Monday 14 March 2016

5 Best Practices For Cross Platform Mobile App Development

Enterprises are increasingly adopting cross-platform development technologies to build mobile applications. An infographic by Rishabh Software on cross platform mobile apps development exhibits that, "68% of enterprises developed the mobile apps using cross-platform development tools in past two years".


Cross platform development leverages single code base and multiple platform implementations to developers which reduces their code-writing workload across various operating systems. It has a quick turnaround and is cost-effective. This simplifies the development efforts used by developers using cross platform tools. Here are some best practices they must take into account while going with the mobile cross platform app development.

Best Practices For Cross-Platform App Development

1. Use Convenient Native Tools: Every mobile platform has its own programming language and SDK. For instance,  Android has Java with ADK, iOS has  Cocoa & Xcode, and Windows has C#.net with Microsoft Visual Studio. This makes it challenging for developers to use native development tools and technologies. In such cases, developers can opt for C++ and HTML5 as it offers full support functionality and quick access to new features of mobile operating systems along with easier app development and improved performance.

2. Adopt Virtual Machines to Improve App Performance: Virtual machines can run complicated environments without having a major impact on its performance. There are several benefits of using VMs and a couple of them are covered below:

Once you setup the development environment, you can save and share the virtual machine with your team. The maintenance of virtual machine is simple as you can archive and relaunch it with minimum effort and error ratio. Virtual machines allow you to test the codes changes quickly and frequently on all platforms.

3. Keep User Experience Intact: Difference in layout and navigation flow of your application can create a sense of uneasiness among the users. They will require some  time to learn new ways and  get acquainted with your app. The consistency in look and feel of the application creates familiarity across various platforms and encourages  adoption. Therefore, it is important to keep the user interaction and design consistent across all operating systems.

4. Minimize Use of Third Party Libraries: Most of the developers use  many third party libraries that makes the application difficult and heavy to maintain. It is better to focus on  custom libraries and specialized codes that help to minimize the app size and maintenance cost. Also, there are various custom libraries that are compatible with and offer required functionality for basic mobile app development.

5. Ensure App Security on All Platforms: Different mobile device manufacturers offer different levels of security in their devices. Same is the case with  mobile operating systems. Every phone operating system has  a custom environment that does not offer the same level of security features. This makes building cross platform mobile apps imperative by considering the compatibility of all mobile platforms in terms of security.

There are a number of factors that can affect the quality and success of a mobile application. It is however, in the best interests of developers to follow certain guidelines so that the chances of their app becoming a commercial success increase. So, follow the best practices above while developing your cross platform mobile apps and you will surely end up creating a successful mobile app.

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