Know the Pros and Cons to cross-platform Mobile App Development for your Business

Mobile Apps have been part of our lives for quite some time now and it is not just any leisure tool anymore and has become quintessential for all our activities. 

Last year, users downloaded 204 billion apps to their devices. Most of the people on the internet today spend most of the time on mobile applications. 

The average person spends 2.3 hours a dayon mobile apps. It shows the importance of mobile apps for businesses and brands looking to capitalize on digital tools like smartphones. 

There are different types of apps developed by developers. Mobile apps are mostly published on Mobile OS market stores designed by a particular platform. The two most sorted after mobile OS platforms are Android and iOS. 

Mobile apps that are developed for specific mobile OS platforms are called native apps. These apps have high functionality on a specific OS platform and do not have the same native functionality on other platforms.

For platform native functionality, each platform provides Software Development Kits (SDK) for developers to produce high-end native apps. For example, Android SDKs are provided by Google to develop Android native apps.

What is a Cross-Platform app?

Cross-platform apps are cost-efficient and time-saving development process. Apps are developed using similar code that can be reused over different OS platforms.

These apps save an ample amount of development time and costs for app publishers. For businesses, cross-platform apps are an excellent medium to reach more consumers.

Let us discover the pros and cons of cross-platform development.

Pros for Cross-Platform Development:

• Code Reusability:The most important advantage of cross-platform app development is its capability to offer a reusable code. It provides reusability of the same source code for different platforms with almost 50-80% of repurposing.It means you can save your mobile app development time by half. As you don’t have to start from scratch every time you develop an app for other platforms.
• Cross Native Experience:Cross-platform apps are native and yet have functionality across platforms. So, users can have a cross-native experience. In simpler terms, an app will provide a similar experience over iOS and AndroidOS without losing its native nature.Here, the use of techniques like DSL(Domain Specific Language) was replaced by GPL(General Purpose Language) to render effective cross-platform app development.
• Ease of Development:For business owners and entrepreneurs, transforming their ideas into reality becomes relatively easy with cross-platform development. Developers can access different native libraries and repositories to access plugins and APIs for native apps.But even with this access, the application remains functional across platforms. It makes mobile apps function in a similar manner as they are developed in native environments.
• Faster MVP:MVP and minimal viable product approaches are often used in mobile app development. Here, the prototype app is developed to test all its functions and interactions with users for effective feedback.Feedback received will be used for changes and revamping of features for further versions to be published. The cross-platform development process can speed up the creation of a prototype app for a better final product to be offered to the users. 

Cons of Cross-platform development: 

• UX Problems:UX or user experience is the most important part of any mobile application. Native applications are great at providing user interfaces that are developed under native environments and provide great UX.With cross-platform apps, reusable code is used for every platform. It creates UX issues, where users don’t get full native experience of any specific platform. In simpler terms, it is like one size fits all kind of development.
• Native Features:We often see native platforms such as Google and Apple introducing unique native features for their platforms. Cross-platform apps are developed to be functional across platforms, but they don’t easily integrate with a new native feature.The vendor has to publish updates to incorporate such features into the cross-platform apps.
• Slower Responses:Developers during the cross-platform development process need to develop similar logic for every platform and later tweak a part of the code for native compatibility.It slows down the responsiveness of mobile applications. Users interact with the system through APIs (Application Program Interface) and continuous tweaking of the code can affect APIs.
• Integration Issues: Integration of preferences, notifications and other native elements into UIs becomes extremely difficult for cross-platform mobile application development. API integration is another important factor to consider while developing your cross-platform application.Lately, it has been a sort of revolution in UIs with 3D graphics and liquid designs. The same needs integration into your mobile applications for better UX. But, with cross-platform apps, integration of such GUIs(Graphical User Interface) is not easy and often it lacks the ability for integration.
• Framework Curse:Many developers develop the basic source code of cross-platform apps in Javascript and then transfer them to different platforms with a tweak. Here, the issue persists with the reusability of the code in the first place.As Javascript works well with some platforms, its code is not fully reusable in many platforms and renders a lack of functionality to the cross-platform apps. 

Concluding Lines: Mobile applications are not just for games or social media. Today, the Internet of Things (IoT)-based wearables and smart devices have made mobile app development more innovative. Now, apps need to be highly responsive, reactive and intelligent too. 

For businesses, highly-responsive cross-platform apps can be gold in a coal mine. There is no denying the fact that there are some issues to overcome for cross-platform app development processes. But the future of mobile apps is cross-platform development. 

So, if you are an entrepreneur looking to reach new consumers or a small business thinking of scaling up, cross-platform apps are your best option!