How to Get a Progressive Web App into the Google Play Store

PWA (Progressive Web Apps) have been with us for some time now. Yet, each time I try explaining it to clients, the same question pops up: “Will my users be able to install the app using app stores?” The answer has traditionally been no, but this changed with Chrome 72 which shipped a new feature called TWA (Trusted Web Activities).

NOTE: Trusted Web Activities are a new way to integrate your web-app content such as your PWA with your Android app using a protocol based on Custom Tabs.

In this article, I will use an existing PWA (Wordguru) and explain step-by-step what needs to be done to make the application available and ready to be installed straight from the Google Play app store.

NOTE: Some of the things we cover here may sound silly to any Android Developers out there, but this article is written from the perspective of a front-end developer, particularly one who has never used Android Studio or created an Android Application.

Step 1: Set up a Trusted Web Activity

Setting up a TWA doesn’t require you to write any Java code, but you will need to have Android Studio. If you’ve developed iOS or Mac software before, this is a lot like Xcode in that it provides a nice development environment designed to streamline Android development. So, grab that and meet me back here.

Create a new TWA project in Android Studio

Did you get Android Studio? Well, I can’t actually hear or see you, so I’ll assume you did. Go ahead and crack it open, then click on “Start a new Android Studio project.” From there, let’s choose the “Add No Activity” option, which allows us to configure the project.

The configuration is fairly straightforward, but it’s always good to know what is what:

• Name The name of the application (but I bet you knew that).
• Package name: An identifier for Android applications on the Play Store. It must be unique, so I suggest using the URL of the PWA in reverse order (e.g. com.netguru.wordguru).
• Save location: Where the project will exist locally.
• Language: This allows us to select a specific code…