Understand the unique constraints of mobile — battery, connectivity, screen sizes, platform guidelines, and app store requirements.
Mobile apps have unique constraints vs web:
Device constraints:
- CPU/memory limits — optimise heavy operations
- Battery life — avoid wake locks, batch network calls
- Variable connectivity — offline-first architecture, graceful degradation
- Screen density — provide @1x, @2x, @3x assets (iOS) or mdpi through xxxhdpi (Android)
Platform guidelines:
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines (iOS)
- Material Design 3 (Android)
- Each platform has distinct navigation patterns (iOS: stack nav, Android: bottom nav + back)
App store constraints:
- Apple App Store: strict review process, 87% approval rate, IDFA restrictions
- Google Play: faster review, broader sideloading
- In-App Purchase (IAP): 30% platform fee, no alternative payment (Apple)
- Privacy labels (iOS) and Data Safety section (Google Play)
Cross-platform approaches:
- Flutter — Dart, renders with Skia/Impeller, near-native performance
- React Native — JS/TS, uses native components via bridge
- Native — Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android) — maximum performance and API access
Device constraints:
- CPU/memory limits — optimise heavy operations
- Battery life — avoid wake locks, batch network calls
- Variable connectivity — offline-first architecture, graceful degradation
- Screen density — provide @1x, @2x, @3x assets (iOS) or mdpi through xxxhdpi (Android)
Platform guidelines:
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines (iOS)
- Material Design 3 (Android)
- Each platform has distinct navigation patterns (iOS: stack nav, Android: bottom nav + back)
App store constraints:
- Apple App Store: strict review process, 87% approval rate, IDFA restrictions
- Google Play: faster review, broader sideloading
- In-App Purchase (IAP): 30% platform fee, no alternative payment (Apple)
- Privacy labels (iOS) and Data Safety section (Google Play)
Cross-platform approaches:
- Flutter — Dart, renders with Skia/Impeller, near-native performance
- React Native — JS/TS, uses native components via bridge
- Native — Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android) — maximum performance and API access