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Building fully native iOS and Android apps can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming—especially for small teams. But what if you could use your existing Rails skills to create native mobile apps with minimal additional effort?

We sat down with Joe Masilotti to chat about how Hotwire Native is making that dream a reality.

INTERVIEW

Watch the complete interview here:

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INTERVIEW (abridged)

Introducing Joe

Joe Masilotti is a developer, consultant, and open-source contributor dedicated to making mobile app development more accessible to Rails developers. A maintainer of Hotwire Native since 2016, Joe first used the framework to launch a 100-plus-screen, Rails-powered mobile app as the sole developer—an experience that shaped his approach to bridging web and mobile development.

Now, through his consulting work and his book, Hotwire Native for Rails Developers, he’s helping developers build native-feeling mobile apps without the complexity of fully native development.

On making mobile apps easy . . .

What makes using Hotwire Native for Rails apps so appealing? You can wrap your Rails app in a native shell (Swift/Kotlin) with minimal backend changes. Joe says, “You can get by with a web view shoved inside of native chrome, so to speak, and go a really long way without having to do much on the design.”

On quick MVPs; low maintenance . . .

You’ll be happy to hear that with Hotwire Native, you can get an app into app stores quickly. Joe muses, “If you really want to go MVP, you could probably read chapter one and then put it in the app stores.”

What’s more, future updates can happen via Rails without resubmission. “The maintenance factor of Hotwire Native apps, I think, is understated,” says Joe. “Because it’s downloaded when the app launches, you can change it after app releases without doing a new push to the app stores. So you can dynamically change the way your app behaves on the fly.”

On keeping your web UI . . .

Joe advises developers to keep the web-based design consistent rather than try to mimic fully native UI patterns. “One of the things that I recommend is don’t try to recreate an Apple-looking app. Don’t try to recreate Android for Android.”

Instead, you should “keep using Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap or what have you, and keep using that to make it just a mobile version of your website that happens to be on native.”

On Hotwire Native compared to React Native . . .

Unlike React Native, Hotwire Native doesn’t replace your UI, but enhances it with native navigation. “The big benefit that I always see with Hotwire Native is that it doesn’t take over your entire app like React Native would,” Joe explains. “If you want to interact with the location API or the push notification API, you just write that native code and then send the data to your server. You don’t need to worry about finding a Hotwire Native-specific plugin for each API.”

On growing into native features . . .

Add features incrementally, Joe advises. “I always try to get a web-based app with one native feature, submit that to the app stores, and then have fun and dive into the native stuff. And that native feature is almost always push notifications because it’s the biggest benefit of native apps.”

On app stores hurdles . . .

One challenge developers face is getting apps accepted by the app stores, which have specific requirements, like at least one native feature. Joe tells us, “It has to have some form of benefit over the website. Push notifications or a native tab bar are usually enough to fulfill that.”

On getting started . . .

“If you have a mobile website, like responsive design or mobile format templates, you can get by with very little changes to get a Hotwire Native app working,” Joe tells us. You’ll find you just need to tweak small things, “iOS, for example, you probably want to hide your H1s because you already have a native navigation bar that sits above the web view.”

As far as technical skills, you’ll be using some Swift and Kotlin, but you can follow along with Joe’s book with just your Rails experience. “I’m building up every single piece of information you need for Kotlin and Swift as the book progresses,” he assures.

So, if you have a Rails app that you want to get into mobile app stores, press the Easy button by using Hotwire Native.

Now that you know his story, add Joe’s book to your library today! Don’t forget to use coupon code devtalk.com to save 35 percent on the ebook:

• Hotwire Native for Rails Developers: Build Native Mobile Apps Using Your Server by Joe Masilotti

book-hotwire-native-for-rails-developers

Follow Joe:

Website, masilotti.com

X, @joemasilotti

Github, joemasilotti

Linkedin, joemasilotti

YOUR TURN!

We’re now opening up the thread for your questions! Ask Joe anything! Please keep it clean, and don’t forget that by participating, you automatically enter the competition to win one of his ebooks!