{"id":13813,"date":"2022-10-19T09:45:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T16:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/?p=13813"},"modified":"2023-04-26T10:31:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T17:31:43","slug":"mobile-cross-platform-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/mobile-cross-platform-development\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Mobile Cross-Platform Development With Couchbase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mobile app usage is increasing to an amazing extent worldwide. In fact, <\/span>TechCrunch recently reported<\/span><\/a> that users now spend between four and five hours on mobile apps every day – that’s nearly a third of most peoples waking hours. And the devices they use overwhelmingly run either Android or iOS operating systems, each with 71% and 28% of the worldwide mobile OS market share respectively, according to <\/span>StatCounter<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As such, in order to get the broadest possible exposure for your app, you must ensure that you can support both of these platforms at a minimum.<\/span><\/p>\n

To achieve this, one assumption might be to create a separate native version of the app for each platform using native development languages like Swift for iOS or Kotlin for Android. But building a native app takes time and requires specific skills. So, in order to support both platforms, you have to double the development effort and retain the appropriate expertise to create a native app for each OS – adding up to a considerable amount of time, effort and money. And ongoing app updates only exacerbate the problem, as at least two codebases have to be updated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to reach the broadest user base, how can an app be delivered for multiple platforms at the same time without lengthening the development process and breaking the bank?<\/span><\/p>\n

This is where mobile cross-platform development frameworks come in.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is mobile cross-platform development?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Techtarget<\/span><\/a> describes mobile cross-platform development as \u201cthe creation of software applications that are compatible with multiple mobile operating systems.\u201d, essentially it refers to development environments that produce native apps for each platform from a single master codebase.<\/span><\/p>\n

The promise of cross-platform frameworks is \u201cwrite once, run everywhere\u201d. While this claim comes with caveats, the leading mobile cross-platform development frameworks enable teams to produce an app for both iOS and Android operating systems in a single effort, simplifying the development process and helping get apps to market faster. Further, using a cross-platform development framework also helps ensure a consistent user experience and app feature set across devices, making documentation and support more efficient.<\/span><\/p>\n

For these reasons, mobile cross-platform development can often be the best strategy to deliver apps for multiple mobile OS\u2019 quickly, especially for organizations with limited resources and a short delivery timeframe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The importance of a mobile database<\/span><\/h2>\n

Of course when developing mobile apps, regardless of the cross-platform framework you use, you must also carefully consider the database that will power the apps. Users will abandon an app if it\u2019s too slow or fails too often, so speed and availability are critical for success, and using a database built for mobile apps is the way to achieve it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mobile database model is made up of an embeddable database running within apps on mobile clients that share data via automatic synchronization with a central cloud database. With a mobile database, captured or changed data is instantly synced between the cloud database and other embedded devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

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When a network connection isn’t available, local data storage and processing on the device ensures that apps stay operational, and when the connection is restored, sync resumes automatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is how mobile apps can provide the highest guarantees of uptime and low-latency – embedded data processing makes sure apps are always fast and oprational regardless of network connectivity, and synchronization enables data consistency and integrity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As such, when adopting a cross-platform strategy look for a mobile database – with built-in sync – that works with your cross-platform framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

Couchbase provides a mobile database that brings the power and flexibility of a cloud NoSQL database to the edge. It is ideally suited as a synchronized backend and embedded database for cross-platform apps.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Couchbase mobile database stack includes:<\/span><\/p>\n