Cross-Platform Hybrid Mobile App Development can Bring Diverse Benefits due to its Versatility, Here’s How!

The global mobile app revenue is predicted to reach $935 billion by 2023 and hence this is the perfect time to opt for a cross-platform strategy!

Many well-known apps like Instagram, Pinterest, and Skype have already gone cross-platform. Cross-platform app development has recently risen as a choice for many businesses due to reasons like low development cost and wider market outreach.

This article will take you through the difference between a native app and a cross-platform app and the business and market benefits of Smartphones influencing our way of living. Right from finding places to eat, online shopping, booking tickets to a movie, using social media, and much more, our dependence on mobile phones and mobile apps has increased exponentially with time.

Forbes affirms that Apple dominates about 80% of the global consumer market and 90% is taken up by Android. In order to benefit from both user bases, your key focus should be on developing apps for both markets.

Selecting one platform and designing an app for the same, is not a profitable strategy in this day and age. While the number of different OS is increasing in the market, businesses are eyeing opportunities in cross-platform application development for a wider audience base. Mobile app development is a competition-intensive market, but the advent of hybrid apps is helping businesses carve out a niche for themselves with benefits for both- the developers as well as the target customer.

What are Cross-Platform Hybrid Mobile Applications?

Applications written for a specific platform (Android/ iOS) are called “Native Apps”. These applications cannot function on both platforms at once. They have a set of features specific to each platform. A native app for Android and iOS will require the development of two separate applications, support for two separate codebases, and finally two sets of development teams, each proficient in their own domain.

Hybrid apps are a blend of elements of web and mobile. Cross-platform development of hybrid apps means that these can be coded and deployed on multiple platforms. In hybrid apps, the code is wrapped in ‘WebView’ which is a browser within a mobile app. Apache Cordova (now known as ‘PhoneGap’), Xamarin, and Flutter are some good hybrid app development frameworks available in the market.

Advantages of Cross-Platform Hybrid Mobile Apps

Cross-platform, hybrid mobile apps bring a host of advantages to both- developers and the target audience. Here’s how:

Wider Audience Exposure

Since cross-platform hybrid apps can be built for both Android and iOS, you can target various OS markets and potentially reach a global audience. Additionally, since “the same app” you develop can be used on multiple devices (mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc.) with different OS requirements- your audience reach increases.

Seamless User Experience

Many users own multiple devices and more often than not, these have different operating systems or browsers. A cross-platform hybrid application ensures a user experiences a seamless operation using the app, even if the device has to be changed multiple times. A single app that can run on multiple devices with various browsers- always sticking with a consistent UI- will prove to enhance the consumer experience.

Ease of App Development and Deployment

Since developers only have to create and deploy a single app running over multiple platforms, the maintenance and deployment cycle is simplified.

Additionally, developers benefit from code reusability. This helps developers increase their efficiency and productivity. All the recurring, repetitive tasks that would have to be separately performed on two different platforms while developing two separate apps can be avoided and instead implemented once for all during cross-platform app development. There is no need to write a unique code for iOS and Android platforms, separately. A single code can be written and reused, resulting in saving your developers’ time and effort.

Hybrid apps use simpler mobile development frameworks along with Javascript, HTML and CSS as compared to the complex language used by native apple (like iOS SDK, Android SDK, Java Objective-C)

Additionally, cross-platform mobile app development provides easy access to multiple plug-ins that can simplify the whole development process. For instance, “PhoneGap” can be used to access many plug-ins, for multiple features to be introduced within the app. It offers a cross-platform solution that helps the mobile app development company to make any changes to this plug-in whenever required.

Capital and Time Savings

As a business, all the above mentioned benefits contribute towards saving capital invested in developing a hybrid cross-platform app. Imagine hiring two separate teams of developers, testers, and QA personnel for creating two separate native apps that run on different platforms! Just one team working on the project makes the process easier to manage and synchronize, thus decreasing the time-to-market.

In the interest of time, the time taken to develop a cross-platform app will always be half the time required to develop two apps for two different OS’s. Many popular cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter, come with a “hot reload feature” which means that developers can test their code and fix bugs as the app is developed, thus saving the overall time spent in QA.

Final Thoughts

Cross-platform mobile app development can help businesses strategize their approach to achieve rapid digital growth while maintaining a strong competitive edge. By replacing the cumbersome process of native app development with cross-platform hybrid mobile app development, your business can invest more time in core tasks like product innovation to drive long-term profits.

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