Unlocking Local Storage: How PWAs Can Access Folders on Your Smartphone
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have come a long way since their early days as “just a fancy bookmark.” Today, they blur the line between native apps and web experiences—loading instantly, working offline, sending push notifications, and even appearing in your home screen’s app grid. Yet one capability long reserved for native apps remained out of reach for PWAs: accessing folders on your device. Thanks to the emerging File System Access API, that’s changing—at least on Android.
Why Folder Access Matters
Imagine a mobile sketching app that saves your projects directly into a “Sketches” folder you already use in Google Drive. Or a lightweight PDF annotator that writes notes back to the very directory you organize your documents in. These seamless workflows are familiar in desktop web apps; with folder access on mobile, they become possible in PWAs too.
Until recently, web apps on smartphones could
...Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have come a long way since their early days as “just a fancy bookmark.” Today, they blur the line between native apps and web experiences—loading instantly, working offline, sending push notifications, and even appearing in your home screen’s app grid. Yet one capability long reserved for native apps remained out of reach for PWAs: accessing folders on your device. Thanks to the emerging File System Access API, that’s changing—at least on Android.
Why Folder Access Matters
Imagine a mobile sketching app that saves your projects directly into a “Sketches” folder you already use in Google Drive. Or a lightweight PDF annotator that writes notes back to the very directory you organize your documents in. These seamless workflows are familiar in desktop web apps; with folder access on mobile, they become possible in PWAs too.
Until recently, web apps on smartphones could
...
Comments 0
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!