Is Instagram a Hybrid App? How Do Hybrid Apps Work?

Yes, Instagram is a hybrid app.

Applications offer great opportunities for many. There are apps for all your needs. Mobile applications on a whole can be classified into three types:

Native app

A native app is developed to be used on a particular mobile OS. Developers use OS-specific programming languages to build them. The languages used to build native apps are Java for Android and Swift or Objective-C for iOS. Native apps offer high performance and ensure good user experience. Native apps form 30% of all apps.

Web-based app

The web-based apps are coded using HTML, CSS or JavaScript. The web-based applications run inside a web-browser. Web-based applications are user-based as one can even view in on the desktop. Web applications require minimum of device memory. Web apps are found across websites on the Internet and cannot be physically downloaded without a PWA store.

Hybrid app

The Hybrid app is a mix of native and web-based apps. Hybrid apps are the most popular apps because developers will need to write code for a mobile app once and accommodate to multiple platforms. Hybrid apps are fast and easy to develop. Nearly 70% of all apps on the Internet are hybrid apps.

How hybrid apps work?

Hybrid apps work across multiple platforms. Like native apps, hybrid apps must be downloaded to the device, but Hybrid apps work in a similar way to the Web apps. The difference is that hybrid apps have a simple ‘native’ shell that makes them feel like native apps.

Hybrid apps are a great option:

They target multiple mobile platforms
The apps run offline
The app development is faster and simpler
Cost effective as it reduces development time and cost
Offers a great-users experience in low cost
Hybrid apps have full device access with plugins
Hybrid apps can be easily downloaded from app stores
Hybrid apps support portability
Hybrid apps have a common code base that works on all devices
Hybrid apps have access to native device feature
Hybrid apps have multiple app monetization options

Questions to ask yourself before you create your own hybrid app.

What is your target group?
Which app store should it be available in?
How complicated is your app?
What kind of user experience will your app offer?
Which device will your users access the app on?
How often do we need the app to be updated?

Native apps can be great, but hybrid apps are equally good. Some of the most popular mobile apps these days are hybrid apps, like Uber, Twitter, Evernote and Instagram. Instagram, the hybrid app, is a social networking platform focusing on images and videos. In 2011, Instagram introduced hashtags to help users discover photos. Users can create trends through hashtags. Instagram also offers photographic filters that can be applied on images. Before planning to build hybrid, apps ensure that the web speed if you want tailored user experience.