Installable on every device — without the app store

No. A progressive web app installs directly from the browser: the patient or staff member taps 'Add to Home Screen' and the icon appears on their device straight away, with no App Store or Google Play involved. For a practice this removes the review queues, developer accounts and annual fees that come with publishing a native app, and it removes the version-approval delay that would otherwise sit between a change being made and patients being able to use it.

Yes. The same progressive web app runs on any modern smartphone, tablet or desktop browser, including iOS Safari and Android Chrome, and installation and push notifications are supported across them. Because there is only one build rather than separate iOS and Android versions, every patient sees the same behaviour regardless of the device they own, and the practice never has to answer questions about a feature existing on one platform but not the other.

Yes. Once the app is installed on their device, a patient can receive push notifications from the platform delivered as native operating-system alerts, covering events such as their assessment being reviewed, a quote becoming ready to view, or a monitoring submission being requested. These land on the lock screen in the same way a message from any other app would, which is why they are noticed far more reliably than an email sitting in a crowded inbox.

Yes. The installed icon, the app name shown under it, and the splash screen displayed while the app loads all reflect the practice's own branding rather than the platform's. From the patient's point of view they have installed the practice's app. For practices already using white labelling across their patient-facing email and web experience, this keeps the home screen consistent with everything else the patient has seen from you.

Updates take effect immediately, because the app loads the current version of the platform each time it is opened rather than running a copy downloaded weeks earlier. Neither patients nor staff have to install anything to stay current. This avoids the fragmentation problem familiar from native apps, where a support query becomes difficult to answer because the person on the phone is running an old version and cannot see what you are describing.

No. The progressive web app already provides what a practice would build a native app for: an installable home screen icon, push notifications, offline capability and full access to the patient journey. Commissioning a separate native build would add development and ongoing maintenance cost, plus two app store listings to keep updated, without adding capability that patients would notice. For most orthodontic practices that expense is difficult to justify.