In this fast-paced world, the mobile app market is expanding very rapidly. To make your app visible and popular in such a complex scenario, you should be very particular about the approach being followed for mobile app development. Cross platform development provides a way to develop mobile apps that can run on various platforms, hence it becomes popular among developers’ communities. In the cross platform app development, programming is done only once to support various platforms like Android, ios or windows. If you are thinking of building a mobile app, then you cross platform app development will be best for you. Let us see the details of cross platform app development.
What Is Cross Platform App Development?
It is a process of building software applications that can run on various platforms, devices and operating systems. Day by day demand for software products and service is increasing hence developing an app can be a complex task. There are some challenges that developers face like- development tools, SDKs, operating systems, various screen sizes etc. to rapidly develop and changing technology.
Cross platform apps can reach a huge target audience with uniform UI and functionalities similar to native experience. Cross platform apps are best for startups and mid-level companies because they are developed rapidly, cost-effective and have comparatively less time-to-market. Also, companies can rapidly deliver products with improvements in quality standards. Cross platform app development can immediately remove the dissimilarities between OS platforms in its UI and UX.
Challenges In Cross Platform App Development-
Over time, cross-platform development become more powerful, adaptable as well as flexible with the help of emerging technologies and advancements. Still there are few challenges while developing a cross platform app. There are limited tools and technologies available for cross-compliance of apps. There are some user experience complaints registered for performance based issues. Talking about the security concerns, If your app manages corporates and users data, you should not opt for cross platform apps.
Difference Between Native Apps And Cross Platform Apps-
Native apps can work only for a single operating system whereas cross-platform apps can work for multiple operating systems. For a specific operating system, like java for android and objective c for ios, native apps use particular programming languages. Also, native apps are specially made to match the layout and UI. Functions in it use the maximum advantage of mobile platforms. For startups, native apps can prove indeed costly because they can run on a single platform only. And hence indirectly increases the development cost. So startups prefer cross platform apps.
Cross platform apps are cheaper and have more advantages than native apps. For native apps platform SDK enables access to the device’s API without any issues. In cross-platform applications, there is no guaranteed access to all device APIs. Native applications are more consistent with the UI components, while cross-platforms applications have limited consistency with the devices’ UI components.
Hence, instead of using native apps and developing multiple duplicate versions, startups prefer cross platform apps only. Developers have found a wide range of tools and technologies that can help to create cross-platform apps.
Benefits Of Cross Platform App Development-
1. Wider Market Reach-
More supported platform means more market reach. And cross platform apps supports multiple platforms hence they can get more reach in the market.
2. Single Code Base-
With cross platform app development, you can use same source code to deploy your app to multiple platforms like android, ios, windows, Mac, Linux and embedded platforms. It reduces the efforts to design, develop, test, update and maintain app.
3. Less Time And Money-
With cross platform app development, apps can be built with a small team, single skillset, with one framework for all platforms. The single codebase is used to build cross platform apps, it saves a lot of time and money.
4. Prototyping-
As the development process turns out to be quicker on account of cross-platform application development, prototyping becomes simple, faster, and effective. Quick prototyping can ensure that the development process is going faster, and according to the pre-decided flow. This leads to the appropriate development.
5. Simple Cloud Integration-
One of the best benefit of cross-platform apps is their compatibility with integration of multiple plugins. The plugins for cloud integration are compatible and so scalability and functionality can be increased as a single source code is used to integrate various plugins and cloud functionalities.
6. Easy Maintenance & Deployment-
As there is just a single application that is developed for different platforms, it is easy to maintain it and deploy any changes in the code. Updates can be easily deployed across all the platforms and devices.
Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks-
1. Flutter-
It is an open-source and free cross platform framework maintained by google which helps to create native interfaces android and ios. Hot reloading feature helps developers to see changes quickly in code. Flutter doesn’t support Apple TV and Android TV. While comparing to native development, flutter lacks in ready to implement functionalities.
You can also know the reasons to choose Flutter for cross platform app development at- Why choose Flutter for cross platform app development?
2. Xamarin-
Xamarin was founded in 2011 and acquired by Microsoft in 2016. It can work seamlessly with the platforms like Android and iOS. Xamarin makes use of a single tech stack for rapid development and shares more than 75% of your code across platforms. It is costly for enterprises but free of cost for startups and individual firms. If your app needs heavy graphics, Xamarin should not be your choice as it uses different method for visually laying screens. Also it offers limited access to some important libraries.
3. Ionic-
It is an open-source cross platform app framework that uses HTML5. This framework enables users to build native like hybrid apps and progressive web apps. Ionic is particularly designed for mobile operating systems. And with numerous UI components robust apps can be made. For ionic development, developers should have more knowledge of AngularJS which can be a hindrance. Designing in-app navigation is complex because it is not easy to use a UI router.
4. Adobe PhoneGap-
Adobe Phonegap is a single cross-platform app development framework that uses HTML5, CSS and Javascript. As compared to the competitors, Adobe phonegap is better because of its features like third-party tools and large number of plugins. But it lacks in performance and UI widgets hence not advisable to build high-performance applications and hardware intensive apps like gaming.
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