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What Are the Development Approaches in Xamarin Mobile App Development?

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Sahil Arora
What Are the Development Approaches in Xamarin Mobile App Development?

Xamarin is an application development toolkit that allows you to write native cross-platform iOS, Windows, and Android apps with branded and unified UIs using only C# and .NET. You can easily create, test, and run different apps for multiple platforms using just one framework. The main advantage of Xamarin mobile app development is that it speeds up development time and allows you to build apps for at least 3 different platforms using a single codebase, instead of generating new code for each individual platform. There are 2 chief development approaches when it comes to Xamarin mobile app development: Xamarin. Forms and Xamarin Native. Let us explore each one in greater detail to understand when each one might come in useful.

Xamarin.Forms

You can use Xamarin.Forms approach for Xamarin mobile app development when you need to design your app only once and share it across all platforms with only minor code changes between them. It is a UI toolkit and API that enables you to create a single UI for iOS, Windows, and Android platforms and map it to all devices. Up to 95% of the code can be reused with Xamarin.Forms. This approach is also faster than the other one and involves a faster development process. It is recommended that you use Xamarin. Forms when code sharing is more critical than a custom UI. This approach also involves a slightly slower performance as sharing the exact same code between 3 platforms can have its disadvantages. Thus, it is recommended for mobile apps that require limited platform-specific functionality. If your app requires frequent updates and will need to process a large volume of data, this approach will not work.

Xamarin Native

You can use Xamarin Native (which includes Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, and Xamarin.Windows libraries) to design separate mobile apps for each platform. The UI code for this solution would be unique, however, the backend will be shared, just like with Xamarin.Forms. Up to 70% of the code can be reused with Xamarin Native. This Xamarin mobile app development approach is a little slower than Xamarin. Forms since more work have to go into developing code for each platform separately. It is recommended that you use this approach when having a custom UI is more important than code sharing. Additionally, this approach involves the ideal level of app performance when compared to that of Xamarin.Forms. It is highly recommended that you use this approach for apps that require native behavior. If your Xamarin mobile app needs to process large volumes of data and may require frequent updates, this is the right development approach for you.

Xamarin mobile app development offers cross-platform support for 3 major mobile platforms. Applications that are built using Xamarin can share up to 95% of their code base, making it ideal for mobile apps that need to be developed in a short period of time. This decrease in development time also means that the cost of mobile app development is reduced. The 2 main approaches to Xamarin mobile app development are Xamarin. Forms and Xamarin Native. Xamarin.Forms are useful for when you can use the same UI across all platforms with minimal code changes, while Xamarin Native is useful for when you require native behavior and faster performance. With Xamarin app development, you can trust that the speed of development always takes precedence over every other attribute.

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Sahil Arora
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