Continuous Improvement: Hybrid Apps at Near-Native Performance


A decision between a native and hybrid approach requires an understanding of the need to balance the user experience with development efficiency. When designing critical applications that require performant, seamless integration, a native approach can significantly improve the user experience; however, in non-critical applications or applications that require frequent updates, a hybrid with an ionic approach can significantly reduce technical debt and accelerate development speeds. 

From a development standpoint, a truly native approach requires a developer to learn additional languages, such as Java, Objective C, Swift, or Kotlin, in addition to the web technologies for the application. In contrast, a hybrid approach with ionic focuses on unified web technologies instead of platform-specific frameworks. This allows development environments to deploy across platforms using plugins for iOS and Android instead of Android Studio and Xcode. Alternately, React Native provides near-native performance and a cross-platform mobile app development experience from a single JavaScript codebase. It allows developers to implement native components with minimal modification between iOS and Android platforms to maintain functionality, performance, and consistency. 

The distinction between the user experience of native and hybrid applications can be easily represented by considering an online banking application. When logging into an online account, the user has the option of interacting with their bank account through a mobile app or a web view. While the mobile banking application requires the user to download an additional application to their mobile device, the mobile application provides a similar improvement to the user experience as the native user experience provides by allowing the user to effortlessly navigate between sections, scroll through transactions, or quickly interact with buttons and sliders. In contrast, the mobile web view allows the user to forgo downloading an additional application. While the web view may be sufficient for many applications, the user will notice some delay in navigation, animations, and data-intensive operations, just as the user notices a small delay in the hybrid user experience. While a native approach offers improved performance and integration with device features, a hybrid with ionic approach sacrifices minor performance to prioritize a unified code base that simplifies updates, improves development time, and decreases technical debt across applications.

Applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are native (Medium). Gmail, Uber, and Twitter are hybrid (Mobiloud). While you could draw a distinction between two applications, large companies weigh the cost of development with the user’s expectations during the use of the application. In hybrid applications with React Native, such as Uber, the performance hit is negligible, with the added benefit of developers working in a unified code base. While there used to be a dramatic distinction between native and hybrid applications, we continuously evolve as an industry to reduce cost and complexity while delivering a viable user experience, and the gap between hybrid and native applications is closing.

Sources:

Mobiloud. (n.d.). https://www.mobiloud.com/blog/hybrid-app-examples

Medium. (n.d.). https://medium.com/@nautilustechlabs/
new-native-hybrid-or-web-choosing-the-right-mobile-app-development-approach-d579c9176c5a#:~:text=But%20if%20platform%2Dspecific%20functionality,iOS%20or%20Java%20for%20Android.

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