Gone are the days when developers had to code native apps using different languages just to cover all the available mobile platforms. Flash forward to 2016 and a plethora of hybrid app development platforms are available. You see that the fact that virtually all devices support web technologies, it is a shame we never leveraged that functionality to create apps that run on all devices. Hybrid apps are simply apps made with HTML5 and enclosed within a browser-based container, then installed on devices as apps.
How hybrid apps work
As mentioned earlier, hybrid apps are made using HTML5 and enclosed in browse
r containers, although in some cases, other languages have been seen to introduce frameworks that follow the convention. HTML5 is a collection of three languages namely; HTML, CSS and JavaScript. By utilizing this three languages, HTML for the markup, CSS for styling and JavaScript for AJAX Database interaction, Hybrid apps can run on any platform. Let’s look at its advantages.
Single code base
If you have ever made an app for multiple platforms, you now that maintaining different code bases for different platforms is cumbersome. That is why hybrid apps are a relief because they usually contain a single codebase, that can be built to run on a particular app environment. For example, if you want to add a bug fix, you will just set it on the single source code file then build it to the various platforms for updates.
Uniform user interface
All native apps make use of the available user interface components available in the host operating system. The apps seem different while running on different platforms. For example, the Facebook Messenger app might look different on an IOS device compared to when it is running on an Android Device. The advantage of creating hybrid apps is that they easily share their user interface elements on all the devices that they run on. The advantage here is that if a user decides to change the platform, he/she still gets the same look and feel of an app no matter the device.
Easy scaling
Hybrid apps are very easy to scale, especially regarding expanding to other platforms. The advantages of hybrid apps, as discussed earlier, is that all platforms support the technology, so even if a platform is updated or changed drastically, the chances are that the hybrid app will still run efficiently with little or no glitches at all.