Since its first appearance in 2012, hybrid apps have been noticed by many big companies. It has been applied to various unique business models, such as Gmail, Instagram, etc. This is a significant but not surprising achievement of this app technology. The hybrid app development benefits are so outstanding that it can grow even more in the future.
So, what are those hybrid app advantages, and is it exaggerated? Let’s dig into this!
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What Is a Hybrid Mobile App?
Many experts admit that a hybrid mobile app is a perfect combination of the Native App and Mobile Web App. It can work as a regular mobile phone installation application with all valuable functions such as taking pictures, playing games, connecting with friends,…
Besides, although hybrid programming is built on popular web technologies such as Javascript, HTML, or CSS, it has a native app appearance. More specifically, by using WebView, it can completely hide the browser bar and filter its content suitable for an app look.
On the other hand, hybrid applications can not connect to the phone’s hardware itself. It has to do it through the plug-in. However, that gives hybrid access to almost all features such as camera, contacts, audio, etc.
Unlike what many people think, this is not a weakness of hybrid apps because there are plenty of providers with various plug-in libraries.
5 Key Benefits of Hybrid App Development
Economical development cost
Hybrid is considered one of the most advantageous approaches due to its exceptional cost-efficiency. One of the most significant cost-saving advantages of hybrid apps is that they can be developed using a single codebase that works across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, etc.). This eliminates the need to build separate codebases for each platform, reducing development time, effort, and costs associated with managing multiple teams for different platforms
With a shared codebase, development teams can leverage shared resources, such as libraries, plugins, and frameworks, which reduces the need for duplicating efforts and speeds up development. This shared approach also ensures that updates and enhancements are applied uniformly across all platforms, saving time and reducing maintenance costs.
Besides that, hybrid apps don’t require highly specialized hardware or software development kits for each platform, unlike native apps. This reduces the upfront costs associated with acquiring and maintaining such resources.
Short time-to-market
As mentioned above, thanks to the unique development approach, a hybrid app has shortened time-to-market. Hybrid App requires only one codebase to build, but it also allows businesses to take advantage of web programming languages such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML5. They are all popular coding methods. Therefore developers can focus on building and refining the app’s features without being bogged down by platform-specific complexities. This streamlined development process translates to faster app creation and quicker releases.
Hybrid apps are also well-suited for rapid prototyping and iteration. Development teams can quickly build and test app concepts, gather user feedback, and make necessary adjustments. This iterative process is facilitated by the unified codebase, enabling rapid turnarounds in response to user preferences and market demands. With this strength, the total time for the development team to convert their sketch ideas to prototypes will be optimized.
The coding, testing, and fixing step will also be launched faster. Getting an app to market faster can provide a competitive edge. Businesses can seize opportunities and respond to market trends more rapidly, potentially capturing a larger share of the market before competitors do.
Better customer experience
Hybrid app is a great solution for businesses selling their product to customers on the move with unstable internet connections; because even offline, it still provides a perfect customer experience. Thanks to the native app framework, the hybrid app still allows users to download and access the loaded data. Customers’ activities while losing their internet will be collected and stored on the device. After that, those data will be sent as soon as there is a connection to the server.
Thanks to the popularity of web technology, although the hybrid’s codebase only needs to be written once, it can run on all operating systems such as Android, iOS, and Windows. This allows it to serve users across multiple platforms with identical experiences.
Moreover, the hybrid app’s superior user interface lets them load content and graphics as quickly as conventional native apps. In addition, Hybrid Apps also adapt to multiple display screens for fast and seamless data loading and transfer. With these strengths, the hybrid can provide users with a consistent and flawless experience across all platforms, whether users’ connection is stable or not.
Wider reach via multiple platforms
Hybrid App is a perfect choice for businesses developing cross-platform apps to reach more target users. This is significantly due to the unique of hybrid app development, which allows businesses to reuse code when web technology is almost the same across platforms and operating systems.
Currently, there are 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world with many different operating systems. However, you only need to program the app once, and those 3.5 billion people can all be reached! This makes the hybrid app a profitable and cost-effective option for SMEs in the increasingly competitive and evolving technology market. It is really an effective tool in reaching large users on multiple platforms.
Easier maintenance
When using native applications, businesses will need to spend a large amount of money on application development and continuously maintaining the application. However, the application will often generate errors after a time of launching, and it will reduce the customer experience. You need regular updates to fix such errors. In addition, major interface changes for the app are also needed to update features, organize big events, launch discount vouchers, and the like. This will stimulate customers to purchase and refresh your app.
Despite the importance of app upgradation, for native apps, it is such a headache issue. The development teams need to roll out new versions to every platform with each update. The users need to access the app market to get the latest version. Such an annoying requirement if they are in a hurry. With a hybrid app, it is much simpler. Businesses will only need to maintain one codebase. Furthermore, it eliminates the versioning process and makes process management easier thanks to continuous real-time updates.
That is to say, all required changes and updates of the hybrid app are always up to date on every platform. It brings convenience to both users and owners. The developers only need to focus on maintaining a single codebase, and users do not need to do anything but connect to the internet for the application to update automatically.
Takeaway Notes
The strengths of hybrid apps are undeniably efficient. They are not exaggerated compared to their true abilities. This is also one of the reasons why more and more businesses are trusted and choose hybrid mobile apps to be their selling and customer caring solution.
Yet, to build a reliable and robust hybrid app, you’d want to collaborate with a professional hybrid app development agency like Tigren. We have extensive knowledge of app development and experience to know what elements can boost your app and make it the best tool for sale!
Above is all information about hybrid app development benefits. Hope you found this article useful. Thanks for reading!
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