Chapter 12. The future is looking good
One of the many reasons why I love developing for the web is that the landscape is constantly evolving. Browsers are continually improving, and new features are constantly being released. The future for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) is looking good: modern APIs allow us to access hardware and sensor APIs, Bluetooth, virtual reality, and so much more. It’s an exciting time to be a web developer.
This chapter explores many new APIs that are either in development or are due to arrive in a browser near you soon. We’ll look at Web Bluetooth, the Payment Request API, and the Share API. We’ll also briefly discuss a few new features that are on the horizon.
As more and more users around the world come online, a large majority of them do so using their mobile devices. In 2015 the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population, would be online by the end of the year. Of them, about 2 billion would be from developing countries, including 89 million from the least developed countries.[1]