Presently, almost 45 percent of the world’s population own smartphones. Gone are the days when people used mobile phones for making calls and text messaging. Now smartphones act as full-fledged portable computers that enable you to communicate, play games, write posts, search for required information, and make necessary purchases on the go. 

No wonder, mobile apps are riding the crest of their popularity and continue to grow in number. If you also want to try your hand in app development or looking for someone to help you turn your idea into a profitable application, you may want to learn more about the mobile app development from our today’s article. 

App Development Process 

As with any business venture, you need to put a lot of mental and economic resources into your project. At the initial stage, you need to validate your business idea and gauge interest in your product. You should be familiar with the industry and subtleties of the market niche you aim to enter. Get to know your prospective users, learn more about their preferences, and find out what in particular interests them about the apps they’re using actively. Furthermore, you need to consult with a professional developer who will help you decide on the core functionalities of your product and help you choose the tools to build your future app. Then, you want to test the ready product to make sure there are no glitches and bugs and that its overall performance is not inferior to that of other popular apps in your niche. 

Choose the Platform 

One of the most important steps in your app development process is figuring out what operating system to design your app for. As you know, there aren’t many options available. Currently, Android and iOS are dominating the market. But it doesn’t mean that you need to decide between them. Modern app development tools enable you to create effective applications for both platforms and thus expand your user base. To this end, you need to pick the right tool wherewith you’ll be able to create the essential features and integrations with third-party services. Below are some noteworthy options you may want to use for your app. 

#1 React Native 

React Native is an excellent tool which was made by Facebook. Now it’s widely used for developing robust, stable, and versatile mobile apps for different platforms. React makes it easy to create more responsive and intuitive user interfaces by splitting each page into small chunks and components, which allows significantly reducing load time and improving UX. With React Native your developers won’t need to deal with two different codebases for Android and iOS. One and the same codebase will work perfectly well on both platforms, which makes it possible to lower development costs and save a lot of time. 

#2 Flutter 

If you hire an experienced Java or JavaScript developer to help you build an app, chances are they’ll decide exactly on the Flutter framework, which relies on the Dart programming language famed for its approachability and ease of use. Flutter also offers you a wide range of debugging and testing tools, as well as libraries and plugins. What’s more, it allows developers to update code in a timely manner and keep track of all changes made to code in real time.   

Oftentimes, developers choose between Flutter and React Native when it comes to developing cross-platform mobile apps. Should it be the case, check out the comprehensive comparison article here to make up your mind faster.  

#3 Xamarin

If you want to develop a native app with a wide variety of features, consider using Xamarin. This tool can quickly access data across different platforms and reuse business logic layers. Its main task is to ensure that what can be seen on web pages is displayed on the screen. Lots of developers now opt for this framework to create scalable apps that don’t require multiple cross-platform tests and can run equally well across more than one platform.  

There are plenty more frameworks and standalone programming languages that can come in handy during the development process. Among other useful tools are PhoneGap, Ionic, Sencha, Alpha Anywhere, Onsen UI, Firebase, and lots of others. Make sure to communicate and thoroughly discuss your app idea with the team of designers or engineers you’ve hired or planning to hire. Once you decide on the features, functionalities, integration, and budget, you’ll embark on a long journey towards the realization of your digital dream, which will hopefully yield fruitful results.