Types of the mobile applications

Along with the growth of mobile devices, the necessity to develop apps grows as well. Every day hundreds of mobile apps are created to make the work with the device more comfortable. There are several types of apps that are used by developers.

Native apps

These apps are called native due to the reason for being written by the native language of the specific programming language. Android programming language is Java, the iOS programming language is objective-С or  Swift. 

Native apps are situated in the device itself, the access to each can be earned by the tap on the icon. They are installed through the app stores (Play Market for Android, App Store for iOS, etc.)

They are created in accordance with each specific platform and can use all abilities of the device, such as a camera, GPS, accelerometer, compass, contact book, and other programs. Also, they can recognize basic gestures installed by the operating system or some new ones that are used in the specific app.

Due to the fact that native applications are optimized for a specific operational system, they organically fit into any smartphone, differing by the high speed and performance. 

Native apps can gain the access to the system of notifications, moreover, according to the aims of the application it can fully or partly work without the internet access.

Examples of the native applications:

First example  – Shazam. An application, that performs the identification and the search of the music that is played on another device: 

• can be downloaded from the app store;
• the Internet access is a necessity;
• has access to the dictaphone.

Another example is  Instagram:

• can be downloaded from the app store;
• the Internet access is a necessity;
• uses the software of the device, such as camera, location, contact book; 
• supports push-notifications.

Mobile web applications

In fact, mobile web applications are not actually applications as such. After all, a web application is a site that is adapted and optimized for any smartphone. And in order to use it, it is enough to have a browser on the device, know its address and turn on Internet access ( it is needed to update the information).

Starting the mobile web apps, we perform all those actions that we perform when opening any other website and also get the ability to put it on the screen by creating the bookmark of the website.

Web apps differ by their cross-platform ability, by that they can function independently from the platform of the device. The main advantage is that they don’t use its software. So by being the interactive version of the mobile version of the site, they don’t take the precious storage space of the device.

Web applications have become widely known at the same time as HTML5 did, so people understood that they can gain access to an enormous amount of native applications by just opening the website through the ordinary browser. Nowadays it is hard to say where the strict line is between web applications and ordinary web pages because the functionality of HTML5 grows rapidly and is used by a large number of sites.

Web apps are developed by tools and frameworks that became the basic ones. As a result, the process of its development has increased in speed. There are also enough developers for that. 

At the same time, another stone has been thrown at web applications for not being able to work without Internet access. At the same moment another disadvantage appears - their performance, which is somewhere on the average level in comparison with other types of apps. Moreover, it depends on the abilities of the web provider.

Examples of web applications:

• last.fm is considered to be a web application, though it now looks more like an actual site;
• google.com.ua/maps – a website, but at the same time is a web application.

Hybrid applications

Hybrid apps are a combination of the web and native apps. Especially taking into consideration their cross-platform abilities and access to the functionality of the smartphone. Such apps can be downloaded directly from the  Google Play and App Store. Together they have access to the autonomous updating of the information and for that, internet access is needed. Otherwise, the web functions are disabled. 

Among other companies, the choice is given to the hybrid application. This can be explained by the fact that hybrid applications can combine the advantages of the native apps with the technological topicality that is provided by the latest web technologies. However, in contrast to the native, the cost of creating a hybrid is lower and its speed is higher. The similarity of hybrid apps with web applications, in turn, gives the opportunity to easily and fast make corrections. This means that the developers don’t have to post the app in the store to fix the bugs from the previous version, as it is with native apps.

The development of the hybrid application looks promising as well because the development is adjusted to two platforms at once. As a result, it helps not to lose time on the development of the app for each operating system. But is that the decision point? Absolutely.

Besides everything, special attention must be paid to the fact that some of the abilities of the application can depend on the framework that the developer is using, in the first place. Also, paying attention to the factors that make hybrid programs more attractive for development.

It is worth to be developed if:

• the financial materials are to be spared;
• relatively  simple app with simple animations is required;
• the operational development for at least two operating systems is required.

Examples of the hybrid applications:

First example – HeartCamera app for iOS that helps to decorate the photo with hearts etc. 

• can be found in the app store;
• uses the camera;
• internet access is needed for the sharing option;
• push notifications are available.

Another example  – TripCase – traveling organization planner application.

• can be found in the app storeу;
• uses location;
• internet access is needed;
• can be used with mobile internet;
• push notifications are available.

Conclusion

In the modern world, it is hard to imagine a device that wouldn’t have at least one application on it.

Mobile application is a developed program for tablets and mobile devices that is installed on some operating system and has a certain function. To cut a long story short, it has a list of tasks it can do.

The process of choosing the type of mobile application for the development is a very important stage, which is influenced by the developers’ evaluation, the necessity to the access to the device, the influence of the internet speed on the application, ability to be a cross-platform application. 

In this article, we have looked through the main types of apps, their advantages, and disadvantages. The final choice will depend on the actions that the application will perform, in which region it will be used, the target platform, and of course the quality of the internet connection.