Technically speaking, Xamarin uses C# and native libraries wrapped in the .Net layer for cross-platform app development. Such applications are often compared to native for both iOS and Android mobile development platforms in terms of performance and user experience. Additionally, Xamarin can leverage all native and the latest API access to utilize underlying platform capabilities in Xamarin apps such as ARKit on iOS or Android Multi-Window. The choice of open source technologies for Xamarin is not as rich as for Android and iOS mobile app development. Being based upon the native app development, Xamarin has limited access to open source libraries which enables the developers to use platform components and .Net open source resources. For instance, if you were creating a native mobile app on their different app development platforms, then this would essentially require double effort as well as time to complete.
- Developers can work on iOS using Windows as the Visual Studio easily connects to the iOS storyboard designer and iOS simulator.
- Cross-platform development allows for the creation of apps that can live on multiple operating systems, without the requirement of unique and dedicated development for each.
- Here is a picture from the Xamarin website that I would like to share so that you can understand better what is happening under the hood.
- By using Xamarin.Mac combined with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android, developers can share up to 90 percent of native code across Android, iOS, and Mac OS.
Xamarin’s Testing Cloud is an effective tool for testing cross-platform enterprise apps written in various languages. With UI tests, you can see the flow of your app and spot problems in the early stages of the Xamarin app development process. With Xamarin 3, the shared code base was increased to 90% from 70%. Until this time, UI components were not effective for iOS and Android.
Reasons To Use Xamarin
Since Xamarin uses C#, it allows sharing an average of 90% of the code across platforms that speed up the engineering cycle. What’s more, one developer can start developing the whole product, not just an app, and do massive amounts of work more efficiently than before. Developers get to combine the same UI controls and APIs that are used for developing native mobile applications in their respective platform-specific programming languages. Cross-platform app development is nothing new, but there aren’t a plethora of tools that allow you to do it well.
The shared codebase also makes it easier to develop across all three platforms which are iOS, Android and Windows respectively. There are several popular technologies like React Native, Ionic, Xamarin, and others for developing applications. C# is a .NET framework language that can be used with .NET features such as Asynchronous programming, Lambdas, and LINQ. With native libraries wrapped in a .NET layer for cross-platform app development, Xamarin apps often resemble native apps regarding the quality of UX and design. Integrated with Microsoft software tech stack capabilities for the mobile app development and management, enterprise leaders can achieve more from the inclusion of Xamarin. Given cost-savings for mobile development and operations, Xamarin technology can prove to be a viable option for most of the industry leaders.
Famous Applications that leveraged Xamarin to reduce development costs:
The app is presented on multiple platforms with access to 170 countries. A great app idea, an outstanding technology used for converting an idea into reality, awesome use of UI for UX, timely bug fixing & updates, marketing, what else? This might look like the basics of mobile app development and its success. There is only a need for a single team to complete various tasks because it gets streamlined exceptionally by eliminating additional expenses. They succeeded in providing better mobile app development services without asking for a higher budget. This advantage indeed allows the developers to stand out of the crowd and makes Xamarin better than other cross-app mobile development platforms.
Enjoy performance, deploy your app to end user’s device and get more with Xamarin framework. When using Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android to build mobile apps with truly native look and feel, you will still need to write a platform-specific layer of code using the native APIs of each platform. Also, Xamarin.Essentials library provides multiple cross-platform APIs and can be used to access native features. Xamarin allows you to create flawless experiences using platform-specific UI elements.
Reusable Codes
Xamarin as a company is incorporated with the idea of building commercial .NET offerings for iOS and Android. In July, Novell gives Xamarin the rights to use MonoTouch and Mono for Android. The Xamarin workload is now reduced by about 3 times from previous versions, meaning reduced from 23 GB to 7GB. Additionally, the new release made considerable improvements for Android SDK and emulators management.
Developers gain access to a number of debugging tools to assist them in deploying error-free applications that will perform as expected. With auto-complete and hints, developers can code faster and more efficiently. The game was initially developed for PC and Xbox but now has a Xamarin based mobile application as well. Game development is well known to be an extremely money-intensive process, and Supergiant Games has leveraged Xamarin in order to reduce this cost. Developers can deploy changes to the source code for all platforms in one go in case of any changes required. The maintenance cost is also drastically reduced because of a single code base in C# by taking advantage of existing code, tools, and teams.
Sample Code
The application logic underlying the UI layer such as database interactions and backend enterprise integration are also all coded only once in C#. Moving on, once the app is live and deployed to the market, the cost of making https://wizardsdev.com/en/news/new-mobile-course/ changes, resolving issues, removing bugs is also economic as the software logic is shared. If someone finds faults before releasing the application, it will make things cost-effective compared with other available frameworks.
Today, it is difficult to overestimate the role of mobile technologies in human life. With the help of a compact device in our pocket, we can quickly contact our relatives and coworkers at any time, find out the state of our health, manage our finances, or find necessary information. The whole world is now surrounded by millions of mobile solutions, the main share of which is for Android from Google and iOS from Apple. Furthermore, there are numerous available mobile application development solutions. Therefore, it is essential to select one that would enable you to construct a universal software product, reducing time and lowering development expenses.
Super App Development: Shaping the Future of Mobile Apps
If we compare it with native analogous apps, the Xamarin-based apps have a slightly heavier size. It is necessary to develop the shared functionality due to code over heading. Microsoft has made significant improvements in recent years to make mobile applications lighter, but it’s still far behind native apps. Enterprises have tough challenges when it comes to supporting applications across multiple devices.
Let’s see how Xamarin compares to the native development tools and hybrid development platforms (Ionic, PhoneGap/Cordova). There might be some issues when integrating third-party resources with your Xamarin app. While most of the tools and libraries offer full support for native technologies, Xamarin support may not be provided by a vendor.