iOS vs. ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT- DIFFERENCES

Posted by Consagous Technologies on February 3rd, 2021

The world of today is a world of smartphones- the latest stats from Statista reveal that the number of global smartphone users in the world stands at .8 billion. This is by no means a small number and is a testimony to the dominance and impact these devices have made in the world today.

As far as mobile app development is concerned, it is by no means a small task. Given how smartphone users are increasing every day, mobile apps have become integral to the businesses and routine lifestyles of people all over the world.

Today, to create a mobile app, Android and iOS are two of the most popular operating systems in the world. Custom mobile app development services proceed ahead with the development of apps with these two operating systems in mind.

However, both Android and iOS are very different from each other in their fundamental approach to app development.

What’s the Same?

Before we delve into their differences, there is one broad thing that is similar, and that is their basic interface.

Both Android and iOS work with a common touch interface with a number of similar elements like tapping, swiping, and even the pinch-and-zoom. The booting process in both of them takes users to the home screen.

While Android brings the use of different widgets and shortcuts, there’s just a simple row of app icons in iOS. These factors work extensively in designing the perfect app for two very different app development platforms.

Differences Between Android & iOS

It is best to divide the functionalities between Android and iOS into a few broad categories to understand their differences in a better way.

These differences will also provide a better understanding of which OS will be better suited for your requirements so that you can provide better input to your mobile app development company.

Here is a look at some of the most noteworthy differences-

1- Coding & Development Languages

As far as the coding and development languages are concerned, both Android and iOS make use of pretty different languages- while Android apps have their code written in Java, Swift is a completely new language that has been created to develop iOS applications.

In terms of comparing the two languages, then Swift surely enables a quicker coding process than Java. This is mainly because there is a requirement of writing less code in Swift as compared to Java.

For Android app development though, Kotlin is also considered a feasible alternative to Java.

2- The Overall Approach to Design

There are a lot of different aspects whenever it comes to designing a mobile app-

Screen Fundamentals

Devices that run on Android have a number of varying screen sizes and equally varying resolutions, as compared to Apple devices, where the screens belong to their Macbooks, iPhone, or iPads at the max.

In short,

Menu Layout

The layout of the menu in Google devices is drawer-based or side-based. iOS layout, on the other hand, places the tab bar at the bottom, which supposedly provides easy access to hidden menu items.

3- Different Development Ecosystems

For any company that provides custom mobile app development services, it is important to take the overall development ecosystem into consideration to proceed efficiently.

Before the year 2013, Android used to depend on Eclipse, an external tool that derived its operations from the IBM code archives. In 2013, Google came up with Android Studio, bringing with it a huge number of added features like cross-platform functionality and other debugging features.

For iOS, the tool that they use goes by the name XCode. It’s through-and-through an Apple platform and extends its support to the entire range of Apple devices.

In the end, the final question then pops up- which OS platform is the best to create your app? The answer to this question depends on your bud get and target audience. If you are looking at a global audience and don’t have too many troubles with the budget, then iOS is absolute bliss.

Whatever the OS may be, Consagous Technologies is one of the leading mobile app development companies in USA, that can develop the most cutting-edge apps for you with its experienced teams.