In a previous article we talked about native application development, where we spoke about its many great advantages, but that being it exclusive it could not be used for different operating systems. Imagine you required to answer an email from your phone but that Your Webmail app was not compatible with your mobile’s operating system, if this was the case you would never be able to send the message. This type of issue would never happen if this service was offered via hybrid applications.
Hybrid applications are mobile applications designed in a web programming language, whether HTML5, CSS or JavaScript, together with a framework that allows you to adapt the web view to any view of a mobile device. In other words, they are nothing more than an application built to be used or implemented in different mobile operating systems, such as iOS, Android or Windows Phone, avoiding the task of creating an application for each operating system. In this way, a hybrid application can be adapted to multiple mobile platforms without additional code, but adjusting to some operational changes for each of them.
Hybrid mobile applications are like any other application for mobile devices: they are downloaded from the app stores of each Operating System, they are installed in different devices and are used to play, connect to social media, take photos and track your health among other functionalities. For the user, these look and feel like an application developed in a native language, either Objective-C or Swift for iOS or Java for Android, so a traditional user could hardly identify the language in which it was built. More importantly, users are not interested in the language in which an application was built, they are only interested in it working and responding well for the purpose that was downloaded.
Hybrid applications allow developers to reuse their web development skills and guide them towards cross-platform mobile development, so that they do not have to learn a whole new programming language that will probably take a lot of time, dedication and eventually free them to serve apps not limited to the platform language they chose to learn.
Speaking of the disadvantages, hybrid applications run with the web browser, which might make their performance a little lower than the native ones. But this difference is not usually that significant, they just run a little slower and their interface is a little less neat than that of the native apps since they do not have as much attention to detail and are more concerned with its applicability in all operating systems.
To summarize, the difference between both types of applications is clearer with the following example: a native app is like getting a tailored suit from a tailor that is unique and custom made, a hybrid App is like buying a standard suit from the store, it fulfills its function, at a lower cost without the comfort of a tailor’s suit, however, it is still functional.
Hybrid applications are perfect when we are starting in a digital environment if you need a management app, data processing, online store, CRM or any other application to reduce costs, development times and ease of use. Therefore, if you are looking to develop a simple application, which does not require large use of mobile components, an hybrid application is perfect for you.
