Everything Worth Knowing About Cross-Platform App Developing
A cross-platform app is an application that runs on multiple operating systems.
As it’s not restricted to a single platform, like a native application, cross-platform mobile applications have the potential to reach a wider audience.
Cross-platform mobile development isn’t as simple as it sounds, though. While cross-platform apps reach a wider audience, they are often more challenging to develop than native apps and may not offer the same level of performance as platform-specific apps.
Through careful planning and execution with an expert enterprise software development team like High Seas, cross-platform app development can be done efficiently, successfully, on time, and within budget.
Things You Need to Know Before Developing a Cross-Platform App
There are pros and cons to choosing native applications for each operating system or building your application cross-platform. What it comes down to is what’s the best option for your business’s needs.
Before developing a cross-platform app, keep these things in mind to guide your development project.
Maximum Exposure to Your Target Audience
Your company can maximize your target audience exposure by deploying the same app on Android, Apple, and as a web-based application. Doing this ensures your application is consistent across platforms, a valuable goal for branding purposes.
Lower App Performance
When building an app, there are disadvantages to choosing cross-platform app development over developing on a single platform, such as iOS or Android. Cross-platform mobile development doesn’t run as smoothly or as responsively as apps designed specifically for one platform. The reason behind this is the code has to be adapted to work on different platforms, which can result in inefficiencies and functionalities not performing as intended.
In addition, some platform-specific features might not be accessible when an app is developed cross-platform due to the different technologies in each operating system.
Cost-Efficient and Faster App Development
Developing separate apps for each platform — one for Apple and one for Android — is not only time-consuming but also expensive. Cross-platform development is a good solution for many companies because it is faster and more cost-efficient.
The development company doesn’t have to write the code for each operating system from scratch when developing an app cross-platform. The code only needs to be written once, saving time and money. Learn more about other key factors that drive cross-platform app development costs on our blog to set up a budget for your next development.
Challenging Code Design
Cross-platform applications are designed to work across multiple operating systems, which may require platform-specific libraries and code bases. Because the code has to work for separate operating systems, cross-platform app development typically requires a more intricate code design than native app development. This adds another layer of complexity for the cross-platform app development company.
Easier to Maintain, but with Frequent Updates
If you develop your mobile app as a native application for each platform, the developers must make changes and updates separately, which can be time-consuming and challenging to manage.
Fortunately, with cross-platform development, updates are made once and deployed across all platforms. This saves time for the developers and also ensures that all users have access to the same features and functionalities concurrently, regardless of the device they use to access your application. There won’t be any discrepancies in the user experience, and everyone gets the same application with identical capabilities and functionalities.
While cross-platform mobile development makes it easier to update your app, it will still take some time for developers to change code to support new features each time Google or Apple updates their operating systems, This can get complicated when you don’t have an entire team of developers, resulting in potential downtime and differences in app functionality between platforms while each is updated to support the changes.
Cross-platform app development makes it easy to scale an app up or down, but you still need to consider that many users expect customized user interfaces (UI) and features for different platforms. Platform-specific coding is often required to create custom UIs for each operating system.
When you develop react native cross-platform applications, new software development kits (SDKs) are provided that contain the updates, which makes for much faster updating support than with cross-platform app development frameworks. Because of this, native app developers can generally complete updates more quickly than cross-platform developers.
Smooth Cloud Integration
A key feature of the best cross-platform app development is how easily they can integrate with cloud settings. This easy compatibility makes it possible to coordinate multiple plugins with a single source code, enhancing the functionality and scalability of your app. This results in a more seamless experience when users access your app from their mobile devices.
Faster Time-to-Market Timeline
Building an app that can run on multiple platforms will significantly reduce your time to market and reach a larger audience with less effort since the code can be used for each platform. You’ll save time, effort, and money and can focus on bringing the best features to market as soon as possible.
Native vs. Cross-Platform App Development: What’s Best for Your Business?
It can be tough to decide which path to take with custom enterprise software development. Which route is better for your business is a debate that’s been raging for years. The choice between native and cross-platform app development ultimately comes down to your business’s needs.
If you need to build your app quickly and don’t mind sacrificing some features of platform-specific integrations, cross-platform mobile development might be the right choice for your needs. On the other hand, if you need a highly responsive app with smooth user interfaces and full access to all platform-specific features and integrations, then native app development is probably a better choice.
The choice comes down to your business goals and what you’re looking to achieve with your custom app. Consulting a professional software and cross-platform app development company is important before deciding one way or the other. Their experts will assess your project’s goals and advise you on the best approach. If a cross-platform development approach isn’t feasible, your development company can solve any issues and ensure your app development project is successful.
How We Develop Cross-Platform Enterprise Apps
Many steps go into cross-platform mobile development, and a good planning process is integral to making a successful app. The High Seas enterprise software development process goes through the following stages, each contributing to the overall success and timeliness of your project’s completion.
Discovery Phase
All well-designed apps start by thoroughly understanding the goals and needs of your business and your intended users.
In the first phase of our enterprise cross-app development process, the crew at High Seas will take an in-depth look at existing frameworks and UI/UX elements, conduct additional research, and interview stakeholders and users as needed. This process helps the development team get a clear picture of what’s working well with your existing software and identify areas that could use improvement.
Following that, we move into ideation and review. We analyze user stories with explanatory write-ups which help guide our decision-making process for launch priorities, budget requirements, technical requirements, UI and the development process, and how your app will evolve in the future.
Following approval of the previous two steps of the Discovery phase, our developers will begin designing the site map and navigation frameworks, wireframes, and flow diagrams. Through careful planning and without skipping any corners, we’ll ensure every element of the app design is purposeful and contributes to an overall exceptional user experience (UX).
Taking the time to assess your users’ needs carefully will help ensure your investment in cross-platform app development yields the desired results for both your business and your users.
Project Planning
The most important thing to do when preparing for cross-platform mobile development is to map your project’s requirements and desired functionalities from the beginning. This helps your enterprise software development company stay on track, while also giving you a good sense of the resources required to achieve your project goals.
The planning process is the same for scheduling each stage of the development process. By mapping out a timeline for each stage, you can help ensure your app is released on time and avoid costly delays.
During the project planning stage of cross-platform development, we’ll provide itemized development costs and any associated risks and contingencies you should plan for. Our goal is to provide you with all the information you’ll need to make informed decisions regarding your cross-platform app development project, and this will guide your budgeting for the iterative software development process
Only Using the Best Cross-Platform App Development Framework
To build reliable cross-platform mobile apps, it’s important to use the right tech stack for the project. You can read our previous article about cross-app platform tech stacks to see which cross-platform app development frameworks are most popular for creating enterprise-level, cross-platform applications.
Extra Attention to UI/UX Design
The High Seas recipe for successful cross-platform mobile development is a well-designed user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), which provides a consistent look and feel across all devices and between different operating systems.
Testing, Testing, Testing
We thoroughly test each feature and functionality to identify any potential issues and gather valuable user feedback to improve the app’s overall quality. This is especially important in cross-app development, where multiple apps running on different operating systems must work together seamlessly.
Sail Across Any Platform with High Seas
With the expert help of your High Seas crew, you’ll find the best cross-platform app development solution or react native cross-platform framework. It all comes down to your business’s needs and which option makes the most sense for you.
Contact us to get the ship sailing on your custom enterprise software development project.
