Nature of mobile developing apps

From a coding perspective, developers can choose to create one of three types of mobile apps:

• Native mobile apps are apps that are written in a language that’s natively supported by the device OS vendor. The underlying platform APIs are available 100% to the app code and the OS provides the UI component library. The build process converts this code into an executable app with the native bytecode of the OS.
• Cross-platform mobile apps are apps that are written in one language and can run on all platforms. With cross-platform mobile apps, the language in which you write your app may not be the native language of the underlying device OS. This implies that the code might be contained, bridged, or cross-compiled to the bytecode that can execute directly on the OS with the help of some support libraries.
• Mobile web apps are a lightweight paradigm where you open a URL in your device’s browser, but they look and feel like a regular mobile app. Mobile websites are not delivered as an installed app on the device, but they are an important paradigm to consider while building for a mobile device. Developers can use two website programming paradigms to create mobile web apps:

1. Responsive web programming is a style of website programming where the website layout organizes itself to suit the device’s form factor. So instead of having to browse horizontally, the content “snaps” in place to fit the width of the device. These websites can also be used from a desktop. Learn about the latest responsive design ideas on IBM Developer.
2. Progressive web programming creates progressive web apps that are normal websites that appear like a traditional mobile app when navigated to from a browser on a mobile device. They deliver an almost app-like experience. Progressive web apps have the ability to add a link to the home screen (so that you get an app icon), and they also have the ability to run offline when not connected to the internet by caching the content locally on the device.