Cross-Platform Mobile Social Networking App

Hug App by Some Other Place

📱Mobile App - B2C

Some Other Place is a social platform startup established in 2022. It developed the Hug to serve as a conversation-on-demand platform for those seeking comfort, empathy, and a personal touch in their daily digital interactions, something hard to find in people’s respective realities. It has been downloaded over 20k times since its launch in South Korea.

Issue

Hug, a unique social networking app designed to facilitate intimate and empathetic conversations, faced the challenge of choosing a cross-platform framework for a native-friendly experience across Android and iOS platforms. The app connects users with “Mates” for personalized dialogues to provide a more intimate and tailored dialogue experience.

Project Requirements

Hug’s project had well-defined requirements, yet actualizing them necessitated a powerful, native-centric framework capable of handling complex user interactions. These included chat support and peer-to-peer calling across diverse device platforms, ensuring smooth communication.

The core requirements were as follows:

Native-Friendly Framework: Crucial for enabling direct user interactions and calls, this framework needed extensive access to device-native APIs, surpassing basic GUI integration.
Productivity: The project demanded a framework that facilitates swift development. Key features included Hot Reload and Visual Studio Code integration, coupled with extensive XAML support to ensure pixel-perfect designs.

Evaluating Frameworks

Initially, Hug developed separate native applications for iOS and Android platforms. Recognizing the advantages of a unified cross-platform approach, they re-evaluated and explored various frameworks. Their evaluation revealed that many, including Flutter, React Native, and .NET MAUI, fell short of providing full access to native APIs. Uno Platform emerged as a superior choice due to its extensive native API accessibility using C# and its compatibility with MAUI for certain features.

The application’s functionality heavily depended on the following features:

Voice Chat: CallKit for iOS and Telecom Manager for Android to facilitate voice communication.
Audio Playback: Implemented with the .NET MAUI AudioPlayer for cross-platform audio handling.
Authentication: Integrated ‘Sign in with Apple’ for iOS and supported in-app purchases using StoreKit for iOS and Google Play Billing Library for Android.

Solution

Hug made a pivotal decision to migrate to Uno Platform. This choice was not made lightly; it was the culmination of a thorough evaluation of their needs for a versatile and robust framework that could seamlessly interface with native APIs through C#, provide the agility of Hot Reload, and fully leverage the expressive power of XAML. Uno Platform emerged as the framework of choice, offering a singular codebase solution that promised to accelerate development cycles, enhance access to native functionalities, and ensure the fidelity of design across a multitude of platforms.

Building the App with Uno Platform: Benefits and Challenges

Hug leveraged a range of Uno Platform UI controls, including ListView, ScrollViewer, and DataTemplate, to enhance the development process. Despite the benefits, the team encountered some hurdles:

At the time of development, certain WinUI APIs were not completely implemented. For example, advanced list grouping capabilities needed to be improved. To overcome this, Hug developed a custom control to meet their needs.

Nonetheless, the development team greatly benefited from Uno Platform’s features, such as hot reload and code reusability. Hot reload, in particular, facilitated instantaneous UI updates across various devices, significantly speeding up the design-to-development workflow.

Results

Migrating to Uno Platform resulted in notable improvements and a successful launch:

Improved KPIs: Purchase conversion rates for new users increased by over 7%, and retention rates rose by approximately 12%. App stability also improved, with a perceived crash rate decrease of 32%.
Enhanced development productivity: Hot Reload allowed developers to work on two devices simultaneously, and development tasks were completed in roughly 3 days compared to the previous 5 days.
Reduced costs: Code reusability led to an estimated cost saving of 35% compared to maintaining separate native apps. Additionally, developers could focus on a single codebase, fostering better collaboration.
Improved user experience: Faster development cycles enabled Hug to respond more quickly to user feedback, building trust and user satisfaction.
Hup App was downloaded over 20K times between the App Store and Play Store

Hug’s adoption of the Uno Platform for its social networking app underscores the effectiveness of cross-platform development in enhancing user experience and operational efficiency. The case study highlights the importance of choosing the proper framework to meet the unique demands of a mobile app, especially one that relies heavily on native functionalities and seamless cross-platform performance. Hug’s experience with Uno Platform showcases the potential for reduced costs, improved productivity, and increased user satisfaction in app development.

Next Steps

To get started with Uno Platform, install the Visual Studio extension and follow the beginner-oriented Counter App or Simple Calc workshop. Both are doable during a coffee break. Or, for more advanced topics, use our Tube Player workshop.