If you are planning to develop a mobile application and thinking a lot on choosing a platform that supports and fits the multiple devices out there in the market along with the various version of OS – this is the correct document for you. The mobile application can be developed as Native development and cross-platform development. Native development is developing applications independently on iOS and Android platforms whereas Cross-Platform development refers to the development of mobile apps that can be used on multiple mobile platforms.
Cross-platform development frameworks are available to create mobile applications that are compatible with more than one operating system such as iOS and Android. If you have to pick one of the top 5 cross-platform frameworks available now, it shall be Xamarin, hands down.
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This article will provide insights on Xamarin cross-platform framework and its advantages. Xamarin app development provides benefits such as:
- Single tech stack to code for all platforms
- Native performance and user experiences
- Smooth onboarding
- Reduced time to market
- Less maintenance
Why Xamarin?
Microsoft’s Xamarin is one of the top open-source cross-platform frameworks that is being used for creating secure, scalable and feature-packed apps.
Shared Code: Xamarin allows you to create a platform-specific UI code layer. The code related to business logic, database access, and network communication can be shared across all platforms. Xamarin cross-platform apps provide a better user experience and it looks 100% native on any device while compared to other hybrid applications.
One Technology Stack: For any mobile platform, Xamarin uses C# complemented with .Net framework to create apps. This results in 96 percent of the source code to be reused and speeding up the engineering cycle.
Performance Close to Native: Unlike traditional hybrid solutions, based on web technologies, a cross-platform app built with Xamarin, can still be classified as native. The performance metrics are comparable to those of Java for Android and Swift for native iOS app development.
Native User Experiences: Xamarin provides a flawless experience using platform-specific UI elements. Simple cross-platform apps for iOS, Android is built using Xamarin.Forms tool. Xamarin.Forms tool converts app UI components into the platform-specific interface elements at runtime resulting in a Native user experience.
Hardware Support: With Xamarin, the application gets native-level app functionality. All the hardware compatibility issues are eliminated through the usage of plugins and specific APIs, to work with common devices’ functionality across multiple platforms.
Simplified Maintenance: Xamarin makes maintenance and updates easier since this is a cross-platform application. The changes can be easily deployed or updates to the source file and they will be applied to both iOS and Android apps.
Xamarin.Forms: Xamarin.Forms allow for rapid prototyping or producing apps with less platform-specific functionality. That’s why Xamarin.Forms are the best fit for apps where code sharing is more important than custom UI.
Xamarin support of TVs, wearables, and IoT: The Xamarin framework, thanks to its Xamarin.Forms enable building portable versions for many platforms. In addition to iOS, Android, Windows Phones, and Mac, you can develop applications for Tizen – an operating system used on some Samsung devices – for wearables, TVs, and IoT. Besides that, Xamarin.iOS allows for building applications for tvOS for Apple and watchOS.
According to Xamarin, “over 1.4 million developers were using Xamarin’s products in 120 countries around the world as of April 2017” and this number has significantly gone up over the past 2 years. Xamarin expects this number to go up in the coming years.
