Overview
A mobile application is often the most personal piece of software a business deploys. It lives on the device a person carries everywhere, it competes for attention against everything else on that device, and it is judged against the standard of every other app the user has on their phone. The bar for quality is set by the best applications in the world — not by the average business application.
We build mobile applications for iOS and Android — from cross-platform applications built with React Native or .NET MAUI that share a codebase across both platforms, to Unity-based applications where game engine rendering and interaction capabilities are the right fit, to native-adjacent experiences that connect to robust backend infrastructure built in Next.js, C#, or Rust. Authentication is handled through industry-standard identity providers including Auth0, OAuth2, and Privy for Web3-enabled applications.
The decisions that determine whether a mobile application succeeds — framework selection, architecture, offline behaviour, performance, authentication, backend design — are made at the beginning of a project. Getting them right requires experience across the full stack of mobile development: the client application, the backend it talks to, the identity infrastructure that secures it, and the operational considerations that affect how it behaves at scale in the real world.
Framework Selection — Choosing the Right Approach
No single mobile framework is the right choice for every application. The decision depends on the nature of the application, the platforms it needs to reach, the performance characteristics it requires, the team delivering it, and the backend infrastructure it connects to.
React Native React Native is our primary framework for cross-platform mobile applications where a shared JavaScript codebase across iOS and Android is the priority. It renders using native platform components — not a WebView, not a canvas — which means React Native applications look and feel like native applications on both platforms rather than like web applications running on a phone.
React Native is the right choice for: data-driven applications where the UI is primarily forms, lists, and content views; applications that have or will have a web version and benefit from shared logic between web and mobile; teams with existing React and TypeScript expertise; and applications where time-to-market across both platforms simultaneously is a priority.
The React Native ecosystem is mature. Navigation, state management, device API access, push notifications, deep linking, and the full range of capabilities a production mobile application requires are all well-supported. TypeScript throughout the codebase — shared with backend Next.js services where the architecture allows — produces a type-safe stack from client to server.
Unity Unity is the right framework when the application requires capabilities that purpose-built mobile frameworks do not provide — real-time 3D rendering, physics simulation, complex 2D game mechanics, augmented reality, or any application where the interaction model goes beyond what native UI components support.
Unity is not exclusively for games. Visualisation applications, training simulators, AR product configurators, interactive experiences, and any application where the rendering requirements exceed what React Native or MAUI can deliver are all appropriate Unity targets. Unity's cross-platform compilation produces native iOS and Android binaries from a single C# codebase, with full access to device capabilities through Unity's plugin system and native bridge.
We use Unity for applications where its rendering and interaction capabilities are genuinely needed — not as a default choice, because the Unity development model and operational characteristics differ from standard mobile frameworks in ways that are relevant to project planning and long-term maintenance.
. NET MAUI .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is the natural choice for organisations with existing C# backend infrastructure and development teams working in the .NET ecosystem. A single C# and XAML codebase compiles to native iOS and Android applications alongside Windows and macOS desktop targets — giving organisations with mixed platform requirements a single codebase that covers all of them.
MAUI is the right choice for: enterprise mobile applications deployed to employee devices where the organisation's development capability is primarily .NET; applications that share significant business logic with existing C# services; and internal tools where the development team's familiarity with C# outweighs the React Native ecosystem advantages for the specific use case.
Backend Architecture for Mobile Applications
A mobile application's backend is as important as the client. The API design, authentication model, data synchronisation strategy, and performance characteristics of the backend determine how the application behaves in the real world — how quickly it loads, how it handles poor connectivity, how it scales as the user base grows, and how securely user data is managed.
Next.js Backend Services For React Native applications and applications where the backend serves both mobile and web clients, Next.js API routes and server-side capabilities provide a JavaScript-native backend that shares type definitions and business logic with the frontend. Next.js backend services handle mobile API requests, server-side authentication flows, webhook processing, and the integration layer between the mobile application and third-party services.
The shared TypeScript type system between Next.js backend and React Native frontend eliminates an entire category of client-server contract mismatches — API response shapes are typed end-to-end, and changes to the API surface are caught at compile time rather than at runtime on a user's device.
C# / ASP.NET Core Backend Services For applications with complex business logic, enterprise system integrations, or organisations with existing .NET infrastructure, C# backend services provide the full capability of the ASP.NET Core ecosystem — mature authentication middleware, robust ORM support, extensive integration libraries for enterprise platforms, and the performance characteristics of a compiled, statically-typed runtime.
C# backends are the natural pairing for MAUI mobile applications, and are equally appropriate for React Native applications where the backend requirements favour the .NET ecosystem. SignalR provides real-time WebSocket communication between C# backends and mobile clients for applications that require live data updates.
Rust Backend Services For mobile applications where backend performance is a primary constraint — high-concurrency API services, real-time data delivery to large numbers of simultaneous mobile clients, applications processing significant data volumes on the server side — Rust backends built with Axum deliver the throughput and latency characteristics that other backend stacks cannot match at equivalent infrastructure cost.
Rust backends are the right choice for mobile applications with demanding performance requirements: trading applications delivering real-time market data to many simultaneous users, applications with high-frequency API traffic, and services where the cost of infrastructure at scale makes the efficiency advantage of Rust economically significant.
Authentication and Identity
Mobile application authentication is more complex than web authentication. Token storage on mobile devices requires platform-appropriate security. Biometric authentication needs to be integrated correctly. Session management needs to handle the mobile application lifecycle — backgrounding, foregrounding, token expiry while the app is not in use. Social login flows need to handle the platform-specific OAuth redirect behaviour correctly.
Auth0 Auth0 is our standard choice for applications requiring enterprise-grade identity management. It handles the full authentication surface — username and password, social login (Google, Apple, Facebook), enterprise SSO via SAML and OIDC, multi-factor authentication, anomaly detection, and user management — without requiring custom implementation of each of these capabilities.
Auth0's mobile SDKs handle the complexity of OAuth2 PKCE flows on iOS and Android correctly, including secure token storage using the platform's native keychain and keystore, biometric authentication integration, refresh token rotation, and the silent authentication flows that keep users logged in without requiring re-authentication on every app launch.
For B2B applications requiring per-organisation SSO, Auth0's organisations feature handles tenant-level identity configuration without custom implementation.
OAuth2 / OIDC For applications that need to integrate with specific identity providers — Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, GitHub, or any other OAuth2-compliant provider — we implement OAuth2 and OIDC flows directly against the provider's endpoints, using PKCE for mobile security and implementing token management with the security practices that mobile deployment requires.
Direct OAuth2 integration is the right choice when Auth0's abstraction layer is not needed — when there is a single, known identity provider, when the application's authentication requirements are straightforward, or when the organisation has existing identity infrastructure that the mobile application needs to integrate with.
Privy For mobile applications in the Web3 space — crypto wallets, DeFi applications, NFT platforms, onchain trading tools — Privy provides the authentication infrastructure that bridges traditional identity (email, social login) with Web3 identity (wallet addresses). Users can authenticate with familiar methods and have wallets created or connected without the friction of traditional Web3 onboarding.
Privy's embedded wallet infrastructure creates non-custodial wallets tied to a user's social identity — meaning users do not need to manage seed phrases to get started while retaining full custody of their assets. For mobile applications targeting audiences that include both crypto-native users and mainstream users new to Web3, Privy's authentication model dramatically reduces the onboarding barrier.
Offline Capability and Data Synchronisation
Mobile applications operate in environments where connectivity is intermittent, slow, or absent. Applications that assume permanent connectivity fail visibly when the network is unavailable. Applications designed for offline operation continue to function and synchronise when connectivity is restored.
We design mobile applications with explicit offline strategies:
Local data storage. Data that the application needs to display and operate on is stored locally — using SQLite for structured data, the platform's secure storage for credentials and sensitive data, and the filesystem for cached content. The application renders from local data on launch rather than waiting for network requests to complete.
Optimistic updates. User actions that modify data are applied locally immediately and queued for synchronisation with the server. The UI reflects the user's intent instantly without waiting for server confirmation. Conflicts are handled by defined resolution strategies when the server and local state diverge.
Background synchronisation. Data synchronisation with the backend happens in the background, managed by the platform's background execution capabilities rather than tied to the application's foreground lifecycle. This ensures that data is current when the user opens the application, even if significant time has passed since their last session.
Graceful degradation. Features that require network connectivity degrade gracefully when offline — showing cached data with a clear indication that it may not be current, disabling actions that require server confirmation, and queuing requests for execution when connectivity is restored rather than failing silently or with unhelpful error messages.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are a core engagement mechanism for mobile applications. Implementing them correctly requires both client-side integration with APNs (Apple Push Notification service) and FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) and server-side infrastructure to manage notification delivery.
We implement push notifications end-to-end — device token registration and management, notification payload design, delivery through APNs and FCM, deep link handling that opens the application to the correct context when a notification is tapped, notification permission flows that request access at the right moment in the user journey, and the server-side notification service that triggers and tracks delivery.
For applications with segmented notification requirements — different notification types for different user segments, scheduled notifications, notification preferences — we build notification management infrastructure that handles these requirements rather than bolting them onto a basic notification implementation.
App Store Submission and Distribution
Getting an application onto users' devices requires navigating the App Store and Google Play submission processes — including code signing, provisioning profiles, App Store Connect configuration, Play Console setup, privacy manifest requirements, and the review process that can surface compliance issues that delay launch.
We manage the full submission process for applications we build — preparing the submission, addressing review feedback, and ensuring the application meets the current requirements of both platforms. For enterprise applications distributed outside the public app stores through MDM solutions or enterprise distribution, we configure the appropriate signing and distribution infrastructure.
Performance on Mobile
Mobile devices are not servers. CPU performance, memory, battery life, and network bandwidth are all constrained compared to the environments backend services run in. Mobile application performance requires explicit attention:
Startup performance. Time to interactive is the metric that determines whether users wait for the application or abandon it. We optimise application startup — deferring non-critical initialisation, loading the initial screen from local data before network requests complete, and profiling startup performance on representative low-end devices as well as current flagship hardware.
Render performance. Janky scrolling and dropped frames degrade the perceived quality of an application more than almost any other factor. We profile render performance throughout development, address the list rendering, animation, and layout calculation issues that cause frame drops, and validate smooth performance on the device range the application's users will actually have.
Network efficiency. Mobile network conditions vary dramatically. We design API interactions for efficiency — appropriate payload sizes, response caching, request batching where it reduces round trips, and graceful handling of slow or unreliable connections rather than assuming the fast, reliable network of a development environment.
Battery efficiency. Applications that drain battery become applications that users delete. We design background processes, location access, network polling, and sensor usage with battery impact in mind — using platform APIs correctly and avoiding the common patterns that cause excessive battery drain.
Technologies Used
- React Native — cross-platform iOS and Android development with native components and TypeScript
- Unity — 3D, AR, game mechanics, and rendering-intensive mobile applications
- .NET MAUI — cross-platform native mobile applications for organisations in the .NET ecosystem
- TypeScript — type-safe client and backend code across React Native and Next.js
- C# — Unity scripting, MAUI applications, and ASP.NET Core backend services
- Next.js — backend API services and server-side logic for React Native applications
- C# / ASP.NET Core — enterprise mobile backend services and complex business logic
- Rust / Axum — high-performance backend services for demanding mobile API workloads
- Auth0 — enterprise identity management, social login, MFA, and SSO for mobile
- OAuth2 / OIDC — direct identity provider integration for mobile authentication flows
- Privy — Web3 authentication and embedded wallet infrastructure for onchain mobile applications
- SQLite — local structured data storage for offline-capable mobile applications
- APNs / FCM — push notification delivery for iOS and Android
- PostgreSQL / MySQL — backend relational data storage
- Redis — backend caching, session management, real-time data infrastructure
What to Expect Working With Us
Mobile application projects begin with platform and architecture decisions that have long-term consequences. The framework chosen in week one determines the development model for the life of the application. The authentication architecture chosen at the start determines how identity scales as the user base grows. The backend design chosen upfront determines how the application performs as traffic increases.
We spend time at the beginning of every mobile project getting these decisions right — understanding the application's requirements, the audience it serves, the platforms it needs to reach, the backend systems it connects to, and the operational context it will run in. The time invested here pays back throughout the project and in the long-term maintainability of what is delivered.
We deliver mobile applications iteratively — working builds on device throughout development, not a finished application presented at the end. This surfaces the real-world usability issues that only become apparent when people interact with the application on an actual device, and allows the application to be validated against real usage before it is submitted to the app stores.
Build Your Mobile Application
Whether you are building a consumer application for iOS and Android, an enterprise tool for employee devices, a Web3 application with embedded wallet authentication, or a Unity-based experience that goes beyond standard mobile UI — we have the stack and the experience to deliver it.