There are diverse ways for businesses to deliver a smooth and interactive mobile experience to their users. Mobile applications are developed using different approaches and frameworks, while each has its unique set of pros and cons. And since every app development project has its requirements in terms of budget, performance, etc., the approach may vary.
This blog will help you delve deeper into the hybrid mobile app development approach, the many advantages of hybrid apps, and some popular hybrid apps that you might be using every day.
What Is Hybrid Mobile App Development?
Hybrid mobile app development combines web elements with native solutions. The codebase written for a hybrid app using a web development language (CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript) gets embedded into a native app with the help of plugins. Apache Cordova, Ionic Capacitor, and other such plugin systems give developers access to the application’s native features and functionalities.
Hybrid app development saves a lot of time and monetary investment in comparison to the native app. The codebase is written just once to run the application on different operating systems. However, the user experience and performance of a hybrid app are close to native apps, which is the only area where hybrid apps are lacking.
Advantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development for Business
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Dodge App Store Limitation
Hybrid apps allow enterprises to maintain a faster market turnaround time, from the launch to introducing recurring updates. App store limitations, which delay the launch of native apps, do not impact hybrid applications as you can quickly tackle modifications without altering native codes.
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Make Code Reuse Possible
A native mobile app is created typically in Android or iOS versions as each mobile platform has its specific programming language. With a hybrid app, your developer gets to build the application in common languages like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Only a single codebase is built for all mobile platforms. This reduces mobile app testing effort as you review only a single codebase, reducing testing infrastructure requirements and easing the quality assurance (QA) process.
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Extend DevOps to Mobile
Hybrid mobile app development opens a channel to extend DevOps practices to your mobile apps. As a result, developers can now update their mobile app as often as needed (much like the web apps), which is not possible with native applications.
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Better UI/UX
Hybrid mobile app development makes it possible to create a seamless user experience across Android and iOS. The simpler user interface of a hybrid app allows it to easily adapt to different screens and ensure faster loading of content and graphics as well as seamless data streaming.
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Increase Performance
Hybrid apps are characteristic of high speed and impressive performance, better than most websites and mobile web apps. They run efficiently on operating systems that have a heavy amount of content or users.
Examples of Hybrid Mobile App Development
Several hybrid applications have quick responses and great cross-platform performance. These apps are quite popular, so chances are that you have already had experience using these apps without knowing that they are built with a hybrid approach. Let’s take a look at some of the inspiring Hybrid app examples.
Instagram is a well-known social media platform receiving an elevated level of user engagement. As a hybrid application, it can support a huge amount of data, including rich media, even in offline mode.
Evernote
Evernote is a perfect example that shows that you can achieve a great-functioning, error-free hybrid application. This mobile application not only has a unique design but also intuitive functionality that drives productivity.
Gmail
HTML is Google’s preferred tool powering its world-renowned internet mail service, Gmail, from the very beginning. The new mobile shell of Gmail is developed by using both HTML and native elements.
Baskin Robbins
This hybrid mobile app shows an impressive combination of native and HTML5 features. The use of HTML5 facilitates offline access while ensuring a consistent UI experience for users across different devices.
Selecting the Best-fit Hybrid App Development Framework
A hybrid mobile app development framework is a set of libraries used for creating a dynamic app that delivers a similar experience across different devices. However, it is important to pick the right framework that aligns with your goals. Here are popular hybrid frameworks you would want to learn about:
Flutter
Introduced by Google, Flutter is an open-source UI development toolkit that supports different programming languages in the backend. Developers can easily create intuitive app designs with an easy-to-navigate interface and implement app features like sliders, dialog boxes, loading spinners, buttons, tab bars, etc. without depending on DOM web views or OEM widgets.
React Native
Another open-source framework introduced by Meta (formerly known as Facebook), React Native enables expert developers to create cross-platform apps that render a native-like experience to the app users. Other than Android and iOS, this framework is also compatible with Apple, Microsoft Universal Window Platform, tvOS, and more others.
Xamarin
Xamarin is a popular and unique framework by Microsoft. Both big and small companies like startups can benefit from this framework as it strikes a perfect balance between budget and creativity. Xamarin has a rich set of libraries, including C++, Objective-C, and Java.
Onsen UI
Onsen UI utilizes HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS and provides a time-efficient way of creating hybrid mobile applications. The framework facilitates detailed customizations for developing complex applications consisting of modern functionalities and features.
Cross-platform Versus Hybrid Mobile App Development
Let’s clear the common misconception that cross-platform app development is synonymous with hybrid mobile app development. Cross-platform vs. hybrid app development – each of them has a different role and agenda. Cross-platform frameworks intend to build a codebase that is reusable and shareable to develop apps for different OS platforms. This minimizes the cost and effort of building cross-platform applications.
With cross-platform app development, the application wrapper used can include native components and provide access to hardware and OS features. As a result, the application will have a stronger similarity to native apps in comparison to the hybrid counterparts.
Also, most cross-platform frameworks support advanced architecture patterns, so you wouldn’t have to settle for anything less than the best application performance and/or user experience.
How VLink Helps in Hybrid Mobile App Development
Our developers at VLink keep abreast of emerging mobile app technologies and dive deep into the reasons that make certain types of apps more popular than others. With such determined efforts, our team can carefully consider both the drawbacks and advantages of each approach and the different app development frameworks available.
We are committed to helping businesses achieve a smart mobile application indistinguishable from a native app for the users. Let our professionals help you discover and tap into the unlimited business growth potential with a well-thought-out hybrid mobile app development.
Wrapping Up
Has a hybrid mobile app development project lined up or need help considering the right approach toward building a mobile application? Get the right team of tech-savvy professionals on board. VLink is an experienced mobile app development company specializing in native, cross-platform, and hybrid solutions.
We have helped numerous small and medium-size businesses find the right solution in terms of budget, performance, and time. Our developers build robust applications that function seamlessly across platforms and deliver an impactful user experience. If you already haven’t, we recommend that you consider hybrid apps to achieve great speed to market and fast deployment time. Give us a call to book a consultation today.