Building a mobile app has become a top priority for many companies to improve direct communication with clients and customers. Still, it’s often difficult to choose a development approach based on the business goals. Making the right choice requires organisations to dive deeper into Native Mobile App Development and the benefits of choosing this development approach.
What is native app development?
Native Mobile app development is the process of developing a mobile app for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These software applications are designed to run on mobile devices, such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Native app development has numerous benefits over hybrid app development. It offers an incredible user experience, superior performance, and slick user interaction. In addition, it has the most possibilities for customisation to provide users with a more personalised experience.
Native vs Hybrid Apps: which one to choose?
There are many reasons to choose native app development over a hybrid app, like excellent user experience, better security, less maintenance, better performance, scalability, etc. Despite the higher development cost, native apps offer more benefits in the long run.
Native applications are written in languages, particular for the platform. In terms of Android, native applications are developed with the use of Kotlin or Java. Native iOS apps are created using Swift or Objective-C. Such types of apps are entirely customised, leveraging the platform and offering users a fantastic experience. Both Google and Apple provide app developers with their SDK, interface elements, and development tools. Most companies invest in native app development due to a plethora of perks offered compared to other apps like Web or Hybrid.
Benefits of choosing Native Mobile App Development:
Security:
While many hybrid apps depend just on system browser security and cross-platform, native apps are safeguarded by various layers of the underlying OS, which makes them hard to misuse. Moreover, they don’t rely on any third-party systems, utilising just official APIs that have been thoroughly examined across different system versions. Because of the lengthy development process of official platform SDKs, it’s more possible to reduce every growing security problem. Ultimately, official platform launches also occur less frequently than framework launches. With lengthy launch cycles, you can anticipate dependable, adequately examined, and more secure software.
Maintenance:
The maintenance of a native app is a bit complex, unlike a hybrid app because the latest version of the app should be launched. However, users can get information about the most recent update with ease. Additionally, native apps upload the complete content on installation.
Performance:
Previously tech leaders like Facebook and LinkedIn had invested in HTML5. After that, they regretted their decision because of the high popularity of standalone native applications. Native applications are more responsive, quicker, and offer a better user experience. These apps operate faster since they are written in languages specific to the ecosystem of the platform. Since these apps can access unique elements and APIs optimised for various devices, they run efficiently and seamlessly. On the contrary, hybrid apps rely on native browsers like Android WebView or UIWebView. Due to reliance, they are not as quick as native apps.
Fewer Bugs
It’s more complicated to maintain two individual apps in a single codebase. Using native app development, you have lesser possibilities of bugs occurring as you won’t depend on a cross-platform tool like Cordova or Xamarin. However, hybrid applications can access hardware through a bridge that sometimes slows app-building down and can make an annoying user experience. This problem is seen when new iOS and Android versions are launched. Native app developers can access new SDK to develop their apps with the latest features. Due to this lead time, native app users can access new platform features after updating their OS.
Unified UI/UX
For a native platform, UI or UX will be unified and learned adequately by the users. On this platform, the entire broader UI will be standard in the native applications. Hence there will be a reduced learning curve, and people will understand navigation in your application. User experience is also better due to better app performance. When developing native applications, designers and developers find it simple to apply the best standards and practices. Because of these reasons, native apps provide a better user experience and user interface than hybrid apps.
Access to complete device features
Native apps are built for their specific platform, taking full benefits of the OS and the software features. Moreover, these apps can directly access the device hardware like microphone, camera, GPS, etc. Hence they are quicker in the application, which finally offers better UX. Another significant benefit of selecting native mobile app development is push notifications that go through the APNS (iOS server) and are similar to GCM (Google’s Cloud Messaging).
Scalability
Native apps can be configured quickly because they are compatible with a single platform. Even if there are two native assignments, each one is different. Hence, you don’t need to worry about the compatibility of app reliance between OS versions. You are free to utilise every new feature on a provided platform. Moreover, with fewer limitations, it becomes easier to scale. However, if you wish to combine the advantages of both native and cross-platform solutions, you may need to begin natively and then maximise a few smaller app modules with extra cross-platform code. This is a secure method utilised by a few tech giants on the market, such as Airbnb and Facebook.
Offline Performance
Going native is the best option if there is no connectivity. Planners, organisers, navigators and even games can perform offline as their content has been already downloaded. The in-browser caching is supported in HTML5, but you are still not free like using a native app.
Stability
As iOS and Android are flagship operating systems, they will constantly assist and enhance the entire platform for users and app builders. Since these platforms thoroughly help native applications, they will be more stable in use, maintenance, and app development. Users will experience few crashes and glitches, and the app will function seamlessly.
If you want to provide your users with an app that features reliability, higher stability, you should consider going native. Your decision of choosing a hybrid or native framework relies on the use cases and the type of apps you will provide. Also, since native apps need more development effort and time, this development technique is recommended when you intend to publish them as paid apps. Hybrid apps are generally launched as free to use. Undoubtedly, native app development will cost you more - but, these apps allow you to offer a greater personalised experience by offering better performance, great user experience - and this will brilliantly reward you in the long term.
About Neebal:
Neebal, a technology solutions provider, has delivered top of the line solutions across Agro, Pharma, and BFSI verticals. Neebal aims to provide top tier services for API Integration, RPA, and advanced mobility with prime focus on Hyperautomation. Founded in 2010, Neebal is a proud recipient of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Award (APAC) and the Deloitte Fast 50 Award (India) for four consecutive years (2017-20).