The future of mobile development is Native. Yes, that’s right. I know lately there is a lot of controversy about what’s the coolest and better hybrid technology that could save you time and efforts when building a new mobile application, and I will probably have some that will reach out to me saying I’m wrong, but hey it is what it is.
When building apps with React or other hybrid technologies you could save quite some money and time in the development process, this much is true. And clearly, building two different apps one for Android and one for IOS is very time consuming and you will need a developer specialized for Android to write code in JAVA/KOTLIN and one for IOS to write code in Swift, while building with React and or other Hybrid platforms you will be cutting corners creating one single code that then will be encapsulated in an IPA(IOS) or APK(Android) to be send out to the correspondent stores for review and approval to be on sale.
What a lot of users are missing here is that at the long run, a React or a hybrid app will require of more investment of time, efforts, maintenance and money at the end. This is why, in the next few years we are going to see even more companies moving away from React and Hybrid technologies to 100% native development on Android and IOS. I’m not even mentioning the effort and Hybrid technologies and Meta React team needs to put on with the highly maintenance to keep the technologies current with all the changes and updates that happen every time there is a new OS release for the devices.
We live in a constant war between Android and IOS which are no question, the leaders in mobile devices around the world. This war have us in the middle always waiting to see what new update, feature or peripherals are going to be release on our devices and how we can take advantage or use. Every day, smart devices are getting smarter, faster, with new features that requires apps to be able to keep up with the pace. This is why the future of mobile app development is native. A 100% native app works at the same level of the user device’s OS and give priority and faster access to all native resources of the user’s device.
Yes, it is true. You can build a React Native (Not really native) app or a Hybrid app in almost no time and save time and money, but in the long run you will need more support and maintenance to keep up with the constant changes from device manufacturers. And not even mentioning the advantages for the end user on the experience and functionality of a 100% native app vs a React or Hybrid app.
But, hey what if there is a technology that can help you build a 100% native app and save you time and money? Well, there is one, it is called MCSS (Mobile Cascade Style Sheet) it is a brand new Low Code technology that applies native CSS in native development environment (JAVA/SWIFT), it can be installed and use in any native IDE. The idea behind MCSS is to cut development time on all the aesthetics for views and objects within an app and simultaneously in Android and IOS. In other words, just like CSS in HTML, a developer can now create a MCSS file to define the styles of all objects and views for an app by adding ids and classes to control group of objects. By doing this, a developer can cut more than 40% development time creating one single MCSS file and applying the style to both apps (Android/IOS), now both apps will look the same in the two different platforms. Also, any changes on the aesthetics can be done on the MCSS file and will apply simultaneously to the Android app and IOS app. But hey, there is something even cooler that I haven’t mention yet, the MCSS file can reside in an URL, by doing this developers will be able to update aesthetics on the views and objects of any production app and will be reflected to the end users the next time they open the app. This will cut the process and the waiting time to submit an app to the stores to be review and approve for small changes on the design. I will have to just keep adding to the benefits of MCSS, a developer can even save a lot of more time because MCSS understands more than 70% of CSS, this means you can take a CSS file of a website and apply it to the mobile design, MCSS will adopt the styles for the objects and views to your mobile application.
My advice to any developer out there in the mobile app development industry, is start getting familiar with MCSS because the future of mobile app development is NATIVE. And last thing before I close, there is really no learning curve, if you are familiar with CSS you are familiar with MCSS.
