ?