I still have my reservations over the whole Edge-Chromium combination but it has enabled the Edge team to begin taking a leading stance on certain topics, and it looks like PWAs are one they're looking at in detail. It makes sense to me, given how lacklustre use of the Windows App store still is, but regardless of motivation it's a real positive for Windows users and the web. New features include:
- Customisable title bars (think Home, View, etc.);
- Native file system access (that's huge!);
- App badges (those little notification number icons we're all used to from phones; nice but hardly a hard requirement, though could be a neater API than push notifications are currently);
- Quick entry to the Windows Store (unsurprising and not where I hope PWAs will ultimately flourish, but it's still nice to see).
I'm particularly hopeful that these efforts are baked back into Chromium (evidence suggests they will be) so that all related browsers benefit as well.
