Ayush Newatia - Use Turbo Native to make hybrid apps that don't suck

Summary

This video script explores the advantages of hybrid mobile app development, emphasizing the power of web-to-native bridges for seamless communication between web content and native functionality. It highlights how tools like Turbo Native allow developers to create rich, native-like experiences using web technologies. Despite some limitations compared to fully native apps, hybrid apps can offer a great user experience with efficient development and lower costs, especially for CRUD-based applications. The speaker illustrates the approach with real-world examples of successful hybrid apps, demonstrating that user satisfaction is the key to success.

Takeaways

• 😀 Hybrid app development allows for two-way communication between web and native code, enabling seamless integration of web content with native functionality.
• 😀 JavaScript interfaces in both iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) allow messages to be passed from web apps to native code, triggering native functionality.
• 😀 The Web-to-Native bridge enables web apps to render fully native components, such as buttons, that can trigger web actions, driving interaction from the web environment.
• 😀 A key concept in the web-to-native communication is the adapter pattern, which handles platform-specific differences in sending messages from the web app to the native code.
• 😀 Developers can create 'bridge elements' in the web UI, which act as proxies for native components, using attributes to define the platform-specific behavior.
• 😀 The Turbo Native framework provides a thin abstraction layer that standardizes the process of message passing and component rendering between the web and native layers.
• 😀 While hybrid apps may not offer the same experience as fully native apps, they can come very close, offering a balance between functionality and resource efficiency.
• 😀 Hybrid apps are suitable for CRUD-based applications, where the primary focus is on data management rather than complex interactions or high-end graphical elements.
• 😀 The consumer experience is often unaffected by the underlying technology stack, meaning users prioritize functionality and reliability over whether an app is fully native or hybrid.
• 😀 Successful examples like Basecamp and BBC Sport show that hybrid apps can achieve high user satisfaction and app ratings, even without relying on fully native code.
• 😀 Despite its capabilities, the hybrid approach is generally more cost-effective, allowing for significant savings in development resources compared to building fully native apps.

Q & A

What is the main concept behind the Web-to-Native Bridge discussed in the transcript?

The Web-to-Native Bridge is a communication mechanism that enables two-way interaction between a web app (using JavaScript) and a native mobile app (using Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android), allowing the web app to trigger native behaviors and vice versa.

How does the Web-to-Native Bridge communicate between the web app and native code?

The communication happens through messages posted from the web app to the native code, triggering native actions, such as rendering buttons or executing other platform-specific functionalities. This communication is handled through a bridge that adapts the messages to the platform's API (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android).

What role does the adapter pattern play in this system?

The adapter pattern is used to handle differences in the API between iOS and Android. It ensures that the same message-passing mechanism works across platforms by adapting the message to the correct API for each platform.

What is Strata, and how does it simplify the Web-to-Native Bridge?

Strata is an abstraction layer built on top of the Web-to-Native Bridge. It simplifies the implementation by standardizing common tasks, such as message passing and component rendering, making the integration smoother and less error-prone.

What is the key advantage of using a hybrid app approach over fully native apps?

A hybrid app approach is cost-effective and can provide a sufficiently good user experience, especially for common use cases like CRUD operations. It avoids the need for complex native code for each platform while still enabling native behaviors through the Web-to-Native Bridge.

Can hybrid apps achieve the same performance as fully native apps?

No, hybrid apps cannot fully match the performance of a native app, but they can come close enough for most use cases. The key trade-off is that while hybrid apps are more cost-effective, they may not offer the highest level of fidelity and performance found in fully native apps.

Why does the speaker believe that most mobile apps are 'CRUD apps'?

The speaker argues that most mobile apps primarily involve Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations, which can be efficiently handled by hybrid solutions. As a result, fully native apps may not be necessary for the majority of apps that focus on basic data management.

What is an example of a fully native app that could be considered substandard, according to the transcript?

The speaker suggests that even a fully native app, like Facebook, can be considered substandard in some cases, implying that having a native app doesn't automatically guarantee a superior user experience compared to hybrid apps.

What are the real-world examples mentioned that demonstrate the success of hybrid apps?

The transcript mentions Basecamp and BBC Sport as successful examples of hybrid apps. Both have high ratings on the App Store and provide strong user experiences, even though they use hybrid approaches rather than fully native implementations.

How does the Web-to-Native Bridge contribute to making hybrid apps work seamlessly?

The Web-to-Native Bridge allows a hybrid app to render native UI elements (like buttons) and perform actions by sending messages between the web and native code. This bridge ensures that the web and native components work together smoothly, enabling a cohesive user experience within the hybrid app.