Flutter App Development: Everything You Need to Know in 2022

It’s 2022, and cross-platform mobile development is among the most popular development trends. The ability to build native applications for Android and iOS from a single codebase is gaining in demand, as it enables companies to bring mobile apps in record time. React Native has already become somewhat of a ‘standard’ but Flutter’s treading right behind, becoming the next need-to-know mobile development technology in 2022.

How many apps are installed on your mobile? There’s a good chance that at least a dozen (unless you belong to the chosen 1% of smartphone owners who don’t have any app running on their devices—is that possible, though?). 

From handling finances, through finding your soulmate, to managing health, virtually any service and activity can be now integrated into a cell phone. Growth-minded companies understand that mobile app development is no longer optional but mandatory to boost up business revenue and generate sustained user engagement across all mobile platforms. They also realize that the faster they can ship a revenue-generating app, the more significant advantage they gain over the competition. 

The demand for novelty cross-platform mobile development technologies is intensifying. To address it, we’re going to dig away at Flutter today, and compare it against two immensely popular frameworks, React Native and Xamarin.

Here’s what we’re going to cover:

• What is Cross-Platform Mobile Development?
• What is Flutter?
• Flutter Pros and Cons
• Examples of Gorgeous Flutter Apps
• When to Use Flutter (And When to Avoid It)
• Cross-Platform Mobile Development: Which Framework to Choose?
• Flutter v. React Native v. Xamarin

What is Cross-Platform Mobile Development?

If you are already familiar with this topic, skip to the next section. Otherwise, keep reading.

When we hear ‘mobile app,’ most of us immediately think of iOS or Android. While there are several other mobile operating systems available, such as Ubuntu Touch, KaiOS, or PureOS, to name just a few, Google’s and Apple’s OSs are head and shoulder above the rest. Together, they hold practically 100% of the global mobile market share.

Globally, Android continues its domination, with an estimated 86% share in the worldwide mobile app market. However, when we look at the revenue breakdown, iOS rakes in higher profit than its opponent. Besides, it controls a substantial 44% of the strategic US market. Therefore, if you are targeting a global audience, you may perhaps be able to get away with focusing on custom Android app development only. Still, if you plan to appeal to American clients, iOS support is a must. On that account, many companies chase opportunities on Android and iOS devices alike. 

Note we say ‘many,’ not all. What holds some businesses back from deploying apps to both platforms? 

“Our iPhone app is out now. Android users can expect to see it in... some unspecified future.” How many times have you heard this? Well, that’s because iOS and Android are nothing alike, and they require developers to use different programming languages and frameworks. This means having two independent development teams, separate management teams to coordinate work within and between them, and an entire squad of UX experts navigating between the two projects, trying to make sure that the user experience on both platforms stays more or less the same. 

Imagine the time, inconvenience, and outlays needed to maintain all those teams working in parallel to ship the same product, just on different platforms. This is where cross-platform mobile app development comes in. It reduces the speed and cost of mobile application delivery by allowing developers to build software that supports iOS and Android using one codebase. By providing these capabilities, the cross-platform delivery approach helps companies optimize their return on investment and ship mobile apps to all markets they target fast.

Among several available tools and frameworks for cross-platform development, React Native is topping popularity charts at the moment (if you want to know more about it, check our all-encompassing React Native guide). However, Google’s Flutter is gaining traction, combining all features needed for speedy launch of beautiful, interactive mobile apps with a native look & feel.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source UI SDK (software development kit) created by Google and introduced to the world three years ago. It uses Google’s object-oriented Dart programming language. Dart bears some resemblance to JavaScript and follows a simple syntax, which makes it quite simple to learn for mobile developers. 

Below, we’ve assembled some defining features of Flutter that distinguish it from other mobile app development tools. And if you want to see it in action, visit this tutorial.

Cross-platform support

Flutter has been specially created to enable the development of riveting, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. In mobile development, it can be used to build applications that work on both Android and iOS. It also supports Google’s own upcoming mobile OS, Google Fuchsia.

Native performance

As opposed to hybrid apps, applications created with Flutter are much more than just a thin native veneer over a web app. Dart code allows developers to create mobile apps that are truly native and do not require a JavaScript bridge (unlike React Native, for instance), as the code is compiled ahead of time. This allows for the full native performance on Android and iOS, without any lags and disruptions. 

Widgets

The entire concept of UI design in Flutter revolves around widgets, which are provided out-of-the-box in two styles designed to conform to Android and iOS design guidelines. Widgets define the various stylistic, layout, and structural components of the UI, such as buttons, fonts, colors, menus, forms, and so on. They can be modified and combined to form more complex elements. Custom widgets can also be created from scratch.  

Hot reload

The so-called “hot reload” allows developers to inject source code modifications directly into a running app to be seen immediately, without requiring a restart or loss of state. The feature is hugely useful as it helps avoid the lengthy compilation process, which is particularly irritating when developers need to apply small changes. Not having to wait for who-knows-how-long for the code to compile, only to discover that you left out a semi-colon when tweaking the color of a button seems like a game-changer for developers. According to Flutter’s creators, this ability has had a profound impact on their work. However, it’s fair to mention that hot reload is not unique to Flutter and is already offered by React Native, for example.

Google support

Although Flutter, just as React Native before it, is free and open-source, we shouldn’t forget that there’s a tech giant standing behind it. As the backer of Android, Google has a vested interest in keeping Flutter going strong, as it facilitates the creation of Android apps and, even more significantly, opens the door for cross-platform development. This means that by using Flutter, a mobile development company building predominantly iOS apps can quickly deploy software to Android mobiles, using the same code. What’s more, as Fuchsia development continues, the new OS will almost automatically gain access to the library of Flutter-based apps. Hence, it’s more than likely that Google will keep maintaining and developing the SDK going forward, striving to keep it as developer-friendly and straightforward as possible. Still, let’s not forget that the Mountain View giant has a long history of starting projects and suddenly abandoning them, with no apparent reason (anyone remembers Google+, Google Spaces, or Google Video Player?).

Flutter Pros and Cons

We have already mentioned the core aspects of Flutter that may appeal to developers. Now, let’s review some of the business advantages that make it a desirable choice for app owners, and discuss some of the SDK’s downfalls. 

Flutter Advantages

Fast time to market

As a cross-platform mobile development technology, Flutter considerably reduces the app delivery time. Since it makes one code reusable across two target platforms, it helps companies reduce delivery time and seize audiences on Android and iOS alike.

Exquisite user experience

Google boasts that Flutter enables the creation of ‘flexible and expressive UI,’ and it surely delivers on that promise. Thanks to a wide selection of reusable, customizable widgets, developers can craft stunning user interfaces. What’s more, the native capabilities of Flutter facilitate seamless user experience and top-notch performance of the apps. 

Development cost savings

Working with one codebase instead of two always helps drive the overall project cost down; therefore, cost-efficiency is one of the most appealing features of Flutter. By simplifying development and reducing app delivery time, the technology unlocks significant savings, boosting return on investment in the application.

More development cost savings!

Lower development effort, faster project delivery, and smaller resource demand are one thing. But let’s not forget that Flutter is free and open-source, which lowers mobile app project spending further as compared to proprietary, licensed tools.

Good for startup MVP

If you’re looking to test and assess your mobile app idea before moving forward with a full-blown software rollout, Flutter is an excellent technology to achieve that. The SDK allows you to create a beautiful, performant MVP app quickly and without spending a fortune (see When to Use Flutter (And When to Avoid It) for more details on this point).

International reach

Companies seeking to launch at global markets will be happy to discover Flutter’s localization support for over 20 languages. The SDK also simplifies internationalization with built-in currencies, dates, and units and other in-built functions that make it easy to localize your app’s software.

Flutter Disadvantages

Novelty technology

New concepts often raise suspicions. While Flutter is making waves, it’s a relatively new tool that needs to do some catching up with more established frameworks. The choice of available libraries is still limited, and custom scripts may be required to implement some functions.

Large app size

There’s always a little bit of give-and-take in software development. Flutter’s speed of delivery and outstanding UI is an offset against large application size. Flutter apps tend to be quite bulky, which might be an issue when developing for devices that cannot handle large-sized applications.

Hard-to-find talent

As Flutter is using a proprietary, purpose-built language, its development requires a new set of skills that take some time to build. Therefore, the pool of developers fluent in Flutter will be relatively smaller than in the case of other tools and frameworks. However, that is not to say that finding tech talent with Flutter expertise is impossible. Just talk to us 😉

Examples of Gorgeous Flutter Apps

The number of Flutter apps is increasing daily. Obviously, Google leads by example, with Google Ads or Google Assistant utilizing the SDK. But who else is keen on Flutter’s speed, simplicity, and convenience? 

Alibaba (e-commerce)

The world’s largest e-commerce company is among the big market players that trusted Flutter, which powers Xianyu, the group’s second-largest online retail platform with +50 million downloads. The app developers praise the tool’s impressive UI/UX capabilities and easy maintenance, but it was the speed of app development that got them sold on Flutter. 

Groupon (marketplace)

The leading discount marketplace needed to revamp its merchant-facing app, extending payment data visualization functions, streamlining campaign management, and improving the voucher redemption experience. Instead of rewriting the existing app from scratch to add these enhancements, Groupon integrated Flutter widgets into the native code. This helped bring those features to end users faster, without impacting their experience with the app.

Realtor.com (real estate)

Realtor helps Americans find their dream home through a distinctive Flutter-powered mobile app. The company has integrated the framework into their existing Android and iOS apps to provide seamless UX across screens and platforms with intuitive, aesthetic graphical components, high-quality photos, and rich visualization. 

Birch Finance (finance)

This finance application simplifies credit card rewards, helping consumers save as they spend. The app is using Flutter to serve its users with clear and consistent UI so that they may easily track, analyze, and redeem their reward points.

Hookle (social)

Hookle is a social media aggregator for small businesses. The app facilitates displaying, composing, and rolling out SM posts to multiple platforms from one place. Initially, Hookle creators intended to deploy a native app to Android only, anxious about the speed and cost of delivery to multiple platforms. They revisited the strategy once they discovered Flutter.

EntrenaPro (fitness)

A mobile fitness app from Spain, EntrenaPro uses Flutter to connect athletes with coaches and sports centers in the vicinity. According to the app creators, Flutter enabled them to meet very tight deadlines for product delivery while providing critical components to achieve the lightweight, modern UI. The entire zero-to-launch implementation took only four months.  

Reflectly (lifestyle)

Wrapped in a minimalistic, soothing GUI, Reflectly is an AI-driven personal diary and mindfulness assistant. It provides an inspiring example of a mobile app that was first created with React Native and then migrated to Flutter. The transition resulted in enhanced cross-platform portability and allowed for the integration of advanced technologies such as machine learning and NLP.

Watermaniac (health)

Watermaniac helps users stay hydrated by tracking beverages they drink and dispatching reminders to take up a few sips of water now and then. The app’s GUI is as simple and straightforward as its function, so developing it with Flutter was a walk in the park.  

When to Use Flutter (And When to Avoid It)

It seems like Flutter has a massive deal of benefits to offer, with limited risks. The diverse examples of implementation in multi-purpose apps of varying complexity validate its flexibility. What’s more, the SDK’s not limited to serve growth-minded startups and small businesses only. After all, global giants like Google, eBay, BMW, or Alibaba also use it to roll out their stunning apps in record time.

That’s all not to mean Flutter is a perfect (and only) choice for any business case.

Don’t get us wrong—we adore Flutter. It makes development productive and enjoyable for us while allowing our clients to ship their product fast to Android and iOS. But as they say, you need to use the right tool for the right job. 

Go Ahead! When to Use Flutter

• Flutter creators recommend using their SDK for the delivery of 2D cross-platform mobile apps, suggesting it works best with brand-first designs.
• Wherever aesthetic design and seamless UX are the priority, Flutter provides the capabilities to build elegant, expressive user interfaces.
• By offering the capacity to bring ideas into reality quickly, Flutter benefits projects impacted by a tight budget and time constraints.
• As we noted earlier, the super quick turnaround time for new features makes Flutter a perfect candidate for developing highly-performant, impressive MVPs. 
• The technology creates a good match for mobile apps focusing on e-commerce, healthcare, lifestyle, and banking and finances.  

No-go Zone. When not to Use Flutter

• When an app size is of concern. Instant apps need to launch fast and must stay small. Flutter ships numerous inbuilt components, which are substantial in volume, so if there’s no compromising on the app size, it might be worthwhile considering an alternative to Flutter.
• For highly-sophisticated apps that demand rare libraries and extensive custom coding. Although Flutter’s widget system was designed to be easily customizable, adding a broad set of entirely new features and modules is an altogether different story. Rapid development is Flutter’s superpower, but developers won’t be able to take advantage of it if an application demands implementation of highly unique features.

Cross-Platform Mobile Development: Which Framework to Choose?

Without leveraging possibilities of popular cross-platform mobile app development frameworks, developers need to build two separate-yet-the-same apps for Android and iOS. What’s more, once designed, the apps need to be maintained and upgraded individually. Therefore, the choice of technology to implement the code impacts not only the upfront expenses but also the total cost of ownership of the app. Wrong technology may lead to inefficient maintenance or even require a complete app rebuild, which wipes out all work, effort, and investment made in the first iteration.

Thus, the choice between Flutter and other leading tools and frameworks is much more than just a question of a developer’s individual preference. It affects your money, your time, and your business. That’s why it’s worthwhile to take a few minutes and go through the main differences between popular cross-platform mobile app development technologies.

Flutter vs. React Native vs. Xamarin

Out of all cross-platform mobile app development frameworks, three that are arguably the most commonly used include Flutter, React Native, and Xamarin. And those are the tools we’re going to compare to see how they stack up against one another, considering different aspects. 

Just let us give you some heads up: there’s no one-size-fits-all in cross-platform development. We already indicated that Flutter is a fantastic solution in some cases, but may not be wholly beneficial in others. The same holds for React Native and Xamarin. For that reason, we won’t be looking to pick the ultimate winner. Instead, we will compare the three technologies to help you decide which one will be the most suitable for your specific implementation. 

What is React Native?

React Native is a JavaScript framework designed to write interactive mobile apps with native-like feel using JavaScript. The code used to build the apps may be used both on Android and iOS, without the need to recompile or rewrite, making the framework truly portable. What’s more, React Native allows up to 70% of the code used in a web app to be reused in the corresponding mobile app, which significantly reduces the programmers’ effort. The framework invokes the native rendering APIs in Objective-C in iOS and Java in Android, effectively building a standalone app, not a “website in a frame.” React Native is supported by Facebook.

If you want to learn more about React Native, check out our in-depth React Native Development Guide.

What is Xamarin?

Owned by Microsoft, Xamarin is an open-source, cross-platform application development framework. It uses .NET and C# to build modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows. As one of the first technologies enabling deploying apps to multiple platforms from a single codebase, Xamarin has garnered extensive community support from over 60,000 active code contributors across 3,700 companies. The robust platform is widely-used in an enterprise setting and praised for its native-like performance, stability, and wide selection of tooling.

1. Platform maturity

Software development is an art of balancing between exciting cutting edge technologies and mature, battle-tested solutions. Tradition-based, established organizations, especially in highly-regulated industries like banking or healthcare, tend to choose tools that have been around for some time, as they consider them more reliable. Dynamically expanding startups are more inclined to go with forefront solutions that deliver agility and scalability needed to adopt change easily, and often cost less than fully-fledged platforms. How do React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin compare when it comes to maturity?

• React Native. JavaScript has been around since 1995, and Facebook has been using React.js (a close relative of React Native) since 2011. Throughout all these years, thousands of companies have adopted React Native, including Instagram, Shopify, and Walmart. According to SimilarTech, RN currently powers over 110,000 websites around the globe, which surely attests to the framework’s maturity. 
  
  
• The first stable version of Flutter was released in 2017, which probably makes the SDK a young adult among other software development tools. Flutter uses Dart, a purpose-built, scalable, and versatile language intended to ultimately replace JavaScript (for now, this seems rather unlikely). We can argue if three years is enough to prove its worth; however, Flutter can boast a pretty impressive rate of adoption that shows no signs of slowing down.
  
  
• Xamarin. The oldest of the three, Xamarin, has had plenty of time to grow and improve as it was first released in 2011. Until 2016, its access was limited to commercial users only, as the tool used to be a licensed software. After moving code to the open source model, the platform became available to general public. Currently, Xamarin is probably the most comprehensive cross-platform development suite out there, comprising proven and well-tested technologies like C#, .NET, and Microsoft Visual Studio. 

2. User interface

The whole point of mobile apps is to delight users with a quick, easy, and enjoyable way to achieve their goals or resolving issues. That’s why UI is a crucial element for making a mobile app stand out from the rest. When it comes to UI design, the three technologies are significantly different. 

• React Native is based on ready-made components that are native to the system it operates in. This results in high-quality UI that is hardly discernible from native apps. For custom layouts and stylesheets, React Native uses a simple, XML-based syntax.
  
  
• Flutter is suited to work with a set of proprietary widgets. From the designers’ point of view, that’s convenient, as it makes obtaining a sleek and elegant look relatively easy. And in hybrid mobile app development, it’s an advantage not to oversee. 
  
  
• Xamarin uses native widgets for UI rendering. The user interface can be designed using either platform-specific methods or through Xamarin.Forms. Platform-specific code is fast but requires the knowledge of native languages, such as Kotlin, Objective-C, or Swift.

3. Development time

It is not that hard to build a mobile app—the challenge consists in delivering it within the agreed time and budget. That’s why the number of technologies supporting coding is growing exponentially. In essence, businesses are looking for new ways of cutting down the time needed to launch a new app, and software companies are striving to provide them.

• React Native proves to be one of the most convenient ways to build a mobile app swiftly, as the technology enables programmers to share up to 70% of code. What’s more, RN developers generally agree on the convenience and usability of the language the framework uses. JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language, and 70% of programmers adore it!
  
  
• Speed ranks among the chief advantages of Flutter, which makes development extremely efficient thanks to hot reloading, predefined widgets, and pre-built tooling. However, it’s worth remembering that Dart used by Flutter is a relatively new development that cannot compete with JavaScript when it comes to popularity and maturity. While it is quite a simple and hugely effective language, still relatively few developers know it, which can impact development time in case of any issues.
     
• Xamarin’s Visual Studio comes with an abundance of pre-built tools, components, and plugins that make development leaner and more productive. On the other hand, as a fully-fledged, robust enterprise platform, Xamarin requires more time to install and set up than other solutions. The framework is also notorious for delayed support, which negatively impacts the speed of deploying updates in existing apps.

4. App performance

Cross-platform mobile development tools indeed have slightly lower performance than native frameworks. Nevertheless, from the users’ perspective, the differences in app operation are negligible, and they usually don’t affect their experience anyhow.

• React Native. Despite being the most popular web development language, JavaScript was NOT designed to be the one. It was devised to manipulate the Document Object Model. The fact that developers were able to leverage it for powerful, fully-performant applications attests to the language’s versatility. Nevertheless, JavaScript is used widely beyond its initial purpose. And as such, it is non-optimal in terms of performance.
  
  
• Flutter. On the other hand, Flutter uses Dart, a language intended to become JavaScript's replacement. As a tool made to fit a particular purpose, Dart performs way better than its predecessor. What’s more, because it’s a state-of-the-art technology, Dart draws from all modern paradigms and resolves many issues inherent in JavaScript and other established languages. This has a tremendous impact on performance.
  
  
• Xamarin. Xamarin takes full advantage of the system- and hardware-specific APIs and 64-bit support, offering a near-native performance level that delights app users. 

5. Community and support

Open-source software thrives on healthy, engaged communities of technology supporters. Without them, there’s no knowledge sharing, no tech inputs, and no code. Besides, by listening closely to the voice of users and developers, software vendors gain insights that power continuous enhancement and adjustment of their products in the direction that’s relevant for end-users. Which of the three compared frameworks is resonating the most with the global developers’ community?

When we have a quick look at Github, React Native outpaces its competitors with over 155K repositories and over half a million commits. However, Flutter is quickly catching up, with the number of repos nearing 113K, including 335K commits, as of April 2020. Xamarin falls behind, as there are fewer than 37K repositories available for this framework. 

These results are consistent with what Google Trends tells us. Throughout the last 12 months, we may notice a persistent growth in Flutter searches. The interest in Google’s open SDK has outrun the popularity of React Native. Xamarin lags again, being 3-4 times less popular in searches than its competitors. 

• React Native. In terms of community size, there’s no contender to React Native, which is used three times more often than Flutter, and twice as often as Xamarin. The fact that JavaScript has been around since 1995 acts in favor of the framework. RN boasts an amazing community of programmers contributing to the technology and comes with support from Facebook, one of the Internet’s giants. Finding a React Native development company also doesn’t pose a challenge.

• Flutter. When it comes to Flutter, Google’s support is not a thing to oversee, but the technology community is still modest in size when compared to the one of React Native. Nevertheless, we can observe a distinct upward trend in the number of Flutter supporters who are also extremely devoted to the tool. In fact, Flutter ranks third as the most loved framework of all, which implies that it is gaining momentum.
• Xamarin. Xamarin is owned by Microsoft, which has made a massive investment in the tool to provide it with enterprise-grade stability. Throughout nine years of Xamarin’s existence, the framework has built a huge community (over 1.6 million) of enterprise-based supporters and contributors. They share their knowledge and insights on the official Xamarin forum, and in document repositories, videos, tutorials, and online courses. 

6. Project documentation

It takes time to set up an environment to support a new development framework. The same goes for testing the created application and releasing code to the App Store and Play Store. Comprehensive, user-friendly documentation makes developers’ lives a whole lot easier, as they don’t need to reinvent the wheel and figure out steps that are practically the same in each case. What documentation support do the three frameworks offer?

• Unfortunately, the official React Native documentation leaves a lot to be desired. It lacks structure and organization and assumes developers already have some experience with setting up RN framework and building cross-platform development projects. It also provides insufficient support on the automated deployment of iOS apps into the App Store and offers no help with CI/CD best practices.
  
  
• Flutter scores much better here. The framework provides a rich, well-structured, and detailed documentation for setup, testing, and deployment, to simplify developer’s job and speed up delivery of mobile apps.
  
  
• Although Xamarin comes with a variety of resources for developers who start their journey with the framework, their quality is often questioned as incomplete or outdated. Especially if a developer has no previous background in Microsoft products such as Visual Studio, the learning curve for the platform can be quite steep.

7. Target users and applications 

The three software development frameworks are widely-used and accepted, yet each of them performs best in a given context. What makes some companies prefer React Native over Xamarin? Why would they decide to go with Flutter instead?

• React Native is versatile enough to support projects of all sizes and in every industry. With its maturity and extensive client base, the framework has all the necessary components to maintain its position as a cross-platform mobile development powerhouse. React Native will be the most intuitive and practical framework to use for developers who have previous experience with JavaScript. 
  
  
• Flutter may be the youngest framework here, but thanks to Google’s backing, it joined the cross-platform mobile development race with a bang and now stands a good chance of winning it in the long run. Companies quickly appreciated the framework’s versatility and convenience, so Flutter’s client portfolio is steadily expanding and becoming more diverse. The technology finds broad application among growth-minded, dynamic brands that need to roll out mobile apps quickly. Companies that value high-quality design and user experience are also going to benefit by developing their mobile apps with Flutter. 
  
  
• Xamarin is considered a premium choice for enterprises, which prioritize app stability and portability over fast development and ultra-modern look & feel. Think of any multinational, filthy rich corporation, and most likely, they’re already using the framework for web and mobile apps development (think of Bosch, Samsung, Cognizant, SAP, Kellog’s; the list goes on). It’s not to say that startups never go with Xamarin, but in many cases, they consider investment in the platform an overkill.

The State of Flutter in 2022

Flutter is one of the most forward mobile technologies out there. Like every innovation, it has certain limitations. Still, its multiple benefits undoubtedly overshadow the few shortcomings, and Google’s backing makes it a strong candidate to dominate cross-platform mobile app development shortly. 

The Mountain View giant is regularly releasing new updates, adding widgets and libraries to extend app features in the stable and beta channels of the framework. The latest stable release, version 2.8.1, contributed MacOS support, iOS 15.2 visual refresh, and API improvements, among others. Currently, the beta stream provides web support to enable the generation of web content rendered with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These modifications open up an avenue for Flutter to compile to mobile and web platforms from a single codebase, a capability that makes the SDK’s dominance even more probable. 

Since its inception, Flutter has gained immense popularity among developers, but it’s also catching on with app owners. Now, as Google is hard at work perfecting Fuchsia OS, Flutter is pretty likely to become the next big thing in app development. You don’t need to wait to take advantage of its capabilities. We can help turn your business idea into an irresistible mobile app, bringing top-notch Flutter skills on deck to build or strengthen your mobile development team.