Native app or is it native?

by aabbcc1241 on 6/21/2021, 5:03 PM with 3 comments

Occasionally seen people talk about native app when they actually describing web based hybrid app (capacitor / cordova) or abstracted UI (react native / flutter).

Should we really call them native app? Otherwise how do we distinct them from the traditional java / swift / objective-c / kotlin app?

My concern is not about the programming languages but the added layer of abstraction.

  • by sandruso on 6/21/2021, 5:28 PM

    In my world native = using platform apis to deliver experience. That means gui, networking, background processes, graphics, etc.

  • by foobarbaz33 on 6/22/2021, 12:34 PM

    It's a gray area and depends on your definition of "native". For example, a Java program is certainly not native by most people's idea of "native". But the official API's and GUI interfaces of Android/Linux are based around Java, so it's native in relation to the official APIs.

    Someone making a a high FPS video game for Android/Linux might disagree that a Java app is native to that platform.

  • by Jeremy1026 on 6/22/2021, 1:30 AM

    I say no. To me a native app is more than just an icon on the home screen.