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> Something based on Cordova (eg PhoneGap, Ionic) with Crosswalk can get you to about 90% of the performance of a native app

People always go on about Cordova etc, but I've never used one of these that wasn't a clunky, slow non-native looking mess. Do you have any examples of Cordova apps which aren't noticeably more crap than, say, an average-quality iOS app?



The best example I know of is http://snowbuddyhq.com/ ... It's pretty much impossible to tell that it's not a native app, it's fantastically well designed, and it works really well. There's a good article about it on Digital Arts: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/interactive-design/w...


Installing this on Android, it's pretty obvious this isn't native:

* the very first animation (a slide transition to the left) was janky

* The app was unable to get my GPS location (it's being shared properly, and I have intermittent GPS signal, but if it was using the native fused location provider this would work perfectly)

* Buttons have no touch feedback.

* It's not the platform standard navigation drawer

* It's not the platform standard action bar

* The touch drag on the navigation drawer lags behind the finger position more than it should

* Non-native map has really bad pinch-zoom-pan gestures

As an Android developer I'm sure I'm consciously noticing things that lots of other users might not, but if this is the best Cordova still has to offer... :/


> As an Android developer I'm sure I'm consciously noticing things that lots of other users might not

Having talked to a lot of users, they do notice. They may not be able to articulate it, but all the things you mentioned give them the feeling that the app is not as good as some other app.


Great hybrid app but I can definitely tell it is not native. The animations stutter quite a bit on my nexus 6. I'd imagine it would be much worse on low to mid level android devices. Then there is that slight delay on all tap actions. Perhaps your average user wouldn't pick up on these things, but as a developer I definitely can spot a html app immediately and find them unpleasant to use in most cases.




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