In these years, we have witnessed cross-platform mobile development raging ahead and becoming a popular software development trend. And it isn’t a big surprise. Adoption of this approach allows a hybrid mobile app development company to create apps for various platforms with a single codebase, which saves time, effort, and money.
With the ever-growing desire of people to have massive online information at the fingertips, it is evident that mobile apps are becoming essential for them. Billions of downloads of mobile apps is the evidence of this fact, with billions spent on purchasing these apps by the people. These two factors present the picture of a fair chance the business plan should include one. However, the trick is choosing the best mobile app development path.
Single Native App
Essentially the native solution, as suggested by the name, actually assumes developing an app with the programming language, which is native to a given platform. For Android, its Java or Kotlin and Objective-C or Swift for iOS. Also, being system-specific, the native app development can easily be considered as a great blessing. It even provides access to all of the features of a particular OS, allows unlimited interface customization, and even prevents performance issues from occurring. Also, if the app development company wishes to reach to different types of users, it is required to create two separate apps that mean more money, time as well as effort.
Single Cross-Platform App
Then there is cross-platform development that allows covering two major operating systems with a single code. Essentially, it doesn’t even assume writing code with a given native programming language. However, if taken a closer look, you will see that it actually ensures a near-native experience owing to rendering interface utilizing native controls.
Cross-Platform Mobile Development
Basically, with at least three distinct ways to materialize the mobile app business idea, you must be wondering how to choose the best suitable one. Here is a list of criteria that you have to take into consideration in case you wish to make a completely informed decision.
App Platforms
First, you have to decide whether your app is going to be available on single or multiple OS. In case you are targeting a much larger audience consisting of different platform’s users, then cross-platform development should be your go-to solution. On the other hand, in case it is enough for you to cover only iOS or Android users, offering flawless user experience with quite a native solution will be your actual priority.
App Complexity
Essentially, this criterion pertains to actually how far you wish to go with your app. One way to address this particular issue is to clarify whether you are actually aiming at testing the vision with a Minimum Viable Product or MVO, or you are quite ready to launch your completely developed app. Another question you should answer is that your app’s functionalities.
Native Experience
Now, the next thing to actually consider is how native the mobile app should actually feel to the user. Developing the mobile app with Material design in the case of Android or Human Interface Guidelines in case of iOS in consideration is what makes the actual app intuitive as well as user-friendly. However, a hybrid app development company can easily achieve a similar effect with few of the most common as well as popular cross-platform frameworks.
Pros of Cross-Platform Mobile App Development
Once you have considered these options and reached the conclusion that native app development isn’t best suited for you, that means you are tending towards cross-platform app development. However, you need to conduct a detailed and thorough analysis of the solution.
Benefits
Essentially, you have probably concluded that this article is dedicated to a cross-platform app development approach. It is beneficial to all sorts of businesses, such as large corporations and even startups. Choosing to create an app with the cross-platform mobile framework, you will certainly enjoy the following benefits.
Extensive Market Reach
Everyone has their own favorite mobile OS, and you need not let personal preferences get in your way of business success. Developing a mobile app equally available to iOS and Android users allow you to pave the way for significantly increased revenues in the years to come.
Single Codebase
As suggested by the name, this approach allows you to write code, which essentially covers different mobile OS at once. Also, there will be few cases in which dealing with the platform differences will need more effort and time. But, the single codebase will certainly influence all of the stages of mobile app development by means of allowing you to easily save money that you will normally spend on fixing as well as upgrading two separate code sets.
Cheaper and Swifter Deployment
Even if you need single codebase, cross-platform app development needs developers to think about different ways to handle the OS differences like UI or even platform-specific store publication procedures in a most effective way. Simultaneously, one simply can’t deny that this particular approach will certainly reduce the design-to-launch time. It can translate to saving a major portion of the initial project budget, which can be utilized to perfect the app as per user feedback.
Consistency of Platform
Essentially, there isn’t a single doubt that both Android, as well as iOS, differ significantly, both in terms of UI and UX. With the cross-platform app development, a huge number of these differences are addressed by default that makes navigation and design inconsistencies much less likely to occur.
Conclusion
Cross-platform app development offers tremendous opportunities for custom mobile app development services. It addresses the essential requirements of the businesses to reach a wider audience, save cost, establish platform consistency, and much more.
