₦airaland Forum

It seems everywhere are web devs but very little devs for mobile app development. Isn't there any mobile app developer on here? Why is that?
My stack is swift for iOS and kotlin for android. I use both xcode and android studio for both. Still haven't gotten used to the cross dev frameworks yet although I do know a bit of flutter with dart. Recent build was an AI chatbot app. Built an external server for the backend. Share yours below.

davidaluu:
It seems everywhere are web devs but very little devs for mobile app development. Isn't there any mobile app developer on here? Why is that?
My stack is swift for iOS and kotlin for android. I use both xcode and android studio for both. Still haven't gotten used to the cross dev frameworks yet although I do know a bit of flutter with dart. Recent build was an AI chatbot app. Built an external server for the backend. Share yours below.

We have 100 web jobs over 1 Mobile jobs based on recent findings. We have dart(flutter), swift , java and koltin dev but they hardly comments they all gone silent.

davidaluu:
It seems everywhere are web devs but very little devs for mobile app development. Isn't there any mobile app developer on here? Why is that?
My stack is swift for iOS and kotlin for android. I use both xcode and android studio for both. Still haven't gotten used to the cross dev frameworks yet although I do know a bit of flutter with dart. Recent build was an AI chatbot app. Built an external server for the backend. Share yours below.

I love your observation! I have been doing (web) fullstack and still doing it. In recent years I noticed that mobile is the true future so switched and started with reactnative and dart/flutter. I recently built 3 edtech products (2 with reactnative and 1 with flutter) which will be launch soon in the market by the product owners. I noticed that users are mobile first before ever trying to use their laptops. They buy, watch,read and do many things from their device.Also mobile device have been given more computing power now than ever before. Many developers will have to switch to mobile if they ever want to to make meaningful impact in their career It is an addition to their existing skill set not deduction!

Alphabyte3:
We have 100 web jobs over 1 Mobile jobs based on recent findings. We have dart(flutter), swift , java and koltin dev but they hardly comments they all gone silent.

I don't think that is the case recently as many orgs. are now switching to mobile first approach because users are always on mobile

platymus:
I don't think that is the case recently as many orgs. are now switching to mobile first approach because users are always on mobile

It is better to build both because we have billions of android and iOS devices. Most prefer mobile while some prefer web . One big problem of Nigerian developers org they hardly upgrade their software every 3-4 months because of cost .

platymus:
I love your observation! I have been doing (web) fullstack and still doing it. In recent years I noticed that mobile is the true future so switched and started with reactnative and dart/flutter. I recently built 3 edtech products (2 with reactnative and 1 with flutter) which will be launch soon in the market by the product owners. I noticed that users are mobile first before ever trying to use their laptops. They buy, watch,read and do many things from their device.Also mobile device have been given more computing power now than ever before. Many developers will have to switch to mobile if they ever want to to make meaningful impact in their career It is an addition to their existing skill set not deduction!

Not all software products requires mobile platform-specific features - so "mobile is the future" is an hasty conclusion - most internal business applications run locally too, either as desktop apps or on local intranet - web app.

Mobile-first and native-first is not the same; and there are many reasons why a new SaaS product will prefer to LAUNCH first on web over mobile - web apps are bastardly efficient these days too, and don't need platform gatekeeping - so most products that don't really need native features - local file system access, biometrics, precise location, etc - will still go for web.

Web apps also implement mobile-first - mobile first just means the user interface properly adapted for mobile screens.

But of course, mobile skills are quite future proof and mostly because its lot more harder to publish a mobile app than it os to deploy a web app - so people who have experience publishing apps will still have their place.

On the Developers side
There are fewer mobile devs, because the environment setup/requirements is much more higher - i.e no way you're building an ios app without Xcode and Mac and iphone. On windows (before Expo) you need to have android studio installed even to locally build react native apps

That's the thing. It's very scarce even globally. But I mean that means increased demand for us.

Alphabyte3:
We have 100 web jobs over 1 Mobile jobs based on recent findings. We have dart(flutter), swift , java and koltin dev but they hardly comments they all gone silent.

exactly, mobile apps is how we know mostly interact, we even have to use browsers apps before we access the web even. I think that's why we can command more honestly

platymus:
I love your observation! I have been doing (web) fullstack and still doing it. In recent years I noticed that mobile is the true future so switched and started with reactnative and dart/flutter. I recently built 3 edtech products (2 with reactnative and 1 with flutter) which will be launch soon in the market by the product owners. I noticed that users are mobile first before ever trying to use their laptops. They buy, watch,read and do many things from their device.Also mobile device have been given more computing power now than ever before. Many developers will have to switch to mobile if they ever want to to make meaningful impact in their career It is an addition to their existing skill set not deduction!

Mobile app would always offer a better user experience. Most trillion dollar companies traffic comes now from apps as opposed to back then in the early 2000s. Mobile should always be a top priority in your business plan. Think about it, it's faster and convenient to use a bank app than it is to log on to their website for the same purpose

Alphabyte3:
It is better to build both because we have billions of android and iOS devices. Most prefer mobile while some prefer web . One big problem of Nigerian developers org they hardly upgrade their software every 3-4 months because of cost .

Except for saas and certain startups yes but you have to remember does account for a fraction of the current landscape. They are more smartphone users than computer users which are predominantly web oriented.

Stephen0mozzy:
Not all software products requires mobile platform-specific features - so "mobile is the future" is an hasty conclusion - most internal business applications run locally too, either as desktop apps or on local intranet - web app.

Mobile-first and native-first is not the same; and there are many reasons why a new SaaS product will prefer to LAUNCH first on web over mobile - web apps are bastardly efficient these days too, and don't need platform gatekeeping - so most products that don't really need native features - local file system access, biometrics, precise location, etc - will still go for web.

Web apps also implement mobile-first - mobile first just means the user interface properly adapted for mobile screens.

But of course, mobile skills are quite future proof and mostly because its lot more harder to publish a mobile app than it os to deploy a web app - so people who have experience publishing apps will still have their place.

On the Developers side
There are fewer mobile devs, because the environment setup/requirements is much more higher - i.e no way you're building an ios app without Xcode and Mac and iphone. On windows (before Expo) you need to have android studio installed even to locally build react native apps

davidaluu:
Except for saas and certain startups yes but you have to remember does account for a fraction of the current landscape. They are more smartphone users than computer users which are predominantly web oriented.

Smart phone users have browsers on their phones. Unless for critical applications like banking and Identity, most people still prefer the web app variant than installing a new app - i still read reddit on web, see our dear nairaland 😁

The browsers you use e.g chrome, aren't they mobile apps? Or would you prefer WhatsApp over the web than on phone natively?

Stephen0mozzy:
Smart phone users have browsers on their phones. Unless for critical applications like banking and Identity, most people still prefer the web app variant than installing a new app - i still read reddit on web, see our dear nairaland 😁

Mostly been on the web side — easier to deploy, no app store gatekeeping. But the point about scarcity driving demand is real. Less supply, more leverage for mobile specialists.

Tried Expo/React Native recently and the DX is genuinely better now. For simple apps you can ship cross-platform without much compromise. For complex native features you still need to go full kotlin or swift sha.

Stephen0mozzy's point about PWAs is valid too — if your product doesn't need biometrics or local file access, a well-optimised web app covers most use cases without asking users to install anything.

Mobile apps have higher retention so that matters as well

as69:
Mostly been on the web side — easier to deploy, no app store gatekeeping. But the point about scarcity driving demand is real. Less supply, more leverage for mobile specialists.

Tried Expo/React Native recently and the DX is genuinely better now. For simple apps you can ship cross-platform without much compromise. For complex native features you still need to go full kotlin or swift sha.

Stephen0mozzy's point about PWAs is valid too — if your product doesn't need biometrics or local file access, a well-optimised web app covers most use cases without asking users to install anything.

Stephen0mozzy:
Smart phone users have browsers on their phones. Unless for critical applications like banking and Identity, most people still prefer the web app variant than installing a new app - i still read reddit on web, see our dear nairaland 😁

Go and introduce anything or product to a random Nigerian... First thing they'll ask you is "Link to download the App"

If you haven't made up to 50m from the space just don't talk anything

There's literally so much money potential in that field. Everywhere we devs but so little mobile devs. That alone speaks volume. And it's cool to whip up an app from scratch 😁

Revealpanda:
Go and introduce anything or product to a random Nigerian... First thing they'll ask you is "Link to download the App"

If you haven't made up to 50m from the space just don't talk anything

We are hereee

Right now working on a smart expense management application that enables users to track income and expenses, create and manage budgets, analyze spending patterns, and receive predictive insights to make better financial decisions with flutter(dart) and firebase

Nice, for both iOS and Android right?

EnabsPraise:
Right now working on a smart expense management application that enables users to track income and expenses, create and manage budgets, analyze spending patterns, and receive predictive insights to make better financial decisions with flutter(dart) and firebase