A look at upcoming technologies like Progressive Web Apps, WebAssembly, and Houdini that have the potential to dramatically improve web apps
Slack is a web app. Trello is a web app. Google Docs. Gmail. Even Twitter. — The web started out as a collection of hyperlinked documents. Tweets: @scottdavis99 Tweets: Scott Davis / @scottdavis99 : Web apps are only getting better - The Verge “Slack is a web app. Trello is a web app. Google Docs. Gmail. Even Twitter.” http://www.theverge.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This piece lands after two years of groundwork: Chrome 57 put Progressive Web Apps into Android's app drawer and settings, giving web apps first-class OS real estate on Google's side, while developer Henrik Joreteg publicly left iOS because WebKit limitations kept PWAs from reaching parity there. The Verge's argument is that the remaining gap is technical, not conceptual — Slack, Trello, Gmail, and Twitter are already web apps.
It also arrives alongside a parallel critique of centralized platforms: the related coverage of blockchain-based apps like Graphite Docs and Blockstack frames the same question from the other direction — who controls the runtime and distribution layer that apps depend on.
First-order effects
- Web-first products like Slack and Google Docs gain a credible path to native-grade performance and OS integration without maintaining separate codebases, and Slack's own platform roadmap around app discovery and interactivity depends on exactly this kind of richer web runtime.
Second-order effects
- Apple faces renewed pressure on WebKit: as long as Safari lags on PWA capabilities, developers like Joreteg treat iOS as the second-class target, which pushes more development effort toward Chrome-first builds and strengthens Google's grip on mobile web standards.
Third-order effects
- If web apps become genuinely indistinguishable from native ones, the app store stops being the default distribution chokepoint — shifting power from platform gatekeepers to browser vendors, and making engine-level decisions (WebKit vs. Chromium) the real regulatory battleground for the open web.
The trend: The web platform is steadily closing the capability gap with native apps, with browser-engine owners rather than app-store operators becoming the decisive gatekeepers of what web software can do.