How to Pick the Perfect Programming Language for Android and iOS App Development in 2024?

You simply cannot imagine your life without a smartphone, do you?

Smartphones and mobile apps are integrated into our lives in a great manner that we use them multiple times a day for various activities.

From shopping online to booking a taxi to watching your favorite film on Netflix to playing games, we use these feature-rich and addictive mobile apps.

Mobile apps have added comfort and convenience to our lives and we cannot thank technology better.

Even for businesses, building a versatile, feature-rich mobile application is a great idea to serve their target audience in a better and more meaningful manner.

If you have an idea that perfectly addresses some pain points of your target audience, you should go for mobile app development. Hiring a mobile app development company is a start.

However, when it comes to mobile app development, choosing the right technology stack is very important. It will determine the success of your app and whether your audience will accept the app or not.

The technology you choose for your app development project will determine how your audience will interact with the app.

If you end up choosing the wrong technology, you might lose the money, time, and effort you put on.

For example, if you want to develop an Android app, you need to determine the right Android programming language for the app.

On the other hand, when you end up choosing the right technology, you might quicken the development process, please your target audience, and serve your business goals excellently.

In an era where the gap between the performances of web apps and native apps is closing, choosing the right technology is a need of the hour.

In this post, we will discuss the best programming languages for Android and iOS platforms. Further, we will also discuss how to pick the best programming language for your project.

Things to Consider Before Starting Android App Development

Conduct Market Research

The first thing is to research the market as you would do before entering any business. With research, you would be able to get great market insights, pain points, and other valuable details.

Define Your Target Audience and Competitors

You need to define your target audience. It will help you build a specific app that perfectly serves them. You need to determine your target audience’s age, gender, location, interest, behavior, and other details.

Furthermore, analyzing your competitors, their strategies, their mistakes, and other crucial details will empower you to design a unique mobile app that perfectly suits your target audience.

Hybrid or Native

You will also have to determine whether you want to develop a hybrid mobile app or a native one. Both have their own pros and cons and you need to determine after carefully evaluating various factors.

Remember that native app development might be a costly affair. On the other hand, hybrid app development can be a cost-effective deal.

Define Your Reason for App Development

Is your app idea really a revolutionary one? Does it has the potential to address the issues of your target audience? Why do you want to develop an app and not a website? You need to answer these questions before kickstarting the project.

Monetization

How would you monetize your app? Will you go for in-app purchases or you would let advertisers display their advertisements on your app? Will you go for paid subscriptions or selling goods or services? Thinking about monetizing your app is crucial before you start the project.

Top Android Programming Languages

Kotlin

Kotlin can be termed as a family language for Android app development as Android Studio supports it. Kotlin has an easy learning curve and developers can create highly seamless and functional Android apps.

Furthermore, it has a simple and concise syntax and is easy to compile into native code as JavaScript. Kotlin is operated on Java Virtual Machine.

Kotlin is an open-source programming language and can reduce development time by a great margin.

In addition, it also allows developers to write and build clean code, and fully supports all IDEs and Google.

Apps written in Kotlin are highly expressive, easily readable, and have a clean syntax. If you are developing a small, scalable, and simple application for your business, Kotlin is the language to go with.

Java

Java is also an open-source, object-oriented programming language with in-built open-source libraries.

It is one of the most preferred open-source programming languages for Android app development. Java-powered apps are easy to maintain and handle.

Also, Java has the best documentation and community support for online users.

Java is not used just for Android app development, you can also develop server apps, gaming apps, embedded space, websites, and many more.

It is a robust, server-side programming language and is highly compiled and interpreted. It is architectural neutral with no dependencies on any platforms or environments.

When you want an app that performs excellently and is quick in responding to commands, go for Java.

C#

It is also pronounced as C-Sharp, C# is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that is widely used for mobile app development.

Mostly, developers use C# for cross-platform and Windows app development. C# is as competitive as other renowned programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, Swift, and others.

It has a function-rich library for programmers and helps with safe code. Furthermore, It is an interoperable and updatable language.

If you want to build a high-performing, engaging, and highly attractive gaming app, C# should be your choice.

Things to Consider Before Starting iOS App Development

Target Audience

Though iOS’s market share is comparatively low compared to Android, all iOS users are loyal. You need to determine whether your target audience uses Apple devices or not. If they are not, you can think of developing a hybrid app.

Choosing the Right Programming Language

You need to choose the right programming language for your iOS project. Discuss it with the development company you hired or your in-house developers.

Define your business goals and then determine the right programming language.

Competitor Analysis

What are your competitors?? What are they doing? What features that have in their apps? What types of marketing campaigns they are running? Answer all these questions to get the best design and development strategy for your iOS app.

Top iOS Programming Languages

Swift

Swift is a trendsetter iOS programming language that has carved a niche for itself. It is specifically designed to develop iOS apps for platforms such as iOS, OS X, and tvOS.

Swift is a highly versatile, flexible, and scalable programming language. Developers can easily develop a feature-rich iOS app as it is easy to work with Swift, a highly expressive iOS language.

It has a free-standing IDE called Xcode that makes app development quick and flexible. Furthermore, it catches minor errors during code compilation.

It also has in-built memory management techniques such as Automatic Reference Counting.

Swift can be executed on Cocoa and Cocoa Touch platforms and does not require much maintenance. Also, Swift-based apps are easy to scale and maintain.

Objective C

Objective-C is an extended version of C language. It is also a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. It has some added features to make the development more seamless and effortless.

Objective-C is one of the most prolific, well-updated, and highly mature programming languages. Primarily, it is used to develop apps for iOS and MacOS platforms.

It supports static and dynamic typing and also has an automatic garbage collector. It has easy to introspect objects for developers to identify issues in the code. It is easy to learn programming language with a simple learning curve.

Top Cross-Platform Programming Languages

React Native

React Native is a cross-platform programming language powered by Facebook and can be used to build high-end, feature-rich, and functional cross-platform apps. It is built with codes that can be operated with the native UIs effortlessly.

React Native-powered apps are easy to scale as you just need to rewrite a few parts of code to develop new functionalities. It has a component-style architecture that makes it easy to use, easy to learn, and easy to code.

At runtime, React Native uses JavaScript to communicate with the native components and functionalities.

Flutter

Flutter is powered by Google and it is also one of the best cross-platform programming frameworks to develop high-performing, scalable, and versatile mobile applications.

It is actually a UI software development toolkit that is based on the Dart object cross-platform programming language.

Though it is a framework, it has fully customizable widgets that can identify differences between different platforms. It has all the tools to develop competitive cross-platform applications.

It has ready-made components, libraries, and other third-party tools to quicken the development process. Flutter’s hot reload feature allows developers to display every code modification for observation.

Flutter apps look and feel like native apps, thanks to their extensive library of widgets.

Top Factors to Consider When Choosing a Programming Language

Platform

The platform you choose for your app will help you to determine the right programming language.

For example, if you want to run a program written in C on Windows and Linux, you will require platform compilers and two different executables.

On the other hand, when you use a program written in Java, it can run on any platform.

The elasticity of the language

Does the programming language make it easier for you to add new features to your existing app? If not, you need to think of another language.

If the language does not allow or makes it difficult for developers to add new libraries or features to an existing app, you need to think twice before using the language for your app development project.

Performance

Does your programming language offer similar performances when a program is run on different devices or platforms?

Well, ideally, the performance of the program varies for each platform, but it should not be too poor that let down your audience.

Learning curve

An ideal programming language is one with an easy learning curve. Programming languages such as JavaScript, Kotlin, React Native, and Flutter have easy learning curves.

Even when you hire freshers from the colleges as programmers, they will not find it difficult to work with these languages. On the other hand, Scala, Rust, and Haskell have the biggest learning curves.

Community support

What if a developer finds some difficulties while developing a program or writing code? Do the programming language you are using have any active online support groups or communities?

Choosing a programming language with good community support can quicken the development process to a great extent.

Talent pool

If you face any difficulties to hire subject-matter experts, it is not a good sign. For example, it is easy to find Java developers in the market, but not Flutter or Rust developers.

You need to keep this factor in mind while choosing the programming language for your project.

Security

Security is another factor you need to consider while choosing a programming language for your project.

Each application has its own security requirements and you need to oblige with such requirements.

Maintenance

You need to also consider post-deployment maintenance of your app while choosing a programming language.

Sometimes, you might need to find a new development team in your area, and maintenance costs might hurt you. You need to hire a programming language that is easy to manage and maintain.

Scalability

The last, but not least, factor is scalability. How easy is to scale an app with that particular programming language? Scaling an app from time to time is a common practice and you need to choose the right programming language that is easy to scale.

Conclusion

Choosing the right programming language for your project is a vital thing to ensure the success of your app. You need to ensure that you evaluate all the factors before finalize the one.

We have discussed iOS, cross-platform and Android programming languages and their features in the post. Each programming language has its own pros and cons.

The right choice depends on your project requirements, business goals, target audience, and other details.

Read More:

• A Guide to Mobile App Testing - Eliminating Bugs before the Product Release
• Mobile App Maintenance Guide [Importance, Types, Cost and Best Practices]
• 8 Optimization Tips to Improve Flutter App Performance
• 10 Ways to Boost your React Native Application Performance