Recent reports say that Microsoft may be pushing Office PWAs to Windows Insiders without their permission. While we’d hope that practice never goes mainstream, it’s worth learning briefly about what the Office PWAs actually are, and how they can help.
First, here’s what’s happening:Windows Latest reported Wednesday that members of the Windows Insider beta program were being pushed the various Office apps as Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, without opting in. Remember that Insiders have to specifically opt in to this beta program, and receive new builds as a matter of course. WL also reported that these PWAs were being pushed to a subset of Insiders. In other words, chances are that this won’t happen to you anytime soon. (We’ve since learned that Microsoft pushed these beyond just Insiders, though that was due to a bug.)
Mark Hachman / IDG
What’s a PWA?
A PWA is, essentially, a webpage saved as an app that can be listed in your Windows 10 Start menu. Microsoft 365 apps (formerly Office 365) can exist either as a dedicated app that runs directly on your PC, or as part of the Office service (aka Office Online) living in the cloud.If you’re like me, you probably go back and forth between online and local apps without thinking about it. I’ll create new benchmark spreadsheets in my local copy of Excel saved on my hard drive, but I have PCWorld’s templates and other spreadsheets saved to an Edge bookmark. My experience with both is essentially the same.
One big advantage of a PWA: Instead of downloading and installing anything, the PWA lives in the cloud. You’ll still need a Microsoft 365 license, but you can be up and running in a second or two.
What Microsoft seems to be doing is pushing these PWAs or webpages down to your PC and placing them alongside the dedicated Office apps already in your Start menu. Yes, that’s unnecessarily confusing. But it does go to show that the two experiences are almost identical.
How to install Microsoft Office PWAs
If you’d like, you can try it yourself: Using Edge, visit Office.com and click the little ‘+’ sign at the edge of the URL bar, next to the tiny star that designates a favorite website. Click it, and the Office PWA will be installed and added to your Start menu. Note that the Office app allows you access to the various Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
Mark Hachman / IDG
If there’s any downside to this, it’s that now you have two Office apps living next to one another, and it’s really difficult to tell one from the other. But there is a good reason to do this.
For one thing, any app that lives in the cloud can be managed by a developer like Microsoft, which can issue patches and updates extremely quickly. Historically, new features that Microsoft announces for Microsoft Office are deployed to the online versions of Office first, then to the version of Microsoft Office that lives on your PC, and later to mobile apps for iOS and Android.
It’s also possible that a PWA may consume fewer computing resources over time than a dedicated app. My quick comparisons of opening a spreadsheet with Excel and the Office PWA didn’t show meaningful differences, however.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Manually installing the PWA version of individual Office apps can also be done by opening a document in say, Word Online, and then using the browser controls to install the app. In Edge, for example, click the “ellipsis” menu to the upper right, then scroll down to Apps. In that menu, click “Install this site as an app”.
Remember how you can open the Word app within Microsoft 365 and see a generic UI, allowing you to load a document or create a new one? It doesn’t seem to be possible to install a Word PWA so that that’s the first screen you see. Instead, I was able to install the Word PWA as a bookmark to a specific document — though I was able to exit that document and open a new one.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Think of the Office PWA as you would your PC’s touchscreen. There’s nothing saying that you have to use a PWA. But they’re a convenient option if it’s simply more convenient to work from a tabbed web interface than a dedicated app.
There’s one potential problem with a PWA, however: Microsoft’s Office PWAs may not work offline. If your Internet connection goes down, you won’t be able to access the app at all. That’s (hopefully) a rare occurrence.
So far, Microsoft representatives haven’t responded to a request for comment on whether PWAs will be more heavily emphasized going forward. If Microsoft does do this, however, you should have a better idea of how your virtual workspace may change.
This story was updated on October 22 with additional information.
Microsoft is encouraging Office PWAs, which could change how you work with apps. Microsoft's Office PWAs are designed to offer all the convenience of Microsoft 365, without the need to install anything. Recent reports say that Microsoft may be pushing Office PWAs to Windows Insiders without their permission.
A progressive web app (PWA) is an app that's built using web platform technologies, but that provides a user experience like that of a platform-specific app.
Outlook PWA (Progressive Web App) is a web-based version of Outlook that can be installed on your computer as a standalone app. This gives you some of the benefits of a native desktop app, such as the ability to pin it to your taskbar or Start menu and launch it offline.
Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps, suggested that progressive web apps (PWA) will eventually replace native apps in 2018. Today, native apps remain an essential part of the mobile app ecosystem, but PWA has become more pronounced in the software industry. Both PWA and native apps are not mutually exclusive.
One big difference between a PWA and a web app is the installation. One can install a PWA on his/her device be it a desktop or mobile. However, a web app is designed to run inside of a web browser and cannot be installed on a device.
Simply put, a PWA is a website with all the benefits of an app. PWAs give you a faster, more reliable, and more engaging version of your website or eCommerce store.
But if you use a PWA, you can completely avoid the problem of app stores. PWAs are helpful for consumers and businesses since anyone with a contemporary browser (like Chrome or Firefox) may access the app and receive notifications without downloading new versions or going through another authentication process.
The development of PWA carries a lot of challenges and threats along with it, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and cyber-attacks, which need to be safeguarded as they contain consumer data. Protecting against these threats is crucial for PWA security.
Gmail is already a PWA, but I have seen some users who claim that it only works as a PWA in Chrome. (It does not offer the "install" option for some reason, but using the "create shortcut" menu item works.)
A progressive web application (PWA), or progressive web app, is a type of application software delivered through the web, built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and WebAssembly. It is intended to work on any platform with a standards-compliant browser, including desktop and mobile devices.
Of course. But PWA's biggest roadblock is poor platform support. So Apple actively going against PWAs is a major blow. And personally I'm a big fan of open standards and hate that I have to install an app through walled gardens for everything.
Well, in such a case scenario, users will either download and install a native app from their computer or simply not use your PWA, making it hard for them to get access to services such as payments and database updates. 2. Lack of Third-Party Services: Search engines are another essential service PWAs cannot provide.
Microsoft 365 is your powerful cloud-based productivity platform that include apps like Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive, as well as intelligent cloud services and advanced security.
The PWA, a slimmed-down version of the standard app, offers much of the functionality of its larger counterpart without consuming so much space on a user's mobile device. As a result, more consumers are able to access the Google Maps platform. Users can connect with the Google Maps PWA in several ways.
Microsoft 365 for the web makes it easier for you to work in the cloud because Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and PDF documents open in your web browser. Sign in to your organization's Microsoft 365 site to get started. You can access your documents whenever you have an Internet connection, from almost any device.
A progressive web application (PWA), or progressive web app, is a type of application software delivered through the web, built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and WebAssembly. It is intended to work on any platform with a standards-compliant browser, including desktop and mobile devices.
Introduction: My name is Annamae Dooley, I am a witty, quaint, lovely, clever, rich, sparkling, powerful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Mark Hachman / IDG
Mark Hachman / IDG
Mark Hachman / IDG
