PWA2APK

Google recently added support for Trusted Web Activity (TWA) in its Chrome for Android browser, essentially streamlining the process for people making progressive web apps (PWA) for the Play Store. Now, a new service has emerged to take advantage of this development, letting people quickly turn their progressive web apps into APKs.

PWA2APK, spotted by XDA-Developers, is a web-based service that takes some of the legwork out of creating the all-important APK file. Currently, developers wanting to have to manually create an APK from their progressive web app if they want to publish it in the Play Store. But this service quickly spits out a signed TWA-enabled APK, as you copy/paste your progressive web app’s URL and verify ownership of said website.

The service is free to use, and it’s also added the ability for developers to view an APK’s source code. So if you have any hesitation about using PWA2APK due to security concerns, the latter addition might go some way to allaying your fears.

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News of PWA2APK comes after Google added TWA support in Chrome for Android earlier this year. The functionality replaces the WebView standard used by previous web apps, essentially hiding the Chrome UI (e.g. address bar and other elements) to give a better appearance.

TWA also prepares web apps for the Play Store by offering native support for notifications, background sync, Chrome’s autofill, and the Sharing API. So you shouldn’t be surprised to see a load of new progressive web apps on the Play Store this year.

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