Mobile Development
Jackrabbit creates custom digital solutions that meets your and your users needs.
Our Mobile App Development Process
After Design & Discovery is complete, our expert developers build the mobile application. The development phase will vary for each project depending on whether we build an iOS app, an Android app, two native apps for both iOS and Android, or two apps for iOS and Android with a single code base in a cross-platform language such as Flutter or React Native.
However, most will include creating backend systems for processing and hosting data and developing the frontend of the application (where users interact). As we develop the app, our team will conduct regular meetings with you where we report on our progress and make necessary decisions as issues arise or adjustments are needed.
Learn more below:
Native Applications (iOS and/or Android)
Native Applications are mobile apps that are developed in the native languages for iOS (Swift) and/or Android (Java/Kotlin). Native languages have been developed by the teams behind the native operating systems, therefore they fully adhere to the requirements and guidelines for those operating systems.
Any application that requires high performance (e.g. animation heavy) or interacts with hardware specific features (bluetooth, gps, camera, etc.) will perform better with a native code base.
Also, it can be assumed that a native code base will always be supported by its respective operating system since those systems and code bases will continue to be maintained and consistently updated.
Hybrid or Cross-Platform Applications
Another increasingly popular option for mobile application development is hybrid or cross-platform frameworks such as Google Flutter or React Native. By using a cross-platform framework, one code base is built to support both an iOS and Android application.
With one code base, it can be more cost effective to build and maintain an application over time.
For many products a hybrid code base is more than adequate to support the apps feature sets with little to no performance loss; however, some feature sets such as hardware integrations or animations may suffer.
Testing
Once the mobile app is built, our team begins testing using a strategy unique to each platform:
- iOS - TestFlight is an Apple developed platform where we can distribute and you can use an app before it’s distributed to the App Store. Every app is different, but typically we can begin to deploy builds of an app via TestFlight when the application is 50-60% complete. This allows our clients to start testing and give feedback on usability and catch bugs etc.
- Android - Install software directly onto the device by sharing a .apk file so that it can be installed, used, and tested before sending it to the Google Play Store.
Deploy To App and/or Google Play Store
Once the mobile app is built, our team begins testing using a strategy unique to each platform:
- iOS - TestFlight is an Apple developed platform where we can distribute and you can use an app before it’s distributed to the App Store. Every app is different, but typically we can begin to deploy builds of an app via TestFlight when the application is 50-60% complete. This allows our clients to start testing and give feedback on usability and catch bugs etc.
- Android - Install software directly onto the device by sharing a .apk file so that it can be installed, used, and tested before sending it to the Google Play Store.
Common Technologies We Use
Infrastructure: AWS, Heroku, Serverless, Firebase, Azure
Backend: Node.js, Graph QL, REST
Database: MongoDB, PostgresQL, AWS
Payment Services: Stripe, Square, Authorize.net, TransferWise
Languages: Swift, Java/Kotlin, Flutter, React Native
*If you don’t see a desired framework or language here, don’t worry! We have experience with many more that we haven’t included in this summarized list.
Jackrabbit Mobile Development Work Samples
Fully responsive, pixel perfect, and always user tested
Recipeasy
Native iOS recipe training, batching, and labeling iPad app
Heart Rate Social
Native iOS & Android healthy lifestyle social app
swiftScreen
Hybrid iOS & Android vision and hearing screening app
Let’s Make Your Idea Reality
We deliver value to partners through mobile strategy expertise, user-centered design, and lean methodology. Take a look around our work portfolio and drop us a line, we’d love to chat.