The Difference between Mobile Friendly and a Native App

When considering technology solutions, it is not uncommon to come across a lot of technical jargon which may make it difficult to make the right decision for your organization. Especially when it comes to making an investment in your human capital, you want to make sure that you find the right tool that works for your people.

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Terms that are often inter-used by HR tech companies, are “mobile friendly” versus “native” mobile application. This blog post will define these terms, explore the differences between the two, and provide you with some guidance in making your best decision.

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What is “Mobile Friendly”?

Mobile friendly is the mobile version of a website that a customer goes to by using a browser (Safari for iOS, Chrome for Android) installed on their mobile devices.

The main difference between a mobile website and a desktop version website is that when the user is establishing a connection, the host website detects that the users are coming from mobile devices, and instead of rendering the desktop version it shows the customer the mobile-friendly version of the site instead.  

The look and feel of a mobile site has been optimized for a mobile view. This allows the customer to access it from a smart device and have an acceptable interaction with the mobile websites. The pictures, content, and navigational structure of mobile-friendly websites will all have been adjusted so that the user can easily read the information presented and interact with it in a fairly smooth manner.

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What Does “Native App” Mean?

A native app is a smartphone application developed specifically for a mobile operating system and available for download via the respective system's app store (Apple's App Store for iOS, Google Play for Android).

During mobile app development, creators follow the technical and user experience guidelines of the operating system, mobile apps not only have the advantage of faster performance but also have a look and feel that's consistent with most of the other native apps on the device. The end-user is thus more likely to learn how to navigate and use the app faster.

Native applications have the significant advantage of being able to easily access and utilize the built-in capabilities of the user's mobile device (e.g., GPS, address book, camera, notifications, etc.)

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Why is Qualee a Native App?

Today there are more mobile users than desktop users around the globe. Specifically in Asia, across all demographics, smartphone penetration is higher than anywhere else in the world.

Moreover, a number of studies by Oracle and MobileSmith have proved that over 60% of users prefer native apps over mobile friendly sites.

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In next week's blog post, we will list the various advantages and explain in detail why having a native app is beneficial to drive your employee engagement.

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If you would like to learn more about how we make it simple for companies to create exciting employee experiences that empower talent via a native mobile app, please visit our website www.qualee.com and download Qualee today!

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Power your people. Every day.

- Charley Caroline Zuidinga

  COO, Qualee Technology