We already have blogs taking about three different types of mobile application development. We have already discussed on native and web application development technologies.
This article shall focus on hybrid mobile app development.
What is Hybrid Mobile Application
As the name suggests, a hybrid app is a combination of technologies. You can think of it as a web app that works as a native one. You use web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to build hybrid apps. But unlike web apps, hybrid apps install on your device. To make them work in a such way, they should be wrapped in a native application by using a proper framework. A popular framework used for this is Cordova. These frameworks provide the possibility of communication with the operating system of the device. CSS3/JavaScript libraries brings user interface, logic etc. Cordova enables access to the hardware of the device. Then, this “wrapped” application runs in an internal browser (UIWebView in the case of iOS and WebView in the case of Android).
The distinct advantage of choosing a hybrid is the fact that web skills can be used for developing. Thus, it is easier to manage resource and build team that can work across platforms instead of building a team for each platform. This helps optimize team and reduce cost.
Since the hybrid app is installed on the device, it can be used offline as well.
The main drawback of this technology is in the performance standpoint. If the requirement is a high-loaded application, then hybrid apps is not an option.
Hybrid Mobile Application Development Frameworks
PhoneGap/Cordova frameworks does not help with creating UIs. It is only used to pack and release a previously created application. This tool wraps your code in a native application. This framework can be used along with any JavaScript or UI frameworks. With PhoneGap/Cordova, you can get access to the device’s hardware and use its accelerometer or camera.
The Ionic framework, which is a popular framework, provides you with a wide variety of available UI components. It uses AngularJS that supports two-way data binding, and interaction with backend services and APIs.
Mobile Angular UI was created by using Bootstrap and AngularJS, so you can take the best from them to realize your passion for the HTML5 mobile development.
Sencha Touch is mostly used for enterprises. The application created with this framework works on several platforms including iOS, Android and Windows Phone,
For our discussion, we only chose a few development tools as examples. There are other tools as well such as Onsen UI, React Native, Native Script.
Conclusion
The hybrid mobile web application is a good choice for development when the need is to develop an application with reasonable performance with a team that can work cross platform.
To know more about mobile application development, please visit page - https://www.regami.solutions/mobile-app-development.
Please feel free to get in touch with us for any consultation.
Regards
Hariharan Raghavan
Regami Solutions
