02 · Engineering
Native and cross-platform mobile apps, web applications, APIs and the back-end that holds them up.
Mobile app development at Digital Services covers native iOS and Android (Swift and Kotlin) and cross-platform builds in React Native or Flutter, plus the web front end, APIs and back-end services behind them — chosen per project, not sold as a single house style.
We build the things we design. Mobile first, because that is where our four shipped apps live, but the same team writes the APIs and web surfaces behind them — a product is rarely just an app; it's an app talking to a server somebody has to build and keep running.
The native-versus-cross-platform decision gets made per project, not answered the same way every time. We've shipped with native Swift and Kotlin where a feature needed deep platform integration, and with React Native and Flutter where one team, one codebase and a faster path to three stores mattered more. Neither is a fallback for the other — the comparison page linked below walks through the actual trade-offs rather than a sales pitch for whichever we happen to prefer.
Shipping to Huawei AppGallery alongside the App Store and Google Play adds a real engineering wrinkle worth knowing about before it surprises you: AppGallery devices don't carry Google Mobile Services, so push notifications, maps, in-app purchases and analytics need Huawei's HMS Core instead of the Google equivalents. It's not difficult, but it's easy to miss until a build that works everywhere else fails silently on a Huawei device — we've done this integration four times.
Practically, building means source control, code review, staged environments and a release process you can repeat — not heroics the night before submission. Offline-capable data and sync are a recurring requirement rather than an edge case: Grocery List — Smart works with no connection at all and reconciles when one returns, which is a harder problem than it sounds and one we'd rather solve once, properly, than patch per project.
- Native iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) builds
- Cross-platform builds in React Native or Flutter, one codebase across iOS, Android and Huawei
- Web applications and marketing sites
- REST APIs and back-end services
- Authentication, sync and offline-capable data layers
- Third-party integrations — payments, analytics, notifications, maps, and Huawei's HMS Core where AppGallery is a target
Questions
About mobile app development.
Do you build native apps or cross-platform apps?
Both — the choice depends on the project, not on a house preference. We've shipped production apps with native Swift and Kotlin and with React Native and Flutter. See our native vs cross-platform comparison for how we actually decide.
Can an app you build run on Huawei devices?
Yes — all four of our own apps do. Huawei AppGallery devices lack Google Mobile Services, so push, maps, in-app purchases and analytics route through Huawei's HMS Core instead of the Google equivalents most cross-platform tooling assumes by default.
Do you build the back end too, or only the app?
Both, when a project needs it. Authentication, sync, offline-capable data layers and the APIs an app talks to are all things our own four apps required, and we build them for client projects the same way.
Can you take over a codebase someone else started?
Generally yes, after a scoping pass to see what's actually there — the state of an inherited codebase is the single biggest variable in how fast we can move on it.
The other three stages
UI/UX Design
Customer journeys, information architecture and UI/UX for mobile apps, web apps and digital products.
Read more 03App Store Launch
Store submission, review, release management and the support that keeps a live product healthy.
Read more 04SEO, AEO & GEO
SEO, app store optimisation, answer-engine visibility and campaigns that bring people to the thing you built.
Read moreReady to talk about mobile app development?
Send a paragraph on what you're building — that's enough to start scoping.