Mobile apps are essential to build a solid presence in the digital world. Since these apps are predicted to generate over $613 Billion in 2025, there is no better reason to encourage you to invest in these platforms. But the question comes: what kind of app does your business need to create? Should it be reusable? Should it be scalable? Should it be performance-oriented? Or, should it prioritize security? The answer to these questions depends on your organizational goals, customers’ needs, and future preferences. Once you get the responses, you can architect enterprise mobile apps or hire an accomplished mobile application architect to develop a groundbreaking application.
In this article, we will explain the definition of mobile application development architecture, its benefits, its layers, factors to consider during its development, a slew of best practices, examples of modern architecture, and most importantly, how to choose the right architecture for your mobile app development. Let’s begin this discussion with:
What is Mobile Application Architecture?
Mobile apps are a gateway to the new 21st-century digital world. The roadmap for creating a mobile app is called application architecture. A set of rules, processes, and more importantly, the structure that decides how components such as the frontend UI, backend database, APIs, and others communicate to process inputs and generate outputs. You can consider mobile application development architecture as the skeleton that supports external functions. Just like a skeleton enables humans to walk properly, the architecture allows an app to operate smoothly, receiving user inputs and giving the expected output.
Be informed that the mobile application backend architecture is the framework, while the tech stack is the technologies required to implement its components. Since the number of smartphone mobile network subscriptions globally is estimated to surpass 7.7 billion by 2028, it makes sense to build a game-changing mobile application with a robust architecture that can distinguish it from a good one.
Benefits of a Top-Tier Mobile Application Architecture
Getting a good architecture for your app from a great mobile application architect brings many benefits to the project and engineering teams. For example:
- It enhances the quality, maintainability, and robustness of the mobile application.
- It assists with onboarding. As custom app development architecture brings consistency to your project, new team members can rapidly match the pace and become more efficient in less time.
- It enables the app to scale. More people can contribute to the same codebase with fewer code conflicts.
- It allows professionals to inspect bugs methodically with well-defined processes.
- It simplifies the overall testing process. A good architecture fosters “simpler types” that are usually easier to test.
Apart from this, mobile cloud computing improves mobile application development architecture by taking advantage of cloud resources to get rid of tasks and data storage. It helps provide rich experiences and scalability, while the architecture defines how mobile apps are structured and operated. A few years ago ABI Research had predicted that the mobile cloud computing market would grow from $200 million in 2010 to $20 billion in 2014. Not just this! The Market Research Future has forecasted that the mobile cloud market industry will rise from USD 52.55 billion in 2023 to USD 140 billion by 2032, which indicates the growing importance of mobile cloud computing in different areas including enhancing a mobile app development architecture.
Different Layers of a Mobile Application Development Architecture
Generally, the best mobile application architect deals with three layers of architecture, i.e., presentation, business, and data.
1. Presentation Layer
The presentation layer, also known as the front end, is the user interface you view when you open an application. It includes the screens, controls, navigation, and other visual elements of an AI-based mobile app. For instance, when you see the messaging feature in the Airbnb app, the presentation layer consists of a chat screen to facilitate communication between the host and the customer. Its main function is to drive user interactions by receiving input from users and showing output from the lower layers.
2. Business Layer
The business layer comprises the key application logic that manages tasks such as computations, validations, notifications, analytics, background jobs, etc. In a messaging app built using the best app development frameworks, this layer takes care of functions, such as sending and receiving messages, encrypting data, managing notifications, and detecting spam. The primary job of this layer is to take input from the presentation and data layers, process it, and prepare the answers displayed in the user interface.
3. Data Layer
When you build an engaging mobile app, the data layer manages connections to databases and storage systems, helping the app save and retrieve data. A case in point here is WhatsApp, where message data is stored in multiple databases. The data layer hides the physical storage, which is why other layers don’t need to be concerned about the specifics of databases. It controls queries, connections, concurrency, caching, and the remaining data access mechanics. The business layer communicates with the data layer by calling methods it exposes.
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Top 7 Factors to Consider While Designing a Mobile Application Architecture
Some factors that help create a robust mobile app authentication architecture are device type, push notifications, user interface, navigation method, and many as such. Let’s discuss each of them in brief.
1: Device Type
The device type decides the hardware abilities and screen sizes your app needs to support. For instance, designing an app with the latest app development trends for smartphones and tablets needs to accommodate various screen resolutions and aspect ratios.
Just imagine that you are building a fitness-tracking application. In that situation, you should make sure that these small smartphone screens are optimized for big tablet displays to deliver an immersive user experience irrespective of the device used. When assessing device types for your mobile app architecture, you must factor in features, such as:
- Screen size
- Resolution
- Processors
- Memory
- Battery life
- Sensors
- Operating system versions
- Camera capabilities
2: Bandwidth
The available bandwidth directly affects how your application interacts with servers and extracts crucial data. Optimizing your app to reduce data usage becomes instrumental in areas with limited internet connectivity. One of the best examples is that when a mobile application architect builds a video streaming app, they prefer implementing adaptive bit streaming to adjust video quality depending on the user’s network speed, ensuring uninterrupted playing of media items even in low bandwidth conditions.
3: Development Framework
Choosing the right app development frameworks is important for effective application development and maintenance. For instance, if you think of developing cross-platform apps, frameworks such as Flutter or React Native let you write code once and deploy it across several platforms. On the other hand, if you focus on performance and native experience, platform-oriented frameworks such as Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android are the best way to go.
4: Network Fluctuations
Mobile networks are prone to changing signal strength and stability fluctuations, eventually affecting app performance. Therefore, for a mobile application architect, creating an app that can manage network fluctuations easily is necessary for offering a smooth user experience. Implementing caching mechanisms to keep frequently accessed data locally can minimize the dependency on real-time network requests and reduce the impact of short-term network outages.
5: Navigation Method
The navigation method is all about how users navigate your application and access its content and functionalities. Whether you choose tab-based navigation, bottom navigation bars, or drawer menus depends on the complexity of your application and user preferences. A case in point here is that when designing a news app, the mobile application architect prefers employing tab-based navigation to help users swiftly switch between multiple sections such as top stories, sports, and entertainment.
6: User Interface (UI)
The UI plays a significant role in creating the overall user experience of your application. It should be aesthetically appealing, intuitive, and consistent across various devices and screen sizes. A great example we must mention here is that when you avail mobile app development services to build a shopping app, the leading IT service provider prioritizes easy navigation, intuitive search functionality, and visually attractive product displays to improve the shopping experience for users.
7: Real-time Updates Vs. Push Notifications
Making the right selection between real-time updates and push notifications depends on the nature of your app for foldable devices and the importance of on-time information delivery. Take, for instance, a messaging app that needs real-time updates to ensure immediate user interaction. Whereas, a news app might make the most of push notifications to inform users about breaking news or provide personalized updates depending on their interests.
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8 Best Practices for Mobile App Development
Programming is a creative field and Android app development is no different. There are multiple ways to resolve a problem like you can:
- Exchange data between various activities or fragments
- Retrieve remote data and store it locally for offline operations
- Manage other common scenarios that important apps come across
Although the following suggestions aren’t compulsory, the seasoned mobile application architect claims that following them will make your code base more powerful, testable, and maintainable in the long term.
1. Avoid Storing Data in App Components
Suppose you are not aware of the right app development process. In that case, we must suggest refraining from choosing your app’s entry points, like activities, services, and broadcast receivers as sources of data. Rather you should only coordinate with other elements to retrieve the subset of data that is relevant to that particular entry point. Every app component is generally short-lived, depending on the interaction of users with their devices and the present health of the system.
2. Create Well-defined Boundaries of Responsibility
A good example here is that don’t spread the code that loads data from the network across several classes or packages in your code base. Also, avoid defining various unrelated responsibilities, like data caching and data binding in the same class.
3. Reduce Dependencies on Android Classes
Your app components should be the only classes that count on Android framework SDK (Software Development Kits) and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) like Toast or Context. Hiding other classes in your app away from them assists in testability and lower coupling within your AI-based mobile app.
4. Disclose the Minimum Possible Details from Each Module
Once you compile a list of technologies to develop a mobile app, don’t think of creating a shortcut that reveals an internal implementation detail from a module. You might benefit in terms of time temporarily, but then there are chances to face future rework multiple times as your code base evolves.
5. Focus on the Uniqueness of Your App
Ensure not to waste time by writing the same boilerplate code over and over again. Rather, invest your time and energy in what makes your app stand out, and let the Jetpack libraries and other recommended libraries manage the repetitive boilerplate.
6. Store Fresh and Relevant Data
By doing this, users can enjoy the features of your app even when their device is in offline mode. Bear in mind that not all your users enjoy high-speed connectivity and even if they do, they can get poor experiences in crowded places when using your AI-based mobile app.
7. Consider Testing Each Part of Your App in Isolation
Having a well-defined API in your mobile application development architecture to extract data from the network makes it effortless to test the module that stores that data in a local database. Apart from this, if you mix the logic from these two modules in one place or distribute your networking code base across your whole code base, it becomes pretty difficult to test properly.
8. Types are Responsible for Their Concurrency Policy
If a “type” is blocking work for a long time, it should be accountable for shifting that computation to the right thread. That specific type is familiar with the type of computation that it is performing and in which thread it should be done. Keep in mind that “types” should be main-safe, which means they are safe to call from the primary thread without blocking it.
How to Choose the Right Mobile Application Architecture
Here are the things to check out when finalizing a mobile application development architecture:
- Budget: The selection of architecture depends on the skill set of developers, market analysis, and development approach. Sadly, the need for quick, agile development often grows faster than IT skills for native and cross-platform developers. Thus such delay can make an app outdated by the time you build an engaging mobile app and release it into the market.
- Key Feature Requirements: Let your business requirements power the feature lists, determining if your app for foldable devices is highly suitable for native, hybrid, or cross-platform development.
- Audience Analysis: Identify users, their backgrounds, needs, and objectives along with competition analysis, agile user stories, flows, mapping, wireframes, and above all prototyping tests.
- Development Time: The most experienced mobile application architect states that a few architectures need more time to create some elements or integrations, which should be included in the overall plan and choice.
- Platform Choice: The best practices for user interface and user experience will differ depending on the platform.
- Start Developing A Test App: Agile custom app development prioritizes iterative development and continuous feedback, focusing on consumer-centric input that can only be received from a test app. This basic app has essential features and navigation and offers precious feedback to learn whether the architecture is functioning ideally to satisfy the target user or not.
Key Examples of Latest Mobile Application Development Architecture
Some examples of cutting-edge mobile application development architecture include iOS, Android, hybrid, and enterprise. Learning about each of them will allow you to gauge the pros and cons of various approaches in terms of performance, cost of development, ease of maintenance, and time to market.
1. iOS Mobile Application Architecture
iOS mobile application development architecture often sticks to MVC (Model-View-Controller) or MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design patterns. The SwiftUI framework by Apple has gained ground for its declarative syntax and real-time previews for fast development. With SwiftUI, you can develop responsive and intuitive user interfaces while abiding by modern design principles. Besides, the Combine framework simplifies reactive programming, empowering smooth data flow and event management in iOS applications.
2. Android Mobile Application Architecture
Android mobile application development architecture follows the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern, making the best use of frameworks such as Jetpack for solid app development. Also, components such as LiveData and ViewModel aid in handling lifecycle awareness and data persistence, providing a responsive and scalable application.
3. Hybrid Mobile Application Architecture
Hybrid mobile application development architecture blends elements of web and native app development, enabling you to create multi-platform apps using technologies, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While hybrid apps deliver vast platform compatibility and faster time-to-market than web applications, they may experience performance limitations and restricted access to native Application Programming Interfaces.
4. Enterprise Mobile Application Architecture
Enterprise mobile application backend architecture meets the unique needs of large-scale business apps, focusing on security, scalability, and integration with current systems. Enterprise mobility platforms such as SAP Mobile Platform, Oracle Mobile Cloud, and IBM MobileFirst offer tools and services for developing, deploying, and handling enterprise-grade applications with security features like:
- Data encryption
- Authentication
- Role-based access control
If you also want to develop an enterprise-grade application for your business with the aforementioned security features, it is in your best interest to hire a mobile application architect from a well-known IT company.
In a Nutshell: Choose the Ideal Mobile Application Architecture
Picking an apt mobile application architecture is imperative because it affects the user experience, performance, security, scalability, and overall success of your application. To transform your existing app into an enterprise-grade application, it is immensely necessary to opt for the most appropriate architecture. However, this comes with multiple challenges like balancing client-server communication and offline support, deciding the best possible granularity for different components, and handling the complexity of transitioning to microservices.
To sail through these challenges of mobile application architecture and make informed decisions, it is advisable to proceed with caution and go through the insights from industry experts to implement the correct architecture for your enterprise mobile application. If you are unsure about taking the right plunge for an app development architecture or need assistance with mobile app development, Binmile has got you covered. Being a top-notch mobile app development company, Binmile offers a team of talented mobile app developers who can help you build apps that live up to your expectations.
