Build 2018: Microsoft details upcoming PWA improvements on Windows 10, including installation from web browser

Laurent Giret

Progressive Web Apps support is one of the main new features that came with the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and Microsoft obviously couldn’t avoid the topic at this year’s Build conference. Yesterday, the company shared some new details about its PWA roadmap during a Build session, as you can see in these slides tweeted by Tero Alhonen.

Here is what is in the pipeline for PWAs:

  • Enhancements to Service Workers to improve offline capabilities and introduce new features such as Periodic Sync.
  • The ability to Install PWAs right from Microsoft Edge, with a dedicated shortcut in the address bar. Moreover, Microsoft will implement shared cookies and cache between websites and their respective PWAs.
  • Fluent Design will also come to PWAs
  • As noted by Neowin, Microsoft is also planning two new display modes for PWAs, one that removes the app browser navigation controls and another one that does the opposite.

This is all pretty exciting, and it’s clear now that PWAs can work just like native apps assuming developers are willing to embrace this technology. We should hear more about this PWA improvements over the coming weeks, as Microsoft will likely unveil new Service Workers features in future Redstone 5 builds.