What are the best ways to select Mobile solutions for your projects?

Application platform selection is very crucial. Native SDKs Pros: Native SDKs have the capability to access the latest and greatest features of the OS. They also create apps with the best performance. Cons: Native SDKs require more developers to maintain the app. Sometimes, feature mismatches occur if, for any reason, a feature implementation is missed by developers. Cross-platform SDKs Pros: Cross-platform SDKs require fewer developers to maintain the source code, as both platforms are taken care of by one source code. Cons: Cross-platform SDKs require more tweaks to access OS APIs. Many times, they struggle to access the latest API changes. Additionally, you may face many challenges with manifest or plist changes.

In my personal experience, I consistently opt for native apps over hybrid or cross-platform alternatives due to their superior performance and user experience. Native apps are specifically designed for a particular platform, such as iOS or Android, making them inherently faster and more responsive. Native apps tend to seamlessly integrate with the device's hardware and take full advantage of platform-specific features. This results in smoother animations, quicker load times, and a more intuitive interface. While cross-platform development offers convenience and cost savings, I prioritize the overall quality and user satisfaction, which native apps consistently deliver.

The decision to develop fully native apps comes down to requirements and budget. Native apps *can* provide a better user experience than Hybrid apps (thanks to native animations and UI elements) - though this would have been more true in the past than now as hybrid platforms have improved substantially over the last few years. Hybrid platforms such as Ionic, where web applications are packaged within native app containers, really are getting to the point where unless you're investing a significant amount of resources in the development of the native app user experience (or you have some very specific native requirements), these hybrid platforms can compete on user experience thanks to recent enhancements to CSS and HTML5.

An alternative to building a hybrid or native app is a simple web application that the user can access by visiting a URL. Obvious benefits of this are ease of deployment and ease of distributing pre-release versions for manual testing (this would need to be done via e.g. Apple TestFlight for native/hybrid apps on iOS). Note that you may face some unexpected challenges here - e.g. playing sounds on iOS from a web page can be more fiddly than you'd expect: the sound system needs to be unlocked via a user interaction before you can play sounds, but quirks like this aren't deal breakers and can easily be worked around.

In certain scenarios, I lean towards hybrid or cross-platform apps, particularly when I'm working on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), creating a data-focused presentation app, or when the application doesn't require platform-specific features. For instance, when developing a basic MVP for a startup project, I found that using a cross-platform framework significantly accelerated the development process. The goal was to quickly gather user feedback and iterate on the concept. In another instance, I developed a simple data visualization app, where the focus was on displaying information efficiently and consistently across different platforms.

Cost and speed of development are the two most significant factors that come to mind in the decision to develop an app in native vs hybrid platforms. Established companies with large budgets are clearly defined requirements may opt for native Android and iOS apps, which *could* (but may not necessarily) provide a better user experience. The most significant cost of opting for native apps is not only developing and maintaining two separate codebases, but also sourcing and holding on to the developers for these two completely independent platforms, as both codebases not only need to be developed but also need to be maintained over time.

Hybrid apps blend native and web app features, using a web-based codebase wrapped in a native container. They offer advantages like cross-platform compatibility and quicker development. However, they can also present challenges such as performance issues and varying user experiences. Hybrid apps may rely on third-party frameworks and plugins, and must adhere to app store rules and stay updated to avoid compatibility problems.

PWAs bridge the gap between native and web apps. It's still early days - as of iOS 16.4 if your web app is set up as a PWA, we still can't issue a prompt to the user to suggest that they install to the homescreen, which would significantly increase the stickiness of the application. A lot of PWA features aren't fully supported yet, particularly in iOS. Implementation will unlock a lot of features for which businesses would usually need to opt for hybrid or native apps in order to achieve - icons & splash screens, control the screen wake lock, etc. As of iOS 16.4 we now have Push Notifications implemented for PWAs - it's huge progress for the ecosystem to be able to include push notifications in your app without any hybrid/native platform!

Selecting between a hybrid and a native app depends on the specific project requirements. In my personal experience, I recently faced this decision while working on a project that demanded a high level of performance and platform integration. We opted for a native app because it offered the best user experience and access to device-specific features like GPS and camera functions, which were essential for our application. However, in a previous project focused on content delivery and relatively simpler functionality, we chose a hybrid solution to expedite development and maintain a consistent user interface across platforms. So, it ultimately comes down to project goals.

An under appreciated benefit of using PWAs? Your application is outside the reach of any app store platform and does not need to adhere to the frequently changing and complex guidelines of the Google Play Store or Apple App store. Are your customers purchasing something through your web app? Apple doesn't get a cut of that. Offering a white-labeled solution to your customers? No problem - but on the Apple Store, as of October 2023, you'd have to create a new developer account for each individual customer and publish each app separately.