To build an app for your business, you call an app development company for help, but you get lost in the overseas of terms. You give them a specific mission to do, but you may get something far different, or pay a high cost for something exotic that you didn’t really need. Well, to avoid all that, let me give you a hint on what are the different types of mobile apps and what are most popular .
What are the types of mobile apps? First, let me give you 2 types of categorization for the different types of apps:
- Technical Base Categorization
- The purpose of the app- categorization
On a technical basis, how many types of mobile applications are there? They’re commonly three.
- Native mobile application
A native mobile app is the one created for specific mobile systems, such as Android and IOS, and they can work on this specific system only, and they’re the most common. And if you want to know what kind of apps is most popular, then you should know that native mobile apps are.
Advantages
- They get installed on mobile, and they have assistance from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
- They function the best among all types of mobile applications, as they’re designed to match specific systems.
- Allow offline mode to be used.
- Fewer bugs.
- Allow developers full access to the operating system’s feature set, including GPS, camera, microphone, and other devices.
Disadvantages
- Expensive
- They need a hired company or team working on it, prior to designing them and developing them, and after publishing, to maintain them and keep them updated regularly.
Native apps examples
- Soundcloud
- Web-based mobile apps
Apps that are accessed via web browsers. Regular users may not be aware of that type when they see it, yet they will feel unfamiliar.
Advantages
- Faster to build and easier to maintain.
- Cheap, no cost to be mentioned compared to native apps.
- The website development team can develop them and maintain them with no need to assign a company.
- You only need to develop one codebase for all devices, which can bring down development time and costs.
- And finally, they’re accessible. Users can access them through a browser from any device and any operating system.
Disadvantages
- No offline mode.
- Slower than native apps, owing to the fact that they cannot be processed without an internet connection.
- They don’t get installed on mobile IOS or Android systems, so there is no access to the camera, GPS, microphone, or else.
What are the examples of mobile apps, the web based ones?
Before we give examples of web apps, it’s worth mentioning that technology has stepped up a level in web apps by creating Progressive Web Apps, or PWA, which use similar web technologies to regular web apps but are far superior and considered to be the future of web apps. And these are examples of the most famous PWA:
- Starbucks.
- Pinterest.
- Debenhams.
- BMW.
- Flipboard.
- Soundslice.
- MakeMyTrip.
- Hybrid mobile app
The hybrid app is a mixture of native apps and web apps. Or, more precisely, a hybrid app has the source code of web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and the shell of a native app.
Advantages
They combine some of the native app advantages with some of the web-app advantages.- Less cost than native apps.
- It takes less effort and time to build.
- Much easier to maintain than native apps.
- A hybrid application is able to work without an internet connection.
Disadvantages
- The worst user experience among the different types of mobile apps.
- Quality issues. On the contrary to a native app, a hybrid app cannot deliver pictures of high graphics.
- Slow. The performance offered by a hybrid app is slower in every aspect. This is because there exists a layer between the operating system and the source code.
Examples
- Instagram.
- Twitter.
- Gmail.
- Evernote. Contrary to popular belief, Evernote is not a native app.
- Amazon app.
And this was the technical cover of the different types of mobile apps. How many different types of mobile applications are based on the app's concept or purpose? They’re six:
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Lifestyle Mobile Apps Not pretty much of frequent use, but essential to use them. Traveling, food, fitness, and transportation apps. Uber, CouchSurfing, and Tripadvisor. For creating this type of app, you need to make sure it’s a dazzling one, solves a real problem, meets a real need, or based on a very creative idea.
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Social Media Mobile Apps Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Interacting, sharing, and communicating. Daily use for hours, can gather working teams not only families and friends.
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Utility Mobile Apps Calendar, calculator, and weather, all almost mandatory apps to be on each mobile phone. Most of the time, they’re already on the phone even if you didn’t download them. Very short time of use, but can be daily.
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Games/Entertainment Mobile Apps Angry Bird, The Coffee Shop, or Candy Crush. Addictive, hours of use, but also can be on very long terms.
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Productivity Mobile Apps Google Sheets, Evernote, and Docs. Apps help your users accomplish a task more easily, quickly, and efficiently. They can also be used for hours daily if they’re created right.
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News/Information Outlets Mobile Apps Buzzfeed, Google News & Weather, Flipboard, Reddit, and LinkedIn Pulse. It must be easy to use and to understand. They’re daily used, can be based on push notifications alone, yet are so important for users.
You now have a good understanding of the various types of mobile apps and how to prioritise quality, working staff, and costs.