There's an App for That

The phrase “there’s an app for that” was popularized and trademarked by Apple in 2009 to advertise the iPhone 3G. While that slogan is now 15 years old, apps are still relevant and even critical for some industries and applications. Over this same period, Apple’s iPhone has held roughly 60% of the U.S. market and doubled its global share. Technology has shifted over the course of these years, with even Apple’s underlying language making a major shift from Objective-C to Swift in 2014. With proliferation of cross platform technologies like React Native’s and Flutter’s ability to deploy to iOS and Android and with even more advances in mobile web technology, in 2025, should you still be thinking: “there’s an app for that”?

Native capabilities

A native app gives you seamless integration with iOS features. Some capabilities, like camera control have been fairly straightforward for a while on the native platform and have increasingly become easier on cross-platform and web. But the closer you get to the device, the harder it becomes to access particular frameworks. Features like device monitoring and reporting often depend on privacy‑focused APIs that are straightforward in native Swift but difficult or impossible to achieve elsewhere.

Apple is also rolling out “Apple Intelligence,” its on‑device AI framework. With Apple’s heavy emphasis on privacy, access to these APIs will be slow and limited on cross‑platform tools. For use cases that depend on new or device‑specific features, a native approach gives you the most direct path to integrating cutting‑edge technologies.

Native user experience

I think of user experience as a triangle:

It’s the platform corner where native iOS development shines. UI elements like accordions or radio buttons may feel natural on the web but out of place on iOS. Ignoring platform conventions is like using the exact same ad on a local radio station and a global YouTube video: it may work, but it’s not optimized.

When you want a native experience you use native UI elements. You might put a tab bar at the bottom of the screen, you most likely have a navigation bar at the top with standard back and close buttons for screen push’s and modals respectively, and you exclude elements from other platforms when they don’t fit (the aforementioned radio buttons on iOS). And when you do, you have a seamless transition to the next look and feel for the platform. Recently, Apple announced “liquid glass.” Whether you are a fan or not, if you’ve implemented native controls in your app, you can update to this new look for nearly free, as opposed to being at the behest of cross-platform tools to update (or not) their libraries.

Simplicity of development and deployment

This concept of nearly free cascades into this next point. If you develop with a native language on the native platform, you minimize the need to accommodate all build paths to different platforms from one codebase. In the words of software development, you give each app one job. By not needing to deploy code to multiple platforms from one codebase you can minimize the debugging effort and potential defect flip-flopping from one platform to the other. You can setup your CI/CD systems, and in the case of iOS, utilizes some built in tools and processes, to get your app from feature complete to the user as quick as possible.

Custom development of unique UI or other experience elements can be endeavored purposely to make your app stand out vs recreating wheels of web interactions on an iOS app. Native date pickers, file interactions, API integrations and other straight forward development is available right from native frameworks. Need example code? Apple’s developer ecosystem offers an abundance of well-documented examples.

So, is there an app for that?

Fifteen years later, there’s still a strong case for native iOS development. If you want your app on a user’s home screen, it has to feel right. It has to perform better than a web app. With iOS leading the market, investing in a high‑quality native experience pays off.

Today, more than ever, there really is an app for that.