Defining native applications
The term native application means different things to different people. For some people, it refers to an app that is developed using the tools specified by the creator of the platform, such as an app developed for iOS with Objective-C or Swift, an Android app developed with Java or Kotlin, or a Windows app developed with C/C++ or the .NET Framework. Others use the term native application to refer to apps that are compiled into machine code that is native to the platform architecture, for example, x86, x64, or ARM. In this book, we will define a native application as one that has a native UI, performance, and API access. The following list explains these three concepts in greater detail:
- Native UI: Apps built with .NET MAUI use the standard controls for each platform. This means, for example, that an iOS app built with .NET MAUI will look and behave as an iOS user would expect and an Android app built with .NET MAUI will look and behave as an Android user would expect.
- Native performance: Apps built with .NET MAUI are compiled for native performance, meaning that they execute at nearly the same levels as apps built with the tools designed for the platform, that is, Java or Swift, and can use platform-specific hardware acceleration.
- Native API access: Native API access means that apps built with .NET MAUI can use everything that the target platforms and devices offer to developers. For example, .NET MAUI applications can use hardware-specific features such as the camera or maps.
