Bloggers and customers have been debating the question for a while now, and some of them still are: is it better to go with html5 mobile apps or native apps? An html5 app is housed on the web and runs inside a mobile browser whereas a native app is built specifically for Apple devices or Google’s Android operating system.
It’s our turn to look at it objectively to help you make up your mind once and for all!
Native wins over html5 which faces challenges in most areas
“Faster”, “Easier to browse”... These are few things you’ll hear from native app lovers when mentioning them.
Indeed, native wins in terms of performance and rich-user experience: loading and rendering is definitely faster. Plus, features like VR, NFC and passport aren’t available in html.
What’s more, native apps are better for monetization as it’s easier to get a larger audience by using the App Store and Google Play. And from a security perspective, native also clearly wins.
What could be in html’s favor are: the advantage of working across all mobile operating systems, and the development costs, less important versus the native. It’s also easier to find html developers as opposed to Objective-C experts who furthermore cost more to hire. Plus, html5 brings the most up-to-date experience as it can instantly be updated and so address problems more regularly.
Given the reasons above, native apps win! Add to that the lower developer interest in building on html 5 and greater number of native apps out, we definitely have to accept the superiority of the latter over its opponent. But then, let’s not forget each publisher will consider the one or the other according to their content, needs, resources and monetization strategy. To get full details on the differences between the two in terms of features, take a look at this article’s chart (http://blog.conduit.com/mobile/2013/07/31/the-future-of-mobile-html5-vs-native-apps/).
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter went native. What about you?
In 2012, Facebook ditched the mobile web, releasing a totally rebuilt native version of its app for iPhone and iPad. Why? When Facebook decided to abandon html5 it was mostly looking for speed improvement. What are the native version’s benefits? The app opens faster, scrolling through the news feed is smoother and photos upload more swiftly.
LinkedIn also went from mobile web-based apps to fully native but the company stated they didn’t dropped it because of a performance problem. They did it for three reasons: first because the app was running out of memory as more people were spending more time on the app. Secondly to get the animations, spinners and everything flow smoother. And thirdly because developers develop tools for native and not that much for html5.
As for Twitter, it never made the shift as it had fully native apps from the start.
Given the evidence, don’t hesitate anymore: embrace native and start with TapPublisher.
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