Developers often want their applications to be “cross-platform” so that they can run on any platform their end-users wish to use. Platforms may include different flavors of desktops (Windows, MacOS, Linux) or flavors of mobile devices (Android, iOS).
Web applications are, by definition, cross-platform as they will run anywhere a browser runs. With the wide availability of browsers across platforms today, that means pretty much anywhere.
However, standard web applications running in a browser are not as integrated into a platform as a native application, may be limited with respect to what services they can use from the platform, and need connectivity to be able to run. Organizations may want to achieve better integration with platforms and to have their applications run off-line.
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) can achieve these capabilities and can be used as a middle ground between native applications and Hybrid applications. They improve interaction with native platforms while staying closer to a standard Web application. However, iOS users may find it more difficult to install PWAs due to a more limited browser support and features. Additionally, users must be taught how to install a PWA.
If more integration is needed than a PWA can provide, a common option is to use a hybrid application which embeds a web application built with standard Web technologies into a native application and provides a higher level of integration into the native platforms.
Key ways for integrating a web application into a native application include WebViews, Chrome Custom Tabs, and Trusted Web Activities although the latter two are for Android only.
There are also frameworks that enable cross-platform development of native applications using a single codebase. These produce native applications that do not use WebViews.
Tools for building hybrid applications often either target desktop (Windows, MacOS and Linux) and/or Mobile (Android, iOS).
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Some team members have experience in creating cross-platform applications in previous roles, but we currently don’t have any guidance to share based on experience within the team based on projects within Red Hat and IBM.
This reflects that for the applications we develop, most often the team has seen either the use of a pure Web application which is accessible across platforms and/or the use of individual solutions for specific platforms.