A Complete Guide to Mobile App Development

Mobile application development involves creating software applications specifically designed to run on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. It encompasses the entire process from conceptualization and design to coding, testing, and deployment. Developers use various programming languages and frameworks to build apps that cater to different platforms, such as iOS and Android. The goal is to deliver functional, user-friendly, and efficient applications that enhance the mobile experience and meet the needs of users.

More than 78% of people worldwide own a smartphone. What are people doing on these devices? They’re using apps. These apps fall into a wide range of categories, including gaming apps, music apps, calendars, communication apps, and more. I’m sure you’re familiar with some of the world’s most popular apps like WhatsApp, Spotify, HeadSpace, Facebook, and Instagram. Creating an app is a great business decision. But first, you need to understand the mobile app development process—which is why we created this guide. 

Also Visit: Web Development Roadmap

Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development is the process of creating software applications that run on a mobile device, and a typical mobile application utilizes a network connection to work with remote computing resources. Hence, the mobile development process involves creating installable software bundles (code, binaries, assets, etc.) , implementing backend services such as data access with an API, and testing the application on target devices.

Mobile application development is the process of creating software applications that run on a mobile device, and a  typical mobile application utilizes a network connection to work with remote computing resources.  Hence, the mobile development process involves creating installable software bundles (code,  binaries, assets, etc.) , implementing backend services such as data access with an API, and testing the application on target devices.

Mobile application development is the process of creating software applications that run on a mobile device, and a  typical mobile application utilizes a network connection to work with remote computing resources.  Hence, the mobile development process involves creating installable software bundles (code,  binaries, assets, etc.) , implementing backend services such as data access with an API, and testing the application on target devices.

Mobile application development is the process of creating software applications that run on a mobile device, and a  typical mobile application utilizes a network connection to work with remote computing resources.  Hence, the mobile development process involves creating installable software bundles (code,  binaries, assets, etc.) , implementing backend services such as data access with an API, and testing the application on target devices.

Mobile Applications and Device Platforms

There are two dominant platforms in the modern smartphone market. One is the iOS platform from Apple Inc. The iOS platform is the operating system that powers Apple’s popular line of iPhone smartphones. The second is Android from Google. The Android operating system is used not only by Google devices but also by many other OEMs to build their own smartphones and other smart devices.

Although there are some similarities between these two platforms when building applications, developing for iOS vs. developing for Android involves using different software development kits (SDKs) and different development tool chains. While Apple uses iOS exclusively for its own devices, Google makes Android available to other companies provided they meet specific requirements such as including certain Google applications on the devices they ship. Developers can build apps for hundreds of millions of devices by targeting both of these platforms.

Alternatives for Building Mobile Apps

 There are four major development approaches when building mobile applications

• Native Mobile Applications
• Cross-Platform Native Mobile Applications
• Hybrid Mobile Applications
• Progressive Web Applications

Each of these approaches for developing mobile applications has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. When choosing the right development approach for their projects, developers consider the desired user experience, the computing resources and native features required by the app, the development budget, time targets, and resources available to maintain the app.

Native Applications

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Native mobile applications are written in the programming language and frameworks provided by the platform owner and run directly on the operating system of the device such as iOS and Android.

Cross-Platform Applications

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Cross-platform native mobile applications can be written in a variety of different programming languages and frameworks, but they are compiled into a native application running directly on the operating system of the device. 

Hybrid-Web Applications

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Hybrid mobile applications are built with standard web technologies – such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5 – and they are bundled as app installation packages. Contrary to the native apps, hybrid apps work on a ‘web container’ which provides a browser runtime and a bridge for native device APIs via Apache Cordova. 

Progressive Web Applications

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PWAs offer an alternative approach to traditional mobile app development by skipping app store delivery and app installations. PWAs are web applications that utilize a set of browser capabilities – such as working offline, running a background process, and adding a link to the device home screen –  to provide an ‘app like’ user experience.

Pros
+ Best runtime performance	+ Single code base for multiple platforms	+ Shared code base between web and mobile apps	+ Same app is available both for web and mobile
+ Direct access to device APIs	+ Easy to build and maintain your app	+ Using web development skill set for building mobile apps	+ No installation required, accessible through a URL
Cons
– Higher costs when building and maintaining your app	– Dependents on bridges and libraries for native device features	– Lower performance compared to native apps	– Limited support for native device features
– Multiple code-bases for each platform	– Performance limitations due to bridging	– Limited support for native device features	– App capabilities depend on the browser in use

Also Visit: A Beginner’s Guide to Desktop App Development

Comparing Native vs. Hybrid Applications

At the highest level, there are four main ways that native apps differ from hybrid apps as illustrated in the following table.

Native	Hybrid
Platform Specific	Cross Platform
Compiled Language	Scripting / Compiled
Access to Device Hardware	Plugins / Native Modules
Platform Frameworks	Web Frameworks

Why Choose the Hybrid/Cross-platform Approach?

One problem with native mobile application development is that it requires a highly specialized skill set. Although there are large and vibrant developer communities for C and Java — the language families that are mostly used for native development –, there are fewer developers who are knowledgeable in platform-specific versions of those languages and their respective IDEs. In fact, skilled native app developers are in such demand, that many companies are hard-pressed to hire and retain them on staff, and instead they frequently have to resort to outside 3rd party design and development houses to build their apps for them.

How Hybrid and Cross-platform Frameworks Work?

Hybrid apps allow developers to use web technologies of HTML5/CSS/JavaScript and then encapsulate those web applications in a container that allows the web application to act like a native application on the device. Since hybrid mobile apps are just web apps running on an embedded browser environment, most of the code from a web app can be used to build a mobile app. As rendering and runtime performance of mobile browsers are ever-increasing, hybrid development is a viable alternative for web developers who want to build mobile apps quickly.

Similarly, PWAs are written using traditional web application programming technologies usually including some variant of JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS, and are accessed initially through a browser on the device or computer. 

Most cross-platform frameworks such as – React Native and Native Script – provides native components to work with the cross-platform code, while some others such as Flutter and Xamarin compiles cross-platform code to the native code for better performance.

The Mobile Application Development Lifecycle

To improve readability in the Mobile Application Development Lifecycle document, you should break down longer sections into more manageable chunks with appropriate subheadings. Here’s a suggested approach for distributing subheadings:

Front-end vs. Back-end

In the early days of the modern smartphone applications era, mobile applications went through a similar evolution as the first websites. At first, the applications and sites were wholly contained within themselves and acted as little more than static advertisements for the brand, company, product, or service.

However, as connectivity and network capabilities improved, the applications became increasingly connected to sources of data and information that lived outside of the app itself, and the apps became increasingly dynamic as they were able to update their UI and content with data received over the network from queries to data sources.

As a result, the mobile front-end applications increasingly rely on and integrate with back-end services which provide data to be consumed through the mobile front-end. Such data can include, for example, product information for e-commerce apps or flight info for travel and reservation apps. For a mobile game, the data may include new levels or challenges and scores or avatars from other players.

How Front-end ‘Talks’ to the Back-end?

The mobile front-end obtains the data from the back-end via a variety of service calls such as APIs. In some cases, these APIs may be owned and operated by the same entity developing the mobile application. In other cases, the API may be controlled by a third party and access is granted to the mobile application via a commercial arrangement.

For example, a developer may obtain social media or advertising content by making calls to media or advertising company services. In this case, a developer may have to sign a contract in order to obtain credentials and a key that grants access to the API and governs how that developer can use it, how much it will cost, or how frequently it may be called, or how much data can be requested over what time period.

Why Do Developers Use a Cloud-backend?

For most of the applications, mobile developers are responsible for creating and managing the back-end services for their application. The mobile developer may not be an expert or even particularly skilled in spinning up and running a back-end infrastructure.

In such a case, developers may prefer to take advantage of a cloud services provider — a backend-as-a-service provider — that handles all of the drudge work and heavy lifting of managing back-end capabilities, so the developers can focus purely on the features and functionality they are building in their app, without having to worry about scalability, security, and reliability.

The Mobile Application Front-End

The mobile front-end is the visual and interactive part of the application the user experiences. It usually resides on the device, or there is at least an icon representing the app that is visible on the home screen or is pinned in the application catalog of the device. The application can be downloaded from the platform app store, side-loaded directly onto the device, or can be reached through the device’s browser, as in the case for PWAs.

What a Front-end Development Workflow Looks Like?

When a developer says they are a mobile application programmer, they are most often referring to this front-end part of the application, and they are skilled in the languages and technologies that are used to create this front-end application.

Depending on the size of the team producing the app, there may be many different people involved in the design and development of the front-end mobile app. The team size can range from a single developer who does everything associated with building the app, to tens, hundreds, and more people with specialized skills.

For example, there may be dedicated creative/graphics designers who are responsible for creating visual elements of applications like icons, backgrounds, colors, themes and other parts of the app. The team may also have user experience and user interface designs who work on the layout of the components, how they interact with each other and the user. In the case of certain types of games, a team may include motion graphics developers and even engineers who develop engines that govern the physics of how components move in the app, like a car in a racing game.

How Mobile Apps Integrate with the Backend?

Regardless of the size of the team, a critical element of the development effort is building the app logic that is responsible for making network calls to the back-end services, retrieving data and updating the data in the back-end systems with new information generated from the app.

These back-end services are typically accessed through a variety of application programming interfaces, most commonly known as APIs. There are different types of APIs, such as REST and GraphQL, and there are also a wide variety of means and styles of accessing them. While some back-end service APIs are available directly to the application through calls in the platform itself, many of the specialized services have to be integrated into the app via a software development kit, commonly known as an SDK. Once the SDK has been added to the app via the development environment, then the application can make use of the APIs defined in the SDK.

How to Interact with the Backend Data?

An example of a back-end service for a mobile front-end could be a database that contains information used in the app. To access the database directly, the mobile developer would have to know the network location of the database, the protocol for accessing the database, the credentials for authenticating and authorizing the data access, and the specific database commands needed to extract the needed data.

Alternatively, the developer can utilize a specialized API when interacting with the database; the developer may only have to know the parameters needed in a method call to get or update the needed information. In some cases, the mobile developer may develop these APIs themselves or use the API definition provided to them by the owner/operator of the back-end resource.

Typically, a REST API is used to interact with data sources on the cloud, such as a cloud database. A GraphQL API is also another option for developers, as it makes it easy to work with backend data in a mobile application. GraphQL provides querying support through a single API endpoint, and a data schema that can be used to build and easily extend data models that are used in the app.

The Mobile Application Back-End

Regardless of what front-end platform or development methodology is being used, delivering high-quality mobile applications that delight and retain users requires reliable back-end services.

Given the critical importance of back-end services for the success of the mobile application, the developers have several important architectural decisions that they must consider. These decisions include which services should they build themselves and which third party services should they leverage, and then should they run and maintain their own services or should they take advantage of 3rd party services.

The answer is increasingly clear; to improve developer productivity and efficiency, mobile app programmers should only build their own services if they are highly specific to the domain of the application and embody unique intellectual property. Also, even for the services they build themselves, they should almost always leverage cloud-based services to build and maintain their backend infrastructure.

Key Mobile Application Services

There are hundreds of cloud and 3rd party services that mobile application developers can leverage to speed up the development and delivery of their applications. However, it’s unlikely that a developer is going to be able to become an expert in each of these individual services.

Instead, the mobile developers should look for a development environment that makes it easier for them to integrate, use, and consume the most commonly required capabilities into their application quickly and easily, while still preserving the freedom to take advantage of the many individual services available.

Essential

• User Sign-up/Sign-in and Management
• Social login (Facebook sign-in, Twitter sign-in, etc.)
• Analytics and User Engagement
• Push Notifications
• Real Device Testing

Data Services

• Cloud Storage
• Real-time and Offline Data
• Application Logic/Cloud Functions

Machine Learning

• Conversational Bots
• Image and Video Recognition
• Speech Recognition

What Is Mobile App Development?

Before you start any software development, you must first brainstorm your ideas. Some of you might already have a basic idea or concept. Others might be starting from scratch.

Here are some helpful starter questions that you should be asking yourself:

• What do you want your mobile app to accomplish?
• What are your app goals?
• What problem (or problems) will your app solve for customers?
• What features will your app include?
• How much money are you willing to invest?
• How will you develop the app? (In-house team, agency, app builder, etc.)

It’s easy to get carried away during the brainstorming process. But it’s really important to stick to the app’s core features. Forget about unnecessary add-ons or “nice-to-haves” that deviate from the app’s primary function.

Market Research

Once your idea is finalized, you need to look at similar apps that already exist. It’s rare to have a completely new concept with zero competition. 

• Who are your competitors?
• What target audience are you aiming for?
• What’s your differentiation strategy to stand out from the competition?
• What’s the best platform to launch your app on?
• How will you market and promote your app?

Market research is an important step you can’t afford to skip or rush through. You don’t want to spend time and money developing an idea only to realize that there’s no market need for it. So you can save yourself a ton of money by getting this sorted out before you start building anything.

Build Your UX Design

The mobile app design process is another crucial part of the process. Start thinking about how your app will look and feel. Start drawing some sketches and create wireframes to see how the app will work.  Focusing on the user experience must be a top priority. You need to make sure the user interface is seamless and easy to navigate. 

• Create a storyboard or roadmap to demonstrate connections between each screen.
• Think about the differences in how people will use your app compared to a mobile website (app development and web development are not the same).
• User experience must be your top priority.

You’ll want to create some prototypes of the app based on your wireframes before you start to build a fully-functional app. From here, you can create an MVP (minimum viable product). This is a bare-bones app that achieves its primary goal without all of the bells and whistles. 

App Development

Now it’s time to actually create the app. This includes all of the back-end technology, APIs, and front-end building. Here’s what you need to do:

• Choose your development method.
• Assemble your development team.
• Appoint a project manager.
• Establish a timeline with milestones and goals.
• Be agile, and prepare for changes along the way.

Depending on your development method, you might need to build two separate versions of the app—one for iOS and one for Android. Alternatively, you can use cross-platform development tools to create a single version of the app that works on both operating systems.

This process will look a bit different for everyone. Some apps can be built in a month with a single developer. Others can take six months or a year with multiple developers.

The type of app you’re building and the complexity of its features have a significant impact on the timeline and budget for app development. A simple app with basic features should be quick and affordable to build. But a complex app that needs user authentication servers, GPS capabilities, real-time communication between users, and other similar features will obviously take a bit longer to develop.

Testing

Before your app goes live, you need to make sure that it actually works. App testing is when you’ll find bugs, glitches, and anything else that needs to be cleaned up before it gets put in the hands of your customers. 

• Testing your app with QAs throughout the development process is the best approach.
• Make sure you test the app on both platforms.
• Test the app on different devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).
• Run tests with real users to gather feedback and make improvements.

No app is perfect. The purpose of your testing is to put out a functional app that works without crashing so users can enjoy the experience. 

You can also make updates to your app and release new versions later on. But trying to make sure the app is perfect during the testing phase could mean your app never gets to market. So don’t be too hard on yourself, and just try to put out a solid product.

What Are The Best Mobile App Development Platforms?

With so many options available on the market for app development, you’ll need to narrow down your options based on your skills, goal, app type, and budget. The following tools not only allow you to create an app. But they also make it possible to test, optimize, debug, and maintain your app post-launch. 

Here are the best app development platforms on the market today:

BuildFire

Eyeucloud is the most powerful no-code app builder for iOS and Android. Users with no technical knowledge or coding experience can use BuildFire to create a fully customized app from scratch. It’s an excellent option for startups and existing businesses alike. Adding functionality is as simple as installing plugins from the BuildFire feature marketplace.

Eyeucloud also offers full-service app development. You can come to Eyeucloud with your idea, and the development experts will create your app and even maintain the app for you post-launch. Unlike other app development companies, BuildFire is a partner in your success. This partnership includes app strategy sessions, design, wireframes, prototypes, and everything else you need to develop a stunning app for your business.

Another unique standout of BuildFire is its limitless functionality. Even if you’re using Eyeucloud DIY builder to create an app on your own, you can still add custom features to the app. If you don’t see a feature that accommodates your needs in the plugin marketplace, Eyeucloud can create that feature for you. 

Alternatively, you could hire your own developer and use the BuildFire SDK to create custom functionality using Javascript, HTML, and CSS. You have the ability to add any framework you want using BuildFire’s existing infrastructure. 

Overall, BuildFire is the best solution for mobile app development on the market. Regardless of your app type, business size, skills, or budget, BuildFire has a solution for you.

Flutter

Flutter is an open source framework that lets you create cross-platform apps with one codebase. Created by Google and released in 2017, Flutter is a relatively new concept compared to other options on the market.

You can use Flutter for mobile development and web applications for iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, Windows, and more. It’s a great option for anyone who wants to build desktop apps and web apps using a single codebase written in C, C++, and Dart.

Microsoft Xamarin

Xamarin is another open source UI framework for Android, iOS, and Windows applications. It uses C# and .NET to create cross-platform apps with a single shared code. 

This platform is popular because it allows users to create apps with a similar look and feel across different platforms and devices. In many cases, the applications will feel like a native deployment. Xamarin also has a wide range of developer toolkits for Windows and Mac. It integrates with native APIs, backend services, and more.

Adobe PhoneGap

Adobe PhoneGap is a bit different from the other options. You can create an app with PhoneGap using JavaScript, HTML5, or CSS3. PhoneGap also has a plugin feature for adding functionality. 

It’s also worth noting that PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. So you’ll often see these terms used in tandem. Apache Cordova is essentially the engine that powers PhoneGap.

Different Types of Mobile Apps

App development today is very different from the past. Historically, low-level coding for native development was the only option. So if you wanted an iOS app for the Apple App Store and an Android App for the Google Play Store, you needed to code two different versions from scratch.

But the barrier to entry for app development today is much lower. App development tools, languages, and platforms are more integrated, and Javascript is used for cross-platform codes.

This makes it much easier for e-commerce companies, existing businesses, and entrepreneurs to develop native apps from scratch.

Here’s a brief overview of the different types of apps and what makes them unique for development:

Native Mobile Applications

Native apps are installed directly on a mobile device. These are typically installed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. In most cases, native apps can work without any internet connection, and they leverage existing features of the device they’re installed on. 

Developing a native app means writing code specifically for the operating system of the device.

Cross-Platform Native Mobile Applications

With a cross-platform app, the same code is used for all platforms. So you can write your code once, and the app can still be installed natively on both iOS and Android devices. 

From a user perspective, there is almost no difference between native and cross-platform native apps. From a development standpoint, cross-platform native is more affordable and shortens the development timeline.

Hybrid Mobile Applications

Hybrid and cross-platform are often used interchangeably, although they aren’t exactly the same. Similar to cross-platform, hybrid apps can be written once and work on both platforms. 

But hybrid development is a bit more user-friendly compared to cross-platform development. Cross-platform app creation is still highly technical and requires app development skills. Hybrid development is less technical and can be achieved with basic web development knowledge or no-code app builders.

Progressive Web Application (PWA)

PWAs are apps delivered through the web, as opposed to being natively installed on a user’s device. 

Modern technology has made PWAs look and feel extremely similar to a native app experience. You can even send push notifications to users, which get delivered via the web browser. But PWAs will be a bit more limited in what they can achieve using the native features on a device.

Cross-Platform Or Progressive Web Application?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of cross-platform apps compared to PWAs. This will help you determine which option is better for you, your app, your budget, and goals.

Cross-Platform Advantages:

• Cross-platform native apps are easier to maintain because you can sync updates across all platforms.
• It’s a quicker turnaround time compared to traditional Android development and iOS development.
• Less time on development typically translates to affordability, which means you can spend more areas on other parts of the app.
• You can effectively reach a wider target audience, targeting smartphones and tablets on multiple platforms.

Cross-Platform Disadvantages:

• There are performance issues with some operating systems, which means you’ll need to debug more frequently.
• In some cases, there can be security issues with certain OS.
• There are longer wait times if you want to deploy new features in the app.

Progressive Web Application Advantages:

• PWAs are cheaper to develop and maintain compared to native apps.
• They’re quick and easy to install on different devices.
• PWAs have the power to work everywhere due to cross-platform support.
• PWAs offer an enhanced user experience because they’re so efficient.

Progressive Web Application Disadvantages:

• You can’t access PWAs from an app store.
• They offer fewer functions that can affect the user experience. 
• Functionality requiring Bluetooth or NFC can be limited when it comes to working within the app.

Hybrid vs Native Apps

Now let’s take a look at hybrid apps compared to native apps and see the pros and cons of these development frameworks.

Hybrid App Advantages:

• Hybrid apps look and feel like a native app.
• They’re more cost effective to build and maintain. 
• You can create a hybrid app using HTML, Javascript, and CSS.
• Hybrid apps provide a faster development process.

Hybrid App Disadvantages:

• Poor performance on older devices.
• Hybrid doesn’t work for certain types of apps.
• Features might be limited with hybrid development.

Native App Advantages:

• Exceptional performance.
• All functionalities on different smartphones are possible.
• They’re made with IDEs (integrated development environments) like React Native.
• Native apps still run smoothly on older devices.

Native App Disadvantages:

• Native apps are the most expensive to develop.
• They’re time-consuming to build, and you need to build separately for iOS and Android.
• The development tools aren’t user-friendly.
• They’re more prone to bugs and usually require frequent updates.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to unpack with mobile app development. But whether you’re creating cross-platform apps or native apps, you always need to prioritize the user experience. Your app’s functionality needs to meet its primary use case, and the interactive features must be easy to navigate. There are tons of different paths to take for app development. The best option for you depends on your budget, goals, timeline, technical skills, and app complexity, 

Overall, Eyeucloud is the best option to consider because the platform is so versatile. Eyeucloud has a no-code DIY solution that’s great for entrepreneurs. We also offer full-service app development that includes post-launch maintenance and support. 

Last Word

The last word on mobile app development is adaptability. In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, the ability to adapt to new technologies, user feedback, and market trends is crucial for the success and longevity of your app. Staying flexible and responsive to change ensures that your app remains relevant, user-friendly, and competitive.