I am new to iOS Development and am working on an app concept for a customer. The user experience could be greatly improved if the app was able to intercept a deep link.
This is possible in android since links are not bound to the website but to the app manifest itself. So if I make an app that can receive Amazon links, then the user can choose which app opens those links.
Is this possible on iOS using Apple deep links? I am aware they are more complicated since they require a component on the website itself. Furthermore, the app won't need to receive Amazon links if the Amazon app is installed.
I would attempt this myself but do not have an Apple Developer Account yet and don't want to invest without knowing the answer.
The only universal (deep) links you are able to hear about are those directed to your own domain. You cannot receive an Amazon link, because (unless you are Jeff Bezos in disguise) you don't own the amazon.com domain.
Client wants to publish an iOS application as a starting point for their product which at the moment will be entirely single web view driven. There will be some networking calls to resolve some of the URLs, but the sign in and all content will be entirely on single web view. On top of that there is push notifications, which will redirect user to different parts of the website based on payload.
* They have an existing Android application that does this and they want an iOS counterpart.
Appstore guidelines state an iOS can't be a repackaged website and will likely get rejected. The purpose of this question is to find out if any of you fellow devs have gone through similar experience, and if so what was the outcome / recommendations to proceed.
The mobile apps will have native components in future, but at this moment as a starting point it's not the case.
Thanks
I am writing to you for the first time. I would like to know if with the "webview" configuration (https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/android/webview), it's good for hybrid apps and if you can track the transactions carried out on the institutional site, more precisely the payment takes place on the site and not within the app and understand that users who have converted arrive from the app and not from other channels. Thank you in advance for your opinion.
Elisa
If I have both a native app and a progressive web app using web push notifications powered by service worker, is there a way to prevent a user from receiving duplicate notifications if they opt in to receiving notifications from the web site and also have the app installed?
In short - there is no easy way to do this today.
There is a discussion on Chrome here on this: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=402223
The last comment from October 2015:
For now the safest minimal solution is for sites to provide an easy
opt out mechanism (which we strongly recommend you do anyway!) so
users can turn off notifications from one platform
Another possible heuristic based solution is to take some measure for
which interface (web or native) the user most often uses (or most
recently used) and only send to that. Combined with grouping these
devices by rough screen size should give a pretty good approximation.
The issue is that if the user has two similar sized devices and uses
native on one and web on the other then notifications will only be
delivered to one, which is an edge case.
We've also been discussing building an API so sites can tell whether
their corresponding native app is installed to avoid this case, but
need to start discussing that with other browser vendors to see if
they'd be supportive.
I'm currently graduating at a small company which makes and sells accounting software.
My task during my graduation is to make a Mobile application which supports some functionality of this software.
For instance: making a report on site and uploading it to the server,logging hours worked, retrieving sales information etc..
I'm currently doing research on which platform I should deploy but I'm getting confused in what shape my application should be made.
I can't make a choice what I should recommend, Web app or Native app?
I need help making a recommendation:
Security is important. (we deal with confidential information)
Maintenance is very important. (they will have to support it in the future and have low resources available. (small company))
Development costs (I have no clue here.)
User experience (Because this is a business app, is a web app good enough?)
The business market here is currently very iOS (Apple) saturated (about 80%) but I do need to think of the future. (Android, WP7)
So What do u recommend with the given information, web or native? Do I need more information before making a decision / recommendation if so, what sort of information?
ps I think this question belongs on stackoverflow, if not please move it to the appropriate site.
For what you're looking to accomplish, I'd recommend taking the mobile web app route. Here's why:
Security is important. (we deal with confidential information)
You could make a case either way, but I feel that a mobile web app is better for security. Like Ganzolo said, it can have as much security as a typical web app. Also, since it doesn't store data on the device itself, you won't have to worry about a data breach in the event of a lost or stolen phone (assuming you're not using HTML5 offline storage).
Maintenance is very important. (they will have to support it in the future and have low resources available. (small company))
Mobile web apps have an advantage here. If you built native apps, you'd have to build and maintain separate apps for each platform. On the other hand, since one mobile web app reaches all platforms, you'd only ever have to maintain one app. Also, you won't have to update a mobile web app with each OS update, like you would with a native app. If you want to go one step further, you could even build a mobile web app with separate presentation layers for smartphones, tablet, and PCs (like this). That way, one mobile app would look different (yet native) on any device, but you'd only have to maintain one underlying application.
Development costs (I have no clue here.)
Depends on how many platforms you want to reach. If you're building for one platform, the costs are similar. If you're building for multiple platforms, mobile web apps are far cheaper. One mobile web app reaches all platforms, whereas you'd have to build a separate native app for each platform.
User experience (Because this is a business app, is a web app good enough?)
You'll get a better UI with a native app, but a mobile web app should be more than sufficient for most business apps. Use a good mobile framework (like jQuery Mobile), and you can build a mobile web app that looks and feels almost native.
The business market here is currently very iOS (Apple) saturated (about 80%) but I do need to think of the future. (Android, WP7)
Mobile web apps are a much safer choice for the future. Who knows what the mobile platform landscape will look like in 2 or 3 years? Maybe WP7 will be popular. Maybe some new OS will be popular. It changes so fast, there's no way to know. The only thing I do know is this: The web will still be popular. If you build a mobile web app, you insulate yourself from all future mobile OS battles.
I hope that helps.
My personal opinion would be to go for a web App :
• Security is important. (we deal with confidential information)
Sercurity in a web app cannot be worse than security in a regular website (like online banking)
• Maintenance is very important. (they will have to support it in the
future and have low resources available. (small company))
Maintenance is really easy for a web app since you can make updates without going through the process of submitting your app to the store and waiting.
• Development costs (I have no clue here.)
Development cost will be lower with a web app as you'll have 1 code for every phones (and most of them are using webkit which will be simplier)
• User experience (Because this is a business app, is a web app good
enough?)
It's hard to answer this question without knowing your project but for simple UI it can be good enough
• The business market here is currently very iOS (Apple) saturated
(about 80%) but I do need to think of the future. (Android, WP7)
Yes you need to think about the future that the most important because you can only do simple functionality in web apps. So if future requirement, will have more complex functionality then you'll have to move into native apps.
Hope I've been helpful
In my experience, web apps always tend to be sluggish on the UI front. I would always opt for a native app, if you don't have to support multiple platforms at once (iOS, Android, generic).
Security: Make your app connections over SSL
Maintenance: The only problem here is that you may have to wait 7 days for App Store approval for native apps
Development costs: Depends on who makes the app, shouldn't be too different.
UX: Defenitely native!
Multiplatform: As I said, for multi platform a web app is probably best
If you opt for a web app, make sure the user doesn't have the impression of "the app isn't doing anything" while loading stuff.