Our web development company, MagisSolutions, attended the Google I/O Extended roadtrip held at the Ateneo de Manila University, and along with other events I've attended over the past few weeks, here are three important trends I think developers need to look out for in the coming years:

 1. "Server-less" is becoming a thing (even more)

Backend-as-a-Service allows you to create client applications without the need to write server-side code. We've had Backend-as-a-Service for some time now (e.g. Parse), but it's only gaining popularity with Google acquiring Firebase, and it being aggressively discussed during Google I/O 2016.

During one of the Google I/O Codelabs I was able to create a chat app using Firebase in under 30 minutes! If you've developed in traditional back-end languages like PHP, you know that coding a Chat app with image uploads and authentication can be a real pain!

Add to that a plethora of up and coming similar tools - HorizonJS among others, and even GraphQL servers (made by Facebook) that radically simplifies querying databases, back-end developers might need to start thinking what the future of their jobs look like! With the emergence of ReactJS (also made by Facebook), I see more and more logic going into client-side development as servers become more and more automated.

2. The Death of Mobile apps

The first time I heard of Progressive Web Apps enabled through Angular 2 or PolymerJS, I immediately thought of the death of native web development. I was never really enthusiastic about native mobile apps - they required a huge first step from users: download the app before you can even start using it. Websites are much easier to distribute (just click a link), and as such required less marketing effort to coax users to get the first experience. We always recommend that clients validate their idea first in the web - it's cheaper to develop, and easier to distribute.

Back to Progressive Web Apps. PWAs allow you to have the best of two worlds: the web and mobile apps. This pretty much means websites:

• Can be as fast as native
• Can tell the browser to cache a part of your site that will work offline
• Has an "Add to Home screen" button, which allows users to make your site accessible from your mobile home screen just like any other native app

If Progressive Web Apps give you this much power, why build another version in a totally different language? "Progressive" is the new "Responsive".

3. Javascript is the language of the future, and the future is now

If you noticed all the tools, frameworks, and pieces of software I've mentioned in the article (Angular 2, HorizonJS, PolymerJS, ReactJS, GraphQL [which works well with NodeJS]), one thing is consistent: Javascript.

Javascript has taken over rendering logic. No longer does templating logic have to happen in the server, such as what used to happen with PHP, Python, or Ruby. AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS, and KnockoutJS (to name a few) all make single-page applications a breeze to create.

Javascript has taken over the server world as well with NodeJS, and abstractions/frameworks on top of it such as Express, MeteorJS, and EmberJS.

Now, Javascript is also taking over the Native mobile app development world, with Angular 2 (with Ionic or NativeScript), ReactNative, and Intel XDK (built on Cordova). I repeat, these are native, but coded in Javascript.

Exciting (and at times daunting) trends for tech. Overall, Google I/O was a fun and educational experience. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.