The Future of Mobile Development. Is Native Development Dying?

Typically, iOS applications are developed in Objective-C and Swift, and Android ones are written in Java. When considering Android/iOS app development, most of people think about these approaches. Although those languages ensure the high consistency of code with the original apps feel/look, they are pretty costly and require lots of time as devs should write the same parts of code several times. From this perspective, the use of cross-platform approaches such as React Native, Xamarin is one of the latest trends in the development of mobile apps. They allow developers to apply the same codebase within several platforms.

The pros of cross-platform development include:

• It is more easy to deploy any changes
• Multiply tasks can be performed using a single method
• A codebase can be reused from one platform to the other
• Cost-effectiveness. Cross-platform approach saves your money as it allows hiring a single dev agency instead of many agencies

The main pros of cross-platform approach is that it allows to use a single codebase for several environments/platforms. This fact makes it very popular for the Western market. Many developers from the U.S. and Europe prefer using the cross-platform development instead of traditional native approach.

However, nothing beats classic. Although native approach requires different tech stacks for each platform, it has a number of advantages when compared to cross-platform. Let us list the most important ones:

• Access to all features/services on the device (geolocation, microphone, camera, etc)
• Familiar interface and seamless integration with the specific platform
• Greater visibility in app stores due to better rank among users
• Almost flawless functioning
• Ultimate user experience
• Better performance due to better platform integration

To sum up, we have looked at different approaches to create a mobile app. There are instances when cross-platform approach is justified. However, in terms of UX and from a tech point of view, native approach has more pros that overweight the positive sides of cross-platform. In accordance with the latest research, the popularity of the native approach is increasing and is expected to rise.