Business enterprises worldwide are focusing on building the apps to reach their target audiences more easily, solve customer problems quickly, and confidently work together toward shared success.
However, the competition is fierce nowadays. According to Statista, as of August 2024, Android users could choose between 2.3 million apps, making Google Play the app store with the biggest number of available apps. Apple's App Store is the second-largest app store for iOS, with almost 1.64 million available apps.
iOS Mobile App Architecture
The standard iOS mobile app architecture can be divided into four blocks:
- Kernel level (Core OS) — works with the file system, and controls the validity of various certificates belonging to the applications. Also responsible for the security of the entire system. Contains low-level access to the elements of the device.
- Core Services (Core Service) — provides access to databases and file controls.
- Media level (Media) — contains tools that allow for processing most media data formats.
- Interface level (Cocoa Touch) — has many elements for creating mobile interfaces, and also provides the remaining layers with information coming from the user.
An MVC (Massive View Controller) and its prototypes are used to create a high-quality iOS mobile application architecture. Cocoa MVC encourages you to write a Massive View Controller because the controller is so involved in the View life cycle that it is difficult to say that it is a separate entity. Although you still have the opportunity to ship some of the business logic and data conversion in the Model, when it comes to shipping work in View, you have few options.
Hybrid Mobile App Architecture
Hybrid mobile apps architecture is pretty powerful as it can leverage native as well as web solutions. They are the fastest apps that it's possible to create across different platforms. Although it's really easy to update, it won't be the best option to deliver complex and feature-rich applications. Hybrid applications use native applications as the foundation for the backend whereas for the frontend they use neutral HTML/CSS and JavaScript. In addition, hybrid applications also use typical plugins like Ionic Capacitor or Apache Cordova in order to get full access to all the features of native platforms.
Cross-Platform Mobile App Architecture
Cross-platform architecture of mobile apps is very similar to the hybrid one. It also leverages the most-used codebases with specific platform abilities in every native shell. It's worth noting that cross-platform application architecture relies not on web languages but more on frameworks like React Native and Xamarin. Cross-platform applications ensure a smooth user experience that is very similar to native and, therefore, more attractive. Here are some benefits of cross-platform architecture.
Architecture for Mobile Application & Tips for Making It
A well-designed architecture is needed for all applications, both complex and simple. Using architecture for mobile applications saves time, effort, and costs. A program with a reliable architecture is easier to tweak, test, and debug.
How to understand if your application has a good architecture? Here is the checklist:
- Efficiency: the application performs the tasks and performs the functions in any condition. The system is effective, reliable, and copes with all the loads.
- Flexibility: the chosen solution is easy to change, and errors are few. You can change one element, and it will not be fatal, influencing the other one in a negative way.
- Extensibility: you can add as many functions as you like to the application.
- Scalability: time for development and updates decreases. The solid architecture allows you to direct development in several parallel threads.
- Testability: The architecture for mobile applications is easily tested, which means that the number of errors decreases and its reliability increases.
- Understandability: the code should be understandable to as many developers as possible. A lot of people are working on the application. Good architecture allows beginners to understand the project quickly.
Elements to Consider Before Developing Your Mobile App Architecture
For a solid background for a mobile app, some things should be considered first and foremost. Precisely, building a mobile app requires your foresight in four key dimensions:
- Choosing the mobile app dimensions that fit your preferred devices
- Prescribing scenarios for a different quality of Internet connection
- Polishing UI details for your target audience
- Picking the proper navigation between the elements on a screen
Here are the specifics for each of these elements.
