App Development  | Archives | Devsu

Mobile App Development

Blog Post - Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

What it comes down to is looking at your vision for this mobile app and figuring out which resources you need to bring it to life. If you decide the feature-heavy benefits of native apps are worth the investment, you can augment your staff with a specialized mobile developer or outsource the project to an experienced team. If your priority is to launch as soon as possible, hybrid apps have a faster time to market while delivering a high-quality product. Keep the project moving quickly by giving it to an outsourced development team or supplementing your in-house staff with software developers.

Building Mobile Apps with a Development Team

You know what you want your app to accomplish, and now you know how to get the resources and personnel you need to make that a reality. Now it’s time to choose which platforms you plan to go to market on (or the native wrapper you want for your hybrid app). Look over these summaries below to help you decide on the best platform for your project.

The Apple App Store guidelines should be kept as a priority during development. Any time spent with your app unlisted in the App Store is time you can’t make money, and who wants that? That’s why their guidelines should be your foundation for a truly successful iOS app. Your mobile developers should also focus on delivering best-in-class performance that makes the most of every functionality your Apple app can provide. Any in-app purchases should be easy to complete, of course, but you also want to use machine learning to keep your app on the cutting edge for tech-loving iPhone users.

For Google Play Store apps especially, you’ll need world-class expertise on your team. They have a large market share, and as we mentioned before, it’s only expected to grow. Incorporating Google Cloud technologies to their best effect will set your app apart in a competitive industry. Android users also tend to have more technical know-how. Using the latest technologies will appeal to them, no matter what your app is ultimately for. Allowing Google Pay for in-app purchases makes users feel more secure when ordering on the app, and it’s convenient for them too.

This open-source platform offers a comprehensive approach, giving you a product that works in all operating systems. One team, one development cycle, and you’re finished! React Native is an industry-trusted framework that speeds up your time to market without sacrificing quality and essential native features. It’s especially effective at recreating the streamlined load times and responsiveness of native apps, all with the faster and more cost-effective hybrid development process.

Also open source, this toolkit from Google makes it easier to have a multiplatform application that includes native attributes and functions. Hybrid apps developed through Flutter perform exceptionally on Android, iOS, Linux, and Windows. Its unique cross-platform app development approach lets UI and layout code be shared, which helps it adapt and combine with other integrated development environments (IDEs) or editors for native apps. You still save on development time and costs while keeping an eye on UX for an easy-to-use hybrid app.

Igniting the Mobile App Development Process

Mobile app development is highly specialized and calls for a lot of skill sets, so empowering your team for success is the most important step. Access mobile development support whenever you need it with Devsu’s software outsourcing services and staff augmentation options.

The sooner you can go to market, the sooner your app can be there for your users whenever they need it. Help develop a pre-tested, high-quality mobile app faster with vetted tech talent! Augmented staff integrates with your team, or you can connect with a fully equipped outsourced team that meets with your business on a regular basis.

Devsu has mobile development professionals with expertise in iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. Our network of experienced, multidisciplinary candidates will help realize your mobile app development goals. Beyond that, we have the capacity to support your company after you’ve gone to launch too. Whatever suits your project plan better, you can adjust our services to meet your needs with in-house-like staff. Get in touch with us today to kickstart your development!

The early 2000s brought us mobile apps, and they’ve been getting more and more popular ever since. Users are downloading tons of mobile applications, and the industry is expected to generate revenue over $613 billion USD in 2025 according to Statista. With such a big opportunity out there, many businesses are developing an app to reach their customer base right on their mobile devices.

But where to begin? How will you make sure it’s a user-friendly app? Do you want React Native solutions, or are you looking for specific smartphone platforms to launch on? If this is as clear as dishwater to you, we have good news: you’re in the right place.

This comprehensive guide to building an app will help you make key decisions about your mobile development project. Whether you have an in-house team of software developers, plan to augment your staff, or want to outsource the project, you’ll find answers here.

In a broad sense, native software is designed to run on a specific operating system (OS). Native applications have a somewhat different context during development because they’re installed on smartphones. After all, there are more variables with mobile devices. Screen size and device location can vary, for example. But like computers, phones and tablets do have their own OS, such as iOS and Android.

A native app won’t work on both OS types. Some exceptions are obvious, like the Apple TV remote app only being on iOS. Others are less intuitive and were only launched for one smartphone OS simply because the developer chose to do that. Ultimately, a native app will be found in the application store of the OS it was made for. Because it was created for a particular operating system, this type of app can also use the integrated features of the mobile device it’s installed on. As an example, push notifications can keep the user updated with what’s going on in the app even if they don’t have it open.

To really understand the hybrid structure for this kind of mobile app, you’ll need to know what they combine: native apps and web apps. You already know native apps live on mobile devices, but web apps can be accessed through a browser. If you share Google Docs files by inviting users on your tablet, that’s a mobile app. If you’re listening to Spotify in Chrome, that’s a web app.

A web application could use HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS to function. For a hybrid app, container frameworks are used to turn your non-native app into a native app. Some frameworks include:

A native container framework is also known as a native harness or wrapper. By any name, the rose is just as sweet! It cuts back on development time by building from what you already have. Plus, this type of cross-platform mobile app still includes many helpful features available on native apps, such as accessing contact lists to connect with friends, using the camera to share pictures, and so on.

What is the Difference Between Native Apps and Hybrid Apps?

Let’s say you developed a native app and wanted to launch on another smartphone OS. Your application developers would have to write the new code from scratch. It’s costly to double up on effort by starting over for a new OS, so hybrid apps are the solution to this dilemma.

But of course, as with any development process, there are strengths and weaknesses to both native and hybrid apps. Compare them quickly here to help you determine which works best for your company and goals:

Choosing Between Native vs. Hybrid App Development

At this point, you likely have a hunch for which direction you want to take your mobile app project. But we know finding your answer isn’t always as simple as one pros vs. cons chart. 

What’s the difference between native apps and hybrid apps? How do app ideas become functional mobile apps? Find answers in this article from the pros at Devsu.

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App | Devsu

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

Blog Post - How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

“Want to play ping pong while my UI tests are running?”

How long does a ping pong match last–  10-15 minutes if you’re any good? That’s how long a UI test can take to complete for a mid-size iOS app. And, as your app size grows, both testing and compile times increase too! This is why I, alongside my  Devsu counterparts, began looking into possible solutions to improve performance and increase testing speeds within iOS applications.

An app should have unit and UI testing targets throughout its QA process.  So, when you only consider a single target during the development stages then you need to change a line of code, Xcode rebuilds the entire app. Headache, right?

Additionally,  the 5 minutes for it to compile is also a reason to pop an Advil. And,  that’s just for a small to mid-size app. It can be upwards of 10-15  minutes for larger apps. The time lost is even more significant when you have a team of developers working within the same environment. The time adds up fast! No wonder we’re so good at table tennis.

This problem has been prevalent in app development for a long time and many believe frameworks are the answer.

Apple says “A framework  is a hierarchical directory that encapsulates shared resources, such as  a dynamic shared library, nib files, image files, localized strings,  header files, and reference documentation in a single package.”

In other words, frameworks are self-contained, reusable pieces of code that have a target and are separately built. Meaning, if you change a line of code in one framework, Xcode only rebuilds this one which saves time and increases speed.

There are also some architectural benefits of using frameworks as well. As a bonus, they follow some of the clean code principles:

By this point, you should have installed cocoa pods in your app, and if not, you can find how to install them here. 

There are a few advantages to using CocoaPods with your frameworks:

Light repo: There’s no need to keep your frameworks in the main project; they can live in a  different repository, making the main repository lighter.

Centralization:  When working with multiple apps, you can create a framework for appearance so all apps can use the same framework, keeping consistency in colors, button styles, fonts, etc. 

Modularization:  You don’t need to have all the code or features within the same project. If launching a feature, a developer could work on this repository separate from the main product. Simply add the pod when ready to activate the new feature and remove it whenever you choose to deactivate it.

Documentation: Each feature or framework can have its documentation, allowing for an easy transition of work if needed.

The short answer– it depends. We can divide frameworks into two big groups: 

Features: Frameworks that hold full functionality including visual and logic. 

Utils: Frameworks that hold technical parts of the app such as storage. 


To conclude, frameworks are useful to modularize an app and, in conjunction with Cocoapods, improve an app’s architecture,  therefore, positively impacting the speed and performance. Now, instead of playing Ping Pong to kill the time, we play to relax after a  successful test and completed ticket– “Anyone up for a match?

Frameworks are useful to modularize an app and, with Cocoapods, improve its architecture, impacting positively on its QA performance.

How Do Frameworks and Cocoapods Improve iOS QA Performance | Devsu

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Mobile App Development

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Native or Hybrid: A Guide to Decide Which Way to Go with Your Mobile App

How Do Frameworks And Cocoapods Improve IOS QA Performance

Get the latest insights on technology right in your inbox