Microsoft and Google will be working together to build web applications for the Android platform. It seems to a step in right direction keeping in mind that Surface Duo is round the corner.
Judah Gabriel Himango from Microsoft published a post on Medium which detailed their collaborative efforts between them and Google. He also wrote about common understanding shared between the two companies about the future of web applications.
Microsoft’s PWABuilder, a web App builder for developers will start receiving support from Google. PWA or Progressive Web Apps, are basically websites which behave as an application when using a phone. It utilises the phone’s touch interface in a different way, as compared to simply replacing it with a cursor. An example could be seen on Instagram, where the web page, upon viewing on the phone, functions almost the same way as the app.
What does it mean for Microsoft?
Microsoft recently has shown a lot of interest in the open-source community. With projects like Windows Subsystem for Linux, it isn’t surprising to see them collaborating with Google for open-source software. Microsoft also gains from this because if we click on any external link in a Microsoft page, we are re-directed to Bing as a search engine and not Google. Therefore they will also get some traffic on their search engine as well
What does it mean for Google?
This partnership will mean that a lot of websites on Android will get native web app support. This will help Android reach a new set of users who wouldn’t need to download an app as the website version could function as the same. Mobile browsing as a whole would become easier and more interactive.
The Medium article also said that Microsoft is also collaborating on more projects with Google, including Project Fugu, to create new web technologies and are committed to working with Google to make the web a more capable app platform.
Read More: Microsoft hires Android mobile development team for Surface Duo