Re:Ask HN: Is phonegap/cordova still relevant?
by danudey on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @01:55PM
(#12695079)
Not to dispute your assertion, but I've been hearing that PhoneGap/Cordova has 'felt native' for as long as it's been around, and that's never been true. Has it finally changed, and is it really worth it compared to e.g. writing an app in React instead?
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Re:Ask HN: Is phonegap/cordova still relevant?
by placebo on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @03:00PM
(#12695590)
You might want to check out Framework 7 (http://framework7.io/). Discovered it only a few months ago and it's the best work I've seen so far to achieve a native look when using Cordova
Re:Ask HN: Is phonegap/cordova still relevant?
by ryanworl on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @02:26PM
(#12695341)
It depends on your goals. If you're doing relatively basic things, a hybrid app can feel indistinguishable from a native app on iOS. Android is tough because the hardware varies so much. Displaying text fields, scrolling tables, images, etc. will work well and feel native on iOS and on higher-powered Android devices. Going outside of those lines into a lot of animation and that kind of thing is slower and will not feel native anymore.
I actively recommended against hybrid apps for years to people who hired me, but for the last year or so I would have felt safe recommending it with the caveats above. My experience is mostly with Ionic, which is a layer on top of Cordova, but I imagine most of these frameworks are the same.