Native App
A native mobile app is a downloadable application developed in a coding language supported by the smartphone's operating system e.g. Java/Android, Objective-C/iOS, C++/Symbian, etc. Once installed on the smartphone it can be launched anytime by the mobile user. As it starts the native app interfaces directly with the mobile operating system (OS), without any intermediary or container. The native app is free to access available smartphone's hardware – GPS, camera, touchscreen, microphone, etc. – and interact with services such as making phone calls, send and receive text messages, browsing the web, managing the contacts, handling the calendar, etc. and has often unique features and functions typical of that specific mobile OS.
Native mobile apps usually achieve the highest level of performance which greatly contribute maximising the mobile user's experience… at a price since a native mobile app is complicated to develop and works only on the platform for which it is developed. Thus a mobile app developed for Android only works on Android powered smartphones. The only way for a native Android mobile app to "work" on a different platform is by recoding it for that particular platform thus increasing development costs. That is why knowing what operating systems are powering the target audience mobiles is key.
Click here to see native apps we've published.