The increased use of smartphones has contributed significantly to the demand for mobile applications. These include utility, productivity, financial, news, games, social media, and enterprise-level apps that keep people engrossed on their screens for a long time. As of May 2022 among the many mobile devices in the global market, 27.83% are on the iOS operating system, but concentrating 2/3 of all revenues, compared with Android.
However, this has also given rise to various iOS development languages. If you’re considering developing an iOS app for your business, you need to know the right language to build it on. This article shares the steps you should take when choosing a development language, even as you also choose mobile app development services.
App development language
These are a set of instructions that determine how an app operates. Your language of choice will depend on your goals for the app, capabilities, and desired functionality. Having an idea of the iOS app development languages available isn’t only beneficial to developers, but also to you as well. This will help you understand the processes of your project better and know the right pick for your app. Here’s how to go about choosing the iOS app development language.
Step 1: Define your app goals
The growing dominance and demand for mobile apps don’t necessarily mean you need to build an app. That’s the reason you’ll need to clarify why you might think you need to develop an app in the first place. Create well-defined goals that align with your app’s purpose before you start researching a development language or sourcing a development partner.
Some of the questions that can lead you to build SMART goals for your app include the following:
- What type of app do you want to build?
- What do you want to achieve with it?
- What functions do you want it to perform?
- What benefits will it offer to the users?
- What’s the level of competition in the market?
- What unique features do you want that will help it stand out from the competition?
- What’s your budget?
- How quickly do you want the iOS app?
The answers to these questions will help give you a clear view of what you want against the language options you have. This will provide insight into the language that will best serve your current app needs and ease future upgrades.
Step 2: Familiarize yourself with various languages
When you’ve figured out your iOS app goals, it’s good to familiarize yourself with the development languages available. You need to find out the pros and cons of each to determine which suits your goals best. This step is quite essential as it resolves the issues of compatibility with various versions, possibility, and ease of future upgrades.
All the more reason to have defined long-term goals before deciding on a development language. Here are some of the iOS app development languages for native and cross-platform app development:
- Swift (iOS official coding by Apple)
- Objective-C
- C#
- HTML5
- Java
- React Native
- Flutter
Step 3: Take on market research
Researching the market trends and customer base is critical when choosing is a crucial step in the pre-app development stages. It helps you define your target audience and understand their needs and preferences. Important questions to answer during your research include:
- Where are the users located geographically?
- Which devices are more common for your audience?
- What is their average age?
- Do you need to consider native or cross-platform app languages?
- Are you building your app for a particular device, such as custom iPad app development, or do you need multiple device compatibility?
- What languages are the competing apps developed on?
Doing thorough market research will help you customize your iOS app to suit the targets’ needs and know how to build your marketing campaigns to appeal to them. You also get to understand the most suitable language to optimize downloads when you launch.
Step 4: Get into detailed planning
If you want a successful iOS app in the market in terms of appeal and functionality, you can’t risk skimming on planning. This includes defining your development language and tech stack, which you can do with the help of a reputable developer.
Planning also helps you to stay on track and achieve your set app development goals and to define:
- Define the various development phases and the desired outcome
- The essential iOS app features you need
- The desired security level
- Decide on the timeframe
Notably, iOS apps range from simple ones that don’t need high-level planning to highly multifaceted ones that require higher planning and a longer timeframe. This comes into play when deciding on the most suitable development language, as some languages have heavy codes, leading to slow and poorly performing apps.
Takeaway
Deciding on the iOS app development language is a crucial decision that can significantly impact your app’s success. Therefore, before settling on a language, define your needs and goals and then do proper research and planning. Consult reputable experts on mobile app development when in doubt about which language to pick.
