When Businesses Should Choose Hybrid Mobile App Development?

It is natural that the native mobile application and the web application, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, come in a third classification of applications - the hybrid application. Hybrid mobile applications are native apps that leverage "web views" to display HTML content. Web views are native widgets that display web pages, but do not have the address bar or navigation controls that display in a normal browser. 

This allows developers to integrate web content into an application and seamlessly merge native elements and web content on the same screen. These hybrid mobile apps help organizations get the most out of Web applications and native applications. With hybrid mobile apps, the question is not web or native, but rather when and how to use them.

Although Web and native application classifications are binary, the hybrid mobile application is much broader. It is quite possible - and quite common - to develop an almost entirely built-in application from HTML, CSS and Javascript, to add later native elements like static low menu for navigation, GPS calls for searching for location or access camera scanning. On the other hand, it is also possible to develop a mainly native application with only a few screens powered by web views.

With all the flexibility and benefits that the hybrid allows, companies are increasingly choosing to develop with a combination of native and web features. And Gartner predicts that by 2018, most of the mobile applications will be hybrid.

When Should Businesses Choose Hybrid Mobile App?

Companies often choose hybrid mobile apps when they want to grow on a range of devices, but also to take advantage of features that a pure Web application can not offer. Web views allow businesses to reuse code and content that runs on the browser for iOS, Android, or Windows applications. Only native elements of a hybrid app must be rewritten for each new application's operating system, which can result in significant time and cost savings. This makes hybrid an ideal choice when multiple platforms need to be supported.

The choice to develop a hybrid app can also be dictated by content or features that require constant iteration. Web views in a hybrid app help organizations stay agile: tweak, edit, and split tests for continuous improvement. Whereas making these changes in native code could involve a long and arduous process of submitting application updates, even for smaller changes.

The skill set of employees can also be a decisive factor in choosing to develop a hybrid application. Compared to a purely native application, hybrid apps require less Objective-C and Java programming. Instead, much of the app can be developed using the front-end development talent that many companies already have in the workforce.

Finally, hybrid apps can ease backend integration issues that exist with native apps and avoid having to create APIs. Creating and supporting APIs for application development can be an unplanned cost of developing an application.

According to Trienens, Fuzz Productions application development company, "Producing an API that can support a fully native enterprise application is a much bigger expense than the application itself." Using Webviews, a company can the web and only needs to build APIs for new features that do not exist yet. The Moovweb platform makes it easy to leverage business logic and existing content from a desktop website to a hybrid app without the need for an API.

When Should Businesses not Choose Hybrid Mobile App?

Hybrid mobile apps have many advantages of native applications, but, as noted above, native technology remains superior to high performance or low latency interactive applications on mobile devices. For now, augmented reality, 3D rendering and multimedia are often the best candidates for natives. On desktop computers, we are already seeing browsers bridging the gap with native apps and we can expect it to be the same with mobile over time.

In addition, a hybrid application can "divide the difference" by using web content for certain areas and still reserve native components for high performance features. For example, Macy's iPhone app uses native components for its Meridian-powered in-store mapping features, but the marriage registry feature is inherited from the desktop website using the Moovweb web views and platform.

In some cases, lower native latency can yield benefits for interactive applications. For social applications at the Facebook or LinkedIn level - two companies that have used HTML5 for their applications - investing in the creation and management of distinct native applications for different operating systems can be cost-effective.

However, there are complex and controversial reasons why these companies have abandoned HTML5. More importantly, not all companies have the engineering resources to devote to pure native development and all use cases do not have the same constraints as the social win-win industry. In scenarios where more than one platform is supported, the native access cost may increase faster than the UX enhancements achieved. This is an important consideration for enterprise applications where competitive conditions are different and ROI considerations are paramount.

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