How to set a website as a Progressive Web App (PWA) using Edge for Android

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are going coming online in 2022 with Google expected to make a large push mid-year and Microsoft with native support in Windows 10 Redstone 4 in the coming weeks.

If y'all have an Android phone and are using the Microsoft Border browser, you lot can start to utilise many of the sites already.

Here are ii means to get a PWA website to act like a typical app on your Android phone.

See at Google Play Store

For those who desire a deeper swoop into what PWAs are and why they will matter for all Bone platforms starting this year, check my in-depth article and video explainer:

Progressive Web Apps (PWA): What they are, and what they mean for Microsoft

Which sites support PWA?

Currently, there is no master list of sites that support PWA. Luckily, in that location are some big ones, including:

Starbucks (U.S.) (starbucks.com).
Tinder (tinder.com).
Google Maps (maps.google.com).
Uber (m.uber.com).
Lyft (ride.lyft.com).
Twitter Light (lite.twitter.com).
Instagram (Instagram.com).
Pinterest (pinterest.com).
2048 (game) (github.com).
Outlook.com (outlook.com).

Other major sites include Alibaba, Medium, Flipboard, Snapdeal, Trivagao, The Atmospheric condition Channel, The Fiscal Times, Pokedex.org, GitHub Explorer, Flipkart, Offline Wikipedia, and Forbes. And there are thousands more.

How you know a site is PWA-enabled is tricky. Websites rarely announce such a feature, but i way y'all usually can tell is when you login to the site. That usually prompts a pop-up notification request you to pin to your Home. The site may likewise ask to transport you lot notifications – these are PWA features.

Y'all tin run across this in action beneath when going to mobile.twitter.com and what happens after I login:

You ofttimes don't get a PWA notification until you login.

While that may seem like a nag (or even spammy) that is how a PWA-enabled site lets y'all know it tin can human activity as app. (Microsoft is getting around this by putting PWA-enabled apps into the Microsoft Shop as "real" apps avoiding confusion or discoverability issues).

And so, problem solved. You pinned the Twitter Light app to your Dwelling screen and you now have a PWA.

But what if you said 'no' to the prompt? Twitter won't ask you each fourth dimension you lot go to mobile.twitter.com to pivot to your Abode screen, so how do yous become it back?

Fixing bug: login in (once again)

One trick that usually resets the PWA prompt on websites is merely logoff and login again from that website.

If that doesn't work, attempt logging off and then clear the browser's cache (tap the ellipsis > Settings > Privacy > Clear browsing data) and then re-login. That should cause the PWA-prompt to reappear.

Use 'Add together to Abode screen'

One easier play tricks than the above is but using Edge'south 'Add to Home Screen' feature.

While a user can add together any website as a pin to their Dwelling screen – even if it's not PWA-enabled – when the site has a PWA this will create that necessary shortcut. Here is how to exercise it:

Ellipsis menu (lower right corner)
Choose Add together to Home Screen
Select Add and OK after the prompts

If you at present get and launch Twitter through that shortcut suddenly it looks similar a full-fledged application with no Edge browser "chrome" (boarders, controls).

Twitter as a PWA looks just like an app.