How React Native Development Can Save Your Business in the Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

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Nowadays a lot of businesses have to find themselves in a new reality caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis will affect the vast majority of industries, so we decided to prepare three scenarios in which cross-platform app development may prove to be a game changer. What are these scenarios and how to weather the coronavirus storm? Read the article and find out.

Many businesses are forced to go online as their offline channels are suffering government-imposed restrictions. Others are experiencing more traffic than ever, putting their applications and infrastructure under heavy load that they were never designed for.

In such a world, what matters is who gets to the users faster and at the lowest cost. And that’s where cross-platform and React Native come into play.

In the article, first I will explain what cross-platform development is, how you can accomplish it with React Native and what business benefits this solution brings. Then, I will describe to you three most common cases, where cross-platform development with React Native brings you measurable benefits:

You are an offline business and want to quickly build your presence on all online platforms!
You have a web application and want to quickly launch a mobile app to reach a wider audience
You have an existing mobile application for iOS and Android and want to ship new features faster while reducing the overall cost

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What is a <cyan>cross-platform<cyan> app development?

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Cross-platform development is the process of building and delivering apps that can run across multiple device platforms, maximizing the code sharing and reducing the overall maintenance cost. Rather than creating individual applications for every single platform, you create a single - universal - codebase, that is shared among all of them at the same time.

Such an approach is particularly popular amongst mobile apps, where the interface and business logic are usually similar and doesn’t change much between Android and iOS. With the right set of tools, it is also possible to share the code across different environments, including Web, desktop (both Mac and Windows) as well as TVs (tvOS) or even your car (via CarPlay).

React Native is the most popular framework on the market for delivering universal applications that can work across all the aforementioned platforms. It is a JavaScript framework that has been created and open-sourced by Facebook.

In simple words, React Native works like this: you create the business logic of your app once and reuse this code on the other versions of it (mobile, web, desktop, etc.), keeping the individual look and feel and platform-specific vibe of the app. The reusability of the code may vary due to the complexity of the app.

You compose your application from arbitrary components. React Native then takes these components and renders them for you, using the APIs ( depending on what platform you’re currently working on). Such an approach is called declarative because you declare what you want your application to look like.

As a result, your code is not tied to any platform, which is the first step towards building a universal application. In other words, the same code can be used to create individual versions of your app (mobile, web, desktop, etc.) while still maintaining the individual look and feel of a given platform.

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Why is it worth to get into cross-platform app development and React Native at all?

Firstly, when you have an app that runs on the three most popular platforms - iOS, Android (which together own more than 98% of the mobile operating system market), and Web, you significantly increase the reach of your business. It gives you an opportunity to approach new potential customers and adds news streams of revenue.

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Speed of development and rich JavaScript ecosystem

Secondly, the most popular and most efficient framework used in creating cross-platform apps, React Native, is based on JavaScript. Thanks to that, the app development process is much faster because you see code-change results much quicker than when you rebuild the whole Native app, install it on a device and then launch it.

The process is also easier for developers because they can benefit from a rich JavaScript ecosystem that is still growing. Newer and newer libraries are appearing to make the process easier as well as current and well-matured ones with hundreds of developers contributing.

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High availability of JavaScript developers

According to 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey JS is still the most popular technology (seventh year in a row) which means a greater number of available developers, consecutively - it’s just more talent to choose from. It makes the community of JavaScript specialists more competitive what positively influences the community by making it more quality-oriented.

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Code sharing

As I mentioned above, Android and iOS own a lion share of the mobile operating system market. Thanks to cross-platform app development the majority of produced code is cross-platform and can be used on both operating systems.

React Native is not just a good solution from the potential cost and time savings. It is just the right thing to do. Reimplementing same logic and similar user interface across every single platform is just a waste of time and precious resources of your organization that could be utilized elsewhere, e.g., to deliver a new feature or innovate faster than your competition.

Sometimes you’ll need to do some platform-specific tweaks to adapt to the platform standards, but the overall cost is greatly reduced if you need to maintain only one project, hire one team and maintain one app.

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COVID-19 common business cases and how React Native can help

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Here are the 3 most common situations the current coronavirus pandemic has probably thrown your business into and how the use of React Native can let you adapt quickly.

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1. You are an offline business and want to quickly build your presence on all online platforms

It’s 2020, coronavirus spreads all over the world and your offline business is not performing well. Chances are that your revenue will steadily decline. . In order to stay afloat, you need to quickly go online. When you think about going online with your business, mobile and web apps are probably the first things that come to your mind. So, you need three apps - for iOS, Android and Web.

But wait, if you’re facing the risk of not generating any revenue, there is no time for large investments like three teams of developers working on your mobile apps!

It’s true but actually you don’t have to do it that way. With React Native, you can create one app that will run on iOS, Android and Web. This cross-platform app development allows you to create the final product faster and cost-effective thanks to just one team of developers working on the app for multiple platforms at the same time.

This approach shortens the time to market of your app so you can start profiting from a new source faster.

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Why is React Native development efficient in this case?

Having separate applications for multiple platforms is inefficient. What happens most of the time is that there are multiple teams, scattered across different locations, developing the same product, just on a different platform.

While such setup still remains popular among companies all around the world, it comes with an enormous maintenance cost. It also reduces the velocity of innovations and impacts how quickly business can adapt to the new reality - two key characteristics needed in today’s world.

On a high-level, each platform receives a dedicated application, made from scratch. And because platforms are fundamentally different from one another, this approach is doomed to fail from the start.

With separate teams and separate tools, it is challenging to ensure the same set of features and unified user experience on each platform. The majority of businesses end up having a different feature set amongst the platforms, framing the business to have a preferred platform over the rest. Such an impression is unhealthy and automatically encourages the users to look out for better alternatives with a better feature parity for their devices.

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It reduces development and maintenance costs

Another key factor is the development costs. The aforementioned feature imparity is a known problem and businesses were investing a lot of time and money to address it.

Developing an infrastructure that keeps all the applications in sync and provides seamless user experience is a privilege that only enterprises can afford. As a result - if you are not another Google - your application is likely to end up going that route sooner or later.

Rather than losing the cash twice - first for developing separate applications and then, for paying the double to align them with each other - wouldn’t it be better to save all that time and effort and create one application that works everywhere? Sounds impossible?

Fortunately, it’s not.

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How can I go online with my business and do it faster and less costly?

React Native has been developed by Facebook to solve this exact challenge. Being at an enormous size that only a few businesses will ever reach, they are able to foresee a lot of challenges that you might eventually run into.

With React Native, you can create a universal application that runs and works on all the platforms. You write it once and it is accessible everywhere. From mobile (iOS and Android), to desktop and console games - you can ship your app to all the channels at the same time!

So, how React Native actually can help here?

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One app for iOS, Android, Web, and desktop

Firstly, React Native allows developers to create a single application that runs on mobile (iOS, Android), Web and Desktop! Having in mind that Android and iOS together won more than 98% of the mobile operating system market, it significantly increases your chances of reaching new clients.

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Shorter time to market, faster revenue

Secondly, thanks to React native unique architecture, developers can work with much more efficiency. To make a long story short, seeing their code-change results is happening much quicker than rebuilding the whole Native app, installing it on a device and then launching it.

Thanks to the latest tool, “fast refresh” changes in code are almost instantly reflected in the UI. It means that React Native allows you to deliver your app faster, stay ahead of your competitors and start making revenue quicker than others.

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2. You have a web application and want to quickly launch a mobile app to reach a wider audience

You might be thinking whether it’s different from the previous one. All in all, in both cases, you don’t have a mobile app and you need to start from scratch. What’s even worse, chances are that you don’t have any mobile engineers on board.

A lot of companies still limit themselves only to web apps, which reduces their potential reach. The mobile app market is growing faster than you think. The downloads of top-five food delivery apps doubled between 2016 and 2018. On top of that, people are spending more and more time in the apps. An average American use apps for 2 hours and 57 minutes per day, out of 3 hours and 43 they spend on their mobiles.

Android and iOS have more than 98% of the market share and the total number of mobile apps users is still growing. This translates directly into more potential customers.

As you see, it’s good to be present on both platforms, but I know that hiring two separate teams to create two versions of one app can be very expensive and take a long time to deliver.

But there is no need to hire two teams. There is a possibility to hire just one that will create a code that runs on iOS and Android. What’s also exciting is that you can reuse part of the code from your existing web app. This is where React Native comes into play.

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Why is React Native the best way to quickly launch a mobile app?

First and foremost - It runs on most popular platforms - iOS, Android, Web, Desktop (Windows and Mac). What’s even more important - it’s flexible and based on JavaScript.

Why is it so important for you?

Javascript is the most popular programming technology in the world. It means that most of the websites, probably including yours, are created using this language. Now, you may be wondering - if my web application is JavaScript and React Native is JavaScript, does it mean that my web app can be a native mobile app?

The answer is yes.

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Business power of reusable code

Thanks to the reusable code of your web app, you can easily transform it into the mobile version, running on every platform.

Depending on the framework you used, you can take part of this code to create a mobile application.

For example, if your web application is done in React, it is very likely that you will be able to share most of it with the mobile React Native app. The exact number depends on various technical choices your team has done in the past, such as using an API that is available in React and React Native.

Code reusability makes the process of developing a mobile app faster, time-efficient and cost-effective. And because Javascript is the most popular technology in the world and there is a large number of available JavaScript developers, it also translates into lower costs of development and maintenance.

So, does it mean that if you don’t have a React application, this doesn’t help you in any way? Wrong!

When it comes to shipping a mobile app, a unified user interface is not that important. Sure, it’s great to have common building blocks to ensure the harmonized user experience and you can always create them at a later stage. What is more important is sharing the business logic, the way we handle authentication, state and sessions. And you can share that regardless of the underlying framework. Again, the final answer depends on the technical choices that your team has done in the past.

Long story short - if you have an existing web application, there’s an opportunity for you to reuse some pieces of it in new mobile solutions. This means that in a short time you will not only create a new source of revenue, but you will also stay ahead of your competition.

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3. You have an existing mobile application for iOS and Android and want to ship new features faster while reducing the overall cost

If you are having a mobile application that runs on iOS and Android, chances are that you have run into the challenges that we have described in the Case 1 section.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could also move faster with your existing infrastructure and adapt to the changing reality, just like your competition that might be starting from scratch?

Of course, it would and React Native also has an answer for that! This is what makes it different from all the other cross-platform frameworks out there, such as Flutter. It perfectly integrates with your existing mobile application.

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How can I ship new features to an existing app with brownfield?

This approach is called "brownfield" and means that a React Native code is integrated as a part of an existing native application. For example, it could be a grocery store application where checkout functionality was done in React Native, incorporated into the original app, and shared across Android and iOS (or any other platform you require).

Using the traditional React Native Development approach, you would have to rewrite the whole app from the beginning to the end. By applying brownfield development, you can achieve feature parity step by step. It means that you can identify the bottlenecks and most crucial elements of the functionality of your app and enhance them immediately. Then if you choose so, you can extend the transition to the cross-platform to the whole project. As a result, you can write the code once and ship it everywhere.

With single architecture comes a single team of perfectly aligned developers. This way, you will need less time to implement innovations, create a better-looking interface and most importantly - reduced costs multiple times.
On average, it takes around a month of the entire team’s work to develop a reliable infrastructure, integrate React Native into an existing application and have it tested and taught internally.

Basing on our experience, we have created a library that allows us to fit React Native into an existing mobile application in a matter of seconds. It provides a stable and fast infrastructure for making React Native and native “talk” to each other. We refer to internally under “React Native Brownfield.”

On a high-level, React Native Brownfield allows you to package your React Native application into a native-looking interface and send it to your mobile developers to integrate. The integration is so smooth that native developers will never realize it’s React Native unless you tell them. The resulting components and views look as if they were developed fully natively from scratch, having a typed API and all the methods that we would normally use and create when working on a native application.

In other words, we turn React Native into native-looking components, which is a perfect building block to place on top of any platform.

Our library is stable and usable on any platform and application. While working on the features you need, we will estimate them as if your application was already React Native. All in all, we want you to move faster at a lower cost.

To sum up, brownfield allows to add new features that speed up the app and are shareable on both systems while maintaining business continuity - it means that you can add them while the app is working. Later, when the difficult situation passes, you can completely transfer your app to React Native with no harm for business stability. It also helps you to save time and money because the work is done by one team.

Callstack is an official Facebook partner on React Native and have been one of the innovators of the brownfield approach. Throughout the past few years, we have shipped multiple brownfield integrations to clients of all sizes - from small startups to through big companies such as Kiwi.com to large enterprises.

Summary

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Let’s gather all the benefits of cross-platform app development with React Native in one place.

First, you can write once and run on multiple platforms with little to no effort. It allows you to reduce app development costs by hiring one team to work on the app for all the popular platforms such as iOS, Android and Web. Also, React Native is based on JavaScript and Javascript developers are easier and inexpensive to hire.

Second, you can significantly increase the time efficiency of your development and maintenance process. When you have one team responsible for delivering a single app for three platforms, you reduce time to market your app. Thanks to that, you can quickly start making the revenue and reaching a huge number of potential clients!

But the development process is not the only part of cross-platform development that brings measurable benefits. Don’t forget about the extremely important process - maintenance. It’s also easier, faster and affordable with React Native.

Third, thanks to the brownfield approach you can fix the bottlenecks and improve the user experience of your apps while maintaining the business continuum. Also, it compensates the differences between iOS and Android version of the app and improves their feature parity.

As you see, cross-platform development with the use of React Native not only allows you to move your business to the online world with an innovative approach. It also gives you the opportunity to reach more potential customers and save money by hiring one team to do the work previously foreseen for three different teams.

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Callstack

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We are the official Facebook partners on React Native. We’ve been working on React Native projects for over 5 years, delivering high-quality solutions for our clients and contributing greatly to React Native ecosystem. Our Open Source projects help thousands of developers to cope with their challenges and make their work easier every day.

We’ve been using these technologies to ship cross-platform apps and gained a lot of experience along the way. We are ready to help you apply them to your business and get ahead of the competition. We can collaborate at different levels, e.g., join your team of developers, review your code, or work independently. We also offer React Native training. That’s by no means a finished list, so I encourage you to check out all services offered by our React Native development company.

Contact us if you need help with cross-platform or React Native development. We will be happy to provide a free consultation.

Tags:

App Development

Cross Platform

React

React Native

Author:

Mike Grabowski

Co-founder & Supervisory Board Member

What are super apps?

Super apps are multipurpose platforms that integrate a wide range of services and features to answer diverse user needs, all within a single mobile interface. Comprised of modular mini apps that users can activate at their convenience, super apps are the software equivalent of Swiss army knives that deliver a powerful mobile-first experience.

Super apps act as a one-stop shop for customers, allowing them to perform everyday tasks like shopping, paying bills, communicating, and more, all in one place. They’re a powerful tool for businesses looking to captivate users with what Mike Lazaridis, Blackberry founder who coined the term in 2010, defined as a “seamless, integrated, contextualized and efficient experience.”

A good example of such an all-round experience is WeChat, a multipurpose app developed in China. Its core features include messaging, localization, a search engine, a news feed, payments, loans, public services, transportation, and housing – and that’s by no means a finished list. It shouldn’t be surprising that the number of active users on WeChat is estimated to reach 1.102 billion by 2025.

What do super apps offer?

Super apps are made to meet the modern-day demand for smooth, convenient, all-encompassing mobile experiences. What makes them stand out, however, is the way they’re built and how they work.

Ordinary mobile products offer a variety of features within a single application. Super apps, on the other hand, operate as a platform to deliver modular mini apps that users can activate for personalized experiences. The things that account for the super quality in super apps include:

range of services – while a mobile application typically serves a single purpose, a super app aims to be the only piece of software a user needs to perform a variety of actions across services or even industries, like Grab, WeChat, or Gojek.
all-in-one toolkit – traditional suites of applications released by tech giants like Google or Microsoft require users to switch between products to access different services. Super apps, on the other hand, shorten the customer journey by allowing users to achieve different goals within a single ecosystem without downloading multiple digital products.
data sharing – as opposed to ordinary apps that collect data related to a specific purpose only, super apps gather and process much more user data. While this may raise privacy and security concerns, properly-handled data sharing between respective services is a safe way to ensure an even smoother user experience.‍
financial services – there are limitless combinations of services that super apps may offer, from messaging, social networking, and e-commerce to transportation and health. However, as the examples of Gojek’s GoPay or WeChat Pay within WeChat Wallet show, built-in payment is one of the most prevalent. Super app users are usually required to provide their payment information only once for cross-service transactions – and they don’t need to leave the app to finalize the payment.

What’s the global landscape of super apps?

Ever since the launch of WeChat in 2011, super apps have been on the rise. There has been a notable difference between the emerging and developed economies’ approach to this kind of digital products, though.

Super apps have taken emerging markets by storm. Among the most notable all-in-one applications released in the last decade are Southeast Asia's leading platforms Grab and MoMo, Latin America-based Rappi, Middle East’s first super app Careem, and WhatsApp, which started turning into a super app in Brazil by launched in-app business directory and shopping features. There are a few reasons why super apps have been booming in developing countries:

mobile-first nations – the emerging economies didn’t experience the desktop revolution the same way the developer markets did. Only once smartphones hit the market did they get to easily access the internet, which made many Asian nations mobile-first consumers and contributed to the wide adoption of super apps.
unbanked population – a large percentage of unbanked populations was the issue that the emerging economies have struggled with for a long time. To give you an idea, in 2018, over 220 million adults in China, 190 million in India, and 99 million in Pakistan didn’t have a bank account. With financial services often lying at their core, super apps allow users to access their assets and make purchases through mobile devices.
regulators’ support – governments in emerging economies have been supporting super apps to drive technological advancement together. For example, WeChat’s been subsidized by the Chinese government since its creation in 2011, while Jakarta entered into a partnership with Grab, Gojek, and other local startups to accelerate the launch of the capital’s smart city project.

While super apps have been proliferating across emerging markets, they’ve been struggling to gain traction in the West. Among the reasons why are:

consumers’ concerns with data security and privacy,
rigid data sharing and antitrust laws,
cut-throat competition between existing players in most verticals.

What does the super app market look like now, and how will it evolve?

As of early 2023, 68% of the world’s population uses a mobile phone. Over the past year, the community of mobile users grew by 168 million individuals, and over 92% of all consumers use a mobile device to access the internet. These trends make the future look bright for businesses behind all sorts of mobile applications, including super apps, and translate into some promising numbers:

In 2022, the global super apps market size was valued at 61.30 billion U.S. dollars and was expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 27.8% until 2030.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, over half of the population will be using multiple super apps daily, and their adoption will take place on both personal and enterprise levels.
The survey conducted by statistics bureaus of the US, UK, Germany, and Australia estimated the number of potential day-one users for super apps is estimated to reach 98 million, which would result in an estimated 3.25 trillion U.S. dollars in annual spending on a super app by early-adoption users.

Super apps are widely adopted in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, but developed economies aren’t exempt from this global tech trend. The key to success in the US and Europe is to understand the distinctive needs and qualities of the Western markets. Having that in mind, Deloitte proposed the following direction for super apps in developed countries:

Having an established brand with developed user trust will make the organization’s entry into the super app ecosystem smoother, which seems promising for medium businesses and enterprises.
While banking and insurance-related features are indispensable in super apps, social media, ride-share, and payment companies are more likely to succeed in the Western market.
Unlike in the emerging economies, in the West, it seems unlikely to have one dominant super app; instead, we’re more likely to witness the rise of vertical-specific super apps, which means more opportunities for business growth.
Western super apps won’t aim to oust traditional mobile apps, and their competitive advantage is more likely to rely on giving users the ability to “manage fewer accounts, transact faster through consistent payments, save money using loyalty and rewards, and experience a better product enabled by cross-service insights and advice.”
Bearing in mind data privacy concerns, super apps targeted at the developed economies’ consumers will likely be more transparent about data use, and their functioning may require closer collaboration with regulators on the business's side.
The US and Europe won’t focus on the B2C market alone; we’re likely to witness there the emergence of more B2B super apps that will drive value “through data-driven insights, automated advice, and seamless integration of businesses’ platforms into a single workspace.”

Business impact of super apps

What are the business benefits of super apps?

Super apps have dominated emerging markets, and it’s only a matter of time before their popularity grows in the West. If you’re still wondering if your organization should jump on the super app bandwagon, consider the following business benefits:

increased customer acquisition – compared to traditional mobile applications, super apps offer a much wider range of services that cater to the needs of diverse audiences, which translates into a bigger potential user base. As your super app grows, it’s also possible to convert the existing users into consumers of a new service at practically zero cost, much like Gojek did.
improved user engagement – providing consolidated services in one place and consistently expanding the offering with new features gives you more touchpoints for interaction with users and makes it easier to keep them engaged. In the words of Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, “when we see customers using more than one product, their engagement with the platform more than doubles.” All of that boils down to bigger profits.
business stability and sustainable growth – this benefit relates to the ones we’ve already discussed, but it’s worth paying special attention to it due to the current economic landscape. Super apps embrace vertical growth by encouraging a shift from a product to a platform mindset. Offering a range of services may help your business survive when a given vertical suffers from an unexpected breakdown, as was the case with travel during the pandemic.
increased revenue – services within the super app ecosystem can be provided by either you as the app owner or the third-party partners. Opening up your space to various retailers lets you monetize your product easily.
faster bug fixing – you can release fixes and improvements Over The Air (OTA), which means no hassle with Google Play or App Store review processes. Thanks to super app configuration, mini apps can download and install updates instantly without rebuilding the whole app.
team independence and development efficiency – while developing super apps in separate repositories, the host of the super app provides the necessary tools and infrastructure. The teams can work independently, which results in faster development, fewer code conflicts, and increased ownership in product teams.

security – despite users’ concerns with data privacy, a super app is a sandbox where developers can play without breaking anything. You can build an environment where you mock some sensitive parts of your codebase. As a result, the environment is more secure, and external providers can move faster and contribute features to your app.

What makes super apps popular with users?

Super apps collectively have over 2.4 billion active users all over the world. Their enormous popularity in the B2C market can be attributed to:

ability to coordinate different aspects of everyday life in one place,
convenience and engaging experience without the need to learn how to use multiple apps,
time and storage saving resulting from having one user profile and downloading a single app for all services,
minimized risk of losing sensitive information when switching between service providers.

These benefits speak to those who haven’t yet had a chance to use a super app. According to a report by PYMNTS and PayPal, seven in ten global consumers express interest in a solution allowing them to manage payments and other everyday activities through a centralized tool. There’s much untapped potential in the developed economies, so why not be among the first to unlock it?

What are the concerns and challenges that come with super apps?

While super apps offer numerous benefits to both businesses and consumers, they come with some serious challenges as well:

data privacy – the multitude of services available within super apps is actually a mixed blessing for many users, especially in the West. Having heard hundreds of stories about data privacy abuse and data breaches from big tech companies, consumers are hesitant to share all their personal data with a single service provider, even if it comes with invaluable benefits.
regulatory issues – as a result of data privacy infringements, regulators around the world are implementing laws to further protect personal data and restrict sharing of user data between service providers. Another challenge for businesses behind super apps may be the competition legislations adopted in developed economies.
user experience – in terms of UX, the main challenge for the teams behind the mini apps that make the super app is to strike a balance between consistency and uniqueness. On the one hand, the consistent look and feel account for a positive user experience, drive adoption and retention, and foster a sense of safety. On the other, super apps by definition are made to cater to the diverse needs of heterogeneous audiences, all at once. As each demographic segment interacts with digital products differently, the question remains how to maximize usability without overcomplicating the user experience.

Super apps and your organization

What does moving into the super app ecosystem mean for your organization?

Digital products are not developed in a vacuum. The way they’re designed and operate depends on many factors, one of which is communication between the development team.

As stated by Melvin E. Conway: "Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure." In simple words, Conway’s law means that the organizational structure is often mirrored in software design. For example, large corporations still using legacy technologies are much more likely to build stiff monoliths – and so their product reflects the organizational concerns more than the actual user needs.

A tool to tackle this issue is the reverse Conway maneuver, according to which the desired software architecture is what affects the organizational structure, not the other way round. This way, teams are capable of building digital products optimized for changing user requirements and business objectives, just as is the case with super app development.

The super app approach has a profound impact on how you organize the work of your developers. It enables respective teams to independently develop and deploy parts of the host application as mini apps and gives more room for third-party contributions. The way the super app architecture influences team composition and the development process is a great example of the reverse Conway law in practice.

What should you consider when choosing a super app development partner?

Hiring a tech partner to build your super app can be a real money and time-saver. It takes the burden of internal recruitment from you if you lack in-house expertise in this area and opens up possibilities for upskilling. When looking for a reliable super app development company, we advise looking for the following qualities:

experience building super apps – it may sound obvious, but checking if the tech partner’s portfolio includes projects like yours is key. Super apps are a special kind of mobile applications, so the software development company of your choice should know its way around building mini apps and integrating them into whole ecosystems. If you’re wondering about our experience, check out how we improved the performance of MoMo’s super app and mini apps by migrating their architecture to Re.Pack.
consultancy approach – what sets a good tech partner apart from ordinary outsourced teams is proactivity in matching tech solutions with your needs. You should be looking for a company that’s eager to take a closer look at your current product and situation first, without assessing it as good or bad, but focusing on the potential for improvement. Only once the tech partner understands your pain points and objectives better can they suggest a bespoke mix of technology and solutions.
going beyond development – stepping into the super app ecosystem is not a purely technical choice; it also entails a certain degree of organizational change. That’s why the right tech partner should be able to outline the product roadmap and propose relevant changes to processes, workflows, and peopleware.
knowledge-sharing – if your in-house team doesn’t have much experience building super app ecosystems, it might be a good idea to look for a tech partner whose developers will share their specialist knowledge with your squad. This will make the long-term development work more efficient and lay the foundations for sustainable business growth.

At Callstack, we’ve got super app development skills and a business-oriented proactive approach. Get in touch with us, and let’s find out how we can help your business succeed with the next big super app.

Super app development in practice

What are key tech considerations for super app development?

The unique experience that super apps offer comes with some special development considerations. Here’s a brief overview of the main factors, which you can read more about in the tech FAQ:

tech stack – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to building a robust and sustainable super app, so you can go for native or cross-platform development, depending on your needs and capabilities. Our experience shows that choosing React Native and Re.Pack means optimal user experience and the ability to leverage code splitting for streamlined development and simplified management of your super app.
consistent performance – whether you’re in charge of all services or you’re cooperating with a third-party partner, all functionalities within your super app should have equal operating speed and effectiveness, even on low-end devices and in the low-speed internet environment.
user-friendly design – the abundance of features can be overwhelming unless you minimize the friction with a consistent design. To captivate the users, your super app’s design should be visually appealing yet clean and intuitive, especially if you’re planning to win the hearts of Western users, who are accustomed to straightforward navigation and minimalist design.
security – ensuring user safety should be a priority for every tech business; however, with super apps storing all personal information in one place, their creators should put in even more effort to prevent security breaches. The precautions your development team can take include pen tests, 2FA, code obfuscation, data encryption, and more.

What approach to super app development can you adopt?

Digital products come in all shapes and sizes, which is why the common answer to many questions in software development is “it depends”. Super app development is no different, as depending on your preferences, you can choose from the following approaches:

Native Android application with Feature Delivery
Native iOS application with WebViews
Cross-platform React Native application with Metro
Cross-platform React Native application with Webpack and Re.Pack

At Callstack, though, we recommend going for the latter because it proves to be the most beneficial. Compared to other tools and solutions available on the market, Re.Pack allows you to enjoy:

reusable features
smaller JS bundle size
OTA updates of on-demand features
time and cost-effective development experience
ability to leverage third-party contributions

If you’re wondering how it works in practice, we encourage you to check out our super-app-showcase.

What exactly is Callstack’s super-app-template?

Our super-app-showcase is a repository demonstrating how to structure a super app when working with Re.Pack and Module Federation to achieve the best business results. It highlights various solutions and best practices developers can employ to tackle challenges and streamline the super app development process.

The super-app-showcase comprises:

the host app, which is the main container for the micro-frontends,
the shell app, which functions like a blueprint of the host app with shared dependencies,
a few mini apps, each dedicated to a single service booking, shopping, dashboard, and news – the latter being stored in a separate repository.

You can learn more about the architecture and the intricacies of the template from the case study published on our blog.

How does super app development with Callstack's super-app-template influence your team’s work and developer experience?

By definition, a super app is built as a platform “to deliver a mini apps ecosystem that users can choose from to activate for consistent and personalized app experiences.” This modular approach allows a large development team to split into smaller squads, each focused on a respective mini app, and enables third-party contributions to be seamlessly integrated into the final product.

When implemented right, such a workflow may lead to greater flexibility, independence, and development speed. Among the steps to optimize developer experience in the super app setup, there are:

creating and exposing a sandbox environment that closely resembles your host app, like the shell app in our super-app-showcase,
if need be, creating an SDK that contains common and repeatedly used elements,
organizing the codebase into a monorepo, which is an optional step.

Using Re.Pack and our super-app-template to build your super app makes the application of these tips in developers’ work much easier.

What are super apps?

What do super apps offer?

Super apps are made to meet the modern-day demand for smooth, convenient, all-encompassing mobile experiences. What makes them stand out, however, is the way they’re built and how they work.

range of services – while a mobile application typically serves a single purpose, a super app aims to be the only piece of software a user needs to perform a variety of actions across services or even industries, like Grab, WeChat, or Gojek.
all-in-one toolkit – traditional suites of applications released by tech giants like Google or Microsoft require users to switch between products to access different services. Super apps, on the other hand, shorten the customer journey by allowing users to achieve different goals within a single ecosystem without downloading multiple digital products.
data sharing – as opposed to ordinary apps that collect data related to a specific purpose only, super apps gather and process much more user data. While this may raise privacy and security concerns, properly-handled data sharing between respective services is a safe way to ensure an even smoother user experience.‍
financial services – there are limitless combinations of services that super apps may offer, from messaging, social networking, and e-commerce to transportation and health. However, as the examples of Gojek’s GoPay or WeChat Pay within WeChat Wallet show, built-in payment is one of the most prevalent. Super app users are usually required to provide their payment information only once for cross-service transactions – and they don’t need to leave the app to finalize the payment.

What’s the global landscape of super apps?

mobile-first nations – the emerging economies didn’t experience the desktop revolution the same way the developer markets did. Only once smartphones hit the market did they get to easily access the internet, which made many Asian nations mobile-first consumers and contributed to the wide adoption of super apps.
unbanked population – a large percentage of unbanked populations was the issue that the emerging economies have struggled with for a long time. To give you an idea, in 2018, over 220 million adults in China, 190 million in India, and 99 million in Pakistan didn’t have a bank account. With financial services often lying at their core, super apps allow users to access their assets and make purchases through mobile devices.
regulators’ support – governments in emerging economies have been supporting super apps to drive technological advancement together. For example, WeChat’s been subsidized by the Chinese government since its creation in 2011, while Jakarta entered into a partnership with Grab, Gojek, and other local startups to accelerate the launch of the capital’s smart city project.

While super apps have been proliferating across emerging markets, they’ve been struggling to gain traction in the West. Among the reasons why are:

consumers’ concerns with data security and privacy
rigid data sharing and antitrust laws
cut-throat competition between existing players in most verticals.

What does the super app market look like now, and how will it evolve?

In 2022, the global super apps market size was valued at 61.30 billion U.S. dollars and was expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 27.8% until 2030.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, over half of the population will be using multiple super apps daily, and their adoption will take place on both personal and enterprise levels.
The survey conducted by statistics bureaus of the US, UK, Germany, and Australia estimated the number of potential day-one users for super apps is estimated to reach 98 million, which would result in an estimated 3.25 trillion U.S. dollars in annual spending on a super app by early-adoption users.

Having an established brand with developed user trust will make the organization’s entry into the super app ecosystem smoother, which seems promising for medium businesses and enterprises.
While banking and insurance-related features are indispensable in super apps, social media, ride-share, and payment companies are more likely to succeed in the Western market.
Unlike in the emerging economies, in the West, it seems unlikely to have one dominant super app; instead, we’re more likely to witness the rise of vertical-specific super apps, which means more opportunities for business growth.
Western super apps won’t aim to oust traditional mobile apps, and their competitive advantage is more likely to rely on giving users the ability to “manage fewer accounts, transact faster through consistent payments, save money using loyalty and rewards, and experience a better product enabled by cross-service insights and advice.”
Bearing in mind data privacy concerns, super apps targeted at the developed economies’ consumers will likely be more transparent about data use, and their functioning may require closer collaboration with regulators on the business's side.
The US and Europe won’t focus on the B2C market alone; we’re likely to witness there the emergence of more B2B super apps that will drive value “through data-driven insights, automated advice, and seamless integration of businesses’ platforms into a single workspace.”

What are the business benefits of super apps?

increased customer acquisition – compared to traditional mobile applications, super apps offer a much wider range of services that cater to the needs of diverse audiences, which translates into a bigger potential user base. As your super app grows, it’s also possible to convert the existing users into consumers of a new service at practically zero cost, much like Gojek did.
improved user engagement – providing consolidated services in one place and consistently expanding the offering with new features gives you more touchpoints for interaction with users and makes it easier to keep them engaged. In the words of Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, “when we see customers using more than one product, their engagement with the platform more than doubles.” All of that boils down to bigger profits.
business stability and sustainable growth – this benefit relates to the ones we’ve already discussed, but it’s worth paying special attention to it due to the current economic landscape. Super apps embrace vertical growth by encouraging a shift from a product to a platform mindset. Offering a range of services may help your business survive when a given vertical suffers from an unexpected breakdown, as was the case with travel during the pandemic.
increased revenue – services within the super app ecosystem can be provided by either you as the app owner or the third-party partners. Opening up your space to various retailers lets you monetize your product easily.
faster bug fixing – you can release fixes and improvements Over The Air (OTA), which means no hassle with Google Play or App Store review processes. Thanks to super app configuration, mini apps can download and install updates instantly without rebuilding the whole app.
team independence and development efficiency – while developing super apps in separate repositories, the host of the super app provides the necessary tools and infrastructure. The teams can work independently, which results in faster development, fewer code conflicts, and increased ownership in product teams.

security – despite users’ concerns with data privacy, a super app is a sandbox where developers can play without breaking anything. You can build an environment where you mock some sensitive parts of your codebase. As a result, the environment is more secure, and external providers can move faster and contribute features to your app.

What makes super apps popular with users?

Super apps collectively have over 2.4 billion active users all over the world. Their enormous popularity in the B2C market can be attributed to:

ability to coordinate different aspects of everyday life in one place,
convenience and engaging experience without the need to learn how to use multiple apps,
time and storage saving resulting from having one user profile and downloading a single app for all services,
minimized risk of losing sensitive information when switching between service providers.

What are the concerns and challenges that come with super apps?

While super apps offer numerous benefits to both businesses and consumers, they come with some serious challenges as well:

data privacy – the multitude of services available within super apps is actually a mixed blessing for many users, especially in the West. Having heard hundreds of stories about data privacy abuse and data breaches from big tech companies, consumers are hesitant to share all their personal data with a single service provider, even if it comes with invaluable benefits.
regulatory issues – as a result of data privacy infringements, regulators around the world are implementing laws to further protect personal data and restrict sharing of user data between service providers. Another challenge for businesses behind super apps may be the competition legislations adopted in developed economies.
user experience – in terms of UX, the main challenge for the teams behind the mini apps that make the super app is to strike a balance between consistency and uniqueness. On the one hand, the consistent look and feel account for a positive user experience, drive adoption and retention, and foster a sense of safety. On the other, super apps by definition are made to cater to the diverse needs of heterogeneous audiences, all at once. As each demographic segment interacts with digital products differently, the question remains how to maximize usability without overcomplicating the user experience.

What does moving into the super app ecosystem mean for your organization?

Digital products are not developed in a vacuum. The way they’re designed and operate depends on many factors, one of which is communication between the development team.

What should you consider when choosing a super app development partner?

experience building super apps – it may sound obvious, but checking if the tech partner’s portfolio includes projects like yours is key. Super apps are a special kind of mobile applications, so the software development company of your choice should know its way around building mini apps and integrating them into whole ecosystems. If you’re wondering about our experience, check out how we improved the performance of MoMo’s super app and mini apps by migrating their architecture to Re.Pack.
consultancy approach – what sets a good tech partner apart from ordinary outsourced teams is proactivity in matching tech solutions with your needs. You should be looking for a company that’s eager to take a closer look at your current product and situation first, without assessing it as good or bad, but focusing on the potential for improvement. Only once the tech partner understands your pain points and objectives better can they suggest a bespoke mix of technology and solutions.
going beyond development – stepping into the super app ecosystem is not a purely technical choice; it also entails a certain degree of organizational change. That’s why the right tech partner should be able to outline the product roadmap and propose relevant changes to processes, workflows, and peopleware.
knowledge-sharing – if your in-house team doesn’t have much experience building super app ecosystems, it might be a good idea to look for a tech partner whose developers will share their specialist knowledge with your squad. This will make the long-term development work more efficient and lay the foundations for sustainable business growth.

What are key tech considerations for super app development?

The unique experience that super apps offer comes with some special development considerations. Here’s a brief overview of the main factors, which you can read more about in the tech FAQ:

tech stack – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to building a robust and sustainable super app, so you can go for native or cross-platform development, depending on your needs and capabilities. Our experience shows that choosing React Native and Re.Pack means optimal user experience and the ability to leverage code splitting for streamlined development and simplified management of your super app.
consistent performance – whether you’re in charge of all services or you’re cooperating with a third-party partner, all functionalities within your super app should have equal operating speed and effectiveness, even on low-end devices and in the low-speed internet environment.
user-friendly design – the abundance of features can be overwhelming unless you minimize the friction with a consistent design. To captivate the users, your super app’s design should be visually appealing yet clean and intuitive, especially if you’re planning to win the hearts of Western users, who are accustomed to straightforward navigation and minimalist design.
security – ensuring user safety should be a priority for every tech business; however, with super apps storing all personal information in one place, their creators should put in even more effort to prevent security breaches. The precautions your development team can take include pen tests, 2FA, code obfuscation, data encryption, and more.

What approach to super app development can you adopt?

Native Android application with Feature Delivery
Native iOS application with WebViews
Cross-platform React Native application with Metro
Cross-platform React Native application with Webpack and Re.Pack

At Callstack, though, we recommend going for the latter because it proves to be the most beneficial. Compared to other tools and solutions available on the market, Re.Pack allows you to enjoy:

reusable features
smaller JS bundle size
OTA updates of on-demand features
time and cost-effective development experience
ability to leverage third-party contributions

If you’re wondering how it works in practice, we encourage you to check out our super-app-template.

What exactly is Callstack’s super-app-template?

Our super-app-template is a repository demonstrating how to structure a super app when working with Re.Pack and Module Federation to achieve the best business results. It highlights various solutions and best practices developers can employ to tackle challenges and streamline the super app development process.

The super-app-template comprises:

the host app, which is the main container for the micro-frontends
the shell app, which functions like a blueprint of the host app with shared dependencies
a few mini apps, each dedicated to a single service booking, shopping, dashboard, and news – the latter being stored in a separate repository.

You can learn more about the architecture and the intricacies of the template from the case study published on our blog.

What does the super app How does super app development with Callstack template influence your team’s work and developer experience? look like now, and how will it evolve?

When implemented right, such a workflow may lead to greater flexibility, independence, and development speed. Among the steps to optimize developer experience in the super app setup, there are:

creating and exposing a sandbox environment that closely resembles your host app, like the shell app in our super-app-template,
if need be, creating an SDK that contains common and repeatedly used elements,
organizing the codebase into a monorepo, which is an optional step.

Using Re.Pack and our super-app-template to build your super app makes the application of these tips in developers’ work much easier.

How React Native Development Can Save Your Business in the Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

blog content

What is a <cyan>cross-platform<cyan> app development?

Why is it worth to get into cross-platform app development and React Native at all?

Speed of development and rich JavaScript ecosystem

High availability of JavaScript developers

Code sharing

COVID-19 common business cases and how React Native can help

1. You are an offline business and want to quickly build your presence on all online platforms

Why is React Native development efficient in this case?

It reduces development and maintenance costs

How can I go online with my business and do it faster and less costly?

One app for iOS, Android, Web, and desktop

Shorter time to market, faster revenue

2. You have a web application and want to quickly launch a mobile app to reach a wider audience

Why is React Native the best way to quickly launch a mobile app?

Business power of reusable code

3. You have an existing mobile application for iOS and Android and want to ship new features faster while reducing the overall cost

How can I ship new features to an existing app with brownfield?

Summary

Callstack

What are super apps?

What do super apps offer?

What’s the global landscape of super apps?

What does the super app market look like now, and how will it evolve?

What are the business benefits of super apps?

What makes super apps popular with users?

What are the concerns and challenges that come with super apps?

What does moving into the super app ecosystem mean for your organization?

What should you consider when choosing a super app development partner?

What are key tech considerations for super app development?

What approach to super app development can you adopt?

What exactly is Callstack’s super-app-template?

How does super app development with Callstack's super-app-template influence your team’s work and developer experience?

What are super apps?

What do super apps offer?

What’s the global landscape of super apps?

What does the super app market look like now, and how will it evolve?

What are the business benefits of super apps?

What makes super apps popular with users?

What are the concerns and challenges that come with super apps?

What does moving into the super app ecosystem mean for your organization?

What should you consider when choosing a super app development partner?

What are key tech considerations for super app development?

What approach to super app development can you adopt?

What exactly is Callstack’s super-app-template?

What does the super app How does super app development with Callstack template influence your team’s work and developer experience? look like now, and how will it evolve?

Bundle React Native apps using Webpack features

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Bundle React Native apps using Webpack features

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