Mobile App Developers Should Go Hybrid!

Bangalore: With mobile devices and smartphones becoming ubiquitous, the image of mobile apps has evolved from merely being an entertaining add-on, to a must-have for enterprises. They help in gaining publicity for a brand and can also ensure productivity. However, mobile app development can be challenging as the developers have to pick from the many platforms and mobile devices available in today’s competitive market. There are a few frameworks which allow developers to build hybrid apps that can run on multiple platforms. As stated on Phenomblue, this would reduce the cost of building a multiplatform mobile app.

Hybrid apps are named so because they are coded in a third-party programming language which, while compiling is either cross-compiled to native code or encapsulated in a web view wrapper. If the wrapper solution is used, the content will run in a browser type environment and the wrapper will act as an intermediary, translating instructions that the developer has written, into a form which is comprehendible by the device.

As of now, Appcelerator Titanium  & PhoneGap (both Javascript-based),  as well as Adobe AIR (which is Actionscript-based) are the three primary application frameworks available for developing hybrid mobile apps.

PhoneGap makes use of the “wrapper” method, whilst Appcelerator and AIR compile your code to whichever native language destination device requires (Objective-C for iOS, Java for Android, etc). So how do you pick a framework? Weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each and consider what will work best for the app you want to build. Since each app is unique, each will have its own challenges. Certain times the best option for your app may be to build separate native apps that is compatible with each platform/ device you want to feature your app on.

The great thing about hybrid mobile apps is that they take much less time to develop and it is easier to get them to run on a different device OS. The disadvantage is that since the code isn’t native, the performance of the app could be impacted.

Although certain cases necessitate the usage of a native app, hybrid has a lot more pros. As time passes, hybrid app authoring tools will evolve. It will be a lot easier to enter the mobile app developing segment and the expenses associated with developing applications will be greatly decreased. The time a developer saves on development will help him/her focus on the factor which decides the success of apps: the user experience.