Most field service apps make you choose between a watered-down mobile experience or a full desktop. Progressive Web Apps eliminate that tradeoff.
If you've ever used a mobile app for your field service software and thought "this is missing half the features from the desktop version" — you've experienced the native app tradeoff firsthand.
Building a native app (one you download from the App Store or Google Play) is expensive, slow, and requires maintaining two separate codebases — one for iOS, one for Android, and one for the web. Something always gets left behind. Usually, it's the mobile version.
A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a website that behaves like a native app. It runs in your browser, but you can add it to your home screen, it works offline (for cached content), it sends push notifications, and it loads instantly. From the user's perspective, it's indistinguishable from a downloaded app.
Because a PWA is the same codebase as the web app, there's no "mobile version" with stripped-out features. Everything you can do on your desktop — create jobs, send invoices, manage your calendar, run reports, view customer history — you can do on your phone. No compromises.
Native apps almost always lag behind the web version. New features ship to the web first, then get rebuilt for iOS, then for Android, then go through App Store review. By the time a feature reaches your phone, it might be months old.
When we ship an update to SandBar Desk — a bug fix, a new feature, a UI improvement — you have it the next time you open the app. No App Store approval process, no "update available" notification, no waiting. The app you open today is always the latest version.
iPhone (Safari): Open sandbardesk.com, tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen, then tap "Add to Home Screen." Done.
Android (Chrome): Open sandbardesk.com, tap the three-dot menu in the top right, then tap "Add to Home Screen."
You'll get a full-screen app with your SandBar Desk icon on your home screen — no App Store required.