David writing on Signal v. Noise about building mobile version of Basecamp:
We implemented the main progress screen in the iPhone app in first a fully native version, then again in an HTML-backed version.
After a fiddling a bit, the conclusion was clear: There was no discernible difference! Well, except for the fact that it was far quicker to develop the HTML version than the native version.
Count me in for this approach.
Native views and web views are good at different things.
Native is good for high fidelity interaction, animations, responding to gestures. However the native APIs are bad for designing “documents” — that is, layouts where elements flow within a container and push each other around. That means that things that are extremely easy on the web can be painstaking in native UI without much upside.
Web views have limited interactivity, but they have other advantages:
* Faster iterations. You don’t need to push a build when a webview changes.
* Document-style layout, as mentioned above.
* Higher density. We found it easier to show more information on the screen with HTML/CSS than the native controls. Looking at other apps out there makes me think it’s an attribute of the medium, not just us.
* No need to sync data or duplicate logic. Sending HTML down the pipe is simple.
Finally yes, we get the multi-platform advantages because the web views are also served to people who hit the regular mobile web version of the app without any wrapper.
Via @keff85
Mr. Matteo Spinelli created nice add-to-home-screen script that may be useful to you if you have a mobile web app and want to let your users know, they could add it to their home screens.
That then allows your app to look like native app from their point of view.
Great overview of the topic by JT Mudge for Six Revisions.
Obviously, it’s hard to be objective in this sort of comparison, because some strengths could quickly turn into weaknesses for your given app and vice versa.
Nonetheless, this comparison, at the very least, puts your thinking in the right frame.
It seems very likely to me that there’s something simple and beautiful lurking inside the browser platform that will hit the greatest 80/20 point in software history. But I’ve been thinking that for a decade or more, now.
– Browsers and Apps in 2012, Tim Bray
Well, from my point of view, there will – in foreseeable future – be area of problems that only native apps could solve. In the same way, there is and – in foreseeable future – will be area of problems that web apps solve better than native apps. I personally think the latter area is bigger in terms of money to be made off but it does not matter much as both are huge and growing fast.
And that’s all not speaking about the “gray” area of mutant native apps using some form of browser integration or web apps using hardware API of the mobile device.