How to Develop Hybrid Apps?

Márcio Cyrillo reveals - “Our lives are enhanced by a myriad of adaptive apps running on various devices, with different sensors collecting snippets about everything we do & feeding massive digital brains that can adapt apps to our demands simply because they understand us.” And that’s exactly where we are today.

With the huge rise in mobile phone users over the previous decade, nearly every business requires developing a mobile application. However, one of the primary factors to consider when designing a mobile application is whether to choose native or hybrid mobile app development.

While both solutions have advantages and disadvantages, many firms choose hybrid applications due to the savings in terms of price, time to market, and other variables. According to Forbes, 37 of the top 50 retail applications in the United States are hybrid. 

It begs to ask, "What's the reason behind such popularity?" Let’s find those answers.

Hybrid App Development - An Overview

Hybrid app development entails creating a single application on various mobile platforms, including Android, iOS & Windows. Unlike native app development, which requires developers to use a platform-specific programming language to create apps for several operating systems, hybrid app development employs a single code base for every OS.

For example, if you want to create a native iOS app, you must use Swift or Objective-C, but you must use Kotlin or Java to create an app for Android OS. Alternatively, you can use a single code base developed in React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, or any other OS-agnostic technology.

Hybrid applications, like native apps, are available through app stores, interact with hardware on your phone & are installed on your device. But how do they stack up against native apps? 

Let’s take a look.

Hybrid vs. Native Apps

Raj Aggarwal, Localytics CEO, remarked - “The rich & interactive experiences we expect on mobile apps have created the latest standards & expectations for digital platforms, including the web.” 

So, while creating new apps for your business, you must choose the right solution. It will greatly rely on your project's complexity, budget, timeline, and target audience.

But how do you choose between native or hybrid apps? 

Native applications are designed for a single platform (such as Apple iOS or Android). Developers must build code in programming languages compatible with the platform's operating system.

Because these apps can access all native device functions, developers can ensure superior speed and security. However, one of the key disadvantages of native apps is the high development and maintenance expenses. Yet, if you need to target customers of a certain platform or want greater performance, you might consider developing a native app.

In contrast, hybrid app creation allows code creation once and shares the program across various platforms, such as Android, iOS & Windows. You can pick from multiple programming languages & frameworks to expand flexibility.

Hybrid apps require a bigger codebase to be compatible with multiple operating systems and versions. Furthermore, because you only need to work on one codebase, these apps have substantially cheaper development and maintenance costs.

Examples of Hybrid App

Now that we have understood what it means, let’s look at examples of hybrid apps.

While the first hybrid apps were somewhat sluggish, developments in web technologies and frameworks have narrowed the performance gap between hybrid and native apps. Here are some examples of high-performing hybrid apps:

• Gmail - Yes, the most famous email client is a hybrid application. The platform employs JavaScript, AJAX, jQuery, and Vue.js on the front end.

• Twitter - Twitter's front-end stack includes Node.js, Express, and React Native. To be more exact, it's a progressive web app (PWA).

• Uber - Uber's mobile applications, which run on m.uber.com to give a web view on your phone, rely on Base, a web React UI framework.

• Untappd - The well-known beer-rating application is built with Ruby on Rails and other web technologies. Unsurprisingly, it also takes advantage of React Native for cross-platform interoperability.

• Instagram - Instagram's timeline is technically a web view, putting it squarely in the hybrid app camp. The image-focused social networking platform is designed with React Native.

The Process Behind Hybrid App Creation

David Murphy reveals, “The future of mobile is the future of online. It’s how people consume online-based content now.” Hence, firms must invest in an application to grab the desired audience. But how to build a hybrid app? Hybrid application development refers to integrating native and web development resources to bring your app to life. 

The basic application code of a classic hybrid app is written in web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and is contained in a container known as a webview. Newer cross-platform app development frameworks, such as React Native, now allow you to convert JavaScript into machine code for native speed.

Let’s look at the frameworks and tools that facilitate hybrid app development. 

Hybrid App Development Tools & Frameworks

Hybrid mobile app frameworks, like standard web application development frameworks, make easy work of developing apps. They include code libraries, APIs, and other features that will make coding your app faster and easier. 

So, what are the most popular hybrid app frameworks and tools?

• React Native - There's a reason why many of the most successful hybrid apps include React Native as part of their front-end technology stacks. React Native, created by Facebook, converts your software into native code. It implies you can use native views instead of the usual webview in most hybrid app frameworks.

• Ionic - Ionic is a well-known hybrid app development framework. It takes the typical webview approach to hybrid app development, encapsulating web-based source code within a web view that may connect with specific accessible native APIs through plugins.

• Xamarin - Microsoft's solution to hybrid app development frameworks is Xamarin. You can write your apps in C# and get all the benefits of the .NET development environment.

• Flutter - As said,” It’s Google’s “prodigee & everybody likes Google.” Flutter is written on Google's Dart programming language and has a single codebase for both iOS and Android. Flutter is extremely quick, having a hot loading capability that instantly applies code changes.

• Kendo UI - This HTML5-based user interface framework assists developers in creating cross-platform applications with excellent speed and little development time.

• Apache Cordova - Apache Cordova is a hybrid app development industry veteran. A single-page application (SPA) is launched through an integrated mobile web browser, essentially a web view. Plugins provide on-demand access to native functionalities.

• Visual Studio Code - Visual Studio (VS) Code is a source editor created with the Electron Framework for Windows, macOS & Linux hybrid apps.

Pros of Hybrid App Development

What about the advantages of hybrid apps? Here are a few.

• Cross-platform compatibility

Developers with hybrid app frameworks can use the same codebase across Android and iOS devices.

• Reduced development time

Increased code reuse reduces the time to develop native apps for multiple operating platforms.

• Scalability

Scalability can be built into apps more easily using a single codebase and cloud-native web technologies.

• Low-cost development & maintenance

You can save money on development by creating numerous versions of the same program for different operating systems.

• Customizable

Compared to native apps, a hybrid app is easier to modify for all platforms due to a single code base shared by all development platforms.

Challenges in Hybrid App Development

Hybrid mobile app development is a one-stop shop for all platforms. However, it has an array of disadvantages that might emerge when it is being developed, such as: 

• Efficiency

Because hybrid mobile apps rely on web technologies and cannot fully utilize the device's hardware capabilities, they do not always perform as smoothly as native mobile apps. 

As developers put it, “Hybrid applications are slow compared to native applications due to hybrid applications adding an extra layer between the customer & the application.”

• Interoperability

Hybrid apps sometimes become compatible with operating systems and platforms, which might result in design, usability, and overall user experience challenges.

• Monitoring & Troubleshooting

These operations can be more difficult than debugging and testing native mobile apps since hybrid mobile applications must be evaluated across several devices and platforms.

• Level of Security

Because hybrid mobile applications use web technologies and may not have as much security as native apps, they can be more vulnerable to security issues.

• Easier to mess up the UI/UX

As Marko Lehtimaki puts it, “Hybrid apps are usually considered a neglect in terms of the customer experience.” Hence, developers must ensure that their app's UI provides a consistent UX.

Why are Hybrid Apps the Future?

Thomas Husson states, “Mobile is becoming the latest digital hub & the pathway to the physical world. That’s why mobile will affect more than your digital operations — it will transform your entire business.” And in the future of mobile, hybrid apps are the frontiers.

So why are hybrid apps set to surpass native apps in the future?

• App Store Limitation

Deploying a native mobile app now requires packaging the code, publishing it to the app store, and seeking approval. The complete procedure can take between two and seven days. In the mobile world, this is an eternity.

Mobile app developers can update their mobile apps numerous times daily, much like their web apps. Because of the constraints of app stores, hybrid applications are the only alternative.

• Code Reusability

Because most applications have both an iOS and an Android version, they are written in the programming language of each platform — Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java for Android.

However, hybrid applications allow you to build mobile apps in the same languages your developers know - HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You can develop code once and use it on all your mobile devices.

• DevOps for Mobile

Finally, hybrid app development solutions leverage DevOps techniques in creating mobile apps. They enable you to go from big quarterly app releases to a bi-weekly cadence, eventually allowing you to update as often as a web app - which is nearly impossible with native apps today.

Wrapping Up

The development of mobile applications for each platform is costly and time-consuming. Hybrid apps are gaining popularity due to advantages such as cross-platform interoperability, cost-effectiveness, and faster time to market.

Yet, ultimately, making the right choice for developing your mobile application is critical. So consider elements such as development cost, time, and target audience that will help you make the best selection. If you are searching for a good hybrid app development team, let MarsDevs show you how to embark on this journey.

Reach out to us today!