LayOver Social Network™ Medias
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LayOver Social Network™, a mobile app
By Cheyenne O. VALMOND
04/21/2021
The thrive of mobile apps
Image source: viametiers.fr
Mobile apps aren’t just a way to provide accessibility, they are becoming powerful tools to solve almost all problems in life. It could be health-related, education-related, communication-related or many other fields of application. Because they are so numerous and easy to interact with on the go, people prefer apps over websites.
Indeed, the number of mobile apps downloads increased by almost 135 billion between 2019 and 2021. Today, people are spending around 10% more time on apps compared with websites. This trend is also confirmed by the revenue generated from mobile apps, as it doubled between 2016 and 2019 going from 218 to 462 billion US Dollars generated between 2016 and 2019.
Because of this huge demand, every day we count more companies venturing into mobile applications regardless of their size. They represent a way to open the market even more providing the customer with multiple options for essential services. And Believe.Productions aren’t an exception. Actually, our very first will only be available on the mobile platform in the first place.
One product, multiple technologies
Image source: atlassoftweb.com
When it comes to build a mobile application, three options open to us which involves the use of different technologies.
Native apps are the one created for one specific platform or operating system and are coded in the native programming language of this Operating System. For example, native apps for iOS are coded in Swift as native apps for Android are coded using Java language. This type of mobile applications has the advantage of being faster and more reliable in terms of performance. They are generally more efficient with the device’s resources that other type of apps. The main inconvenience lies in the fact that your code cannot be reused from one platform to another.
Web apps are responsive versions of websites that can work on any mobile device or operating system because they are delivered using a mobile browser. Some of the pros of this type of applications are on one side development cost. Because it is web-based, no need to create one version per OS. On the user side, there’s nothing to download or update. Developers just need to push updates live over their websites and voilà ! On the other side, they are totally dependent on the browser used on the OS, which may modify the appearance of the web app between platforms. They also require a constant internet connection, even with offline modes.
Hybrid apps are the best combination of both previously introduced types of apps, but wrapped within a native app, allowing it to have its own icon or be downloaded from an app store. Building this type of app is much faster and cheaper than a native app. They also load rapidly and give users a consistent experience. Also, as they use a single code base, they are much easier to maintain. The downside of this kind of apps if that they may lack in power and speed compared with native apps.
Building a mobile app with a web background
Image source: promptcloud.com
When I imagined LayOver S.N.™ for the first time, I had worked on many Website projects but never really had the opportunity to develop a mobile application to a point that it would be released. I knew enough of web programming languages, web design and experience to come up with this project on my own. But only if I could use all of these skills to build it. The key point was to find a way to take advantage my knowledge and not having to learn, once more, from scratch, a programming language that would only allow me to develop LayOver S.N.™ for one specific platform. The answer is Cordova.
Apache Cordova
Image source: medium.com
Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework. It allows to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.
As you might have figured out, this tool fits in the “hybrid apps” type and is the best option to start up this project with. LayOver S.N.™ needed some important elements to become a doable project and some of them are :
App integration
With its main social purpose, and by the profession of its users, LayOver S.N.™ had to be released or at least primarily presented as a mobile application. Not only designed to perform like any messaging app, but as an entire dedicated social network, it needed to access many of the device’s tools like the camera, photo library, geolocation etc. Developing it as a hybrid app would make it possible using only web programing languages.
Highly scalable
LayOver Social Network™ needed to be presented on at least the two major mobile Operating Systems which are iOS for Apple devices and Android for most of the other brands. A hybrid app is built to work with different platforms and operating systems. They are also open to third-party plug-ins to take advantage of the device’s hardware essential to this project.
Larger reach
One of the great benefits of developing a hybrid app is to gain access to multiple app stores as Google Play Store for Android, App Store for iOS, etc. This enlarges the customer base, which will allow LayOver S.N.™ to be useful to as many Flight Attendants and Pilots as possible.
Low development and maintenance cost
Starting as a one-person-project with such big ambitions, the feasibility of LayOver S.N.™ relied entirely on the possibility to develop it with limited starting financial resources. Choosing a method that would allow me to barter the financial investment with time investment was preferred. Also, low development solutions used to create this project magnifies the impact of every single donation / investment.
Next stop : Native
Image source: eztek.vn
For as amazing as hybrid apps can be, they never were the final destination intended for LayOver Social Network™. When I set out to achieve anything, I aim for the stars. I am aware that native apps will always be the best solution when it comes to create a mobile application and when the project will grow bigger and expand throughout the world, the next step will be to rebuild LayOver S.N.™ from scratch.
Because you deserve the best of this project.
Because you deserve the best of technology.
Thank you for learning a little more about LayOver Social Network™, about the technologies that surrounds it and for your support in the realization of this project.
