Instant loading

With Progressive Web Apps, we aim to provide an experience that is closer to a native app (one downloaded from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or another app store) than your typical web application. One of the advantages native apps have, of course, is that all relevant files are predownloaded and installed, while each time a user visits a web application, they may have to download all the assets again.

The solution? When the user first visits the page, download those assets and then save them for later (also known as caching). Then, when the user reopens the application, instead of downloading the files again over the internet (slow), we simply retrieve them from the user's device (fast).

However, this only works for when the user revisits the application. For the initial visit, we still have to download everything. This situation is particularly precarious, because when the user first visits Chatastrophe, they're not yet sold on its value, and so, are likely to leave (for good) if loading takes too long.

We need to ensure that our assets are as optimized as possible, and we download as little as possible on that first visit, so that the user stays around.

In short, fast loading for the first visit, near-instant loading for every subsequent visit.