PWA roadmap for Windows revealed at Build 2018

At a Build 2018 session, Microsoft has revealed some of the features and capabilities coming Progressive Web Apps, the new hope of the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft will be looking to enhance the Service Worker built into Edge, enabling features such as Periodic Sync.

Microsoft is also looking to let PWA access WinRT APIs, share cookies and cache with your web browser, meaning you can maintain a consistent history and login between the web and web app, and let you install PWA directly from the browser.

Other features include new display modes – fullscreen and minimalist. In fullscreen, the browser control back arrow, forward and refresh and URL bar will be hidden, and in minimal, they will be visible.

Microsoft will also shortly be ingesting PWA automatically directly from the web. Those PWA will be ones using HTTPS, have offline functionality and pass store certification.

Developers who do not want their PWA ingested automatically can add a Robot.txt telling Bing not to, or request its removal at [email protected].

See some screenshots from the session, courtesy of Tero Alhonen, below.