Awardco's Progressive Web Application (PWA)

Big news! We’ve released an app! Mobile apps have a lot of benefits we wanted to bring to the Awardco platform, but we wanted to do it the right way. We analyzed all of our options and decided to build a Progressive Web App (PWA). PWAs have a lot of incredible capabilities that will make rewarding recognition even easier for all your employees.

What Is a Progressive Web App?

A Progressive Web Application is an application that is delivered through the web instead of through the App Store or from Google Play. It is built using common technologies and powered by Google and Apple. It is intended to work on any device that uses a standards-compliant browser such as Safari or Chrome. A PWA behaves exactly like all the apps you are used to, but it has some differences that make it more effective while avoiding some of the pitfalls that come with traditional apps:

Customizable. A PWA is fully customizable to your brand. Instead of having an Awardco app for your organization to use, you can name the app whatever you like and put your logo and colors in it. This increases the credibility of your program within your company as employees will see an app that has a brand they recognize. A regular app through the App Store for iOS or Google Play for Android can’t be customized to your organization.
Constantly updated. Have you ever had a notification that an app you’ve downloaded needs to be updated, or have you had an app suddenly close in order to update? PWA’s don’t do that. With this kind of application, the updates are constantly pushed behind the scenes without affecting functionality. This makes the app more reliable and engenders confidence that your experience is fully up to date no matter when you log in.
Easy access. Instead of searching for a particular app and asking your employees to download it, then crossing your fingers they will, you can direct them to log in to the Awardco website on their phone’s default web browser (Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS). Once logged in, they will see a notification that asks if they want to add this application to their screen. This works whether the user has an Apple or Android device, and once selected, the app will be downloaded to their home screen for easy access.

How Do I Use the Progressive Web App?

Using the Progressive Web Application is incredibly easy. Once downloaded to your home screen (see above), any user can access the Awardco by tapping the icon. We took care to streamline the mobile experience, focusing on the most important features in the platform:

Social feed. The main screen of the PWA is the social feed where all public recognitions given across the organization are visible. Seeing all these recognitions will encourage others to give their own!
Recognize. Recognizing others in the platform is incredibly easy. Simply navigate to the recognize button at the bottom and go from there. Tag people, use hashtags to highlight company values, and send your recognition.
Reward. Rewarding others with points in the PWA is the same as it is in the desktop. If you have the ability to reward points in your platform, you can do so on the PWA as well.
Redeem. Redeeming points for items through the platform is as easy as clicking on the marketplace icon on the menu screen. From there you can add items to your cart using points, then proceed to checkout.

What Does Having a PWA Mean for My Organization?

Now that Awardco offers an app for your company to brand and utilize as a recognition and rewards experience, several benefits will follow:

Increased adoption. In initial beta testing, we found adoption increasing among users because it was available on their phones as well as their desktop. Making the Awardco available on mobile means more touch points for each user—and makes it easy to log in at any time.
Culture boost. With increased usage comes more recognition between peers, more celebrating of wins, and more congratulations for completed projects. With these benefits, your organization will see a significant culture boost as you continue to build a culture of rewarding recognition.
Ease of use. Phones are the main way we communicate and are increasingly important in how we work. Having an app for your employee recognition program will mean that it’s just that much easier for people to get in the platform and easily recognize each other and redeem points.
Better recognition programs. The app is optimized for the use of the recognition programs feature in the platform. The more programs you have in your organization, the more success you’ll find in using the app!

How to Download the Awardco App

Instead of searching for a particular app and asking your employees to download it and only hoping they will, you can direct them to log in to the Awardco website on their phone’s web browser (please note that iOS users must use Safari and Android users must use Chrome). Once logged in, they will see a notification that asks if they want to add this application to their screen. This works whether the user has an iPhone or an Android, and once selected the app badge will be downloaded to their mobile screen for easy access from there.

Using the Progressive Web Application will empower your company to provide even more rewarding recognition to all those in your organization. If you would like a more in-depth analysis of Awardco's new Progressive Web App, please visit our help articles here.

If you happened to miss the prompt to download the app the first time you logged in on your phone, don't be alarmed! You can still get the app. After you have navigated to your native browser and signed into your company's platform (company.awardco.com), follow these steps:

For iOS: