We often encourage our clients to move to the mobile space to maximize their presence with end users. This goal can be fulfilled by upgrading existing sites to responsive layouts or separate mobile themes. Others take advantage of third party networks, such as social networks and advertisements, to reach their audience in a mobile setting.

We also see tremendous value in interfacing with smartphone and tablet users via a native mobile app. Why not take advantage of the vibrant app stores accessed daily on Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, or Google devices?

WHAT ARE HYBRID MOBILE APPLICATIONS?

Let’s start with a brief background: native applications are built using a platform-specific programming language (Objective-C for iOS and Java for Android) and can use all native functionality of mobile devices and mobile operating systems, including the use of GPS, access to the filesystem, or common user interface elements. As a result, they usually have a consistent user experience, offer great performance, and are tied to just a single environment they were developed for.

One could say that hybrid applications actually have more in common with web apps than native apps. The reason is that they are actually just web apps wrapped in a native web view displayed via the smartphone’s native browser. What makes them so special is the particular framework using which they are built. This framework allows for an easy use native functions of each mobile platform using cross-platform APIs. Frameworks like Cordova require nothing more than a knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, tools which are very familiar to all web developers.

Native and Hybrid apps

A native app is a smartphone application developed specifically for a mobile operating system (think Objective-C or Swift for iOS vs. Java for Android). Since the app is developed within a mature ecosystem following the technical and user experience guidelines of the OS (e.g. swipes, app defined gestures, left aligned header on Android, centrally aligned header on iOS, etcetera), it not only has the advantage of faster performance but also “feels right”. What feeling right means is that the in-app interaction has a look and feel consistent with most of the other native apps on the device. The end user is thus more likely to learn how to navigate and use the app faster. Finally, native applications have the significant advantage of being able to easily access and utilize the built-in capabilities of the user’s device (e.g., GPS, address book, camera, etcetera). When a user sends text messages, takes pictures using the device’s default app, set reminders, or uses the device’s music app (the one that came with the phone), they’re using native apps In short, native apps are exactly that, native to the user’s OS and hence built per those guidelines.

MAIN BENEFITS OF HYBRID MOBILE APPS

With the introduction behind us, it’s time to take a closer look at some of the main benefits of hybrid mobile apps. We are not trying to include every single positive aspect of hybrid apps; instead, we are focusing solely on their advantage over native and web applications.

UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT

By far the single biggest benefit that hybrid mobile apps can offer is the unified development. Companies can save a substantial amount of money that would otherwise have to be spent on developing and maintaining separate code bases for different mobile platforms. They can develop just a single version and let their hybrid framework of choice do the heavy lifting and ensure that everything will work flawlessly.

This, of course, directly leads to lower cost of development and, potentially, greater revenue. Many small businesses wouldn’t be able to afford to target all major mobile platforms, if there wasn’t the option to do so with a hybrid framework.

FAST DEPLOYMENT

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach necessitates the fast deployment of functional solutions in order to be the first to penetrate the market and gain a substantial competitive advantage. Those who need to have their app in the App Store as fast as possible should seriously consider using hybrid applications.

LOW-LEVEL ACCESS

Basic web applications are cut off from smartphones’ operating systems and built-in functionality. Even though they are getting smarter every day, they still don’t come anywhere near native applications. Hybrid applications elegantly bridge the gap between the two other approaches and provide all the extra functionality with very little overhead. As a result, developers can realize the much wider range of ideas and capture the attention of their target audience.

OFFLINE SUPPORT

Web applications are critically limited by their lack of offline support. This may seem like a less important issue for people who live in urban areas, where the access to high-speed Internet access is ubiquitous, but potential customers from rural areas and less developed countries could be cut off from access to the application. At the end of the day, one customer survey showed that 79 percent of consumers would retry a mobile app only once or twice if it failed to work the first time, and only 16 percent of consumers would give it more than two attempts. Local storage can also dramatically enhance the overall user experience by storing personal information and preferences for later use.

SCALING

Hybrid applications are limited only by the underlying framework. Companies who partner with a good provider can instantly target all major platforms without any additional effort at all. It the platform is popular enough, it can be expected that it will quickly add support for any new mobile operating systems and their respective incremental updates.

Cordova / Phonegap

Are you a web developer familiar with HTML, CSS, and Javascript?  Then Cordova is the stack for you!

Started by Nitobi, which was acquired by Adobe and then donated to the Apache Foundation, Cordova scaffolds a web view using the phone’s native browser to allow developers to reuse existing web apps they’ve developed and encapsulate them within a mobile container. It also has a great list of APIs and plugins that allow developers to interface with native phone functionality using Javascript.

Most developers new to the mobile game would benefit from this growing stack, and with frameworks like Angular and Ionic providing lightning quick user experiences, there’s no reason why you can’t ease into native development with existing and popular languages.

React Native

React is a view framework created by Facebook that generates data templates on the fly. Although you can use their Javascript library within a Cordova container, Facebook has recently joined in the race by providing a framework that compiles directly into native to solve the cross-platform problem.

As of this writing, the framework is only compatible with iOS devices. Android functionality has recently been integrated into the existing feature set, but is still experimental at the moment.

Xamarin (Premium)

Are you looking for a framework that closely translates to the existing MVC frameworks each of the vendors provide? Are you familiar with writing applications in Java and C++? Then give Xamarin a try!

Xamarin is the most reliable cross-platform framework that integrates with all (or most) mobile features on each supported device. Microsoft has recently invested a large sum of money to have the framework compile elegantly to their Windows phones, as well.

The programming paradigms of C#, the language used in Xamarin, will translate best with the existing native languages on each platform, helping with easier integrations and compilation. It also sports a large number of tools to help test your mobile app in almost all devices.

To tap into this framework, you will need to negotiate a subscription with them. They do, however, offer starter accounts to allow you to test drive their framework without any of the bells and whistles.

Hybrid

Pros

• Simplifies business logic into a single code base.
• Deploys to multiple platforms with minimal special cases.
• Eliminates need to interface directly with device drivers by using APIs and plugins.
• Single framework, meaning you don’t have to use multiple IDEs with expert knowledge.

Cons

• Not all native features will be available for use.
• Tapping into new features will not be immediate, and sometimes non-existent depending on the maintainer of the framework.  Also there’s a good chance they will be buggy.
• May not provide true native experience considering the user interaction is typically homogenous across all platforms.
• Lacking knowledge in the native frameworks will prevent you from debugging undocumented issues.

Native

Pros

• All vendor tools will be available to you (provided they are documented).
• More performant than alternatives that compile into native or interfaces with web views.
• Grants you access to device-specific assets which will stay consistent with the device’s visual standards.
• Greater chance your app will not get rejected due to poor user experience.

Cons

• More costly due to high maintenance of multiple code bases.
• May require more developers with experience in each framework to maintain.
• Very high chance you have to stay on top of vendor changelogs to make sure you app is compatible with the latest version of the device (most common with Apple devices).