Ever since the advent of the Apple’s App Store and the maturity of HTML5, there’s been a discussion unfolding in the developer community about whether you should go HTML5 or native. Fact of the matter is, you don’t have to limit yourself to one. You can get the best of both worlds by marrying HTML5 with C, C++ and Objective-C.

Contrary to common belief, the most buzzed about apps, or updates rather, to come out during the course of the past year, such as the latest improvement to the Facebook and LinkedIn apps, are both in fact hybrids.

In the example of Facebook’s app, the main view, the news feed, is HTML5, while the frame and main navigation is native. The main advantage with this approach is from a cross-platform perspective, as you have the possibility to push quite significant updates without having to go through a tedious market place review process.

In other words, it’s not for nothing that we see category leaders like Facebook and LinkedIn go down the hybrid path. Both of them have their focus on social connections and content that’s built  up and shared by users and presented in a feed. With these types of content-centric apps, the hybrid  approach is arguable ideal. Effectively, it means less resources spent on the native and bridging  parts. Secondly, due to both Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s dominant market position, one can argue they can afford to make technology bets of this nature. Lastly, category leaders have in, my opinion,  an innate duty and responsibility to advocate and push the envelope for future web standards, something HTML5 most definitely is.

One thing on the feature spectrum of HTML5 that’s been given much attention is media support for video and audio, something a lot of developers have seen as a major lack. What exactly does native media support entail, and is it the silver bullet that we’ve all been waiting for?

Not quite. What’s been implemented is merely the introduction of “media player/recorder”-like support. For instance, playback of audio streams without the need for Flash and use of the native HTML5 platform video capturing capabilities that, for example, lets the user record and upload a video clip to a given site. These features are not the same as the type of support required for real-time media communications, such as the calling service that we here at Rebtel provide, which precludes us from going full-on HTML5.

Consequently, depending on the nature of the app you intend to make, you might not be in the position where you can afford to be held up by limitations due to slow convergence of HTML5 support for certain native functionality. You may very well need to have that “close to the metal” access to parts of the platform and device to be able to provide a superior product.

Then there’s the question of whether you could go for the hybrid approach for certain minor elements in your app, but not necessarily as HTML5-dominant as the aforementioned example of Facebook. In the case of Rebtel, where the core functionality of our apps revolve around calling, the type of native platform support we require is simply not a reality (yet) and we would likely still end up with a predominantly native app.

If you’re a developer finding yourself in this very conundrum, be sure do your home work before making that critical technology decision. Throughly scrutinize the benefits as well as limitations that HTML5 brings to the table, and take a good look at existing apps in your vertical to see how the UX can further be improved by the use of a hybrid model. Lastly, don’t neglect the power of app market place distribution if you’re an unestablished brand.

To see the fruits of Christopher’s labor here at Rebtel, download Rebtel 2.0 for iPhone from the App Store.

By: Christopher Ahlbin Tags: app store, apple, C, christopher ahlbin, html5, ios, itunes, mobile development, Objective-C