Native or Hybrid? The Ultimate Guide to Cross-Platform Mobile App Development
Introduction
Creating an awesome app for both iPhone and Android feels like running two marathons with separate teams. There is the iOS team happily working away in Swift and SwiftUI, then there is the Android team doing the same in Kotlin and Compose. They are practically building the same app in two different languages. That’s extra burden, coordination, and frankly, enough room for things to go wrong.
What if you get both? The real power and performance of native apps with just one simple codebase.
What is the SKIP Tool?
The SKIP Tool is a boon for mobile application developers, especially those who love the Apple ecosystem. It is a tool that lets you write your app in one single Swift and SwiftUI codebase and generate a fully native Android app from it. Think of it as the automated design team that you never had. So iOS app means native Swift app, Android app means native Kotlin app with Jetpack Compose. No compromises, no “looks native” experiences-absolute pure native code from both sides.
The Fundamentals of the SKIP Tool
The heart of Skip’s magic lies within its “transpilation” process. Here’s the breakdown:
Single Codebase: You write your app logic and UI within a single codebase using Swift and SwiftUI. This becomes your source of truth.
Transpilation, Rather Than Interpretation: Some tools rather interpret or run their code through an interpreter or a bridge. Skip, instead, transpiles (or converts) your Swift code into equivalent Kotlin code.
Native UI: Your SwiftUI code is converted automatically into Jetpack Compose, Android’s native UI toolkit. This is exceptional since an app would have a true native look, feel, and performance on both platforms.
Platform Integration: Skip offers really nice solutions to integrate with native APIs. If you have to access an Android-specific feature, you can do so right from your Swift code, and Skip will bridge that call to the corresponding Kotlin or Java API.
Comparison with React Native and Flutter
| Keys | SKIP | React Native | Flutter |
| Architecture | Transpilation: You write in Swift/SwiftUI. The tool transpiles your code into native Swift/SwiftUI for iOS and native Kotlin/Jetpack Compose for Android. There was no shared runtime or engine. | JavaScript Bridge: You write in JavaScript/TypeScript. The framework will then use a kind of “bridge” to speak with native platform components, telling them what to render. | Custom Rendering Engine: You write in Dart. The Dart code is compiled into native ARM code and the Flutter framework, through its Impeller or Skia rendering engine, paints every one of those pixels on the screen. |
| Language | Swift, SwiftUI | JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX | Dart |
| Performance | Native Performance: Native output yields the same high performance, memory optimization, and small app size as usually expected from a native app. | Good Performance: Performance is indeed variable. Its face value. It is generally good at times. | High Performance: Dart compiles into native machine code, and the engine bypasses the native UI layer, so you get smooth animations (interpolations) and deterministic frame rates. |
| Native Code Access | Excellent: Since it is transpiled to native code, it is so easy to call any native API from Swift or Kotlin/Java. | Good: Requires specifying “Native Modules” (Objective-C/Swift and Java/Kotlin) to expose native APIs to JavaScript. | Good: Requires “Platform Channels” to communicate between Dart and native code. |
| Strengths | Pure Native Output: No compromises on performance or UI.
Low Vendor Lock-in: The generated Kotlin code is readable and maintainable if you ever need to “eject.” |
Large Community & Ecosystem: Vast number of packages and developers.
JavaScript/React Skills: Easy for web developers to get started. |
Pixel-Perfect UI: The app looks identical on all platforms.
Broad Platform Support: Supports mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. |
| Weaknesses | Early Maturity: The ecosystem and community are still growing.
Paid License for Closed Source: Not a fully open-source solution for commercial use. |
Performance Overhead: The JavaScript bridge can sometimes be a bottleneck.
Debugging Complexity: Debugging can sometimes be challenging across the bridge. |
Larger App Size: The embedded rendering engine increases the final app size.
New Language (Dart): Requires a learning curve for most developers. |
Installation
The following are some very basic steps to get started:
- Install Prerequisites:-
- Homebrew: The easiest and maybe only way to obtain the Skip installation is via Homebrew.
- Xcode: Download and install the latest versions of Xcode (16.3 at the least).
- Android Studio: Download and install the latest version of Android Studio (2025 or above).
- Install SKIP:- Follow along with the steps outlined below.
- Run ‘brew install skiptools/skip/skip’:- This command install the Skip tool itself and also installs the essential gradle and JDK dependencies for Android development.
- Run ‘skip android sdk install’:- This will download the Swift Android SDK.
- Run the System Checkup:- Run the following command
- Run skip checkup — native:- This command will scan your environment and report any missing or misconfigured dependencies.
Creating a New Project
SKIP tooling gives the advanced option to create a cross-platform environment at one shot using the command-line. Creating a new application has to be the first step in any other Skip-based project, and so we have the skip init command.
The basic syntax and example for the command is:
Syntax: skip init <application-mode> <options> –appid=<app-id> <project-name> <TargetName>
Example: skip init –native-app –open-xcode –appid=com.app.myApplication my-project-name MyTargetApp
Let’s break down the key parameters:
- skip init:- skip init is the primitive command to create a new Skip-based project.
- –native-app:- This is the important flag that tells the skip tool to configure the project in Native Mode.
- –open-xcode:- (Optional) Opens the project in Xcode, just like in the default mode.
- –appid=com.app.myApplication:- Specify the unique bundle identifier for the app.
- my-project-name:- That is the directory name that will hold all your project’s files. The name must be in lowercase and hyphens (-) or underscores (_) with no space to separate words.
- MyTargetApp:- This is the name of your application that will display to the end user. The name has to be in PascalCase and first character should be uppercase letter.
When you begin a new project with skip init, you don’t receive just one folder. You receive a well-considered dual-project structure that brings the best of Swift and Android together. In order to know where your code goes and how the magic works, you must be aware of this structure.
Let’s examine the key components of a standard SKIP project folder, Here is the general organization of some folders or files.
Floder Structure
This folder name is what you inputted as the <Target-Name> in your skip init command (ex., Module). Inside it, you will find the following:
- Package.swift- This is the most important part of your project, at least from a Swift perspective. SPM treats this file as its manifest. This file tells you your dependencies, your target names, and how different pieces of your project fit together. This file is where Skip configures the build process and adds its own dependencies.
- Sources/ :- This is where shared code gets kept. This is a normal SPM folder that has all of your Swift and SwiftUI code. Inside it, a subdirectory exists with your <Target-Name>.
- android/ :- Here lies the Android project folder. One might rarely use it directly, but it is a fully constituted Android Studio project. It is set up to build the finished Android application after it has accepted the transpiled Kotlin codes from the Sources/ directory.
These are some of the basic folders every developer should know about, the rest of the files are well known to iOS developers.
The Workflow in a Nutshell
What actually happens after clicking the Run button in Xcode? You have to launch the emulator from Android Studio before hitting Run in Xcode; this step is must.
- Xcode inspects your .xcodeproj file.
- The Skip Xcode plugin now kicks in.
- This plugin reads your shared Swift and SwiftUI code from the Sources/ directory.
- It transpiles that code into Kotlin and Jetpack Compose code.
- The generated Kotlin code is placed accordingly into android/app/src/.
- The Gradle build system then compiles the entire Android project along with the newly generated Kotlin files into a runnable APK.
- Xcode then runs the app on the selected Android emulator or device, all done in the background.
The skip project already has a sample Demo created inside. So let’s have a look into the demo application.
App Demo
You can observe the look and feel of these demo applications on Android and iOS virtual devices. The look and feel of these applications are very similar to each other.
Reference
You can checkout the more details regarding this on official SKIP documentation website.
Conclusion
The SKIP Tool provides a newer and very attractive take on cross-platform mobile development. It sidesteps reinventing wheels and instead aims at bringing the very best parts of the iOS ecosystem to the Android side. By means of “Transpilation”, it holds the promise of having one single codebase for two apps, separate and native, at their uncompromising best with respect to performance and feel.
