Native app
A short explanation of native apps in our glossary
A native app is an application tailored to a specific operating system and usually interacts with the hardware. A native app can, for example, access the device's data and memory, the GPS or the camera.
It is downloaded via the respective operating system's app store and, because it is stored permanently on the device, generally needs no internet connection after installation.
Native apps are a sensible choice especially for more complex or compute-intensive applications, thanks to being optimised for a particular operating system.
If a company wants to offer its application for several operating systems, it has to be developed for each of them at the same time, which brings high development costs. In that case it makes sense, where possible, to develop either a web app or a hybrid app.