Mobile applications: choose the appropriate option

Smartphones are incredibly popular these days. To understand this, it is enough to go outside and look at others: most of them hold a smartphone in their hands in a cafe, on a minibus, on a run, on a walk. Thus, a person gets mobile access to information. And, as more people use smartphones for everyday purposes, more business owners decide to become “mobile” by developing advanced smartphone applications. And here a natural question arises - since the application is so necessary, which one to prefer?

There are different types of mobile applications, each with its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and usage patterns. There are three types in total. These are very large groups: native applications, html5 or hybrid.

Native apps

Native ones are purchased from the app store and become part of the smartphone software. They are made for a specific operating system - Windows, iOS, Android with all current requirements and restrictions, they are literally integrated into a smartphone and can use all its functionality during operation. By the way, they are quite careful about the battery charge.

These applications do not require an internet connection, because they work "inside" the smartphone. Just do not forget that you will also have to release updates in order to update the information regularly. In addition, native type applications can only work with one software platform.

html5 applications

This category includes web applications or, in fact, sites adapted for a smartphone. They do not need to be downloaded from the store and installed, they work using a browser. Accordingly, they cannot use the smartphone software, and they do not work without a network connection.

The difference between a website and a web application is that in the case of applications, the user has more options for interaction. Each of them is an online service, only in a new, mobile format. To develop such applications, you can use simple schemes or adapt an existing site. But remember that without access to the network and without running a browser, applications of this type do not work.

Hybrid Applications

Hybrid applications are those that are downloaded through stores, but are updated independently, over the Internet. They are easier and cheaper to develop because they do not require full integration with smartphone software. Such applications differ in functionality and at the same time operate on an independent platform, but they will not be launched from the browser, but from the smartphone itself.

So, native applications allow you to use all the devices that are in your smartphone, and also provide a high speed of processing and transferring information. But they are quite expensive to develop. Hybrids are almost as fast as them, but they are cheaper. And the web application allows your business to always stay in touch with the user and make him profitable offers (of course, subject to an Internet connection). Start choosing an application type only after you decide what tasks it should perform, and you can't go wrong!