How to build a hybrid mobile app in 2024?
Mobile apps have become part of our daily lives, but developing one can be a complicated process, specially when you’re specialized in mobile development.
Hybrid apps have been around for a while since they provide a faster and cost-effective path to build a mobile application by reducing maintenance and development timelines by using web technologies to build the core of the application and generate shell native apps for iOS and Android. Also, with the added benefit of publishing changes faster without the need of additional App Store approval.
In the past our team used the Ionic framework, but a decade later there are new technologies that make the process faster, more robust and even easier to get started.
When a client recently approached with the need to develop a mobile application, and after researching different alternatives to build it, we created a blueprint that can be used for future projects. Below you’ll find an overview of the approach, please to reach out if you have any questions.
Tech Stack
- Ruby on Rails Web Application with turbo-rails, pg & devise
- Swift Native App with turbo-ios
- Android Native App with turbo-android
Architecture
Deployment & Infrastructure
To host the application we deploy Ruby On Rails Web App on Render using web and databse services:
With the github integration, render automatically redeploys the project with every commit to the selected branch (using the render.yaml file).
The build and deployment process for the native apps is the same as any other app. For iOS we used TestFlight for internal testing.