Our journey to scale mobile app development naturally led us to explore cross-platform solutions. The promise was appealing: a shared codebase, faster time to market, and a consistent user experience across platforms.
But as anyone who’s built and maintained real-world apps knows, what works in theory often looks very different in practice.
This post isn’t here to pick sides or pitch a silver bullet. It’s not a framework review or a technical teardown.
Instead, it’s an honest reflection from a team that has delivered both native and cross-platform apps, learning firsthand what works, what doesn’t, and where the trade-offs lie.
Whether you’re building, managing, or considering your next app project, I hope these experiences offer a grounded perspective to support your decisions, not just expectations.
For apps like Volvo Connect, here’s why we remain committed to native development where Performance Matters. Our apps serve:
✓ Real-time Fuel Efficiency Advisor
✓ Vehicle Diagnostics with live data
✓ Background processing (even when the app is not in the foreground)
✓ Smooth UX on lower-end Android devices (which some users use globally).
Not all mobile apps in our portfolio require deep native integration. For some, agility and speed are more critical than raw performance.
That’s where React Native has helped us deliver faster without compromising usability. A good example is our Truck Charging app. From the beginning, React Native was our default choice driven by our need to move quickly, leverage JavaScript expertise, and deliver value faster. React Native allowed us to:
So while native remains our go-to for high-performance apps, cross-platform is a smart choice for business-driven tools that need to evolve quickly.
Having managed multiple native and hybrid mobile app projects over the past decade, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges that teams often face with cross-platform frameworks:
While frameworks like Flutter do a good job of mimicking native widgets, subtle UI behaviors still vary across platforms. Our user base, primarily comprising professional drivers and fleet operators, often notices these differences. This UI/UX matters for apps like Volvo Connect, which provides fleet operators with diagnostics and performance insights, or Daily Inspection, which helps drivers complete routine vehicle checks. The experience has to feel tailored, fluid, and intuitive for the platform it’s on.
We’ve dealt with applications that require real-time updates (like vehicle diagnostics or driver alerts). In these cases, React Native and similar frameworks often struggle with animations, background processes, and seamless data rendering, especially on lower-end Android devices.
Cross-platform apps often rely on community-maintained plugins. When a new OS version rolls out (currently it is iOS 17 or Android 14), we’re left scrambling to update the plugins or create custom native bridges. In comparison, our native teams can react faster and with more confidence in such scenarios.
Ironically, “write once, test everywhere” becomes “debug everywhere.” One bug can behave differently on Android and iOS in a cross-platform codebase. This multiplies testing effort rather than saving it, something that surprised us in the early stages.
Mobile applications today are expected to deliver consistent, high-quality experiences across a range of platforms, primarily Android and iOS, and in some cases, desktop environments. In enterprise settings, where apps must scale quickly to meet operational, customer needs, maintaining separate native codebases often introduces unnecessary complexity, increased development costs, and slower release cycles.
Users expect their apps to work smoothly regardless of device. Businesses, meanwhile, are seeking to minimize time-to-market, reduce development costs, and improve maintainability. Cross-platform development addresses these needs by allowing teams to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms. This approach is particularly valuable in fast-moving markets.
At Volvo Group Connected Solutions, we faced similar challenges while building mobile apps for diverse Volvo business areas.
For example, in the Truck Charging app, managing separate native stacks for iOS and Android was slowing us down. Choosing React Native allowed us to unify our development effort, reduce delivery lead time, and better align with Agile release cycles.
Among the popular cross-platform solutions today, React Native and Flutter are the most widely adopted. React Native, developed by Meta (Facebook), allows developers to use JavaScript and React concepts to build mobile apps. Flutter from Google uses Dart and a custom rendering engine. Both provide the ability to write once and deploy across Android and iOS, unlike fully native approaches that require separate codebases.
Our decision to adopt React Native was influenced by our existing JavaScript expertise and the need to reuse code across platforms efficiently. In the Truck Charging app, React Native helped us achieve consistent user interfaces and streamline feature development, especially where backend integrations and UI behavior needed to be tightly aligned across Android and iOS.
The business and technical advantages of cross-platform development are tangible:
✓ Cost-Effectiveness: One team, one codebase, lower overhead. This can cut development costs by up to 50%.
✓ Faster Time-to-Market: Simultaneous deployment across platforms accelerates delivery.
✓ Code Reusability: Up to 90% of code can often be shared, especially with .NET MAUI and Flutter.
✓ Seamless User Experience: Uniform design across platforms reduces confusion and improves usability.
✓ Easier Maintenance: Fix bugs or release updates once and see them reflected across all supported platforms.
✓ Broader Reach: Targeting multiple platforms with a single app increases your audience potential without additional engineering effort.
Despite the benefits, cross-platform approaches are not without trade-offs:
Several high-profile apps that initially embraced cross-platform frameworks like React Native have later chosen to transition to native. For example, Airbnb and Udacity moved away from React Native, citing challenges with performance tuning, native API access delays, and maintaining complex hybrid architectures. These cases highlight that for apps with deep platform dependencies or performance-critical features, fully native development still holds strategic value, despite the higher cost and maintenance effort.
We did encounter trade-offs; certain platform-specific features (like custom map interactions) required native modules or bridges. In such cases, our team collaborated closely with native experts to build modular React Native components backed by native code, balancing reusability with platform fidelity.
Cross-platform development influences how teams organize and structure their code. Shared architecture patterns like MVU (Model-View-Update), Redux, or MVVM are crucial to separate concerns effectively. Teams must:
In some enterprise environments, especially where a web portal is the primary interface, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are often considered an appealing alternative. Their ability to run in browsers without installation and their potential to unify web and mobile development make them tempting when native OS features aren’t a priority.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are sometimes seen as an alternative to cross-platform frameworks. However, they fall short in key areas:
Within Volvo Group, and especially at Volvo Group Connected Solutions, the customer is at the center of our digital experience strategy. That focus drives our technology choices, not market trends.
At the end of the day, our users don’t care whether we use Flutter, React Native, or Kotlin/Swift.
They care about: Does this app work well? Is it reliable? Is it fast when I need it most?
Cross-platform tools are only getting better. With every update, they’re getting closer to native performance while offering the speed and flexibility that businesses need.
In the end, it’s not just about writing less code, it’s about breaking barriers. It’s about delivering faster, reaching more people, and adapting to change with ease.
Whether you’re a developer, product owner, or simply someone curious about tech, cross-platform mobile technology is reshaping how we build for the future.
Let’s build smarter. Let’s build together.
Bio: Shalini S
I’m a mobile tech enthusiast and Deliver Manager at Volvo Group Connected Solutions, constantly exploring how to make mobility smarter and simpler. When I’m not shaping mobile roadmaps, you’ll find me geeking out on app architectures or brainstorming how to bridge real-world needs with elegant solutions and future-proof our digital experiences. Outside of work, you’ll find me with my hands in the soil, gardening is where I slow down, recharge, and reconnect with nature, and I also enjoy travel photography.