With a significant increase in the number of mobile application users, more apps are being developed on multiple platforms among which, Android and iOS are the major platforms dominating the mobile app development industry.
Now, businesses want to offer such mobile apps to their users that can run across Android, iOS, and other Windows devices. There has been a tremendous increase noticed in cross-platform mobiles.
As per the statistics released by Dot Com Infoway, it’s been noted that about 83% of mobile app developers use cross-platform tools primarily for development, analytics, crash reporting, and testing. In this article, you can have a look at the Xamarin advantages that makes it so popular.
Highlights of Contents
Xamarin: How is it beneficial?
While building an app that runs on multiple platforms is a daunting task, Xamarin can make it easy. Microsoft’s Xamarin is an open-source cross-platform that allows mobile to work on more devices and provides the best user interface.
The advent of diverse performance-driven apps in the market has toughened the competition than ever. So, every mobile developer is looking for cheap ways to develop feature-rich apps. You can hire developers in India to create an app using Xamarin. In this article, we have provided detailed information on Xamarin advantages that makes it the best platform for Hybrid app development.
Also Read: Why Mobile App Developer Select React Native for Software Developement
What is Xamarin?
Based on the Microsoft technology stack, Xamarin is a platform used for Hybrid app development. This new tool developed for cross-platform mobile app development is used by over 1.4 million developers. Xamarin is an apt framework to create and deploy high-performing mobile apps. You can read further to get a brief look at the current stats and trends of this popular framework. After reading this article, you will get to know about the major benefits of Xamarin that it offers to the developers.
When was Xamarin found?
Xamarin was built by the developers that created Mono which is an open-source development platform based on the .NET Framework. Led by Miguel de Icaza, the team first introduced Xamarin in 2001. Later, the Xamarin company was founded on May 16, 2011. Xamarin soon became a popular hybrid mobile app development cross-platform product to develop well-tailored mobile apps that can run on multiple platforms. You can read this article further which provides detailed information on the major benefits of Xamarin.
What are the prominent features of Xamarin?
In recent years, Xamarin has emerged as a cross-platform leader and seems to be the best option to develop hybrid mobile applications. Both developers and businesses believe that Xamarin renders the best platform to create hybrid mobile applications. If you wish to build cross-platform mobile apps that can function well across multiple platforms, you can hire app developers available in the industry.
Xamarin provides native user experience and around 95 percent code reusability. Xamarin is widely used by a large number of developers. There are around 70,00,000 mobile app developers that build mobile apps using Xamarin. By reading this article, you can explore more to know about Xamarin advantages that make it a popular choice for hybrid app development.
1. C# language
Xamarin uses a single language, C# to create custom-tailored and high-performance apps for all mobile platforms. Xamarin is natively compiled unlike other interpreted solutions, such as Appcelerator Titanium. This makes Xamarin a ready-to-go option to build interactive mobile apps that can run across multiple platforms.
2. Based on the .NET framework
Xamarin uses C# and native libraries that are encased in the .Net layer for building highly engaging hybrid mobile apps. C# offers many useful .NET features such as LINQ, Lambdas, and asynchronous programming (async / wait) that can be used for creating apps. Moreover, Xamarin can use native and latest API access for utilizing the built-in platform capabilities such as Android Multi-Window or ARKit on iOS.
3. Compilation
Xamarin has two major platforms which include Xamarin. Android and Xamarin.iOS. In the Xamarin.Android platform, the Android Xamarin application is compiled first into the intermediate language and then into the original assembly code at run time (Just-in-Time compilation) while in the case of Xamarin.iOS platforms, the source code is compiled directly into the original ARM assembly code (Ahead-of-Time compilation). Both of these processes are automated and can efficiently fix complicated issues.
4. Xamarin.Forms
Xamarin.Forms is another important feature of Xamarin that provides the tools and libraries embedded in the .NET developer platform for building high-quality mobile applications. It allows developers to develop iOS, Android and Windows apps from a single shared codebase.
5. Xamarin.Mac
Using Xamarin.Mac, the developers can build applications for Mac OS. Xamarin.Mac helps in the development of 100 % native Mac apps in C# and .NET using macOS APIs. Mac is one of the major benefits of Xamarin that makes it a popular choice among mobile app developers for developing hybrid mobile apps.
6. Platform SDKs
Another salient feature of Xamarin that makes it the best platform for Hybrid app development is that the developers can leverage the benefits of using platform SDKs by choosing Xamarin to build cross-platform mobile applications. Microsoft Xamarin offers its users access to platform-specific SDKs (Cocoa Touch for iOS and Android SDK) via simple C# syntax.
7. Platform-Specific Code Bindings
By using Xamarin, the developers will be able to build customized mobile applications while retaining the native look and feel of their respective platforms. Still, the engineers may call the instilled platform code to execute some platform-specific functions such as PayPal, Google Analytics integration, and barcode scanning.
8. Support of Wearables
Xamarin helps in building apps for Apple and Android watch devices. By using Visual Studio, the coders can build iOS Apple watch apps both for Mac and Windows. Another feature that makes Xamarin the best platform to develop cross-platform mobile apps is its ability to fully support Android Wear.
9. Xamarin Project Structure
Another unique feature of Xamarin that makes it the best platform for Hybrid app development is its project structure. All the work that is related to Xamarin is done using Visual Studio and Xamarin. The cross-platform mobile apps built using Xamarin can be debugged directly from the devices.
What makes Xamarin the Best Choice for Hybrid App Development?
Xamarin lets mobile app coders create cross-platform mobile apps and native apps for major platforms like iOS and Android. This platform is simple and easy to use. Microsoft Xamarin renders a lot of options to provide the right help in solving the problems that the developers face while developing their mobile apps. Read further to know about Xamarin advantages to know why is Xamarin the best hybrid mobile app development platform.
You can offer the best experience to your users by providing a standardized UI control using Xamarin.
In this blog, we will list and specify the benefits of Xamarin that will let you know why Xamarin is one of the best choices for developing hybrid mobile apps. You can hire Android developers to build highly engaging mobile apps catering to your business needs.
1. Native Performance
Xamarin offers great performance to the apps which equal the functioning of apps in their native platforms. The apps developed using Xamarin work on the hardware, unlike the other Ionic apps that work on the abstractions. The apps leverage the benefits of working on platform-specific hardware and are compiled for native performance.
2. Reusable Code
Code reusability is another key feature that is offered by Xamarin that helps in the development of hybrid mobile apps. Xamarin offers different options to share code such as Portable Class Libraries(PCL), Shared Projects, and .Net Libraries. The same codebase can be used across other platforms by using the features of Xamarin.Forms.
3. Single Language and Multiple Platforms
Using Xamarin helps in developing hybrid apps for multiple platforms by using a common language. Engineers having basic knowledge of C# and .NET framework can build multiple apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. This is advantageous for the team leads and managers as it reduces complexity and makes it easy to manage the overall development of the product thus saving time and cost.
4. Native User Experience
Web experience offered to the end-users plays a significant role in increasing user engagement. Xamarin renders native user experience to the app users. Using Xamarin retains the native look and feel of the entire application thus allowing the users to access the same features that are provided by the native platform.
5. 100% API Coverage on iOS and Android
This is another feature that makes Xamarin the best choice for hybrid app development. Xamarin allows Xamarin developers to create 100% of the APIs provided by Android and iOS platforms as soon as these are available in their native code bases. This means mobile app developers can use these APIs once they are released on their native platforms.
6. Perfect Quality Assurance
Xamarin fosters the development of performance-driven mobile apps that can function on many platforms. The mobile apps built using Xamarin are required to be tested so as to make sure that these apps work as per the desired requirements. Xamarin allows the tester to perform various tests to check the functionality of these mobile apps across a number of devices. With the help of the Xamarin Test Cloud, the testers can easily execute their tests to ensure their apps work perfectly well.
7. Gold-Class Integrated Development Environment
Xamarin offers unmatched developer experience to the users by providing a splendid integrated development environment. The great development environment Visual Studio offered by Xamarin allows the developers to easily develop the codes with ease. Xamarin provides ‘Visual Studio Team Services’ (VSTS) which comprises of the tools that are combined with Visual studio include TFS for source code control, continuous Integration and Cloud Testing using Xamarin Test Cloud.
8. Better Coordinated Releases in Android and iOS
The same development team is involved in the development of cross-platform mobile apps using Xamarin. The features and fixes for these two platforms are available for both at the same time. This reduces the manager’s efforts to keep a check at the functionality of the two apps on different platforms.
9. Well Managed and Focused
Microsoft owned Xamarin is well managed and offers great assistance in developing performance-driven hybrid mobile applications. Moreover, Xamarin Software Development Kit (SDK) is open-source which allows the mobile app developers to explore more to fetch detailed information about how Xamarin works.
10. Faster Development
Xamarin allows users to develop mobile apps at a faster rate. Since 75 percent of the code needs to be written only once thus saving a lot of time and cost. This fosters quick development allowing the mobile app engineers to code the entire application logic just once and then share the same across multiple platforms.
11. Fewer Bugs
C# is a simple and type-safe object-oriented language. So, it is easy to develop mobile apps using Xamarin as there are fewer bugs and errors. Xamarin supports to build high performing mobile apps with flawless program behavior resulting in saving time and cost. Since most of the code is shared in Xamarin, so the codes being used are not long for all the platforms. Small codes are used in Xamarin, so there are fewer chances of bugs.
Apps made using Xamarin
Let’s have a look at some of the apps built using Xamarin. These are the 13 apps that are created by using this cross-platform. You can hire iOS developers available in the market to build well-tailored hybrid mobile applications to serve your business needs.
- Oro
- MRW
- CA Mobile
- APX
- Novarum DX
- The World Bank
- Storyo
- Captio
- Fareboom
- Picturex
- Vanderlande
- Insightly CRM
- Alaska Airlines
Bottomline
So these are the major benefits of Xamarin that allows mobile app developers to build high performing mobile applications. None of the platforms offers the same level of performance and native functionality as Xamarin does. This is why it is the best choice for cross-platform mobile app development. Most large-scale enterprises choose Xamarin cross-platform as it saves time and cost.
