whatpwacando.today

Progressive Web Apps can be installed like native apps, work offline, send push notifications, and access device hardware such as the camera, Bluetooth, and NFC. That's the short answer from What PWA Can Do Today, a site that is itself a PWA and hosts 40+ live demos you can run on your own device to see which capabilities are actually supported. The catch: support varies by browser and operating system, so the demos are the fastest way to check your specific target rather than trusting a general compatibility list.

What a PWA actually is

A Progressive Web App is a website that gains native-app behaviors through browser APIs. It can be added to a home screen or desktop, continue working without a network connection, and reach hardware and system features that ordinary web pages historically couldn't. Because the site is a PWA itself, you can install it and then test each capability directly on your phone or computer.

Capabilities demonstrated on the site

The demos are grouped by capability. The main ones:

The site also lists device hardware access more broadly — camera, Bluetooth, and NFC — as part of what PWAs can reach today.

How to use the site to test your own device

1. Open the site on the device you care about.
2. Add it to your home screen or desktop. The "Add to home screen" button becomes enabled only when your browser supports installation, so a disabled button is itself a signal.
3. Open the demos and run each one. The site provides a "PWA capabilities" checklist that shows which capabilities your current device and browser support.
4. Toggle "Show demo info" to see the explanation behind each demo.

The expected result is a device-specific picture of support, not a generic yes/no. If a demo fails, that reflects your browser/OS combination, not necessarily the API in general.

When things break

If you hit problems implementing a PWA, the site points to a free pwa-check tool for identifying and fixing issues. For release confidence, it recommends integrating a PWA Runtime Audit into your CI/CD pipeline — useful if you ship frequently and want to catch capability regressions before users do.

Staying current

PWA support changes quickly, so the site runs an email list with a weekly update on PWAs and new modern-web features, explained in plain English. That's worth following if you're building against these APIs and need to know when a capability lands or changes.

Practical takeaway

Use What PWA Can Do Today as a test bench, not a spec sheet: install it, run the demos on your actual target devices, and read the capability checklist as your compatibility baseline. Then use pwa-check and a runtime audit in CI to keep that baseline from drifting.

If you're new to Ahrefs and want to run your first SEO audit, the fastest path is: open Site Explorer, enter your target URL, review the Overview for a health snapshot, then dig into Organic Keywords, Top Pages, and Site Audit to find specific problems. From there, build a short prioritized to-do list instead of trying to fix everything at once.

This tutorial walks through that workflow using a realistic starting scenario, explains what the numbers mean, and shows how to turn findings into actions.

Before You Start: Pick a Narrow Scope

A common beginner mistake is auditing an entire large website on day one. The reports become overwhelming, and you can't tell which issues matter.

Instead, choose one of these starting points:

• A single important page (your homepage or a key product/service page)
• A small site (under ~50 pages, e.g., a personal blog or small business site)
• One section of a bigger site (e.g., /blog/)

For this tutorial, assume you're auditing a small business site with about 30 pages. The same steps scale up later.

You'll need an Ahrefs account to follow along. Ahrefs offers paid plans, and pricing and feature limits change over time, so check the current Pricing page for what's included in each tier before committing.

Step 1: Enter Your Target in Site Explorer

Site Explorer is Ahrefs' core tool for analyzing any website or URL.

1. Open Site Explorer from the top navigation.
2. In the search box, paste your domain (e.g., example.com).
3. Choose the Exact URL or Domain mode depending on scope. For a full-site view, use Domain or Prefix; for a single page, use Exact URL.
4. Press Enter.

You'll land on the Overview report. Don't try to absorb everything — focus on four numbers first.

Reading the Overview Snapshot

Important caveat: Ahrefs' traffic and keyword numbers are estimates based on its own data. They won't match Google Search Console or your analytics exactly. Treat them as directional, not absolute.

Step 2: See What You Already Rank For

Go to Organic Keywords in the left sidebar. This shows queries where your site appears in search results.

Sort by Traffic (descending) to see which pages bring the most estimated visitors. Then look for:

• Keywords ranking in positions 4–15 — these are often the easiest wins. A small content or on-page improvement can push them onto page one.
• Keywords with high volume but low position — potential opportunities if the topic is relevant.
• Irrelevant keywords — if you rank for something off-topic, it may signal thin or mismatched content.

Write down 5–10 of the position 4–15 keywords. These become your first optimization targets.

Step 3: Find Your Best and Weakest Pages

Open Top Pages. This ranks your URLs by estimated organic traffic.

Look for two things:

1. Your top performers — understand what topics and formats work. Can you create more content like this?
2. Pages with traffic but poor rankings — these may need on-page fixes (title, headings, internal links).

If a page gets zero traffic and targets a topic you care about, it's a candidate for a rewrite or consolidation.

Step 4: Run a Technical Site Audit

Now move to Site Audit. This crawls your site and flags technical and on-page issues.

1. Click Site Audit → New project.
2. Enter your domain and set crawl settings (default is usually fine for a small site).
3. Start the crawl and wait for it to finish.

Once complete, you'll see a Health Score and a list of issues grouped by category.

Which Issues to Fix First

Not all issues are equal. Prioritize in this order:

Ignore low-impact warnings (like minor meta description length) until the big items are handled.

Step 5: Turn Findings Into a To-Do List

You now have raw data. Convert it into a short, actionable list. Example:

1. Fix 3 broken links found in Site Audit.
2. Rewrite title tags on 5 pages with duplicate titles.
3. Improve 4 pages ranking in positions 6–12 by adding missing subtopics and internal links.
4. Remove or update 2 thin pages with no traffic.

Keep the list to 5–10 items max for your first audit. Finishing a short list beats starting a long one.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Chasing every red flag. Site Audit flags many minor issues. Fix what affects rankings and users first.
• Trusting estimates as exact numbers. Ahrefs data is modeled, not measured from your analytics.
• Auditing a huge site too early. Start small to learn the interface.
• Ignoring search intent. A page can be technically perfect but still fail if it doesn't match what searchers want.
• Forgetting to re-crawl. After fixes, run Site Audit again to confirm improvements.

Where to Go Next

Once your first audit is done:

• Compare with competitors using Site Explorer's Competing Domains and Content Gap reports.
• Track keyword rankings over time with Rank Tracker.
• Explore backlink opportunities in the Backlinks and Link Intersect reports.
• Set up recurring Site Audit crawls so new issues surface automatically.

Your first audit isn't about perfection — it's about building a repeatable habit: enter a target, read the key reports, pick the highest-impact fixes, and act. Do that once a month and your site's health compounds.

Open whatpwacando.today in the browser on the device you want to test and use its built-in capability checklist. The site is itself a Progressive Web App, so it can report which PWA features your current browser and operating system actually support — installation, offline support, notifications, hardware access, and more — rather than telling you what is theoretically possible. Support varies by browser and OS, so the only reliable answer for your situation is the one your own device reports.

How the capability check works

The site's "PWA capabilities" section runs feature detection in your browser and shows a checklist of what is available right now. Because it is a live PWA, it also reflects whether the page is currently offline and whether installation is offered.

The demos below the checklist are live, not videos. Each one exercises a specific web capability so you can confirm support by using it, not just by reading a label.

Capabilities covered

The site advertises 40+ live demos in total, so the checklist is broader than this table — treat the table as the categories you are most likely to be deciding between.

Test your own device in four steps

1. Open whatpwacando.today on the target device and browser.
2. Scroll to the capability checklist and note which entries are marked as supported.
3. Use the "Add to home screen" button once it becomes enabled — that confirms installation is offered on this device.
4. Open the individual demos for the capabilities you care about and run each one. A capability that appears in the checklist still needs a real interaction (a permission prompt, a notification, a camera feed) to confirm it works end to end.

Expected result: you end up with a short list of capabilities your device supports today, plus the ones that fail or never prompt.

What to watch for

• Support is per browser and per OS, not per site. A capability that works in one browser on your phone may be missing in another, and desktop and mobile results can differ.
• Permission-gated features need a user gesture. Camera, microphone, geolocation, and notifications will not activate until you trigger them and accept the prompt. A demo that appears to do nothing may simply be waiting for that.
• Installation depends on install criteria being met. The "Add to home screen" button only becomes enabled when the browser considers the app installable, which is why the site tells you to wait for it.
• Offline behavior needs a prior visit. Service Worker caching happens after the app has loaded at least once, so test offline mode after an initial online visit.

If a demo fails

The site points to a free pwa-check tool for identifying and fixing implementation issues, and to a PWA Runtime Audit for integrating checks into a CI/CD pipeline. Use the first when a specific capability misbehaves on your device; use the second when you want consistent release confidence rather than one-off debugging.

The site also offers a weekly email update on PWAs and new features of the modern web, tested and explained in plain English, via a subscribe link.

If you hit problems implementing PWA features, What PWA Can Do Today points to two concrete resources: the free pwa-check tool for identifying and fixing issues, and the PWA Runtime Audit for consistent release confidence when integrated into your CI/CD pipeline. The site also runs a weekly email list covering PWA updates and new web features, tested and explained in plain English. Which one you need depends on whether you're debugging a one-off problem or trying to catch regressions across releases.

Start With pwa-check for Debugging

The site's own guidance is direct: "If you run into issues when implementing a PWA you can run the free pwa-check tool to help you identify and fix them."

Use it when:

• A feature works in your demo test but not in your actual app
• Installation prompts don't appear
• Offline behavior is inconsistent
• You're not sure which capability is failing

The tool is described as free, so it's the lowest-friction starting point before you invest time in manual debugging.

Use the PWA Runtime Audit for Release Confidence

The site distinguishes between fixing a problem and preventing one. For "consistent release confidence," it recommends integrating the PWA Runtime Audit into your CI/CD pipeline.

The difference in practice:

A runtime audit runs as part of your pipeline, so failures surface at build time rather than after deploy.

Check Device Support Before Assuming a Bug

Not every failure is an implementation error. The site is itself a PWA and includes a capability checklist plus 40+ live demos, so you can test what your device actually supports. If a demo doesn't work on your device, the problem may be the platform rather than your code — worth confirming before you spend time debugging.

Stay Current on PWA Changes

The site offers a weekly email list with "an update on PWAs and new features of the modern web, tested and explained in plain English." This is useful when a feature you rely on changes behavior or when a new capability becomes broadly available. Subscribe from the site's "Stay up to date" section.

Quick Decision Path

1. Something is broken → run pwa-check first.
2. You want to prevent breakage across releases → add the PWA Runtime Audit to CI/CD.
3. You're unsure if it's your code or the device → test against the site's live demos and capability checklist.
4. You want to keep up with changes → join the weekly email list.

What PWA Can Do Today is itself a Progressive Web App, so the most reliable way to use it is to install it first, then open the demos from your home screen or desktop. Installing matters because several capabilities (installation prompts, shortcuts, notifications, offline behavior) only appear in an installed or standalone context. If you just want a quick look, you can browse the demos in a normal browser tab, but expect some features to be unavailable or behave differently.

Step 1: Install the site as an app

1. Open whatpwacando.today in a browser that supports PWA installation.
2. Look for the Add to home screen button on the page. The site notes that this button becomes enabled when your browser and device support installation.
3. Trigger it and confirm the native install dialog.
4. Launch the app from your home screen or desktop rather than the browser tab.

Expected result: the site opens in its own window or app shell, and capabilities that depend on installed mode become testable.

Common snag: if the button never enables, your browser or platform doesn't support the install flow in that context. Try a different browser or device before assuming the demo is broken.

Step 2: Browse the live demos

The site hosts 40+ live demos, each demonstrating one web capability usable in a PWA. Scroll to the PWA App Demos section and tap any demo to run it on your own device.

Capabilities covered include, based on the site's own list:

Step 3: Read the demo info

Each demo has a Show demo info / Hide demo info toggle. Use it to see what the demo is testing and which API or browser feature it relies on. This is the fastest way to connect a visible behavior to the underlying capability, which helps when you later try to reproduce it in your own app.

Step 4: Check what your device actually supports

The PWA capabilities checklist shows which capabilities are supported on your current device. Run this before or after the demos to separate "the demo failed" from "my device doesn't support this."

A practical workflow:

1. Open the capabilities checklist.
2. Note which items are supported.
3. Run only those demos first.
4. For unsupported items, switch device or browser and re-check.

If something doesn't work

The site points to a free pwa-check tool for identifying and fixing implementation issues, and a PWA Runtime Audit for integrating checks into a CI/CD pipeline. Those are aimed at developers building PWAs rather than at people just trying demos, but they're the right next step if a capability you need keeps failing.

When this approach fits

Use the install-first method if you want to test real PWA behavior, especially installation, notifications, shortcuts, and offline support. Skip installation if you only want to read about capabilities or see a demo's UI — but treat any failure in a plain browser tab as inconclusive rather than a verdict on the feature.