With the continuous progress of the Internet, there are more and more applications of mobile terminals in daily life.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of November 2022, the number of APPs monitored in the domestic market is 2.72 million, of which the number of APPs in the App Store (China) is 1.36 million, and the number of APPs in local third-party application stores (mainly Android) 1.37 million models.
Among them, based on the traffic advantages of the super APP WeChat, Baidu, and Alipay, it also drives the steady development of the mini program ecology. According to QuestMobile data, as of October 2022, the overall traffic of mini programs has reached nearly 1 billion, an increase of 63.09 million compared with the same period last year.
Faced with such traffic dividends, many merchants have invested in the development of APPs and small programs. So what are the similarities and differences in development between the two?
First, let's talk about the difference.
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Development language
Small programs generally use front-end related languages, such as WXML, WXS, etc., while APP (Android, iOS) use languages such as JAVA and OC.
applet language
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development environment
Small programs should be developed using the IDE dedicated to small programs, which contains Dev Tools, which can be debugged by setting breakpoints in Chrome like normal front-end development. The APP (Android, iOS) is developed using Android studio and Xcode, and the development environments used by the two are inconsistent.
Small program IDE
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Inconsistent usage environment
Mini programs are used on WeChat, and the related APIs are all dependent on WeChat. If WeChat does not provide related APIs, some functions cannot be realized. However, the native development of APP (Android, iOS) does not have such a problem. Whether it is Bluetooth or WIFI, as long as the permission is applied, it can be used normally.
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Inclusion size
Small programs developed by WeChat have a package size limit, because small programs are still running on the browser in essence. It just means that the browser has made specific optimizations for small programs, so that the running performance is as close as possible to the original performance. Therefore, the package must be downloaded before it can be used, so the package body is limited, otherwise it will affect the experience, so if you want to put static resources such as pictures, videos, etc., it will be affected. However, APP development has no such restrictions, which can be large or small.
Small program package body limit
So, what are the similarities between the two in development?
First of all, the development controls are similar, there are some scrolling controls, text controls, etc., and the overall layout ideas are similar.
Secondly, although the APIs are different, they all have to deal with the network, layout, performance, etc. The whole is still related to the computer foundation. The difference is the form, the bottom layer and the ideas are all connected.
In addition to focusing on the development aspect, the audience aspect must also be considered.
At present, the cost of acquiring customers for APP is still very high, and the desire of users to download APP is not high. However, super APPs such as WeChat, Baidu, and Alipay have a large audience base, and it is more convenient to obtain traffic than APP. Developing small programs based on the entire APP system requires trial and error costs. Still relatively low. Therefore, if there is no closed-loop need for the time being, you can start with a small program first, and then divert it to the APP.
The above is the sharing from the AdBright technical team. I hope it will be helpful to you. If you have any questions, welcome to communicate~