Forem: Yuriy Luchaninov

How Businesses Get Into the Metaverse: Discovering True Opportunities

Yuriy Luchaninov — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:57:23 +0000

News of the metaverse can either be exciting or nauseating. On one hand, visionaries look forward to a more connected and immersive future. On the other hand, critics warn of useless technologies and dangerous investments. Although there is a great deal of controversy in the metaverse for business, there is a wealth of opportunity in the technologies that surround it.

If business owners invest their time and resources wisely, they may find themselves prepared and ready for that future. If they plan poorly or fall behind, they risk losing their edge in the market. What follows will be a discussion of what questions businesses should ask themselves in order to remain competitive in that future world.

Metaverse Business Opportunities: Explained

The metaverse is an independent, physically resilient, virtual platform that delivers enhanced immersive experiences by merging virtual augmented physical and digital reality. There are a few technologies that are often associated with this definition:

Extended reality:
- Augmented reality
- Virtual reality
- Mixed reality
Artificial intelligence
Internet of Things
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies

Companies see the metaverse as a new way to engage their customers and create new opportunities for growth. It is one of the tools for building a brand that has a strong emotional connection with customers, which leads to success, demand, and long-term customer loyalty. Sure, that sounds fantastic on paper, but what about in practice?

AN IMMERSED WORLD BY THE NUMBERS

Let’s start with an example that will illustrate the audience’s interest in metaverse platforms. Roblox is one of the most successful metaverses. This is a creative platform where users can build their own worlds and play them with others. According to Macro Trends, Roblox’s 12 month revenue reported on September 30th, 2022, was $2.215 billion. This is a 33.39% increase from the previous year.

However, not all metaverse projects are successful by default. For example, Meta’s Reality Labs reported a loss of over $10 billion in 2021. Meta’s stock plunged by 24% in October 2022 when the news hit, as it was revealed that the company’s value had dropped by $700 billion. The details behind this are deeply complex and harrowing to anyone interested in business opportunities in the metaverse. Is your company destined to meet the same fate or repeat the success of Roblox?

Meta’s market position may be hurting, but it’s not the only player. Another major competitor to Meta is Apple, who distinctly avoids the term ‘metaverse’ while working on its augmented reality projects. Apple has positioned itself for success with ARKit immersive technologies that accomplish very similar goals to Meta’s metaverse, but in more popular and appealing ways. This proves that the use of metaverse technologies can bring significant business benefits, provide a well-thought-out strategy and quality implementation.

Real-World Metaverse Applications and Market Leaders

It’s important for business leaders to understand how industries are using metaverse technologies in the real world to get ideas and to understand the niche more deeply. Let’s go over a few real examples.

ENTERTAINMENT

When you hear the words ‘metaverse’ and ‘entertainment’, you likely are thinking of gaming. However, it’s important not to get confused. There’s VR gaming, and then there’s social VR. These can overlap. Remember that the metaverse is defined by its immersive connectivity. A primarily offline game like Beat Saber doesn’t count as metaverse gaming.

In 2018, a virtual concert by Marshmello attracted millions of people in the video game Fortnite. This served as a wake-up call for many that large scale, immersive virtual events are very much real, even if they aren’t held in VR spaces. Lil Nas X’s concerts on Roblox brought in over 33 million views over the course of four shows held in a two-day period. Platforms like VRChat also lend themselves well to virtual events such as raves, dance clubs, and concerts.

Virtual event venues have enormous potential for monetization with event ticketing and can be major parts of marketing campaigns for real-world concerts.

REAL ESTATE AND VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE

There are two sides to real estate use cases of metaverse technologies: real estate in the real world and then virtual real estate.

REAL WORLD REAL ESTATE

Apple was poised for success in the wake of Meta’s massive investments. One of their most powerful tools is the 3D scanning and AR technologies they’ve developed for mobile devices, particularly the LiDAR sensor found on recent generations of the iPhone and iPad.

Source

RoomPlan is a Swift API developed by Apple that allows apps to use the powerful LiDAR sensor on an iPhone to capture entire rooms in 3D to create floor plans. This includes furniture and room dimensions. Real estate agencies can use it to create virtual tours that can be viewed in VR. In the not-too-distant future, it’s likely that some savvy real estate businesses may meet with potential clients in VR, touring the 3D version of an apartment together. For example, RoomScan by Locometric is an app that utilizes this API, allowing real estate businesses to easily create floor plans of their properties for clients.

VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE

When compared to digital assets, virtual real estate is more similar to a domain name or digital art. Some investors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a digital art, and the same is seen with virtual real estate.

Virtual real estate is one of the more controversial topics of metaverse business applications because in its current form, many people criticize its lack of utility. In the real world, real estate can be used for more than just asset trading. Real estate can be developed and used for business purposes.

The rising value of digital assets on Decentraland’s platform makes it an appealing option for investors. This change made it even more effective for investors thanks to the platform’s decentralized model, allowing virtual deeds to land to be stored in the blockchain instead of in a centralized database.

It’s possible that in the future, decentralized immersive VR platforms will allow users to pay for ‘virtual real estate’ that allows them to create worlds in that space which can attract users and generate income. This would give virtual real estate a similar utilitarian value to its real-world counterpart.

MARKETING AND SALES

Another application that is seeing success getting into the metaverse is marketing. One of the main advantages of immersive and connective spaces is that they allow people to engage with products and services from home with higher quality than they might from their smartphone or computer. For example, retail businesses have already begun to allow users to demo products like clothes and makeup using virtual try on augmented reality technologies. The earlier example of real estate demonstrated how realtors can use 3D models of their properties for marketing.

There have also been a number of collaborations between metaverse platforms and businesses that help raise awareness and stir up buzz about branding and promotions. For example, Target partnered with creators in Meta’s Horizon Worlds to create a goth Target for Halloween, inspired by the real-world Target in Chicago famous for its unusual iron exterior. The project was paired with a line of related products in a campaign called ‘the goth side of Target.’

In addition to marketing, there are more direct ways that immersive technologies can be used to increase sales. For example, Selfridges partnered with Charli Cohen and Pokémon to create a crossover sales event where users could buy both virtual and real world fashion.

HEALTHCARE

There are two important uses for immersive metaverse technologies in the healthcare industry right now: telehealth and education.

TELEHEALTH

For most healthcare providers, VR isn’t typically necessary for telehealth to take place. For consultations and discussions with clients, typically video chat or over the phone communication will suffice. However, there are some instances where more immersive technologies can be useful in ways you may not expect. The same hardware that is used to track the movements of a person’s body and even movement of the eyes can be used for diagnosis. Eye movements can be used to detect issues like glaucoma. The same eye-tracking hardware and software can be used for ‘neurological markers’ for diagnosis of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

iMining Technologies in March of 2022 purchased virtual land on Decentraland to launch the world’s first metaverse pharmacy. The virtual location’s aim was to help patients with medication reminders and help get prescription-based medications shipped to their homes. They also offered online consultations with a licensed pharmacist at the virtual location.

EDUCATION

Immersive training with VR and AR technologies allows doctors and students to simulate surgeries. This is possible not only for educating new medical professionals but can also prepare experienced doctors for difficult surgeries by using digital twins of organs. This allows doctors to better understand how an operation may put a patient at risk before surgery.

MANUFACTURING

Honeywell is utilizing metaverse technologies to train workers with its Immersive Field Simulator (IFS). Workers can train in virtual or mixed reality with a simulated version of a real, physical manufacturing site. This is accomplished using digital twins technology, which can accurately replicate the plant in the real world.

With the ability to simulate manufacturing centers, Honeywell’s system can prepare workers and supervisors for machine failures and other issues that need to be corrected.

ONLINE EDUCATION

Immersive VR and AR have a number of benefits for remote education for businesses and consumers alike. Instruction in 3D has many freedoms that traditional education does not. For example, teaching concepts in 3D such as the makeup of chemical compounds, studying architectural structures, and more.

Experiences like these also help break down barriers to entry for education, allowing people from around the world to study and learn together. Axon Park is a platform that allows clients to create virtual courses and even entire campuses. In one example, Axon Park created a VR PPE training simulator to help teach healthcare providers how to properly prevent the spread of COVID-19.

FINANCE

Metaverse is built on a digital economy that requires updated financial systems. This is a growth point both for traditional financial companies that want to scale online and for fintech startups that want to choose promising development paths.For example, opening a virtual location is a public relations and accessibility option for financial institutions like banks. That’s exactly what JP Morgan did on Decentraland, opening their Onyx virtual lounge. It suggests that in the near future, it will be possible to use basic banking services online in immersive worlds. For Decentraland in particular and other platforms focused on blockchain based real estate, banks may eventually offer financing options like loans and mortgages.

The Onyx Lounge has links to business PDF documents, JP Morgan’s website, and there are a few TVs where you can watch inspiring videos by the company.

How to Get Involved in the Metaverse: Go-to-Market Strategy

We’ve now seen a number of examples of how businesses have taken advantage of immersive technologies in the modern world. However, a mistake many business owners make is that their fear of missing out on the future overrides their ability to make rational decisions. They jump at every opportunity that they can to incorporate VR, blockchain, and other metaverse technologies into their business simply for the sake of seeming modern.

The better way to go about it is to think more critically. Instead of getting into the metaverse simply for the sake of it, think about how it stands to benefit your business, and whether or not it’s necessary for your success. With that in mind, let’s talk about some strategies that you can use to take that next step into the future.

DETERMINE YOUR BUSINESS GOALS AND ENHANCE YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE

At its core, the metaverse is really not much different than the Internet. The main difference is that it focuses on the future of the Internet as we know it right now. Because of this, a great place to start is to review or establish your business’s online presence strategy.

Define your target audience and find ways to reach them. Many businesses choose social media as a way to connect with their audience. In the same vein, you can take your brand to an existing virtual world platform like Roblox, VRChat, or Horizon Worlds.

It’s best to choose a platform that fits best for your brand and business model. For example, if you plan on selling digital cosmetic items, you may find Roblox to be a great place to go. If you want to sell high quality avatars that run on more advanced hardware, VRChat may be a better place to start.

JOIN EXISTING METAVERSE PLATFORMS

Do your research. Pay close attention to how other businesses, especially your competitors, are using those platforms. This will give you clues on how to provide a unique experience for your audience.

If you’re having a hard time choosing a metaverse platform, you can use the following criteria to rank them:

Personalization: a metaverse platform should allow the business to develop or design a neat, immersive, and alluring and branded environment.
Decentralization: this will depend on your needs but know that many audiences are beginning to prefer decentralized economy platforms like Decentraland where virtual property can be traded on the blockchain.
User experience: consider features that can boost UX such as avatars, digital twins, 3D environments, immersive social features, real-time communication, and more.
Accessibility: take a look at how a platform can be accessed, such as through apps, desktop, tablet, mobile, and also VR and AR headsets. The more accessible the platform, the larger the audience you can reach.
Integrations: third-party integrations can increase your flexibility to bring features to users such as chatbots, virtual assistants, data and content management, e-commerce tools, CRM, payment gateways, and more.
Crypto wallet and cryptocurrency: Just as decentralization is a popular trend with many platforms, some users are shifting to cryptocurrencies for digital payments. Being able to accept these payments may be critical to your success depending on your target audience.

What Do You Need to Join the Metaverse?

GETTING STARTED

Using an immersive platform like VRChat, Roblox, Horizon Worlds, or Decentraland is really no different than starting up a video game. Some market themselves more like games than others, like Roblox. Some of these platforms require you to download additional software, but some can be run directly in the browser like Decentraland.

AVATAR

Most platforms require you to create or choose an avatar to represent yourself. This doesn’t need to look exactly like you, it can look however you want!

HARDWARE

You don’t necessarily need to use a VR headset, as many platforms let you connect on desktop or even mobile. It’s important to note that some platforms and some experiences on those platforms may require more powerful hardware to use.

VR headsets provide the most immersive experiences. Standalone headsets like the Meta Quest 2 are the most affordable but aren’t very powerful. More expensive headsets like the HTC Vive and Valve Index are far more expensive and less portable but offer state of the art VR experiences. Remember that most users don’t have access to these high-end headsets, and those owners are a niche audience in the market.

DIGITAL WALLET

Many platforms have their own currency. For example, Fortnite and Roblox use digital currencies that can be purchased with real money. Meanwhile, platforms like Decentraland allow you to use cryptocurrency instead of a centralized currency.

Many experiences on digital platforms are offered for free. However, to get more experiences, cosmetic items, and other goods, you’ll need a digital wallet.

Build a Metaverse App

If you want to get into the market with your own metaverse application, there are several technologies you should consider for development:

Internet of Things (IoT): creating digital twins relies on a network of IoT sensors that can help simulate real world environments.
- Artificial Intelligence: chatbots, facial and body recognition algorithms, and other machine learning tasks depend on AI.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): allows for humanlike interactions between humans and chatbots. This enables more advanced virtual assistant technologies.
- Computer Vision: this technology allows machines to detect and identify objects, and even emotions of users with facial recognition.
- Human Pose Estimation: critical in full body tracking for VR applications.
3D Modeling: metaverse applications require objects and avatars to be rendered and modeled in 3D space. Also, it’s important that the design takes into account the restrictions on the number of people in certain areas.

Deciding what technologies are necessary depends on the scope of the project. For some cases, standard technologies are sufficient to accomplish business goals. For example, realtime gaming, where the delay in displaying the actions of participants is no more than a few tens of milliseconds, requires more advanced technologies. But if the project is not very demanding on the visual part in real-time and is intended for training and broadcasting, then standard technologies may be enough.

For example, at MobiDev we created a React-based metaverse project demo which has features such as avatars, virtual rooms and environments, chat, and even video streaming.

It was built on top of React-three-fiber, which allows you to create a scene with reusable, self-contained components that react to state. The backend is developed using Node.js and WebSocket. This demo was created to work out the concept of a virtual learning space in which lectures, speeches, or meetings can be held.

AIM FOR A QUALITY USER EXPERIENCE

One of the most important goals that a business looking to create a metaverse application should strive for, is to achieve a quality user experience. Some of the things this may require are:

Smooth and fast app start
Accessibility features
Object display quality

For AR applications, it’s important to remember that the context of the user experience is the real-world environment. This means that many cues that developers can use to communicate with the user can be embedded in that environment. For example, soft particle effects that show on a surface that can be used to spawn a virtual object might be used to improve UX of the app.

Another important thing to consider is that the metaverse, as fundamentally a social technology, should be focused on humanity. Immersive social technologies are focused on human-to-human interactions, and although they take place in a virtual space, they are real interactions. Mimicking as much of the face-to-face human communication experience as possible is one of the main objectives of virtual reality developers. Some researchers are working on tracking facial movements while a user wears a VR headset and incorporating those facial expressions into their avatars.

The Future of Metaverse for Brands

The metaverse, powered by incredible technologies, can make our world a better place. Immersive applications are already being used in a number of industries like retail, manufacturing, and marketing.

However, the question is still up in the air about whether users will trust the metaverse. To counter this, brands will need to work hard to offer compelling and useful applications for users. Another option businesses have is to offer decentralization options to users. This places less of the control with the business and gives more power to the user to own and trade what they would like. That’s where incorporating blockchain technology can be a solution.

Technologies Behind No-code & Low-code Solutions and How to Build Your Own

Yuriy Luchaninov — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 13:59:33 +0000

No/Low-code platforms have become a trendy topic recently. But there is almost no information on what it takes to create your own solution of this kind. Therefore, we will focus on the development approaches, architecture of low and no-code platforms, and decomposition. Let’s find out how no-code platforms are built.

For starters, we will define low/no-code development. This term designates a platform on which the user can generate any IT product for external use via the UI interface. It can be separate web pages, complete websites, a mobile application, PWA, or chat flow builder. According to Statista, the global low-code platform market revenue is projected to reach 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2027. So, all the aforementioned IT products have development prospects.

The high demand for business applications drives the need for the development of new low and no-code platforms. In most cases, any no-code platform consists of:

UI part – visual interface with components, drag & drop objects, and forms. It allows users to create interfaces for their products. The UI has to be intuitive and easy to use by a wide range of people with no technical background. UI/UX designers often put a lot of effort on this stage.
UI into the code transformer – this part often looks like some kind of magic, since the application code is being generated out of the visual interface and its components.
Business logic – implementation of components that support interface functionality on the back-end (registration, billing, etc.)
Automated code builders – an optional part that allows to automate packing the code into an app or a website and deploy it into production.

The above observations suggest that the main difficulty may arise in the second part of the system (UI into the code transformer), yet there are subtleties to be investigated on each step. We will consider the development of all components based on the case of building sites, noting specific moments for chat builders and mobile application constructors as the most common cases.

What is the first thing the end-user sees when embarking on the product development journey? It’s a UI interface related to the constructor. So a professional approach and analysis of the interface are crucial here – many do not understand why this stage is time-consuming. That is due simply to the advancement of the editor’s interface which influences ease of use. Ease of use means that less effort will be spent on creating a software product, thus streamlining the process for the end-user.

The constructor’s design is crucial for the success of the platform and must be carried out by professionals who understand this area. In addition, it is necessary to separate the constructors for creating the UI interface of the developed software product and the constructors for describing its logic. In the second case, difficulties related to the design of this functionality may arise.

Technologies Behind No-code / Low-code Platforms

Approaches to building an internal editor’s architecture may differ, influencing platform functionality.

Currently, there are three main approaches to building an internal architecture:

Editor -> code + meta information -> code
Editor -> JSON -> code
Editor -> intermediate components -> code

Let’s take a closer look at each of these approaches and find out relevant use cases.

Editor -> Code + Meta Information -> Code

This approach generates the resulting code on the go and allows users to pick and customize certain elements through a visual editor. As the customization of a certain element is done – it automatically changes the codebase to keep it up to date with the changes. In the vast majority of cases, this approach is used precisely as the basis for editing web pages: code becomes an HTML page with its visualization. As all the editing is done on the browser side, it’s easy to export the final code as a product by copying the DOM structure through the browser.

The subtleties of the first approach include the following points:

The need to work not with all HTML markup, but only with components. Anyone who has ever seen the HTML layout of a complex page can understand that it may pose challenges. If you enable the user to edit each tag, then the interface will turn into a mess and become unsuitable. It would be easier to build a page from scratch than apply such a constructor. Therefore, there is a need for an additional markup, the so-called metadata. The information for the editor is added in the form of custom attributes of HTML tags. The data indicates that the inner block can be edited or transferred, while parameters and attributes are easily modified.
The position of elements or blocks – absolute, relative, static, fixed, and sticky – may be tricky. What’s the reason for this? With regard to this point, everything is more complicated and doesn’t lie on the surface since the position of each element directly affects the position of other UI blocks on the entire page. This is comparable to a glass into which different balls are poured. If you try to put a wooden block in the middle of glass, all the balls will change their location as they will be squeezed out from their position. We can draw an analogy between the described situation and the positioning of elements on the page. The situation with parameters related to the location of blocks is a little more complicated, though. The alignment of blocks and “squeezing” laws depend on the specified parameter.
Limited drag and drop functionality may irritate the user because it will be relevant only for some UI blocks. Without getting into too much detail about this problem, we should mention that it is similar to the positioning of blocks.
Styles in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) won’t work as expected by the user. The reason lies in inheritance: styles set for the parent components will directly affect the child ones, this will confuse the end-user, and will look like a clear UI flaw or bug. And, in turn, the platform’s UX and its use will decrease. Thankfully, this can be solved with the help of unique CSS classes or inline styles, though the end-user will still face the challenge of side effects.
It’s impossible to import the code. In addition to the direct HTML markup (as an example in our case), the editor requires adding custom attributes to the markup as a template, which is responsible for the functionality of the editor.

Due to the mentioned points, the approach based on the scheme Editor -> code + meta-information -> code is often used not in no-code but in low-code platforms, the end-users of which understand the technical specifications and side effects of the modifications. The target audience of low-code platforms narrows down to developers who are aware of similar or more effective tools.

Editor -> JSON -> Code

To address the shortcomings of the first approach and extend the list of supported platforms, without being limited to HTML or code that can be displayed as UI components, we can consider the editor’s architecture based on the intermediate data model (Editor -> JSON -> code).

As an intermediate data format, JSON can be replaced by any other format. Although it provides some advantages, which will be discussed in more detail below.

The editor uses an intermediate data model, so it won’t have restrictions on the UI part, and a full-fledged drag and drop functionality of various UI components can be implemented. The main task of the editor’s UI part is to transform the UI into the intermediate data model as accurately as possible.

The conversion from the data model into the code is implemented with the help of a converter or a compiler. This part causes the main difficulties since it requires not only a high level of expertise in technologies on which the editor is built but also a high level of expertise in those areas which the code is compiled in. Unfortunately, we cannot give tips and recommendations on this part since it all depends on the project and the target technology.

However, here are some items to be noted:

This approach applies to the UI interface and use cases where the logic should be described. In these use cases, the editor flow is being created, and later it forms the basis of the application. In this way, we can compose the logic of not only applications that have a UI, but also chatbot builders or automation platforms.

There are three approaches to the compilation:

If it is necessary to build a logical flow. For example, as chat builders, an exchange protocol between logical nodes is developed. And during the execution of the logic according to the flow structure from JSON, logical nodes are being launched in the default order. Logical nodes are isolated and the execution of logic in them does not cause third-party effects in the form of the state of these nodes, therefore this system is quite simply designed and works reliably. Flow-based programming differs from other paradigms and concepts, including object-oriented programming.
While using this approach to the UI part, templates of specific blocks with the ability to insert child components from similar templates are being applied.
The third approach that’s being rarely used is similar to SAX (Simple API for XML) parsers. It is comparable with the previous one, yet it is easier to take into account the context of code generation. It is complex yet flexible.

This approach is closer to waterfall in development since before starting development it is necessary to analyze and describe in advance all the possible attributes of those UI blocks that will be used. This limitation can be bypassed if you use a similar approach with meta information which stores non-standard data or attributes.

As we’ve already mentioned, JSON is not required, although JSON and XML are convenient in that they can complete serialization or deserialization of UI code, regardless of the technology for which the final code is generated. Moreover, it is possible to dynamically create interfaces on the fly and, possibly, save traffic since, for example, JSON is much more economical than the same HTML layout with styles.

In this case, it is also possible to import an external code, but it requires the introduction of an additional export format. Such uniqueness of each platform isn’t as convenient, though it expands the audience and contributes to the platforms’ popularity.

This approach is the most optimal for the implementation of the logic flow for the server-side, as was already described in the compilation approaches. A properly designed server side should always be stateless, and this is what makes it easier for us to implement business logic as a sequence of independent nodes. And this is not something unique because like the Flow development paradigm, conceptually similar approaches are used in RX and backend frameworks like express/koa, and so on.

Editor -> Intermediate Components -> Code

The third approach to implementing the architecture (Editor -> intermediate components -> code), at first glance, does not differ much from the previous one. There are also UI blocks or components, and there is also a code that is responsible for their location on the screen. However, the essential difference is that the code responsible for these components is not generated, being that it is a part of the library that’s connected to the application and is working as an external plug-in resource of the program.

The constructor assembles the product’s UI from pre-prepared components of a proprietary library (library of this service). That’s why this part of the most complex logic, namely compilation to code, is practically ignored. Such a solution is much simpler – you just need to create a library of components that can be used for the specified target technology and create an editor that works with the primitives (components). Still, this leads to a huge number of additional subtleties, and choosing which of the approaches will be better must rely on the business requirements.

The component code in the library implements the functionality of the component itself, and the editor comprises an additional configuration file so that the editor may understand what manipulations are allowed with this component and what parameters it corresponds to in the components of the library.

The following features of this approach can be noted:

Importing external code will be the most difficult since you have to specify a common component format that covers the maximum functionality.
Newer (more extended) versions of the real-time component libraries may not support older ones, which may lead to support issues.
Faster time-to-market since individual components are easy to test with further expansion of the functionality. In fact, such a solution will still be more limited and rely on the capacity of the team supporting this platform.
Higher reliability
A small/large performance drawdown (depends on the target platform and the quality of the real-time code of the component library). The components are not compiled, but work in real-time, as a wrapper library for native ones, using plug-in libraries.

For example, FlutterFlow uses this approach.

We have investigated three main approaches to implementing the main part of most no-code and low-code platforms. This will help you in choosing the right development direction.

What It Takes to Build Your Own No-code / Low Code Platform

A couple of additional points that can play a decisive role in the development of your particular product are also worth considering.

The first one is why importing external code, templates or snippets can play a decisive role in your business related to no-code or low-code platforms. Everything is pretty basic: such platforms are used mostly at the POC or MVP stages to test a business idea or enter the market as quickly as possible. It is also used for building niche solutions, if the use case is straightforward and there is no need for extra features.

In the subsequent stages, a crucial role is played by a limited set of components or functionality (ready-made modules), which prevents implementing any unique features or gaining a competitive advantage.

The huge cost of supporting backend logic is also important, though it may be minimized in the case of the proper design. To resolve a problem with a limited set of functionality, it’s possible to import an external code – the npm model with closed and open components serves as an example. Such a low-code platform will be supported by the community, introducing positive changes in the business.

Unfortunately, if we talk about the implementation time of such platforms, then it significantly exceeds standard projects such as social networks or ERP systems. This must be taken into account in the planning stage.

Finally, a small idea as a bonus to the article: you can use a text description to generate the scaffold of your application. For example, Natural Language Processing (NLP), to parse the text into entities objective and subjective, form the structure of your application, and then generate the code. This won’t be an ideal solution, and with the current state of technology it’s still too early to talk about this approach for no-code platforms, yet as a key feature of your new low-code platform, it may be quite valid in the near future.

Top 5 Software Development Trends for Startups in 2022

Yuriy Luchaninov — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 13:58:36 +0000

When one speaks of a startup software product development, it’s crucial to set priorities. Business goals tend to dominate, though technologies play a significant role in achieving these goals. And if you are aware of modern and practically proven technologies and approaches, it may help to avoid common mistakes when choosing a software development partner from the tremendous pool of companies offering their services.

In this article, we will investigate software development trends for startups and find technologies that are optimally suited for mobile or web application development in 2022. In addition, we will reveal why to use particular technologies and when they are not recommended. To prove the theory, we will take a glance at real case studies of MobiDev’s clients.

A spoiler: our study focuses on the hottest technologies of 2022—Flutter, React Native, PWA, Headless CMS, and Firebase.

Image credit

1. Flutter: The silver bullet for B2C and C2C startups

Being an open-source framework, Flutter is optimal for B2C and C2C projects where the primary role belongs to the end user. In the user-centric platform the solution is designed with an emphasis on UX and customization.

Flutter is suitable for multi-platform development and enables the application of a single codebase to deploy final solutions. Apart from the fast performance of the Flutter code, this framework is powered by Google and has numerous advantages, namely, a common UI and business logic on different platforms, a powerful rendering engine, and the possibility to update code and see introduced changes almost instantly. Unlike competing technologies, Flutter allows sharing more than 95% of the code between platforms, while, for instance, in React Native the same indicator doesn’t exceed 60–80%. However, precise indicators depend on the type of the project.

To summarize, software companies use Flutter for product development in the following cases:

Limited time to develop an application
Dynamically changing app logic
User-centric platforms with an emphasis on UX and customization
Products with sophisticated design and animations

We tested Flutter as an engine for software products of different types. And it proved to be a reliable technology even in the case of PoC solutions for iOS and Android where the feasibility of the idea had to be tested before the full-fledged development. In this case, the primary motivation for choosing Flutter for the project was the possibility to implement the dynamic change to the application’s logic.

Software development life cycle implied partial building of the functionality which was tested by the customer’s focus group. After adjustments had been ascertained, we refined the PoC solution. It didn’t take long because we amended only one source of code, therefore introducing changes for a whole series of operational systems. We initiated the development of the PoC solution, and four weeks were enough to deploy the final product.

Since Flutter is an open-source project, we may easily analyze the tendencies of its development in 2022 and beyond. And if the stable release of Flutter 2 for web was the highlight of the last year, we can see evidence of new features in 2022. Performance improvements, stable Windows support, iOS & Android updates, transition to Material 3 and other breaking changes took place in Flutter 2.10.

2. React Native: Developer-centric platform for mobile app startups

React Native is an open-source UI software framework that combines React and native development elements and enables creation of mesmerizing UI interfaces. It can be entirely or partly applicable for iOS and Android projects. With React Native, building applications across platforms becomes easier, though companies may combine this framework with other technologies in production.

Cross-platform development fostered by the application of React Native has been intensively evolving for at least 7 years. Nowadays, Bloomberg’s mobile application for iOS and Android, cross-platform Ads Manager application for Facebook, Restaurant Dashboard in UberEats, Discord iOS app, and different parts of Microsoft products – from OneDrive to Outlook – are built with the help of React Native technology.

To tackle issues related to React Native (RN) development and the potential alternatives, we should clearly understand the pros and cons of the framework. Therefore, we have to answer three questions. What are the main features of RN? What may prevent the effective use of RN in production? In which cases is RN the most suitable option?

Diving deeper into the main features of RN, it’s worth mentioning that the benefits can be dubious and there’s always a flip side of the coin. First of all, code reuse between web and mobile platforms in RN that’s mentioned as the main feature of the framework implies reuse only of the business and a source code logic. The advantage of RN is that the architecture of mobile apps is similar to web apps, which simplifies the development process.

React Native is applied in the following cases:

MVP/PoC solutions with a simple client-server architecture, where it’s possible to sacrifice the complexity of the design.
The support of an app after the release will be carried out by the team primarily consisting of JS engineers.
Enterprise and B2B applications

React Native is the preferred option for the developer-centric platform. The framework must be considered if the main criteria is the development of a mobile app for the team’s needs, and companies do not tend to hire new engineers, being ready to sacrifice the sophistication of the design or performance in order to support the application with the existing platform.

Building an application for fitness and lifestyle is an example of MobiDev’s experience with React Native cross-platform development. Our case study confirms that the solution allowed our client to reduce development costs by up to 80% in comparison with competitive technologies. Flutter wasn’t available at the time, but we would use it for the same task today to significantly reduce the development time.

The customer’s goal was the geographical spread of the project and entering new markets, which was impossible with an outdated application. MobiDev aimed at building a scalable cross-platform application while ensuring reasonable time and costs involved.

We applied React Native to enable running the same code base on iOS and Android. This approach simplified introducing changes on the go and implementation of the business logic and interconnections. The development was optimized through the application of the existing libraries.

3. PWA: Perfect fit for fast MVP app launch

PWAs constitute progressive web applications developed via specific tech stack (service workers, manifests, and so on) to provide features peculiar to native applications.

On the one hand, PWAs are as discoverable as web applications.

On the other hand, PWAs provide a seamless user experience comparable to native apps.

It is not yet all roses in PWAs because of the limitations on platform and hardware support. Firefox discontinued work towards PWAs support on desktop. And this fact illustrates the instability of this web architecture.

Fewer PWAs’ functionalities derive from the restricted access to the hardware of the devices. However, the PWA approach may give you the winning edge if an app should be developed and deployed as fast as possible, with an affordable budget. PWA design is a perfect fit for startups that aim at fast MVP app launch, built via a single codebase for further deployment on different platforms.

PWAs are installable and independent from the platform which simplifies deployment. Users download PWAs in the same way as a native application, achieving the same level of functionality and experience. Moreover, the lightweightness and responsiveness of PWAs make them aesthetic and fully aligned with modern design requirements. They are also indexed by search engines and appear in the search results. Not all search engine crawlers are able to process JS and index PWAs immediately, though.

4. Headless CMS: Scalable, Flexible, Fast, Secure

The headless CMS solution represents any back-end CMS where the content repository is separated from the presentation layer. It’s a scalable solution – headless CMS flexibility enables reusing content since it’s not united with the code.

The features of the design in headless CMS allow managing content and APIs by users. Editors work together on content, which is then stored and delivered.

You may perceive headless CMS as a modern Content Management System that has the following advantages:

Simplicity of building omnichannel experiences
Flexibility – it’s easier to control the content, deciding where and how it appears
Ease and speed of development – developers may independently choose optimal tools and technologies
Superb architecture with a high level of security
Extensive integration capabilities

Research and Markets forecast demonstrates that headless CMS is a promising direction – its software market is projected to reach US$ 1,628.6 million by 2027.

5. Firebase: Convenient Tools and Services

Firebase is an app development software powered by Google. Teams of different sizes use Firebase for building mobile and web applications since it includes convenient tools and services, namely, authentication, analytics, cloud messaging, real-time database, crashlytics for troubleshooting, performance monitoring, and test lab.

To fully immerse into how Firebase can be applied for MVP and PoC development, we will overview an MVP Lite. The tech stack of MVP Lite consists of Firebase and Flutter. This approach enables the implementation of the needed features in the short term since there is no need for the final design and full-fledged testing.

MVP Lite foresees the development of 80% of the key functionality, which reduces the overall development costs. Potential savings are estimated at 30–80%. The combination of Flutter and Firebase may allow native access to databases and functions like authorization, push notifications, and an out-of-the-box admin panel. This tech stack and out-of-the-box integrated libraries are suitable for building mobile and web solutions.

Add AI to Outrun Your Competitors

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) features into your startup product can modernize it and add extra market value to it. AI has various applications in many industries, including but not limited to retail, marketing, manufacturing, and healthcare.

AI application development isn’t fundamentally different from the non-AI application, but incorporates PoC (Proof of Concept) and a demo.

How To Build an AI-Powered Financial Assistant App

Yuriy Luchaninov — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:31:22 +0000

Financial well-being makes us feel confident and secure. However, managing personal money is a challenge. Nobody would refuse to hire a professional financial assistant for this job. Imagine access to an expert who knows your spending behavior, can tell you how to save money, how to increase capital and how to achieve your financial goals. And what if such an assistant is powered by artificial intelligence and can do all this right from your smartphone?

If you were looking for a guide on how to build such an AI financial assistant app, then you are on the right page. Here you will find answers to the most common questions related to the development of a financial management application.

Personal Finance Market Overview 2022

The global economy has begun to recuperate from the Covid-19 outbreak, but full recovery is still a long way off. According to a Charles Schwab survey, 53% of Americans have been financially impacted by the pandemic. Against this background, the issue of effective personal finance management has become especially acute, and tools designed to help in this are in demand like never before.

According to Verified Market Research, the global personal finance software market is expected to reach $1420.96 million by 2026, and according to NMSC this figure can grow to $1.80 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 6.1% from 2020-2030.

One of the major trends in personal finance software is the use of AI technology. According to Mordor Intelligence, the global AI in the fintech market was valued at $7.91 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $26.67 billion by 2026.

Artificial intelligence helps users of financial apps get the most out of their budgeting and investment planning. Personal finance software solutions, based on self-learning algorithms, allow you to customize financial recommendations based on the user’s spending behavior. Not surprisingly, a significant part of the personal finances market is occupied by robo advisors that provide automated financial planning solutions and AI-powered budgeting apps.

What is a Personal Financial Assistant App?

Personal financial assistant is an application that helps users manage their money more intelligently. Such an app can perform a wide range of tasks, from monitoring expenses and income to advising on the most suitable investment options. Some apps can also manage subscriptions and get better rates for your bills. For example, TrueBill automatically scans a user’s bills and looks for the best ways to save.

Personal financial assistants can be both standalone applications or software connected to personal banking accounts. In the second case, the user will get more opportunities to control and manage their expenses and incomes, since the software will automatically pull up the data such as transaction history.

The open banking standard, which is gaining popularity in the USA and Europe, allows the secure exchange of consumer data between banks and fintech applications with the consent of the user. This scenario helps automate the flow of data and get more meaningful insights for better financial advice. As of March 2021, there were 502 registered оpen banking third-party providers (TPP) in Europe. Also, according to Statista, in 2020 the number of open banking users in Europe was approximately 12.2 million and this figure is expected to reach 63.8 million users by 2024.

TYPES OF PERSONAL FINANCE APPS

Before diving into the question of how to build a personal finance app let’s find out what types of such software are on the market. Depending on the functions they provide, personal finance applications are divided as follows:

It is worth noting that most personal finance applications combine several types in one to provide a better user experience and offer comprehensive financial management services. What features to choose for your application is to be decided. We recommend looking at your business goals, the needs of your potential users and market trends to help in your determination.

Key Features for Financial Assistant Application

To get a big picture of how to develop an AI personal financial assistant from the technical side, you must first create a preliminary list of features for your financial software solution. Let’s start with some functionality that forms the basis of any money management app. Here are features that users expect to see by default when downloading a financial assistant app and quick tips on how to implement them right:

Registration/Log In – Use two-factor authentication and biometrics to make sure that users’ log-in flow is secured and no unauthorized person can get into the account. Also, Single Sign-on (SSO) enables secure user authentication with one set of credentials to several applications.
User profile – Take care of personalization to provide the best user experience. For example, let users personalize the app theme, choose notifications, etc.
Tracking expenses – The data for the expense report can be taken from the transaction history if the application is connected to a bank account. However, integration is not always possible and depends on the country and banks. Some financial assistants offer receipt recognition features. You just need to take a photo of your receipt and the application will automatically convert it into an expense. As an example, Expensify can do this.
Categorization and budgeting – Base categories breaking down monthly expenses (eg “food”, “housing”, “savings”, etc) can be set automatically, but we also recommend leaving users the option to create their own.
Setting financial goals – Provide a range of predefined goals covering options such as paying off credit card debt or savings, leaving users the chance to create their own goals.
Investment and savings – Let users automate their savings by setting spending limits or automatically saving their spare change from daily purchases. Some apps also offer users the services of their financial advisors, who analyze the client’s financial situation and suggest the best ways to invest and increase capital.
Integration with banking accounts – You can find money management apps on the market without integration with bank accounts, such as Goodbudget, which only supports manual data entry. However, automation will bring much more value to users, saving them time and effort.
Analytics and reports – Well-visualized reports will help users better track their financial transactions. Displaying data in charts and infographics makes the information clearer and more readable.
Notifications and alerts – Notifications keep users updated about new savings opportunities, progress toward financial goals, or remind them of recurring payments such as taxes and rent. However, remember that notifications should be helpful and not annoying, so the best way is to allow users to choose which updates they want to receive.

Advanced AI-based Functionality

The line between an ordinary financial management app and a powerful financial assistant lies in the use of artificial intelligence. Designed correctly, AI assistants can become a full-fledged alternative to human financial consultants, providing an equal level of customer service. So let’s take a look at some advanced features based on this technology. Here are ways you can make your financial management application more intelligent.

BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION

The issue of security cannot be overlooked when talking about building an app for the financial market. Security is one of the main decision factors for users when choosing a financial app. If you plan to connect your app with users’ bank accounts and credit cards, you must be sure that this process is completely secure and no user data will be lost or compromised. This is an area where artificial intelligence can show its full power.

According to IBM, 20% of data breaches are caused by compromised credentials. Biometric authentication technology is considered one of the most reliable ways to protect data. Modern algorithms can easily guess the correct password for an account, but they cannot fake the unique physical characteristics of users.

Biometrics technology can be implemented in the way of facial recognition, iris scanning, fingerprint identification, or voice verification. However, each option has its implementation features. For example, creating iris scanning on mobile and desktop is not possible without special hardware, since the resolution of conventional cameras is not enough.

According to Finances Online, facial recognition is one of the top three artificial intelligence technologies being adopted worldwide. Let’s find out how it works.

The device captures the incoming face image from the device’s camera in a 2D or 3D way, depending on the characteristics of the device.
The system splits the face image into unique features (nose shape, the distance between eyes, etc.) and translates this into a unique code that displays the user’s facial signature.
The system compares the incoming image signal with the information stored in the database in real-time.
The system decides if the incoming image matches any picture in the database and allows or denies access.

In order for your face recognition system to work accurately and avoid errors, it is important to use anti-spoofing techniques that will find the difference between real face and replica.
Learn more about anti-spoofing techniques by viewing the MobiDev demo below.

CONVERSATIONAL ENGINE

Artificial intelligence is that magical tool that can turn software into a financial assistant that communicates with users in a human-like manner. Instead of looking up information in the app, the user can ask something like “Hey, what is my credit card balance?” and get a voice response. Conversational AI makes it possible. Based on Natural language processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology, the conversational engine enables smooth communication between a financial app and its users. Let’s take a look at how it works.

AI voice assistants use a device’s microphone to receive voice requests. First of all, they need to recognize a command (a wakeword) that helps wake up the device, since virtual assistants are usually passively listening. Further, after triggering, voice recognition, voice analysis and language processing go to work and the magic happens.

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) converts a user-spoken query into a text transcription. However, in some cases, it is faster and easier to implement this feature through a chatbot that eliminates the ASR step.
Natural language understanding (NLU) takes the transcription and predicts the user’s intent by recognizing syntax, context, language patterns, etc.
Software analyzes the natural language audio signal converted into digital data and then compares this data with a database.
The dialogue manager (DM) decides what to say to the user or what action to take.
The assistant responds using the text-to-speech (TTS) feature.

A properly trained conversational engine makes a financial app easy to get along with and increases user engagement while interacting with the app. The development of such a module requires deep expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.

PREDICTIVE AND PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS MODULES

Another powerful AI capability for building fintech applications is predictive technology. Thanks to it, personal finance assistant apps can detect user behavior patterns as well as make predictions on future users’ income and expenses. This happens thanks to statistics and modeling techniques. Predictions are made based on historical data of account transactions powered by machine learning algorithms. Predictive analytics will let users plan for the future and tell them how best to achieve their financial goals acting like a real financial advisor.

When it comes to providing recommendations and financial advice, prescriptive analytics comes into play. Basically, this technology takes what predictive analytics has learned and goes one step further by determining the best course of action in a given situation. However, you should know that this analytics module is quite a complex solution that requires extensive industry and technology knowledge and a large amount of historical data.

RECEIPT RECOGNITION

If you want to develop a personal finance assistant app like Expensify, you’ll need a recipient recognition feature that will allow you to scan receipts and automatically enter expenses into the app. Expensify provides the SmartScan feature based on optical character recognition technology (OCR) that enables the data-entry process and translates scanned images into text. It reads the merchant, date and amount of the transaction, creates an expense and enters this data into the expense report. Sounds easy right? However, from a technical point of view, the process looks much more complicated.

To provide recognition of the receipt, the system extracts the text from the photo of your receipt and analyzes it to determine which data corresponds to the categories embedded in the system, such as date, amount, currency, and the like. After that, the module analyzes existing spending categories and looks for suitable ones in order to add information from a new receipt.

The main challenge of implementing this feature is that receipts can be represented in different formats, which complicates the analysis of information and its further distribution. This is where you need effective machine learning models. AI and ML will allow you to avoid errors occurring in the process of data conversion and effectively process different types of documents thanks to advanced algorithms. Also, a common solution is to implement a built-in system that allows you to manually correct the OCR output data to get a more accurate result.

Connecting a Financial Management App to Banking Accounts

If you are looking for the answer oh how to create a budget planning app, you should remember that linking the AI financial assistant app with bank accounts opens up a lot of benefits for users. This way, they can get some valuable insights about their expenses and incomes automatically without the need for manual data entry. So how do you provide users with the ability to connect your fintech app to their accounts?

The integration of the application with the bank takes place using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), a software that enables data transmission between the two parties. The concept of open banking, which is gaining momentum around the world, makes it a fairly easy process. This model allows traditional financial institutions and fintech startups to cooperate based on open APIs provided by banks. Open banking APIs solutions allow the application to integrate with bank accounts and customize the flow of necessary data for efficient use in financial planning. This approach has replaced screen scraping, where users provide their bank account login ID and password to third parties without the bank’s knowledge, putting their accounts at risk.

Open banking encourages banks to develop their own open APIs that make it possible to create new financial products based on them. Thus, traditional banks enrich their list of services and support competition in the market. Financial managing apps can operate based on open banking in the UK (UK Open Banking Standard), European Union (PSD2), Australia (Australia’s Consumer Data Right Act) and some other regions.

For example, Europe Payment Services Directive Two (PSD2) obligated every licensed bank in the EU to provide its open banking APIs to third-party developers and fintech firms. In Australia in 2020, the Big Four Banks were also legally required to make customer account information available upon request. The USA doesn’t yet have legislation governing open banking, although some banks are initiating the development of their own open APIs, realizing the benefits and security of this approach. BBVA, Citibank and Capital One are among them.

HOW DO OPEN BANKING APIS WORK?

With the open banking regime, financial app developers can find the bank’s APIs in open access and set up data transfer functionality. To do this, they need to get an API key for identification and setting access permissions, and follow the API documentation to connect the application.

Further, when using your application, users will independently have to confirm access to their bank account using the functionality connected by the developers. Here’s how it works:

A user gives an app permission to access their data and act on their behalf by pressing the “I agree” button in the app.
The application generates a token representing this consent, which is time-limited and contains access rights requirements.
The app authenticates with the bank and sends the user’s token.
The user receives a request from his bank to authorize the token and does so.
The bank grants the application access to the user’s data.

However, if you want to set the integration of your application with several banks, this can increase development time and complicate the process by building custom connections with each bank. An alternative is to use ready-made open banking platforms that provide a single standardized infrastructure for integration.

Plaid is one of the most popular platforms of this type. The company works with hundreds of banks and fintechs in North America and Europe. For example, Truebill, Expensify and Cleo use the Plaid service to connect with financial institutions. Nordigen and Trulayer are Plaid alternatives for Europe.

What to Look for When Creating an AI Assistant for Finance?

The technical side of creating an AI financial assistant is closely related to other aspects of bringing the application to the market. Here are some points that you also need to focus on.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

The question of regulatory compliance can be quite challenging for a fintech startup founder as the regulatory landscape differs from region to region.

For example, the United States, which is the leader in the number of fintech startups in the world, still doesn’t have a single framework for managing the fintech sector. Therefore, when developing applications for this market, you need to study the local regulations of a particular state, also taking into account the federal legislation covering financial services such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), etc.

In Europe, your application must be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring users’ consent to access their data, and KYC/AML, which ensures preventing money fraud and terrorist financing. PSD2, which obliges banks to provide open APIs for third-party access, also imposes other requirements on financial service providers. If your application is associated with any type of payment service in the European Union, it must comply with certain requirements, for example, the use of multi-factor authentication for user login.

Also, it’s worth mentioning the EU Artificial Intelligence Act proposed by the European Commission at the end of 2021. The AI Act aims to establish a set of rules for AI-powered products on the EU market. In particular, the law contains a “product safety framework” built around a set of 4 risk categories. It establishes requirements for entering the market and certifying high-risk AI systems, which include solutions like product security components, credit scoring, evidence reliability assessment, and others that may be considered a clear security threat or violation of human rights. The regulation has not yet entered into use, but it should also be taken into account when developing an AI-based software thinking of the future.

We highly recommend that you study the regulatory environment of the region for which you are creating a financial app in order to comply with all requirements and implement the appropriate features in your product.

EXPERIENCED AI DEVELOPERS

Virtual financial assistant app development requires not only an understanding of the industry but deep expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI development is not as easy as it seems. Creating efficient algorithms and working with advanced technologies cannot be learned in theory, it requires practice and constant knowledge updating. Therefore, you need to look for a reliable development team that will turn a financial application into an intelligent indispensable assistant for your customers.

How to hire experienced AI engineers? Look for proven experience in developing and training machine learning models, as well as expertise in data science since AI works with large amounts of data. Also, take an interest in examples of AI-powered projects implemented by the team. There are people behind every project, so choose the right people to bring your business idea to life.

Using Node.js for Backend Web Development in 2022

Yuriy Luchaninov — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 11:55:29 +0000

Developing modern software applications is an essential undertaking for any growing business. Fortunately, the ongoing advancements in application development technology have presented business owners and project managers with a plethora of options to choose from. However, the breadth of possible technologies available can be overwhelming. It’s important to choose the right tech stack for your business based on the objectives and priorities you have established.

One such technology that is widely in use today is Node.js. As a modern application framework, Node.js has been adopted by many companies to build their backend tech stack. Its usage can be seen across industries as a popular option for server-side application development.

The popularity of Node.js today is increasing exponentially. Node.js is currently in use by well-known companies like Netflix, Uber, PayPal, Twitter, and more. And among programmers, Node.js was ranked as the 6th most popular technology (though, this includes also Javascript, SQL and TypeScript, as they are used in Node.js development) according to StackOverflow’s 2021 Developer Survey, with over one-third of professional developers ranking it in the top.

But what is Node.js? How does it work, and is it still relevant in today’s technological and business landscape? More importantly, why are so many big-name companies and professional developers using it? These are the questions we will answer in this article.

What is Node.js and How it Works

In terms of application stacks, Node.js presents an interesting intersection of frontend and backend technologies. Built on JavaScript, which is traditionally a frontend, client-side web scripting language, Node.js extends the capabilities of JavaScript to run on the backend, server-side portion of a web application architecture, as well as for serverless architecture.

Node.js does this by executing within its own runtime on the server. A good analogy to draw is the comparison between Node.js and Java, which also runs applications within their own runtime. The Node.js runtime is designed to be lightweight and efficient, with non-blocking I/O and a package manager to make building applications in the Node.js ecosystem even easier.

The package manager for Node.js is called npm. Its purpose is to serve as an index of libraries built by the Node.js community of developers which are easily shared and imported by other projects. These packages provide helpful solutions to common functions and code that simplify scaffolding new projects and improving old ones.

Node.js Frameworks / Approaches

Even though Node.js itself is a powerful and versatile platform, there are frameworks/approaches that have built upon Node.js to improve it even further.

NESTJS

NestJS is an open-source, extensible, and versatile Node.js framework which incorporates TypeScript (a superset of JavaScript which is a strongly typed programming language). It is built on an abstraction of other Node.js frameworks like Express and Fastify. This abstraction makes it easy to learn and get up to speed building projects.

NestJS is built on the concepts of Modules, Providers, and Controllers. Modules are logical units of code organized together. Every application will have at least one root Module, but more can be built on top of that as the code is organized. Providers are abstractions of code that can be injected as dependencies. Controllers handle incoming requests from the client to perform application logic and return a response.

The NestJS framework is great for the advantages of TypeScript and the benefits of other abstracted frameworks. The ease of use and extensibility are good for developing applications around a microservice architecture as well. The framework provides a strict project structure and implies a team work of several programmers, which helps set up a less buggy development process.

ELECTRON

JavaScript is primarily a language for web application development, so it makes sense that most of the frameworks built on it are also intended for the web. However, Electron combines the Chromium rendering engine and the Node.js runtime and allows the development of desktop applications using JavaScript.

Electron simplifies desktop application development by allowing programmers to write these apps in platform-agnostic web languages like HTML5 and CSS. It also makes the packaging and installation of these applications much easier.

Electron is therefore good to consider when your business use requires a desktop application without the complexity and redundancy of developing native applications for different platforms. The Electron framework’s usage of web languages speeds up the development process and reduces the time to market for new products.

DENO

Deno was released by the creator of Node.js in 2018 to address many of the problems Node.js developers and users had experienced. Specifically, these included addressing issues around security, modules, and compatibility.

Like Node.js, the Deno runtime executes code in its own application. However, Deno programs are more secure in that the runtime executes within a sandbox, isolated from the underlying file system. This adds security that prevents attackers from “breaking out” of the executable runtime and gaining access to the server the code is running on.

Deno also eliminates the need for a centralized package manager system like Node.js’s npm. It does this by allowing modules to be imported directly by a URL and caching those modules in case the hosting URL is unavailable.

Finally, Deno supports TypeScript and strives for enhanced browser compatibility. For these reasons, there are a number of companies who are already expressing interest in adopting Deno for their own use cases, however you should keep in mind that it is not yet supported by the major cloud providers, so Docker images should be used.

Why Use Node.js

Node.js is an applicable solution for many different types of use cases. As a primarily server-side framework, Node.js lends itself to applications within the backend side of the technology stack. Below are a few of the instances when Node.js makes sense to use.

LIGHTWEIGHT, FAST APPLICATIONS WITH REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION

Understanding the size of your product is essential for choosing the right technology to build it with. The flexible and efficient nature of Node.js lends itself to building small, fast, and scalable applications. Real-time applications like instant messaging and collaboration tools are one example of this. This, coupled with the fast synchronization abilities of Node.js also make it useful for event-based applications. Examples of these include applications that use WebSockets and WebRTC.

SERVERLESS AND MICROSERVICE ARCHITECTURE

Because of its flexibility, Node.js is very good for building both serverless and microservice-based applications. These design styles are both very popular for saving resources and efficiently managing application lifecycles.

Serverless architecture is popular for its ability to save computing costs by only requiring the resources the application needs to run with no additional overhead. These applications are stateless and lightweight. This makes Node.js integration with serverless architecture a great combination. There are npm packages for serverless design, and building a serverless Node.js application works well with an overall microservice architecture in C2C and B2C use cases when the server load is volatile.

INTERNET OF THINGS

Node.js is very good at handling simultaneous connections. Since IoT is built on many devices sending small messages that must be handled quickly, Node.js makes a good backend for these kinds of applications, providing serverless architecture and real-time communication support.

AUDIO/VIDEO PROCESSING

Node.js handles asynchronous input and output much better than other technologies. So, when combined with external media tools, Node.js can be used as an option for processing and handling multimedia data. For example, a streaming setup can be easily configured using Node.js.

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

The ease of use that Node.js offers by being built on common web languages makes ramp-up times very minimal. New products can be built quickly and brought to market without delay. The amount of engineering resources required to do so is also reduced because of this.

In practice, Node.js helps to meet strict deadlines. The product, an online marketplace for hail damage repair contractors and clients, was set to be launched before the high season started. Choosing between PHP and Node.js, we decided to go with Node.js to meet both the functional requirements and deadlines. Using isomorphic architecture allowed us to reduce the development time.

INTEGRATION WITH C++ CODE

Node.js is able to seamlessly integrate with existing C++ libraries. This is because the Node.js runtime is essentially built on a C++ server that runs on the host node. That allows Node.js to quickly transmit data between C++ and application code.

Comparing Node.js to Other Backend Technologies

It may seem confusing that Node.js is distinct from other technologies, and the differences between them might not be immediately apparent. After all, each framework is designed for a purpose. Below are some of the most common comparisons between Node.js and similar technologies.

Node.js vs Java

It is common to compare Node.js to Java because each tool runs programs within its own runtime environment. However, that is where most of the similarities end. Java is a compiled, object-oriented programming language with syntax similar to C++. Java programs are typically large and costly to develop. In contrast, Node.js programs are lightweight and based on non-compiled web languages like JavaScript. It is also much more suited for I/O applications and efficient server-side handling of HTTP requests.

So, even though Java and Node.js may share similarities in their runtime applications, their use cases are actually quite different. Due to the event loop, Node.js is more efficient when operating with I/O applications, whilst Java’s thread pool is more powerful for complex computations. However, we can leverage both as microservices in one project.

Node.js vs Python

Python is a widely popular programming language due to its simple syntax and easy usability. These make building new projects in Python very easy, which has led to its popularity and explains its similarity to Node.js. However, Python is another object-oriented language like Java. And even though it is interpreted (like JavaScript), its programs can consume large amounts of computing resources.

It is however useful in big projects for areas like AI and math-heavy simulations, which are not areas that Node.js is useful for. Python’s libraries make it easier to build the application logic, however its architecture makes performance challenging and requires a highly skilled programmer involvement.

When NOT to Use Node.js

What are the cases when Node.js should not be used?

DEVELOPING FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

Unfortunately, the financial sphere is the single sphere where Node.js is definitely not recommended because of the specifics of work with the floating decimal point—it can lead to accumulation of errors in variables that deal with finances, which is unacceptable. There are tools that allow you to build logic with high-precision calculations; however, all of them have drawbacks and must be used wisely.

APPLICATION WITH COMPLEX CPU CALCULATIONS

Node.js is not the best solution when it comes to work with highly loaded threads that involve CPU. A good example is when audio and video processing is written on the back end—as opposed to the abovementioned recommended use of external processing tools, e.g. either ffmpeg / imagemagic or external libraries of C++ or Go.

Node.js Trends in 2022 and Beyond

The domination of Node.js as a popular backend technology is well established. And with current adoption by over 20 million websites, Node.js is sure to remain in use for the foreseeable future. But looking into 2022 and beyond, how will that popularity evolve?

The advent of Deno as an alternative to Node.js is one trend that looks to continue. The improvements to security and compatibility that Deno offers are much needed as more businesses expand into web technology. Along with Deno, NestJS is gaining adoption thanks to its extensibility and modularity that make it flexible for growing apps.

The need for scalability is boosted by a widespread shift to serverless and microservice application design. These small, lightweight architectural styles are much different from the large monoliths of traditional software design. Lightweight applications are cheaper and easier to build, and their reactiveness makes them ideal for real-time applications and IoT.

Wrap Up

In summary, the number of use cases for Node.js is already large and continuing to grow as advancements in other technical areas can apply to Node.js as well. There are no indications that this growth will slow any time soon. So with the proper research and the right use cases, Node.js can be an excellent choice for building many different types of products now and in the future.

There are no “good” or “bad” technologies as such. Each one is good for its particular set of tasks. Every software product owner has to identify the most important criteria of choice, according to business goals and existing constraints—and after that, the choice will be much more obvious.

The Sunset of Apache Cordova: Alternatives For Cross Platform Mobile Development in 2022

Yuriy Luchaninov — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 12:20:25 +0000

Have you heard that Apache Cordova support is being retired from the App Center? Want to know how this will affect your existing Cordova app?

Future trends of cross-platform mobile development are already starting to emerge, and it appears that Apache Cordova won’t be included in the list of frameworks that power hybrid web apps for mobile devices. The framework was released in long ago – from a technology development perspective – 2009, and to sort out what has disrupted its stability, we will analyze Apache Cordova core, the existing competitors, and marketing signals that indicate the need to switch to other options.

In this article you will discover answers to the most common questions related to the relevance of Cordova and its alternatives, including Flutter, React Native, Xamarin, Ionic, and NativeScript in 2022.

What’s up with Apache Cordova?

According to npm (Numbers Probably Matter), the number of weekly downloads of the command line tool to build, deploy and manage Cordova-based apps dropped by almost 42.4% within the period from November 2020 to October 2021. Moreover, the steady decrease has been compounding since a statement of Cordova Retirement was made by App Center. It was published recently, on October 15, 2021 and it states that the news impacted Apache Cordova that runs the risk of losing its popularity.

After being launched 4 years ago, Visual Studio App Center added support of Apache Cordova and 15 other frameworks and platforms. Developers started to switch from web to mobile application development at that time, so this cross-platform framework merited attention and was appreciated by the community. Core technologies to support CodePush, a cloud service that enables deploying updates directly to users’ devices, consisted of Apache Cordova and React Native.

And nowadays, according to Statista, Cordova’s popularity is decreasing. The number of software developers who used Apache Cordova in 2019–2021 fell from 29% to 16%.

Source: Statista

Calls from the Cordova SDK are calculated at less than 1 % of VS App Center’s service; hence App Center announced the withdrawal of support for Apache Cordova:

The option to develop Apache Cordova apps using the portal, CLI, or API had already been abolished by App Center.
App Center portal won’t accept calls from Cordova SDK starting on April 2022. After that date, availability and interaction of services aren’t guaranteed. It also emerged from the announcement provided, that those who had an Apache Cordova app should consider alternatives in order not to stick with obsolete technologies.

However, since one of the biggest platforms to build, test, release, and monitor apps ceases to support Apache Cordova, you may think that the technology still has a chance. Supposing that we may reconfigure the development cycle, thus avoiding the usage of Microsoft products for Cordova applications, it is possible to continue to apply this framework for cross-platform app development.

Me and my development team don’t need to fall back on reconfiguring the development cycle because we use our own infrastructure with Gitlab and build systems to set up a CI/CD pipeline. But instead of looking beyond possible approaches to avoid App Center, we should come back to the framework and deal with a few questions, which we have already partially addressed.

QUESTION №1 DOES APACHE CORDOVA HAVE A FUTURE?

Maybe we ought to start with a basic explanation. And if you know the basic stuff, just skip this paragraph.

Apache Cordova is a framework for mobile development created and introduced by Nitobi in 2009. One of the key considerations was to provide app developers with device APIs that enable accessing their functions directly from JavaScript. When these features were combined with UI frameworks like jQuery Mobile or Sencha Touch, a mobile app could have been developed with help of basic web technologies. Nowadays, mentioned UI frameworks are inferior to modern SPA (Single Page Application) frameworks, including ReactJS, AngularJS, VueJS, etc.

So, to answer the question about the future of Apache Cordova, we need to evaluate the importance of a decision taken by Microsoft. Our challenge, therefore, is to catch the essence of the message from the company that owns Github and related infrastructure, which officially suggests that Apache Cordova isn’t as remarkable in terms of development technologies anymore. How will this influence the future of cross-platform development?

The market changes involve companies of all sizes: separate software developers who work in little and even middle-sized companies will have to look for alternatives to App Center, the sought-after tool for automation and managing the lifecycle of the application, or create such alternatives on their own. The loud announcement made by App Center also forces business owners who are intending to start new projects to perceive Cordova as a more risky technology than before.

It is quite conceivable that Thoughtworks will recommend enterprises just avoid Cordova. And referring to marketing signals, it should be mentioned that PhoneGap Build was discontinued in October 2020.

QUESTION №2 IS CORDOVA DEPRECATED OR STILL RELEVANT?

Replying to the question of whether Cordova is deprecated or still relevant, we want to start with the allegation that Apache Cordova is still alive. The concrete markers comprise new updates with improvements and fixes. Cordova Android 10.1.1 was released in September 2021. At the same time, a gap between the latest updates of Cordova and versions of operating systems is still notable – Android 10 is supported by Cordova, but Android 12 has already been released.

The main finding implies that Cordova can be used, yet it is not the appropriate option for new projects.

QUESTION №3 WHAT CAN I USE INSTEAD OF CORDOVA?

It is high time to review alternatives to Apache Cordova and highlight the competitors for the framework. Flutter, Xamarin, React Native, Ionic, NativeScript may be a good substitute for Cordova in cross-platform app development. These cutting-edge technologies can be the best option for your hybrid app, though there is no reason to perceive any of them as a silver bullet since all technologies have both pros and cons.

Alternatives to Apache Cordova in 2022

Several criteria could be used to compare technologies competing with Apache Cordova: UI, performance, customizability, native modules and plugins, community, and sustainability.

CORDOVA VS FLUTTER

Flutter is the most flexible technology to build UI at the moment. It has a full set of material and cupertino widgets that aren’t provided by other frameworks. UI is consistent across different devices and vendors, and conceptually it is similar to React.js.

Flutter that’s based on Dart has currently shown the best performance. Performance is the same as in the case of native Android or iOS apps. Flutter architecture enables apps based on it to work with the same performance or even faster than Java or Kotlin Android apps. UI is extremely flexible and allows us to build UI the same way native platforms do. We can define custom painted views and custom layouts without the need to opt into native platforms.

Flutter also enables developers to build modules and views from native views, and the possibility to reuse native libraries derives from this. The Dart and Flutter community is smaller compared to the Javascript community, but it is being expanded fast by native developers. At the moment, it is much larger than the NativeScript community and almost as large as the React Native community.

Releases in Flutter are stable and don’t break apps – changes are made by Google and Apple in a timely manner. Developer preview versions for creating web applications and desktop applications are also notable.

CORDOVA VS REACT NATIVE

The UI is flexible enough to cover the majority of cases required for developing an app. It doesn’t have a full set of native components counterparts, as they are usually substituted with community plugins, and the UI framework is React.js.

Based on JavaScript, React Native uses bridge architecture for all views, which leads to some issues while implementing animations and working with views that report updates. For instance, the scrollview position.

The customizability of React Native can be assessed in terms of custom paint usage. It’s accessible, yet limited and has poor documentation. There is no way to define custom layouts without opting into a native platform. Functionality that allows building modules and views from native views and reusing of native libraries is the same as in the case of Flutter.

If considering the stability of React Native – it is in Beta. The framework has some breaking changes and issues related to new changes in native platforms from time to time. But overall, it has good stability. Maintainers are not always able to address issues in a timely manner, and often a community helps to fix issues in third party libraries. In React Native it is possible to share only the logic part of the application with the web.

CORDOVA VS IONIC

Ionic is an open-source mobile toolkit for building cross-platform apps, and it’s not Cordova-based anymore since May 2021.

In Ionic it is possible to use any UI library for the web, but unfortunately, the patterns for web and mobile devices are different, so these libraries are usually not optimized for mobile devices, which causes a lot of issues with UX & performance.

Based on JavaScript, Ionic uses wrapper architecture for the whole application. This leads to lots of issues when implementing heavy computing or working in hidden mode. UI is extremely flexible and allows building UI the same way Javascript applications do. It is possible to define custom layouts without the need to opt into native platforms and write native plugins.

JavaScript has a huge community, and the platform enables the reusing of JavaScript libraries. The community of ReactNative also has a huge set of available plugins. The main problems are security restrictions and the huge amount of time required to polish the application for each individual device.

CORDOVA VS NATIVESCRIPT

In terms of UI, NativeScript is similar to React Native – it builds on top of native views. It has the same issues as React Native. NativeScript allows using Angular 2+, Vue.js, and their own UI framework to build UI.

Based on JavaScript, NativeScript has a more limited performance compared to React Native, since everything works on JavaScript thread. NativeScript doesn’t provide developers with the ability to use custom paint and define new layouts. Native methods on views can be called directly from JavaScript.

NativeScript can build modules and view plugins using its own mechanism. It allows calling views directly from JavaScript. Compared to Flutter and ReactNative, it’s harder to write plugins since they use marshaling JavaScript to match native platform languages (Java, Obj-C) with its own syntax. This is very time-consuming compared to directly using native modules on other platforms.

NativeScript has the ability to leverage JavaScript libraries that don’t rely on DOM. Also, it has a smaller community and a smaller number of plugins compared to ReactNative.

Issues with memory leaks in NativeScript may lead to some concerns if developers are not familiar with the framework at a high level and don’t know how to mitigate them. Issues most often are not fixed in a timely manner.

CORDOVA VS XAMARIN

UI in Xamarin apps can boast stunning responsiveness. To create UIs, developers use XAML or C#. C# wrappers allow replicating native performance.

With Xamarin, developers may build distinctly various interfaces for platforms – this is where Cordova is losing out in terms of native-level performance.

Xamarin, as well as React Native, offers near-native performance. C# and .NET serve for the creation of one single application logic. Requests are sent by an app to API interfaces on the device. Xamarin core comprises compiled code, and experienced in .NET teams freely work with the framework.

Xamarin.forms simplify prototyping, and a single interface is shared across all platforms. Unavailability of some open source libraries and integrating third-party tools are named among the key cons of Xamarin.

Should you use Cordova in 2022 for a new project?

Enterprises that start new projects in 2021 pay more attention to the tech stack and avoid outdated technologies, and such an approach is considered essential from now on.

MobiDev’s experience indicates that companies aim to leverage a prospective tech stack for all their products from the same beginning point because switching to a new tech stack results in additional costs. And if you are not intending to rewrite your project in the near future, consider other options instead of Cordova in 2022.

However, your choice does depend on the project requirements and Cordova may correlate with your needs, so feel free to comment my article — I’m open for any further discussion about cross platform app development.