What is a Hybrid App?
A Hybrid app is a mix of both native and web technologies, hence the name hybrid. The core of the app is written in web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Which gets wrapped within a native application, resulting in the app having full access to the mobile device’s hardware and features due to all the available plugins.
Even though hybrid apps are developed with web technologies, they have the look and feel of native apps. They are able to provide the same user experience and are capable of working on multiple platforms.
Advantages
One Codebase
The major advantage of hybrid apps is that you are using only one codebase to build two apps at the same time, one for Android and one for iOS. This will also save time and money.
Easier to Scale on Another Platform
With hybrid apps using a single codebase, they can be deployed across multiple devices. For example, when you build the app for iOS, you can easily launch it on Android.
Easier to Update and Patch
When you need to add more features to the app, you would only need to write the code once, and it will update both platforms. Same goes for bugs and errors, you would only need to fix them once, and it will launch the patch for both platforms.
Access to Device Hardware and Features
With the use of plugins, hybrid app can access and use the hardware and features of devices just like if they were native apps. This includes the ability to store data locally, allowing the app to be usable offline.
Limitations
Functionality Limitations
If your mobile app idea involves complex features and functionalities, then hybrid app development would not be suitable. Because it tries to cater to many devices on different platforms, it sometimes will not provide support for specific functions or features. As a result, the app will be restricted in what it can do.
Difference in UI
The appearance of the app may look different on each platform. It may come close, but it will still be slightly different. As a result, the UI of the app may be as intended on one platform but not the other.
Difference in UX
Each platform has their own way of responding to user inputs. The result of a user’s touch or gesture will vary from platform to platform. Therefore the UX of the app will be different depending on the platform. Which needs to be taken into account during development.
Hybrid App Frameworks
React Native
React Native combines React and JavaScript with native modules to create hybrid apps. It will convert the source code into native elements to give the app a native UI and users a native UX. React Native is the go-to framework for most developers.
Flutter
Flutter is Google’s open-source UI software development kit. From a signal codebase, it can develop beautiful apps for mobile. It provides many beautiful and customisable widgets that will help make the app look and feel great. Flutter also offers ‘hot-reload’, which will allow you to see changes as they are being done.
Ionic
Ionic is an open-source SDk for building high quality hybrid mobile applications. It has an extensive set of features and tools that will help developers create interactive apps. This includes pre-designed UI components and layouts, debugging and testing tools, and more.
Xamarin
Owned by Microsoft, Xamarin is a cross-platform framework that uses C# with .NET to build Android and iOS apps. It has access to the extensive .NET libraries and tools at its disposal. Additionally, it can build apps that will work on wearable devices like Apple Watch and Android Wear.