Presso Events

Native event app or Progressive Event App: why your attendees will not download yours

28/09/2026

A native event app is an app your attendees install from the Apple App Store or Google Play before they can use it.

Native event app or Progressive Event App: why your attendees will not download yours - infographic

That one step is the problem. Without a real push, only 20-30% of attendees download an event app at all (Nunify, Event App Adoption Rate Benchmarks, 2025). A Progressive Event App skips the step: it opens from a link, in the browser, on any phone.

So the question is not “which app has the best features”. It is “which app will people actually open”.

What is a native event app?

A native event app is software built for iPhone and Android and distributed through the app stores.

You have seen the sign. It is on the lanyard, the registration desk and slide two of the opening keynote: “Download the event app”.

It can do a lot. Agenda, floor plan, networking, polls, push notifications.

All of it sits behind one gate. The attendee has to find it in the store, have the space for it, remember their store password, wait for it to install, then create yet another account.

At 08:40. In a queue. On venue Wi-Fi.

Why won’t attendees download your event app?

Because you are asking a stranger to install software for a two-day event they will never attend again.

Look at your own phone. There is an app on it from a conference you went to in 2023. It still sends you a notification every few months about a session that happened three years ago. You have this somewhere. I would bet on it.

Your attendees have one too. So they have learned the lesson. They say no.

The numbers back it up:

  • 20-30% adoption is typical when the app is not promoted (Nunify, 2025).
  • 55-70% is realistic with serious promotion: exclusive content, gamification, a pre-event launch (Nunify, 2025).
  • 80-95% is where the top events land, mostly by making the app mandatory for check-in (Nunify, 2025).

Read that last one again. The best adoption rates come from making the app compulsory.

That is not an app people want. That is a toll booth.

Whova, which sells a native event app, titled a whole post “From 30% to 90%: How Did You Increase Your Event App Adoption?” (Whova blog). The starting point in the headline is 30%. That is the honest baseline, from a vendor with every reason to make it look better.

What is a Progressive Event App?

A Progressive Event App, or PEA, is an event app that runs in the web browser.

The attendee taps a link in their confirmation email, or scans a QR code on the badge. The event opens. That is the whole install.

It is built on the same web technology as a progressive web app. So it can still sit on the home screen, cache the agenda for when the Wi-Fi gives up, and update itself without asking.

What it cannot do is sit in an app store waiting to be found. That is the point.

Native event app vs Progressive Event App

Native event app Progressive Event App
How an attendee gets it Search the store, download, install, sign up Tap a link or scan a QR code
Typical reach without a push 20-30% of attendees (Nunify, 2025) Anyone who taps the link in their confirmation
Works on The phones the developer built for Any device with a browser
Shipping a fix App store review, then each attendee has to update Deploy once, everyone gets it on next load
Storage on the attendee’s phone Tens of megabytes, forever Close to none

What does the store add when something needs fixing?

With a Progressive Event App, a fix reaches every attendee the next time they open the page. One deploy, one version, done.

A native app has two extra queues. First, store review: Apple says most submissions are reviewed within 24 hours (Apple Developer, App Review). Then the second queue, the one nobody controls: every attendee has to update. Some will not, until the event is over.

On a two-day conference, “within 24 hours” is half the event. It is the same download gap again: every step that depends on the attendee fetching something from a store is a step some of them never take.

Do you need a native event app at all?

Sometimes, yes. If your event runs every week for the same members, or you need deep phone features like Bluetooth beacons, a native app can earn its place.

For most conferences, summits and training days, it does not. Your attendees are there for one or two days. Every step between them and the agenda loses some of them.

Try this before your next event:

  1. Count the steps. From “email arrives” to “attendee sees their agenda”. Write every tap down.
  2. Check last year’s number. How many attendees actually used the app, not how many were invited. If you do not know, that is the answer.
  3. Test it on a bad phone. Old model, 3% battery, venue Wi-Fi. If it hurts you, it hurts them.
  4. Remove the store. If the agenda can open from a link, most of your adoption problem goes with it.

That last step is why we built Presso Events as a Progressive Event App. The best event app is the one your attendees open without being told twice.

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