Microsoft partners with Google to improve PWAs

Microsoft has announced that they’re adding URL Protocol Handler Registration support for Progressive Web Apps, to allow Google to integrate PWA services into Chrome.

On Github, engineers at Microsoft Edge explained that registering a PWA as a protocol handler will open web apps when you click on a hyperlink with a specific scheme such as  mailto:// , ms-word:// or web+music:// in Google Chrome.  This allows users with the PWA installed to simply click on a YouTube Music link to open the YouTube Music web app.

Windows 10, as well as Android, supports protocol handler; with msnews and msnnews links opening the Microsoft News app, and ms-officeapp and ms-getoffice redirecting to Office,

Use Cases:

• Cross app integration. A user opens a document using a PWA. The document contains a link to a presentation (ms-powerpoint://deck2378465). When the user clicks on it, the presentation PWA automatically opens in the correct scope and shows the slide deck.
• In a native chat app, the user receives a link to some magnet:// URL. When she clicks the link, an installed torrent PWA is launched.
• A user has installed a PWA for a music app. When a friend shares a link to a song and she clicks on it (web+music://songid=1234&time=0:13) the PWA will automatically launch instead of opening a new tab in the browser.

Microsoft is also working to enable users to run PWAs upon login, which would activate Outlook, chat apps and other high-engagement PWAs upon Windows 10 startup.  This would mean users can receive and respond to notifications from Windows 10 PWAs straight away.  Alternatively, in the interest of memory usage, users can disable this feature.

Source: Windowslatest