Mobile App Development
There are great changes in the ways people are looking for information, purchasing commodities or interacting with equipments these days. So either your business needs an app or the app should be your business. Technology wise there are two types of app broadly – native apps and hybrid apps.
Native Mobile Apps Development
When your app needs to take care of complex functionalities, native apps are your first choice. Performance, UX, third party support and higher ranking probability -for such reasons native apps are first choice for many of app owners.
Native Android App Development
For more than a decade Android has got matured to become most popular mobile platform throughout the world. Android offers a wide gamut of connectivity through wifi, bluetooth, NFC and cellular networks. Android has the capability of programming anything or everything that you want in a mobile app. Android applications were used to be developed in Java language for a long time whereas Kotlin seems to be taking the leading position now.
Major advantage of developing an Android app is easy publishing. As long as the app follows review policy laid out by Google, publishing on store is really fast. Google also allows to release a MVP for startups to test the water. Other advantages are definitely wider hardware acceptance and large community of developers.
Native iOS App Development
Native iOS app development is developed using Objective-C and Swift. Swift is emerging as core candidate for iOS development for more than one reasons. Swift, as the name suggest, is much faster than Objective-C. Apart from that, safety, maintenance and syntax in all fronts Swift is a front runner.
Unlike Android, iOS does not have open source code. Developers need mac hardware to develop native code to run on iOS hardware. Unlike Android, publishing iOS apps are also not easy. App can be rejected for any reason ranging from security policy to not having valuable content. But native iOS code with apple hardware can create best of user experiences for any app.
Hybrid mobile app development:
Hybrid mobile app development is becoming popular among business owners aiming to introducing app for their business. Although apps that are meant for complex business operations still preferred to be built using native technologies, hybrid technologies are gaining share on the ground of cost, time to market and growing technological support.
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React Native:
Released by Facebook on 2015 for cross platform mobile app development, React native has already being considered a most powerful tool for hybrid app development. React Native uses single Java scripts codebase to work on multiple platforms. Developers with Java or Swift skills can easily opt for creating an app using React Native as it uses native modules and components.
Limitations in UI features sometimes make developer’s work bit challenging but still for the capability of developing native like performances and user experiences, React Native is becoming popular choice of many developers and business owners.
Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Wallmart, Ubereats are some of the popular mobile apps created by using React Native.
Positive points:
- Able to deliver native like user experience
- Hot reloading feature help observe impact of code changes
- Updating is easy for architecture support
- Node Package Manager (NPM) enables installation faster
- Large developer community
Negative Points:
- Not a good choice for apps with lot of UI transitions and special effects
- Not enough of custom components
Flutter:
A very strong contender for the position of ‘Best hybrid mobile app development technology’ is Flutter. The SDK launched by Goggle in 2017 is open source and earned popularity among developers within short time. Flutter enables developers to create UIs with flexibility and deliver great user experience. For this reason businesses are choosing Flutter for creating MVPs over others. Flutter uses Google’s developed language ‘Dart’, which itself is powerful and versatile language, and C++ rendering engine. Some of the popular apps created by Flutter are Alibaba, Baidu, Google Pay etc.
Positive Points:
- Able deliver real faster apps
- Great options for creativity in UI designs
- Sufficient widgets
- Hot reload feature for code change tracking
- Minimum time to market
Negative Points:
- Apps are larger in size in comparison with native apps
- Developers need to learn a new language –Dart to create apps
Ionic:
Ionic is a easy to learn tool for developers to create visually appealing hybrid mobile apps. It’s SDK offers entire suit of front end tools to create excellent UIs with an ability to integrate with Js technologies like –Vue, Angualr or React. It is easy to create PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) using Ionic. Some of the popular apps created by Ionic are InstantPot, Sworkit, MarketWatch etc.
Positive Points:
- Easy to learn technology for developers
- Simple apps with easy maintenance
- Lot of UI options
- Lower cost of development in comparison with other hybrid technologies
- Large developer community across the globe
Negative Points:
- Testing is tricky sometimes
- No hot reloading
- Dependent on plugins
- Not suitable for complicated apps
Xamarin:
Xamarin is a hybrid app development technology that is a enable developers to create apps using C# and Visual Studio to run on Android, iOS and Windows phones. Xamarin developers can access .NET packages and libraries that helps them use wide creative freedom. Xamarin apps can deliver user experience of native apps. Some of the popular apps created by Xamarin are Alaska Airlines, Cincinnati, BBC Goodfood etc.
Positive Points:
- Up to 90% codebase is shareable across platforms
- Backed up by Microsoft Technologies
- Minimum time to market
- Excellent hardware integration abilities
- Easy API integration
Negative Points:
- Expensive framework
- Not ideal for game development
- Some limitations on Android & iOS platforms
NativeScripts:
NativeScripts help developers to create true native mobile app by using Java script or typescript. NativeScripts creates a runtime bridge with Js based virtual machine. While using Angular for NativeScripts, most of the codes can be shared between web and mobile apps. Some of the popular apps created by NativeScripts are Sennheiser, PUMA, Airbnb Design
Positive Points:
- Wide option for reusability of code
- Irrespective of any frame –VUE, Angular, React or Vanila Js can be used
- Direct access to Android and iOS APIs
- Faster debugging
Negative Points:
- Insufficient documentation
- Some UI limitations as HTML and DOM are not completely supported
- Less number of plugins
Onsen UI:
Onsen UI offers HTML 5 mobile hybrid app development with ready to use components. Developer can use Monaca tool or Phonegap/Cordova CLI with Onsen UI to create complex mobile applications. Compatibility of this framework with Angular Js and Jquery made it efficient. Some of the popular apps created by Onsen UI are Giro D’Italia, PopVox etc.
Positive Points:
- Developers can create app by using Js or without using it
- Development is faster and easier
- Built on easy and familiar technologies like HTML, CSS
- Monaca tool support
Negative Points:
- Improper documentation
- Smaller developer community