App Store and Play Store are like a street full of food hawkers. With mobile applications of all sorts (native as well as a hybrid) doing brisk business on play stores. While native applications promise high performance and speed, hybrid applications win in case of reduced time, efforts and scalability. Hybrid applications (cross-platform applications) are beneficial only if they provide a user experience similar to those of native applications and access native API’s. Earlier developers used to stick to native SDK’s provided by Apple and Google but eventually, several alternatives have become available in form of Hybrid apps that provide almost similar user experience and access to native API’s.
The smartphone applications that are built for a specific operating system and coded in a specific programming language like Java for Android, Swift or Objective C for iOS, C# for Windows Phone are native mobile applications. This not only increases the performance of the application but as well increases the high degree of reliability.
Major minus points with native app:
Pokemon Go, Twitter, and Waze are examples of fully native apps.
We have hybrid mobile applications that could eventually shift gears from monitoring to letting things go a bit more. Truly liberalizing – a mobile app developer does not have to think about developing for a particular platform – the giving up of control and making business rules simpler, consistent and interference-free can easily bump up the app creation process.
Hybrid applications can be taken into consideration when a single platform is to be used to build an application. Hybrid applications are built with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML and are developed in Webview which is a simplified browser within the app.
If you have an app idea and are not sure whether people will like it or not then the foremost thing that must be considered is to place something that is relevant to them, with limited resources. To provide the simplest version of a usable product that can be valuable to them (a minimum viable product) must be the primary objective.
Although they conk out on performance sometimes, hybrid applications still retain the ability to access device features. This is one of the biggest advantages of hybrid applications that sets them apart from native apps. Solutions like PhoneGap/Cordova bridge the gap between native SDK and webview in which the app runs.
The choice to build a hybrid or native app depends upon a number of competing features and there is no single definitive answer to selecting a particular app type Native Vs. Hybrid for your next developmental process.
It is easy to create Native Apps for Android and iOS smartphones but if one tries to interchange the developmental efforts and tries to create android code for iPhones and vice-versa, it is practically not possible.
A web application is simply an application created in any environment and accessed in browsers via a network such as an internet. But there are some points that make it potentially different from a website. While a website will just provide some information, a web app will be more interactive. Example of the website is Wikipedia while Facebook is a web app. Web apps don’t need to be downloaded.
While a developer tries to build an application that is dedicated for a single purpose, they encounter with a sprawl of questions. Here is a gist:
No, it is not possible to convert a web app into a hybrid app.
Making use of splash screens, adding back button to UI, following style guides, getting rid of 300 ms delays, and making wait time seem longer are some quirky tips that web developers consider while they build hybrid apps.
If the user wants to bet upon the performance, then definitely native apps are the option. But comparing other major features like cross-platform compatibility, coding time, efforts, cost and time to market – hybrid applications emerge out as the winner. Boo-yah! Have a look at our portfolio and you’ll find the golden ticket to your dream project. Consociate with us for your Hybrid vs Native needs!
Neeti Kotia is a technology journalist who seeks to analyze the advancements and developments in technology that affect our everyday lives. Her articles primarily focus upon the business, social, cultural, and entertainment side of the technology sector.
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