DEV Community: Molly Cobb

Choosing the best mobile application technology

Molly Cobb — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 09:35:00 +0000

You’ve identified the need to develop a mobile app for your company. Now you need to decide on your mobile application strategy and make the right choices in technology. It is important to be aware of what options you have available in front of you, as well as their advantages and disadvantages compared with one another. Knowing how each can set out for completion will help give you a clearer picture of whether or not it is suitable for your product development needs and business goals. For starters, let’s discuss what native app development really entails!

Native application

Native applications are software that directly can be installed on your smartphones. Also, these kinds of applications are available on the play store and AppStore. These applications are developed in the native programming language for a single platform.

Objective C can be used for developing applications for Apple iOS, JAVA for Android, and C# for Windows Phones.

Web Applications

Web applications are those kinds of applications that can be handled via the web browser on mobile devices. There are web standards like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3 which can help you develop Web Applications. Web applications basically mean that one version of it will work across several major platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Android phones, and tablets. And also Windows mobiles you just name the phone and it will work on everything or anything.

Hybrid Applications

Basically Hybrid applications are the kind of applications which has qualities of both native and web applications. Hybrid applications could be of great use but let’s just focus on primary types of mobile applications first. Technology is transparent to its users so web applications and native applications have different possibilities for each user.

Key Difference: Native application & Web Application

Pros of Native Apps

Allow function with no internet connection
Offer access to the underlying device platform for improved performance and additional functionality
Distributed via app stores

Cons of Native Apps

Developing only one native app excludes users on other platforms
Can require considerably more time and money to develop for multiple platforms
Require users to download and install updates

Pros of Web Apps

Allow a Single version to be developed and run on multiple platforms
It May be updated instantly on the server side for rapid development

Cons of Web Apps

Require Internet connection to function, and may perform erratically on low-quality data connection
HTML5 adoption is fragmented across platforms and web apps may not render consistently
Do not support digital right management background processing, or secure storage and push notifications

The technology selected is the foundation on which your app will be built. Whether your app has 4 or 40 screens, the size of these individual screens (or “canvas” as they are referred to in design-speak) has a direct impact on how users interact with it.

Some mobile devices have different screen sizes, resolutions, and pixel densities than others. This can lead to inconsistent screen dimensions and make your design parameters obsolete before management really begins testing out the product.

With advances in smartphone browsers and HTML5, the functional gap between mobile websites and native apps continues to close, and because of this, it’s possible for developers to develop highly customized user experiences that are as feature-rich on one platform as they are on another.

It’s challenging but also an exciting time to be developing a mobile application because each day seems to bring us closer to progressive reform across all kinds of industries when it comes down to someone accessing data related specific or at least applicable to the business facet at hand.

The difference between web or native apps is typically crystal clear once you’ve specified your audience, target business objectives, and technical requirements.

For instance, if you know that your app will only be used on iPads exclusively by your sales force, then it makes sense to choose a native app.

Although not everyone has the budget for this, some corporations have both a web app and a native app. This lets them make sure that there's an optimal user experience and accessibility. Of course, not everyone can afford to build both apps at once, but you can still get that great user experience and end result by making one.

Despite being previously mentioned, HTML5 is an increasingly popular option because of its cross-platform compatibility. HTML5 web apps are developed using simple markup conventions and rely on a combination of JavaScript and CSS to provide functionality that’s visually appealing.

Developers can design once and rapidly target multiple devices for distribution because, unlike native apps, no coding is required for each separate platform.

Conclusion
It’s predicted that the majority of mobile apps have been adapted to become web applications in the future – but it’s important to remember this doesn't mean a clear winner has been decided on.

Native apps and web apps are just two different solutions and marketers should continue to use them both based on their target market as technology evolves, this topic will always be a conversation in the minds of app entrepreneurs. Hire dedicated mobile app developers for your project and Business.

Benefits of Native Mobile App Development For Your Business

Molly Cobb — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 13:55:00 +0000

Even though it's a small business or enterprise-based business, almost 99% of them owns mobile apps to boost their sale and online presence. Even if it seems simple to develop mobile apps, various things affect the app development process. Starting from the app development model as there are various app development models that exist, such as Native app development, hybrid app development, cross-platform app development, PWA app development, Desktop app development and so on.

Native App Development - Creation of a mobile app that fits one platform
Hybrid App Development - mixes web elements with mobile ones
Cross-platform App Development - dev approach uses a native rendering engine
Progressive App Development - an alternative approach to traditional mobile app development
Desktop App Development - mobile app development that supports the desktop operating system

Among all of them, native app development allows users to access the full set of features providing high performance. Even though it can increase the app development budget a bit, Native app development offers various benefits.

Benefits of Native Mobile App Development

1) Mobile App Performance

If the app performance is your primary concern, you should go for Native app development without thinking about anything else. It offers way better performance compared to hybrid app development. Native app development allows app developers to build dedicated solutions based on your business requirements.

Native app development demands the core technology and API development rather than a generic form of the content. This is one of the reasons that Native app development offers high performance no matter which advanced technologies you leverage in the app. Native apps use APIs to communicate with the server, so they work better even with the offline mode. So, if an exceptional user experience is your top priority, then you should go for native app development.

2) Compatibility

No doubt, Hybrid app development minimizes the app developers' efforts as it allows the usage of the same code base for iOS and Android. But sometimes, the code fails to offer its best for both the platform, and that can affect the user experience and even the look and feel of the app.

The code is pretty generic and uses all the possible libraries and API to be compatible with both platforms, but there are chances that it might fail to do so. Even if it works fine with the current app version but you can not be sure about the future updates. That won't be the case for the Native app development; you will only use the libraries and API that support that specific operating system only. That will enhance the app performance as well. Native app development can work the best with the current as well as the future updates.

3) Interactive Interface

The look and feel matter the most about any mobile app as it helps to attract the user base. And when it comes to the look and feel of the mobile app, without a doubt hybrid mobile app steals the show. The hybrid mobile app provides the most amazing user interface, but there is one thing that most user never notices about the hybrid app development. The hybrid mobile app lacks to provide an interactive interface.

The interactive interface is all about the app navigation. Hybrid app development sometimes fails to offer the right navigation because of the backend process. As it has multiple libraries and API integrated to provide user experience for both Android and iOS, sometimes it lacks and fails to give proper navigation. That is not the case with the Native app development. It offers the most interactive interface, allowing users to leverage various features at once without affecting app performance. Native app development might ask for additional efforts to improvise the looks of the mobile app, but it surely never affects the user experience.

4) In-App Feature

Native app development has the ability to integrate all the native features without affecting the app performance, whether it could be a camera functionality or GPS locations. That's not the case with hybrid app development. If you want to provide exceptional features to your hybrid app, it demands proper knowledge of native app development. If you have to hire hybrid app developers with knowledge of Native app development, why not go for Native app development. So, if you want a feature-rich mobile app that can provide an exceptional user experience, you should go for Native mobile app development.

5) Fixing Bugs and Technical Issues

Every mobile app faces bugs or technical issues at some point in the app development process. If it happens while Native app development, it is easy to find and fix the bug as you are using the Native codebase. When something like this happens to Hybrid app development, it can become a headache for the app developer. As they have to find the bug, fix it and test the working of the app on each and every platform. Apart from that, finding and fixing the bug for one platform can affect the working of other operating systems. Along with that, Native app development can easily inherit the features and functionalities of the device. So, native app development never forces the developer to include all the dependencies for the app's features and functionality. Native app developers can find and fix the bugs even with fewer dependencies.

6) Security

Mobile app development security has always been the top priority for everyone. Native app development offers more security compared to hybrid ones. You must be wondering why right? Well, Native app development uses Java, whereas hybrid uses HTML and CSS frameworks. Java scripts offer better security than HTML and CSS. Native app development can help you be worry-free, ensuring the user data is safe and secure from any data leak or threats. So, Native app development can offer you safe, secure and high performing mobile applications.

Conclusion

If you keep the quality of the mobile app on the front seat, then you should keep your app development budget in the back seat. It might cost a bit in the initial stage, but Native app development can help you offer the best in the class mobile app that can offer an exceptional user experience. Got any doubts about the Native app development? Let us know; we will help you to solve them.

Top apps to learn something new every day

Molly Cobb — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:33:17 +0000

Today, most of us live such hectic lives that it seems impossible to find time to rest or to do something that does not belong to the daily routine. But, what if instead of wasting time doing activities that are useless, we find a moment to learn something new and thus increase our cultural level?

In that free time, we could learn a new language, some words of ours that we did not know, some history and culture, geography, science and nature or simply small data to retain in our memory.

Thus, at bedtime, we will know that we have been able to learn something that we did not know yesterday. There are a large number of educational applications designed to expand our knowledge, open our sights and teach us little curiosities that will expand our horizons.

To help you in this enrichment process, we are going to give you some of the best applications that will allow you to learn something new every day.

• Babbel
It is an app and also a platform for language learning. One of the most striking features of this tool is that it is intuitive and functional, and it also allows you to study at the pace you prefer: you decide how much you learn each day, and each lesson lasts only 15 minutes.

In this way, you can organize yourself according to the type of person you are and it will give you greater comfort when combining it with the different activities you have to do. Babbel app includes multiple languages, so you can choose what you prefer.

It is visual and attractive, easy to use and fun thanks to its great interaction. But that's not all, since Babbel is not just for learning languages in the strict sense.

It will allow you to discover many other things, some curiosities about the world of languages that perhaps you did not know, such as what languages are spoken in Switzerland, what is the official language of Belgium and so on.

• Curiosities of history
It is a tool that any fan of history will not be able to avoid downloading, but it can be used by anyone. As we can guess, it is an application focused on universal history, with educational content explained in simple and easy-to-understand words.

It proposes a broad and enriching review of the great epochs of history and of all the historical moments that delineated the present. It is, in short, a fun game that allows you to get closer to the knowledge of names, data and even relevant dates in the history of the world.

Each day will offer you a curiosity or a different piece of information, you will not have to do anything else, simply read the entry that interests us and enjoy content written by a real and professional team of historians.

Besides that, you can always have a curious fact to impress others.

• World geography
As its name can anticipate, we are facing an application not only ideal for learning data about other countries or continents that we did not know, but it can also become the lifeline of many young people, who are currently trying to learn the different capitals, flags, coins even religions of each country.

World Geography offers you a wide variety of games with more than 6,000 questions divided into different levels and will help you by showing you images of each place (it has a repertoire of more than 2,000 images).

It will help you to place the countries of the world in a pleasant and even fun way, with quizzes and questions about the flags and capitals of all countries. Put your knowledge and intelligence to the test in this new challenge.

• Google Arts and Culture
This app allows you to visit the most important museums around the world and enjoy the great variety of works of art appreciating even the smallest detail.

You can also discover photographs, videos and manuscripts and even create your collection of favorite works of art to share with your friends.

Google Arts and Culture has a collaboration with more than 1,200 museums, galleries and institutes in 70 countries, to offer its wonders online to users.

With this application, you can receive more information about the works of art by pointing the camera of your device towards them when visiting a museum. By enabling notifications, you will know the most outstanding news from the world of art and culture every day.

As you may have understood, it is the perfect application for art lovers, students of this subject or for those who want to learn something new on the subject simply through one click.

• 7-minute workout
Despite the fact that physical exercise should be something common in our day to day, many of us remember it only when the good weather arrives and the time to show off our body in summer approaches.

If you want to start exercising but don't have the time or desire to go to the gym, with 7-minute training, you can exercise without leaving your home.

This application offers centralized training programs based on HICT (high intensity circuit training) exercises, so it can be of great help if you have little free time.

You will be able to realize the first results after a few days and you will see that all the efforts are worth it. The only thing you need to carry them out is a wall and a chair to support you.

Choose the right app for your needs and improve your lifestyle starting with small steps. It is never too late to learn something new.