Microsoft and Google come together to enhance their app libraries

Microsoft has partnered with Google to assist web developers in getting their Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) onto the Play Store. According to a report by Thurrot, developers can now use Google’s Bubblewrap utility and library to generate and sign packages for the Google Play Store using Microsoft’s PWABuilder tool. Judah Gabriel Himango from Microsoft expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating that the collaboration between PWABuilder and Bubblewrap aims to help developers publish PWAs on the Play Store. PWAs combine emerging web browser APIs and features with traditional progressive enhancement strategies. Microsoft’s PWABuilder.com is an open-source developer tool that facilitates the creation and publication of high-quality PWAs in app stores.

The integration between the tools has progressed, and developers can package PWAs with PWABuilder that support the new web shortcuts standard using Bubblewrap. The PWABuilder also offers support for a wide range of trusted web activity options, improving the functionality of PWAs on Android. Developers now have the ability to customize the appearance of the Android status bar and navigation bar in PWAs using the PWABuilder.

Himango concluded by stating that Google and Microsoft are working together to enhance the web as an app platform. They are also collaborating on Project Fugu to develop new web platform features, with PWAs being a primary focus, with the ultimate goal of standardization for the benefit of all.