Why the "do you have an app?" question comes
When a shop goes online, customers ask one question almost every time: do you have an app?
There is logic behind it. An app on the phone means not typing the address every time, and an icon on the home screen means you are remembered.
The answer used to be hard: find a developer, build a separate app, and submit it again with every update. Now there are two easy paths, and both come from your site: adding it to the home screen (a PWA), and a real Android app.
Most of this post is about the first path, because that is where most shops start. The second path is near the end.
What a PWA is
In simple words: it is a website that can be added to the phone home screen, and once added it behaves like an app.
What the customer sees:
- An icon of your shop on the home screen
- It opens full screen when tapped, with no browser address bar
- It sits separately in the app drawer and in the recent apps list
What you do not need:
- The Play Store or App Store
- Waiting for a download and install
- Space on the phone, because it takes almost nothing
And the most useful part: when the site updates, the app updates too. You do not have to send anything, because it is really your site.
What you need
Just one thing: make the site live. Going live is free, and it gives you the address your-name.banglacodes.app. If you have your own domain it works the same way there, but you do not need to buy a domain for a PWA.
The reason is technical. The phone offers to add a site to the home screen only when the site is on a live address and the padlock sign is next to the address. This does not happen on the free share link (banglacodes.app/p/...), because that one is run separately for safety.
The steps for adding your own domain are in the post on domains.
How to tell your customers
There is a real problem here: the steps differ from phone to phone, and most people do not find them on their own.
So it helps to write a short line on the site. For example:
On Android: the three-dot menu at the top right of the browser, then "Add to Home screen".
On iPhone: the Share button at the bottom, then "Add to Home Screen".
When this two-line instruction is on the shop page, many more people do it, because they know it can be done.
Where this is not enough
We need to be honest, because it would not be right to sell this as an app for every job.
Nobody finds it on their own. A PWA is not in any app store, so you have to bring people to the site and get them to add it. If you need to be found on the Play Store, see the Android app path below.
You do not get the deep phone features. For example sending notifications in the background when the app is closed, reading SMS, or taking payment inside the Play Store. Our Android app does not do these either, because it also opens your site. If you need these, talk to a developer.
Whether it works without internet depends on how it is built. If you say so when building (for example "it should open even without internet"), the pages are saved on the phone after one visit online, and then they open without internet. If you do not say so, it needs internet like an ordinary site. And sending a form or fetching brand new information always needs internet.
For most shops, restaurants, coaching centres and service businesses, these limits are no problem at all. It becomes a problem when the main thing your business does is a deep phone feature.
If you want a real app file and the Play Store
This is no longer a separate big job. When the site is live, tap the "Android app" button in the builder, check the name and icon, and tap "Start building the app". In 5 to 12 minutes you get two files (the first app is free, and each build after that costs 10,000 Token):
- .apk: send it to a customer on WhatsApp, and tapping it on the phone installs the app
- .aab: the file for uploading to the Play Store, from your own Google Play developer account
This app also opens your live site. So, like a PWA, when you update the site and make it live again, the app shows the change by itself, and you do not have to submit to the Play Store again. Getting on the Play Store has Google's own rules: your own developer account, a one-time registration fee, and their review. The full steps and which one suits whom are in the post on an Android app from your site.
The advice is simple: start with the link and the PWA, send the .apk when customers use it regularly, and open a developer account only if being on the Play Store is really necessary.
The steps for updating the site by hand are in the post on changing your site yourself.
To build an app for your own work, start from the app building page.
Questions and answers
Is a PWA a real app? To the customer it works like an app: an icon on the home screen, opens full screen. But inside it is your site, and it is not in any app store. If you want a real app file or the Play Store, build an Android app from the live site. The first one is free (each build after it is 10,000 Token).
What do I need to get it? Just make the site live, which is free. After going live, the padlock sign is next to the address, and the phone itself offers to add it to the home screen.
How does a customer add it? On Android, from the three-dot menu of the browser, "Add to Home screen". On iPhone, from the Share button at the bottom, "Add to Home Screen". When you write the steps on the site, many more people do it.
If I update the site, will the app update too? Yes, by itself. You do not have to send anything, because that icon on the home screen opens your site. The same is true for the Android app we build: when you make the site live again, the app shows the new version.
Will it work without internet? It does if you say so when building: after one visit online, the pages are saved on the phone, and then they open without internet. If you do not say so, it needs internet. Sending a form or fetching brand new information always needs internet.
What do I do if I want to put it on the Play Store? Make the site live and tap the "Android app" button in the builder. You get an .aab file, and the first app is free. Upload it to the Play Store from your own Google Play developer account. Google charges a one-time registration fee and reviews the app before releasing it, and the upload has to be done from your account.
Will it take a lot of phone space? Almost nothing. Where a store app takes a lot of space, this is practically just an icon. It is a big plus for people with low-storage phones.
Does it work on both iPhone and Android? The PWA works on both. The steps to add it differ, and a few things are a little more limited on iPhone, but adding to the home screen and opening full screen work on both. The app file is for Android only. On iPhone, just use "Add to Home Screen" from Safari.
In short
- A live site, even on the free address, can be added to the phone home screen like an app
- No Play Store, no download, and it takes almost no space
- When the site updates, the app updates by itself
- If you write the steps to add it on the site, many more people do it
- Whether it works without internet has to be said when building
- For a real app file or the Play Store, an Android app (.apk and .aab) can be built from the live site, the first one free