Google has been a big advocate for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), aiming to bring the capabilities of full applications to users in a more lightweight form. The company is persistently working to improve the PWA experience on Chrome across all platforms, with recent additions such as an all-new installation screen and an uninstall process similar to traditional Windows apps. The idea of PWAs, in general, seems to be catching on, as Google reports that desktop installs have seen a 270% growth year-over-year since the start of 2021.

The big G cited in-house data for the facts and figures. According to the company's report, the growth spurt spans one year from February 1, 2021, to Feb 1, 2022. It takes into account installs from all websites (including Google PWAs) on Chrome OS and the Chrome browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux. However, third-party Chromium browsers are not considered. Google notes that this growth is only a facet of Chrome OS’s expansion. Previous reports pointed to a 190 percent increase in app usage on Chromebooks in the same period⁠ and a 92 percent rise in Chromebook adoption YoY in 2020.

The growth is no fluke, as Google highlights several improvements it has made to Chrome OS to help improve the richness of PWAs. Chief among them is the ability for PWAs to appear in Google Play recommendations, making them more discoverable. That’s not all, though. Seamless payment and subscription methods in the store ensure that developers can monetize their apps with ease.

More developers are taking advantage of PWAs to great success: YouTube, for example, has used the functionality to bring offline access to its Premium users. It’s not just huge platforms that are benefiting, though. Google cites apps like BeFunky⁠ (a photo editor), Clipchamp⁠ (a video creation and editing suite), and Cloud Stop Motion⁠ (a stop-motion animation creator) as having seen PWA-driven increases in user engagement and adoption over the past year.