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Move stands for quality. Every day, we strive to develop the very best mobile apps with the ultimate user experience. We've been doing that since the beginning of the mobile era. In all those years, many technologies to make development easier and faster have emerged. At Move, we believe that native app development delivers the best results and experience for end users, and that this method of development is also the most future-proof. Yet at Move, we don't close our eyes to new cross-platform technology and always look for ways to develop quickly and efficiently. We focus on getting the most out of these tools, while taking into account concessions we may have to make. How we do that as 'mobile natives'? Our CTO Jan Gerard Gerrits explains in this article.
Mobile apps began their rise about eighteen years ago. Back then, virtually every phone brand still had its own development platform, which meant that developers had to build apps multiple times for different systems. After Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile dropped out of the battle for a large market share, Apple and Google emerged as the two big winners. Microsoft made another attempt with Windows Phone, but that too went defunct after a few years. Despite the dominance of iOS and Android, the desire remains - both among developers and in the market - to build (parts of) apps only once.
The rise of cross-platform technology
'At the beginning of the app era, there were initiatives that enabled cross-platform development. With tools like Xamarin and Cordova, you could build apps that could run on multiple platforms, but didn't provide the optimal user experience. As technology advanced, much more sophisticated cross-platform tools came along. React Native is a good example of that. Over the years, many of these platforms died a slow death, so rebuilding was unavoidable sometimes.'
Flutter as a new way of thinking
'In recent years, the use of Flutter, a toolkit by Google, has taken off. Flutter offers a completely new way of thinking about app development by using Dart, a programming language specifically designed for cross-platform development. Instead of relying on web technologies, Flutter draws apps on a canvas through an optimized graphics engine, resulting in reasonably good performance and a user experience close to a native experience across platforms.'
Native and Flutter: a golden combination?
'At Move, we've been using Flutter more and more in recent years. We've already developed several apps in Flutter and are working on integrating Flutter components with native elements. If you plan the architecture ahead of time, isolate functionalities effectively and assign them their own responsibilities within the platform, it can be very successful. Flutter is well suited for app components that are functionally rich but don't require a full native experience. This hybrid form of development allows us to leverage the benefits of Flutter, such as faster development, less testing time and less maintenance, while still remaining fully in control of the user experience where we want it.'
Kotlin Multiplatform (Compose) as an alternative
'Last year we did a lot of research on Kotlin Multiplatform, which allows you to share the business logic of an app between iOS and Android, while keeping the user interface completely native. This gives you the benefits of shared code without compromising on the native user experience. Move embraces this technology and sees it as the way forward when it comes to developing the very best mobile apps in an efficient way. We have since successfully deployed Kotlin Multiplatform in a number of apps and will continue to explore the possibilities.
Recently, Kotlin Multiplatform Compose also went into beta, which allows you to build the visible elements multiplatform as well. Research by Move shows that this component is still in its early stages and is not yet useful for developing apps with a good user experience. We will continue to monitor these developments closely as well.
In short, there are currently many initiatives aimed at making app development faster, cheaper, and more maintainable. However, the use of cross-platform technology for UI often comes at the expense of user experience. We're closely monitoring these developments to explore them further.'
Custom mobile solutions
'Mobile development remains tailor-made. If you choose to build an app, or parts of it, in Flutter, think carefully about the implications. The Flutter ecosystem offers an awful lot of plug-ins that you can use to unlock native functionality, for example. Look carefully at which plug-ins you want to depend on and how well they're maintained and embraced by the community. In addition, Flutter's future prospects are unclear. Although Google is currently still investing heavily in the platform, it is not inconceivable that it will eventually be handed over to the open source community. What that will mean, only time will tell.
If you choose Kotlin Multiplatform, carefully consider what things you want to share between platforms and what you want to do platform-specifically. This is always customized and depends on the problem you want to solve. Find the right technology for the right use case. Can't make a choice? Then be well informed. It'll save you a lot of technical debt afterwards.'
Reliable in innovation
'The developments in cross-platform technology and the rise of AI have major implications for the future of app development. AI is increasingly being integrated into apps, which brings many new opportunities as well as challenges in the short term. The question is how quickly cross-platform technology can move with further, deep integration of AI and the associated new UX patterns.Â
At Move, we're constantly innovating and exploring which technologies offer the best solutions for our clients. We focus on delivering the highest quality and best experience for the end user, while benefiting from the efficiency and scalability of modern development techniques.'
