While the use of mobile phones is booming all around, every business is trying to tap into the increasing boom in mobile technology by offering their own mobile applications. To develop top-notch cross-platform mobile applications, organizations need to choose a robust yet flexible mobile development platform that could fulfill all their requirements. Here are the top solutions and trends that can help you steer through this task of finding the right mobile application development platform for your organization. We cover developments from the two major mobile OS platforms — Android and iOS, top mobile development solutions, and open-source mobile app development tools.
1. Innovations by Google
Android is one of the most popular mobile operating systems, which holds the leading market share among the mobile OS used worldwide. And to maintain its leading position, Google is continuously improving upon its Android OS to make it more secure and user-friendly, not just for end-users but also for the application developers. In the recent past, Google has come up with several innovative additions and enhancements.
Android Instant Apps is a platform that allows users to use applications without any download or installation. All the processes are managed in the cloud, and no space is consumed on the mobile devices, thus opening up possibilities of next-level application development without having restrictions on application space consumption. Developers get an Android Instant Apps SDK and App Links Assistant that allows the development of applications ground-up as well as facilitates the conversion of existing apps into Instant Apps.
Chatbots and voice assistants have become a very common requirement for most businesses that are opting for application development. Integration with Google Assistant is already a popular trend, and Google is rapidly making moves in this space. Google recently announced Scheduled Actions, which allows users to communicate with their smart devices to carry out specific actions like making coffee using a smart coffee machine. It can be used to operate common devices such as AC, smart lights, smart kitchen devices, and more.
Android Enterprise, the new initiative by Google, allows users to use Android devices and apps in their workspaces. It offers a set of APIs and other additional tools required to integrate the Android OS into the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions. This helps in creating separate work profiles for data segregation to help users keep their business data and personal data separate on the same device.
2. Innovations by Apple
Apple, the provider of yet another most popular mobile OS, also continuously keeps updating its offerings to deliver a secure and intuitive experience to the end-users and the developers working with its platform.
Core Machine Learning (CoreML) is the machine learning framework used across Apple’s devices. It provides the ability to build apps that can react quickly in comparison to the general iOS applications. The latest enhancements in CoreML include more flexibility and security in iOS 14. CoreML can help users with the handling of the encryption process and key management, thus providing additional layers of security. It also supports the conversion of other models, such as PyTorch models, into Core ML.
Siri Shortcuts are the quick ways to reach out to any app or action, and it can be performed just with a tap or by asking Siri, the voice-based assistant for iOS. Using Shortcut APIs and SiriKit, developers can build iOS and WatchOS apps that can work with Siri using voice-based commands. New visual lists provide an intuitive display of information when providing a set of options to the users (like displaying the pictures of items along with other details when the user searches for groceries).
ARKit is a framework that supports the development of augmented reality apps on iOS. After face tracking and 3D object detection, the recent updates to ARKit allow more accurate mapping of distances and depth information (using Depth API), captured by the LiDAR Scanner. In addition, location anchors enables the creation of rear-camera AR experiences for supported geographical locations.
3. Commercial mobile app platforms
Telerik
Telerik, the Bulgarian software development company, offers a variety of tools for mobile, web, and desktop application development. Since its foundation in 2002, Telerik focused on .NET-based development tools, but it kept expanding its platform support by gradual acquisitions and new product research. In 2011, it introduced Kendo UI, a product with support for HTML5 and JavaScript. Its key product line includes DevCraft, a collection of UI Controls and widgets for the .NET platform. It also offers Telerik Platform, a cloud development bundle comprising several SaaS products for the development of cross-platform mobile apps via the cloud. For application lifecycle management, Telerik offers TeamPulse (an agile project management tool) and Test Studio (a tool for implementing testing protocols). For content management, Telerik offers Sitefinity, a web-based CMS used for creating and managing desktop and mobile websites. In 2014, Telerik was acquired by Progress Software.
Syncfusion Essential Studio
Syncfusion Essential Studio is a .NET-based application development framework. It includes more than 1600 ready-to-use controls (widgets) for the development of intuitive applications using Visual Studio Code. This includes components for charts, data grids, PDF viewers, Excel Library, and more. It supports a wide range of platforms across the web (Angular, Blazor, React, Vue JavaScript, etc.), mobile (Flutter and Xamarin), and desktop (WPF, Windows forms, etc.). Furthermore, Syncfusion also offers additional products, including Bold BI (for creating and sharing dashboards), Bold Reports (for creating and sharing reports), and BoldSign (for e-signature software), providing a complete ecosystem for application development.
4. Open-source app dev tools
Here are some renowned open-source mobile app development tools that you can consider.
PhoneGap
PhoneGap is among the most popular open-source mobile app development software. It allows the developer to write the code once and leverage the same across multiple platforms, including iPhone, Android, and Windows. Besides common mobile programming languages, it also supports traditional languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for app creation.
Flutter
Flutter is one of the newest mobile app development software that is suitable for developing hybrid apps. It can help in the development of mobile, web, and desktop applications using a single codebase. It provides a Hot-Reload capability, enabling testing of applications without having to restart the project, thus optimizing the development processes.
Xamarin
Xamarin is a free and open-source platform for mobile application development, founded by Microsoft in 2011. It supports the C# programming language and enables the development of applications for Windows, Android, and iOS platforms. In addition, its Xamarin Test Cloud can be used to test apps on over 2000 mobile devices.
Ionic
Ionic is another popular open-source mobile app development software, mostly used for creating hybrid apps. This JavaScript-based SDK requires Node.js for installation, and it supports the development of a codebase that works across Android, iOS, and the web. It is also known for its community of developers that are supporting and assisting its development.
Successful mobile app development relies on the right platform
Opting for the right platform for the mobile app development team can help achieve the goals faster. Besides helping in optimizing every step of the application development cycle, this could also help boost the productivity of the development team. So make sure to analyze all the pros and cons of each platform before making your investments in them.
Featured image: Pixabay
Very interesting stuff to read.