Before starting to develop an application, it is advisable to review the different types of existing mobile applications. Why is it necessary to carry out such a review? in order to determine which of them is more suitable for each purpose.
Types of mobile applications
We can differentiate between native applications, web applications and hybrid applications. The type of application determines the technology to be used for development.
Native application
Native applications are those created specifically for a mobile operating system and developed in the specific (native) language of this system.
The use of this type of application would force us to multiply the work when developing a multiplatform app, since each operating system would require a different application, which would increase the time and cost of the work.
For this type of application, languages such as Objective-C or Swift for iOS; Java or Kotlin for Android, or .Net for Windows Phone are used.
Native applications can access all the device's functionalities, having full access to hardware features such as GPS, data, camera, bluetooth etc. With this type of applications you can take full advantage of the device's features.
Web application
Webapps or web applications are usually developed with JavaScript language, along with CSS and HTML and are basically web pages with the appearance of a native application that can be accessed from any browser, so it is possible to run them on different operating systems.
Compared to native applications, these are easier and faster to develop, but have lower performance and no access to the hardware features of the device.
Typically, this type of application is used to display an optimized version of a website on a mobile device.
A web application usually consists of a database where a server (local or in the cloud) stores the application code and finally the user accesses it from any device with internet access and a web browser.
Hybrid application
This type of application runs a web application within a native application. They use technologies similar to those that can be used in a web application(HTML, CSS and JavaScript) but they run as a native application, thus avoiding having to develop an application for each operating system.
These applications are therefore web applications that, instead of being viewed in a browser from a remote server, are inserted into a container created for the platform to which the mobile device belongs.
These applications have access to the hardware elements of the device(GPS, data, camera, etc.).
