If you are launching a new app, having to choose between iOS and Android quickly becomes an early decision point. If you are bootstrapped, you will likely end up choosing one or the other. While hybrid solutions exist, they can end up compromising some experiential aspects. We will cover hybrid versus native issues in Chapter 9, Native, Hybrid, or Cross-Platform.

Web developers about a decade back faced, in certain ways, similar issues with the browser wars. Building for IE, Mozilla, and Opera felt like three completely different browsers at times. Developers launching a new product often had to play it safe and focus on just one popular primary platform to start with.

For mobile app developers, choosing just one platform to start with works for a number of utilitarian apps. However, many apps, such as messenger apps, involve interacting with others in...