Microsoft’s support for Android is going beyond native apps and devices like the Surface Duo. Thurrot reports Microsoft is collaborating with Google to help bring more (and importantly, better) progressive web apps to Android devices through the Play Store. Apps built using Microsoft’s PWABuilder tool will use Google’s Bubblewrap utility and library to take advantage of new features, including a new standard for web shortcuts, “deeper” push notifications and visual customizations. Web apps should feel more at home on your phone, to put it simply.
The expanded features shouldn’t require significantly more effort to implement, Microsoft said.
It will likely take a while before you see apps making use of the new features. It could lead to more and improved apps reaching your phone, though. And it’s not surprising to see Microsoft and Google working together in a case like this. This gives creators more reasons to use Microsoft’s toolkit, while Google gets more developers who build Android-friendly web apps instead of pointing people to generic apps inside a browser.
