Why enterprises should use .NET 7 for cross-platform mobile development

In the digital era, every modern enterprise should build mobile apps to drive online success. Since the number of online consumers is rising. Many enterprises are restructuring their business strategies in order to influence Gen-Z users across all mobile platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows) through applications. Hence, the adoption of cross-platform development has been growing popular among organizations.

In the context of mobile app development for iOS or Android platforms, Java, Objective-C, and Swift are the typically preferred choice of tech stacks. However, these technologies have been useful to create monolithic applications, with millions of lines of code. But to build user-friendly cross-platform apps, .NET can be the ideal choice for developers. Enterprises can hire developers from the .NET software development company to build and deploy multi-platform apps using the latest version of the .NET framework.

Introduction to .NET 7

Microsoft community has updated .NET Framework to version 7.0 in 2022. This version is launched to overcome issues related to runtime and access violations, which exist in the previous version .NET 6.0. Some other key features of the .NET 7 version include quicker startup times, minimal compilation period, and improved performance. As per a recent survey, it has been estimated that around 2162 companies use the latest .NET framework version for developing and deploying fully-featured applications.

Features of .NET 7

• Built-in Bindings - .NET 7 offers bindings for almost the whole underlying SDKs in both Android and iOS platforms. Moreover, these bindings are easy-to-use and are strongly encoded, which means they provide robust compile-time type checking during app development. This enables developers to minimize runtime errors and create high-quality applications.
• Common Language Runtime - .NET 7 framework is a Top-Level Domain (TLD) that allows developers to write source code in multiple programming languages such as Visual Basic, C#, C++, and F#. Built-in Common Language Runtime (CLR) transforms the source code into MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language). This intermediate language is interoperable with the code from another language. Hence, developers can write code in multiple languages and compile it seamlessly.
• Extensive Base Class Library (BCL) - .NET developers can use the inherent BCL, a huge collection of classes and interfaces such as String, Database powerful XML, Serialization, Networking support, IO, and others. Base Class Library (BCL) enables developers to access and implement components for many general and app-specific actions, algorithms, and service functionality.
• Advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - .NET 7 uses Visual Studio Enterprise IDE for app development on iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. Visual Studio Enterprise includes features such as auto-code completion, all-inclusive project template library, cohesive source control, and many others.

Benefits of using .NET 7 Framework

Multi-Language Support

As mentioned before, .NET 7 allows developers to program using multiple languages such as VB.NET, C#, C++, and F#. This is possible due to the Common Language Runtime functionality. .NET 7 uses Microsoft Intermediate Language complementarity to build apps for all mobile platforms. Hence, developers no longer need to switch between environments for cross-platform development. This is time-effective and convenient for developers since they can include multiple functionalities within their app by multi-programming in a single environment. Hence, .NET 7 is a flexible framework.

Code Reusability

.NET is often referred to as a “write once, run everywhere” app development framework. Developers can reuse 96% of the codebase for other mobile platforms using .NET 7 framework. A reusable code can run on various platforms, offers native performance, and may require minimal changes from developers. Therefore, with greater source code reusability, developers can accelerate the application development cycle.

Easy App Maintenance

.NET 7 framework simplifies app maintenance for developers since they support code sharing and reusability. When developers need to fix some issues and update mobile applications, they simply need to do changes in the source file. Accordingly, all the alterations will be automatically implemented on both Android and iOS app versions. This way, developers using .NET 7 framework can save their app enhancement efforts and minimize the maintenance cost by keeping applications up to date on all mobile platforms.

Enhanced Community Support

.NET 7 framework ensures constancy, strong technical support, and rapid issue resolution since it’s backed by the Microsoft community. Moreover, Microsoft provides access to well-structured training opportunities and documentation, including .NET courses, which can be self-paced, and comprehensible for developers through the official Microsoft Learn platform. Meaning that, developers can receive comprehensive support while using .NET 7 for cross-platform mobile app development. Besides, organizations can use the latest version .NET 7 for cross-platform development by teaming with the right .NET development services provider.

Improved Security

Being a cross-platform app, enterprises want to protect their application’s source code with better security. .NET 7 framework offers end-to-end encryption and authentication functionalities, which allows developers to secure the application’s source code from automated data exfiltration and mishandling. Moreover, the codes and content present in each app page can be combined and organized efficiently using Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Therefore, by modifying code and content through Visual Studio, the modifications will get instantly updated on other platforms.

Summing Up

The reputation of the .NET framework in the domain of cross-platform app development is increasing day by day among developers and enterprises. The latest version .NET 7 enables enterprises to save time and cost on their app development project. It acts as a “one size fits all” framework tool that drastically reduces both app development and maintenance costs without compromising quality. Therefore, .NET 7 has become the most preferred cross-platform framework.