In today’s fast-paced world, most people perform day to day work using mobile apps ranging from ticket booking, banking, shopping, and food delivery. Mobile app developers are focusing on building cross-platform apps to meet the diverse needs of users. We can only say that App development company is focusing on the development of such mobile apps that make the world a healthy place to live and offer solutions. Now, let’s discuss first the cross-platform app before moving ahead about the development tools.
What are the Cross-Platform Apps?
Cross-platform are those mobile apps that can be deployed or published on different platforms with the usage of the single codebase, instead of writing code multiple times for different apps using the particular native technologies for the platform. It is a huge time savior for the developers and boosts the mobile app design services performance. A single app can be developed for multiple platforms with some customization.
Why Need Cross-Platform App Development Tools?
Business enterprises are moving to online platforms in traditional ways. Today, employee management, payroll management, and daily affairs are performed using mobile apps. Because building apps for such tasks are much easier today. Thus, enterprises are focusing on cross-platform app development as it has become a necessity in the modern workplace. Employees are using apps to work at home, and it is a great alternative for them. It is a win-win solution for both employees and employers. Employees can show some creativity, and employers save a lot on the infrastructure investment.
But the real issue lies in the integrating of various devices and platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, etc. A cross-platform app once developed can function in multiple devices. Some of the following methodologies are:
• Hybrid apps
• Windows universal apps
• Rapid mobile app development
• Progressive web apps
Read Also: Cross-Platform App Development Technologies
The mobile app development process can be eased with the usage of tools. We have described them below:
What is the Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Tools?
1. Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova is the most popular tool as it eases the development process of most free cross-platform mobile apps. It is an incredible tool and first choice of Travel app development company. It includes a compiler, debugger, and a couple of testing features. The major web technologies included are CSS3, JavaScript and HTML 5. A variety of plugins it includes like Image Capture plugin, Media Recorder Plugin, and Push plugin. The plugins allow triggering some essential smartphone functionalities including GPS, accelerometer, camera, and sound.
Prominent Features:
• Open-Source
• Easy to share
• A simple backend that helps beginners
• Immensely flexible for developers
2. React Native
This popular tool is open-source and developed by Facebook. Once an app is coded, you can port the application to both Android and iOS platforms. The feature that makes React Native different from the others is that the apps built-in this platform have the same look and feel of a native app thereby an amazing user experience is always on the cards. It is easy to learn and get started if you are skilled in JS. While this seems incredible, the codes in JS uses a lot of memory for the calculation-related jobs. It is a great choice for agile apps and a perfect framework for numerous cases.
Prominent Features:
• Less time for the app to reach the market
• Modular and engaging architecture
• Community-driven support
3. Xamarin
Xamarin is a development tool that aims at the development of Cross-Platform mobile apps for diverse platforms like iOS, Android and Windows. Xamarin’s apps are quite popular as they are fast, secure, smooth and interactive. Several renowned brands have implemented this tool to build their mobile apps. Microsoft acquired Xamarin in February 2016 and later released an advanced version Xamarin SDK. A free tool to integrate enterprise features is also available for development work. The native support empowers developers to fulfill any specific client demands.
Prominent Features:
• The latest version installs quickly due to lower disk impact
• Amazing visual experience for iOS and Android
• Automatic Android SDK installation
The above-mentioned tools are best in class for cross-development apps development. They are the most preferred choice of developers working for an Android App development company.
4. NativeScript
NativeScript is quite popular to write native apps based on cross-platform capability in JS or Angular. Developers prefer it to create trending & engaging micro-apps. Microapp is a perfect way to perform functionalities with precision. NativeScript works upon the below major components:
• Runtimes: Helps developers to call APIs of iOS & Android using JS code.
• Core Modules: Helps to call the abstractions required for native API.
• CLI: Helps the developer to plan, build and run the apps using NativeScript.
• Plugins: They are the building blocks of this Cross-Platform app development tool.
Prominent Features:
• Use the complete stack of cross-platform APIs
• Provides timely support for the native frameworks
• Reach, reusability, and rapid app development
5. Flutter
Flutter means a great tool for fast and dynamic mobile app development. The feature of hot reloads works by placing the source code files into the Dart Virtual Machine. The tool makes it simple to rebuild a widget tree by exploring the effects of the changes. The widget provides amazing features comprising icons, scrolling, navigation, and fonts to build a high-quality full-fledged iOS and Android app. Flutter has similarities to the react tool with ready-made 2D rendering, and widgets. All of these functionalities help to design, build, test and debug the apps with simplicity.
Prominent Features:
• High customization
• Less Development Time as developers can use a single code for both iOS and Android OS
• Use OEM widgets with brand-driven designs
Read Also: Flutter 1.2 All Set To Be The Next Best Thing In Mobile App Space
Wrapping Up
Cross-platform app development is a turning point for the business enterprises to reach the target audience with less investment. The modern users demand business to have an online presence. More and more enterprises are shifting their business online. Engage your customers with incredible cross-platform apps including PIU, Peekay Steels, and C3 Card. Mobibiz provides you with desired solutions for all your cross-platform mobile app development needs. We have a team having rich and deep-rooted experience in the mobile app development work. Besides the development of cross-platform apps from scratch, we provide customization and upgrade services.
