Web apps aren’t the same as mobile ones. Whilst we’re blogging the basics about mobile apps, we thought it would be worth explaining why web applications are different.
A web app runs within your web browser – the same piece of software, whether its Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari, that you use to surf the web and view websites. Where a mobile app is launched via your smartphone or tablet’s operating system – click an icon and up it comes – web app developers concentrate on making their app work in that browser of yours.
You’ve almost certainly used a web application at some time: if you’ve ever checked your email via a webmail interface, or entered an online auction, you’ll have used a web app. Web app develops are simply building a means of offering special functionality to a user via the web browser: if you’re away from the office, you can log in to your Google Calendar to meet your diary appointments, or if you need to edit a YouTube video you can load up their editing software.
Web applications use different kinds of programming language, and web app development has different design parameters than mobile apps, too – because their operating environment (the web browser) is different. They’re also primarily useful to users on desktop and laptop computers: though they can be used via browsers on mobile devices they are often optimised for use on larger displays.
Web apps are therefore often focused less on ‘on-the-go’ services and more on fully-functioned task management. Web app developers are particularly useful to businesses seeking to make software they currently run on local machines available to a more dispersed workforce: web apps are a way of storing software on a server and giving remote access to that package via a particular web interface.
Web apps really do have their uses – so call us today and discuss with our web app development team your needs. Mobile apps are all the rage, but it might that for you the ideal will be a web application.
