Mobile App Development
Mobile apps that keep working when the signal drops.
Consumer apps, field-force tools and B2B products, built once for iOS and Android. We plan for patchy signal and three-year-old phones from the start, and for the store review queue at the end.
What you end up with
- Give field teams a tool that works offline and catches up when the signal comes back
- Put your service on customers' phones without paying for two native codebases
- Ship fixes weekly instead of bundling them into a quarterly release
- Meet corporate IT requirements for device management, SSO and data protection
Most projects start with a fixed-price discovery, so you have a scoped plan and an estimate in hand before you commit to a build.
Overview
One codebase for iOS and Android, and native modules for the parts that need them
Most business apps don't need two native teams. React Native with Expo lets us ship to iOS and Android from one TypeScript codebase, share logic with your web platform and push small fixes over the air without a store review. Some things do need native code (Bluetooth peripherals, background location, heavy camera or ML work). For those we write Swift or Kotlin modules and keep the rest of the app shared.
The screens take less time than people expect. The time goes on offline sync, what happens when two people edit the same record, battery and memory use on a cheap Android that's a few years old, where tokens are stored, and a release process that gets builds through review and onto phones every time. We design for all of that up front, before beta testers find it for us.
What's included
The kinds of work this covers.
- 01
Cross-platform apps with React Native and Expo
One TypeScript codebase for iOS and Android, with managed builds, over-the-air updates and types shared with your web platform and API.
- 02
Native modules when the platform demands it
Swift and Kotlin for Bluetooth, NFC, background location, camera pipelines and hardware integrations, wrapped so the rest of the app stays shared.
- 03
Offline-first field and operations apps
Local storage, queued writes, conflict handling and background sync, so a driver in a loading bay or an engineer in a plant room can keep working without signal.
- 04
Consumer and B2B product apps
Onboarding, sign-in, payments, push notifications, deep links and analytics. The whole product, instrumented so you can see what people do with it.
- 05
Enterprise distribution and MDM
Rollout through Intune, Jamf or Workspace ONE, SSO against your identity provider, certificate pinning and secure on-device storage where a regulator expects it.
- 06
Performance, release and store management
Start-up time and frame-rate budgets, crash monitoring, phased rollouts, TestFlight and Play tracks, and a release process that copes with an app store rejection.
Is it right for you?
A good fit if
- Your field, delivery or engineering teams spend the day somewhere the signal is unreliable
- You have a web product and customers keep asking when the app is coming
- You need to get an internal app onto managed devices securely
- Your current app is slow, crashes, or is stuck on a framework nobody wants to maintain
- You want one team shipping both platforms from the same roadmap
How we approach it
The steps between a first call and go-live.
Discovery and platform decisions
We start by finding out who uses the app, on which devices and in what conditions. Then we decide cross-platform or native feature by feature, map the offline model and agree what goes in the first release.
Design and prototype on device
Clickable prototypes tested on real phones rather than in a browser tab, including empty states, error states and what happens when the network drops.
Build with a release pipeline from day one
Automated builds to TestFlight and Play internal testing every sprint, tests run on a device farm, and crash reporting wired in before the first beta.
Store launch and continuous release
Store listings, review submission, a phased rollout and monitoring. After launch, small fixes go out over the air and bigger changes go through the store.
Deliverables
What you'll have at the end.
- Platform recommendation and offline/sync design
- On-device prototypes and a mobile design system
- Production iOS and Android apps, with source code you own
- Automated build, test and store submission pipeline
- Crash reporting, analytics and performance monitoring
- Store listings and a release runbook, then hand-over or ongoing support
Typical stack
The tools we tend to use for this.
Related work
Projects that used this service.
Questions
Questions about this service.
React Native or fully native? How do you decide?
Feature by feature. Most business apps are forms, lists, maps and sync, and React Native handles those well with a much smaller team. We write native modules where a platform capability or a performance requirement calls for it. If the whole app should be native, we'll say so.
How much does a mobile app cost?
A focused first release usually lands between £40k and £180k, depending on the offline requirements, integrations and how much native work is involved. You'll have a fixed estimate from discovery before you commit to anything.
How long until it is in the app stores?
Usually three to five months from kick-off to a public store release, with internal test builds on your phone from the first few weeks. Store review itself takes days, but we plan for a rejection or two along the way.
Can the app work without a connection?
Yes, if we design for it from the start. Offline-first means local storage, queued changes and a sync model with clear rules for resolving conflicts. Retrofitting it later is possible, but it costs a good deal more.
Do you handle app store submissions and updates?
Yes. We set up the developer accounts, listings, screenshots and review submissions, and hand you a release pipeline you can run yourselves. Most clients keep us on for ongoing releases and the yearly OS updates.
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