Thanks to the extensive capabilities of Progressive Web Apps, a user experience can be achieved that is hardly distinguishable from native apps – and at affordable costs.
Goals and Initial Requirements
The main goal of the Emilia Legal Protection App is to provide policyholders with easier access to advice, helpful content, and management of their legal protection insurance. To ensure optimal user experience, we separated the customer portal from the website into an independent web application, "Emilia - Best Legal Protection for Everyone," enhancing web usability while meeting native app standards. The new portal is also optimized for mobile devices.
Publishing Process
We used PWABuilder to make the app available in app stores. This tool converts Progressive Web Apps into wrappers suitable for the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. The app appears in a native wrapper as a web view.
An Apple Developer Account and a Google Developer Account are required, along with sufficient time for account verification, especially for new organizations. Development, publication, and testing need a macOS device and physical Android and iOS devices.
Publishing in the Google Play Store involves uploading the PWABuilder-generated bundle in the Google Play Console and publishing a file from the web server at /.well-known/assetlinks.json to verify the app and web application connection, ensuring the web view displays without an address bar. The Apple process is more complex but well-documented by PWABuilder.
After internal testing, the apps can be prepared for review, including promotional texts, graphics, screenshots, and privacy details. Once all information is provided, the apps can be submitted for review. The Emilia Legal Protection App was quickly accepted and is now available on both app stores.
Result
With the extensive and growing capabilities of PWAs, a user experience almost indistinguishable from native apps is achieved at affordable costs. There are significant advantages: updates to native apps require publishing in app stores and device updates, while PWA changes can be configured to update automatically via the Service Worker, either when the app opens or in the background during use, requiring no additional processes.
App Features
In the app, Emilia customers can:
- Change addresses
- View invoices
- Report legal cases
- Access legal advice via phone with a single click
Customer Perspective and Benefits
Emilia Legal Protection always wanted an app. The quick and cost-effective PWA implementation was a pleasant surprise. Smooth coordination with a single provider who understands our product made a significant difference, allowing us to offer a comprehensive app without cumbersome corrections. Any changes in the customer portal are immediately reflected in the app. Long-term, this means new features are instantly available to our customers. We and our customers highly appreciate the seamless experience without media disruptions.
