It could be one of the great advances we've seen on Android in a long time. This is the WebAPK. Until now, Android apps have always been .APK files, but that might change slightly in the future, thanks to the advent of. WebAPK. And now the first has landed.
WebAPK
What is WebAPK? It is actually something simple, it is a combination of a web application and a standard application for our smartphone. We have to install this from the browser of our smartphone, and it actually works as a web application. That is, it is a web page perfectly adapted to mobiles.
However, there is something added, and that is that it stores data in our about how we use said web app, so that its functionality is very similar to that of a standard application. Although the app is still found on the Internet, each time we are going to use it it will not be like starting to use it from scratch, but on our mobile there will be stored data about the use of the app, such as could be our login, for example, or the progress we have made if it is a video game.
The first WebAPK it is just one example that these elements would already exist and that they are being tested. To install it, it is necessary to have a trial version of Chrome for Android, activate a series of features, and also activate in the settings of our mobile the option to install apps that are not from Google Play.
The app is just a test that takes us to a website where the icon of a small train appears. However, the fact that it has to be installed coming from the browser is something of the most relevant. It's a new type of application that soon could come for change what mobile web browsing is today. You could go a little further with web pages much more similar to applications. On the other hand, it would also be very useful for those applications that are really nothing more than webapps, and that now they could free up space by becoming WebAPK. A part is installed on the mobile, but the great core of the app is still on the web. We'll see when these WebAPKs end up arriving.