Selecting suitable technologies for mobile app development is both a science and an art, requiring careful consideration of various factors. To decide on the right strategy, product teams need to answer key questions like which platforms need to be supported, how complex the app's functionality be, what languages and frameworks are the team familiar with, how quickly the app needs to be developed, what performance and user experience requirements are there, how easy is it to test, maintain, and update, what are the app store requirements…name a few.
Ultimately, deciding which technologies to use involves diligently balancing tradeoffs and there is often no silver bullet solution. The diagram below summarizes the high-level categories, languages, and frameworks within mobile app development.
This approach builds apps specific to the platform, meaning two separate code bases for iOS and Android. This includes using the platform's native programming languages and tools which often lead to the best performance and user experience because they have direct access to the device's hardware and APIs. For Android, the common languages are Java and Kotlin and development takes place in Android Studio. With iOS, the common languages are Swift and Objective-C and development takes place in Xcode.
This approach allows developers to consolidate both platform apps into one code base. This approach reduces development time and cost, as developers can maintain a single codebase instead of separate ones for each platform. Each framework supports various languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Dart, and C# which can be developed in IDEs like Visual Studio Code.
Hybrid apps deliver functionality by using standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and wrapping them in native container(s) that are installed on a device like any other mobile application. Common frameworks to support this type of application are Ionic and Cordova.
Similar to hybrid applications, web components can be injected into any native or cross-platform app using native classes called “WebViews”, which are specific to the Android and iOS platforms. WebViews offer a convenient way to display dynamic content, integrate third-party services like payments or authentication, maintain cross-platform UX and functionality compatibility, reuse code, and get to market faster. As with all technical decisions, there are trade-offs, specifically in the form of performance and native functionality when considering WebViews.
Effectively testing even the most basic mobile application is challenging, but this becomes even more complex when the app is constructed with a complex mix of native, cross-platform, or webview components. With standard scripting approaches, this leads to fragmentation with the tools/languages/frameworks needed to effectively achieve high coverage and further complicates an already involved environment configuration. Although the obvious benefits of webviews making it possible to update content dynamically without needing to submit to the app store is clear, it also introduces tricky testing and validation predicaments due to the dynamic nature of the content.
mabl’s mobile automation product works cohesively across a wide range of technology stacks including native, cross-platform, and hybrid approaches which significantly eliminates environment complexity and test creation barriers. In addition, mabl’s GenAI functionality makes validating dynamic content within webviews easy and flexible.
In addition, the mabl platform has some other great benefits when it comes to mobile automation:
One of our long-standing mobile customers, SmugMug, uses WebViews to deliver dynamic content in their application. Before using mabl, they built E2E tests using Espresso and Appium to effectively cover their Android application, which came with both reliability issues and complicated local and CI setups. With the introduction of mabl’s mobile app product, the Smugmug team was able to efficiently improve test coverage and release features 10x faster by consolidating testing capabilities in a single tool that manages the infrastructure required to run smoothly across all types of technologies across local and cloud-based environments.
Navigating the diverse landscape of mobile app development tech requires careful consideration and a deep understanding of your project's unique requirements. No matter which path you choose – native, cross-platform, or hybrid – robust testing is incredibly important. By leveraging intelligent automation solutions like mabl, you can overcome the complexities of testing across different technologies, streamline your testing workflows, and ultimately deliver high-quality mobile experiences with speed and confidence.