What Are the Different Types of Mobile Apps? Industries and Functionalities


Across the world, industries have migrated quite a bit of business operations on the digital platform. A technological shift of business processes and changing buying behavior has given rise to new business frameworks. 

Businesses now need to leverage the digital network to outrun and manage the competition. It needs to look for innovative ways to maintain a cutting edge. The digital marketing services provides new ways for businesses to streamline and enhance reach and customer acquisition. 

Given such a transition by businesses, the app market for platform development has witnessed strong growth. Mobile application platforms are in heavy demand. These technologies have a great bearing on transforming business operations. It also has an impact on the strategic models of the business. It opens opportunities for businesses to explore alternate growth and customer segments. This explains the exponential growth of the mobile app development market. 

First, the business needs to decide on the need for the app. It then decides on the multiple options of categories it would like to select. Then it needs to seek the services of a mobile app development company. A competent and experienced team of developers then build an app as required and as per specification. 

Mobile app developers use multiple kinds of languages. These can include JAVA, Swift, CML among others. But before the app is developed, an important decision needs to be taken. Businesses need to decide on the type of app that they require. 

We need to explore the various types of mobile apps available. We need to understand what meets the needs of the business.

Different Types of Mobile Apps

There are primarily three types of mobile applications: Native Apps, Web-Based Apps, and Hybrid Apps. These apps come with their advantages and benefits. These would be relevant to a host of benefits.

Native Apps

These apps are precisely created by a team of developers for a selected operating system or a specific platform. Hence, if an app developer builds an iOS-based app, it will not work on Android devices. If needed, some additional programming needs to be built into the app for it to be compatible with the Android operating system.

These types of mobile applications are highly efficient in terms of utilization. They maximize the potential of existing mobile hardware. Hence, a business may need an app that has to offer features that need usage of mobile hardware such as the camera or GPS. In such cases, it may resort to React Native Apps as this would be the best choice.

Generally, native apps are selected chosen for the following reasons When the application is built needs high-end graphics. Is gaming or video streaming a strict mandate?

Do the applications need considerable usage of resident mobile hardware? Will the app demand extensive usage of the keyboard, GPS, or the camera for example? This is primarily the reason why social media brands use native apps. 

Benefits of using Native Apps

  • They are known for their good speed and performance. This is because the app is built keeping just one specific operating system in mind. This makes it quick and fast when it comes to performance. 
  • It offers a great user experience. The developers make use of the native UI of the device itself. This ensures a positive user experience.  
  • Ease to access. These apps are through popular app stores like Google Play or App Store. This is how a large user base gets developed.
  • A wide interaction with existing device features. It just needs the user's approval. The app then has access to the image gallery, camera, microphone, etc. The native app connects directly to the device hardware. This enables it to offer an enriched user experience. 

Disadvantages of Native Apps

Native apps require a high development budget. These apps are built for a single platform usage only. Hence a business will need the support of other developers to build apps for other codes already built that cannot be reused.
 
Resources are needed to run and maintain the app. The app will need to be regularly updated and improved. A business could have multiple apps. This would mean updating the code separately for each platform. Another issue is app store optimization. This is done separately for iOS and Android app stores.
 
These apps utilize a good amount of device storage. Users with limited storage capacity could be wary of downloading such apps. Updated versions are available for users only post-approval by the app stores.

Web-Based Apps

The core benefit of web-based apps is accessibility. They can be accessed through a mobile web browser. This app is built as a responsive website. It adapts to the device they’re being operated on. 

For example, an app Quora is a web-based app. It is operational on mobile browsers. It also offers a similar UI as the app version.
 
These web-based apps are a particular kind of software. It permits the users to interact with a remote server. This is done through the web browser interface. With web-based apps, users need not install additional software. Moreover, a developer need not write an additional version for another operating system.
 
These apps are used by businesses that need a single application across devices and platforms. They are generally coded by mobile app developers through using popular languages. These include JavaScript and CSS among others.
 
These apps cannot maximize the usage of device features. For it to do so, separate coding is necessary. The apps are limited to features of the mobile browser itself.
 
These apps are often used by businesses with lower budgets. They are popular amongst small and medium businesses. However, a business wishing to engage to a wide audience reach also use these apps.

Hybrid Apps

The hybrid app is a common bridge. It can be used across devices. They operate across various platforms. They perform like a combination of native apps and web-based apps.
 
Hybrid apps are created by app developers using multiple coding languages. Extremely popular is JavaScript. Objective C and other languages are also commonly used. etc. The codes once developed need to be woven around frameworks like Angular and Xamarin, among others.  This enables them to operate as a native app. These apps are designed to run on mobile and web browsers. They are used across operating systems too.
 
A few popular hybrid apps Uber, Gmail, and Instagram. Leading retailers also use hybrid apps. These apps do need to utilize every feature on a mobile device. They still offer a fairly good UI for consumers.

Businesses today rely a lot on mobile apps for customer acquisition and lead generation. Choosing the right app and platform is key. The benefits can then be reaped accordingly.

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