[Interest] Qt mobile apps v native

[Kate Alhola]

Following opinion is mostly based on our Android/Ios app that latest version is released couple of months ago, so some information may be outdated and we have not yet tested it with Qt 5.5 .

Nay important features like Bluetooth LE, IOS bluetooth LE, IOS gps etc has been added after these day.

> On 11 Jul 2015, at 05:21, John C. Turnbull <ozemale at ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> 
> Amongst all the debate around the Indie license, some mention was made of Qt Mobile not quite "being ready yet".
> 
> So, for someone considering Qt for lots of things including mobile, could someone please answer these questions for me:
> 
> 1. Which Qt features do not currently work on iOS or Android?
> 
> 2. Which Qt features are likely never to work on those platforms and why?
> 
> 3. How does the performance of a Qt mobile app differ from a native one (if at all)?

That differs a lot how you do your app works.  Based on my experience QML apps are a lot of larger, slower and slower startup.


> 4. Are there APIs or features of either iOS or Android that Qt cannot access?

For most of APIs currently not supported by Qt you could use native interface JNI or Objective-C

> 
> 5. How does the look and feel of a Qt mobile app compare to a native one?

What's that ;). There is no look and feel until you do it, there os no support for mobile Native Look and Feel in QML.

> 
> 6. How does Qt integrate with standard mobile controls and features like tumblers for date selection, word auto complete and auto correct, custom keyboards for each scenario like entering an email address, URL, phone number etc.?

Least on screen keyboard works :(


> 
> 7. How does Qt integrate the native mobile browser in such a way that the standard effects and transformations that can be applied to other Qt objects be applied?
> 
> 8. Are there any legal restrictions on what a Qt app can do on mobile platforms or in relation to suitability for App Store distribution?
> 
> 9. What are some good examples of existing Qt apps running on iOS and/or Android?

I can't say that our PulseOn app is good example because it requires our wrist heart rate monitor to work.

It least uses a lot of features that were not supported these days like IOS BLE, location and maps.

As my experience 
+ use same code in all platforms
+ easy and familiar API

- No native look and feel and there is no even native equivalent qml controlls. In practice we neede to make all from scratch
- code size if BIG, slow startup and problems running in background
- we needed use a lot of native interface for unsupported features 
- we needed ourself bug hunt and ptch Qt a lot, we submitted bughs and fixes to Qt but to get pur product out we needed fix them ourself.

Do I remommend Qt for mobile ?
- if you have resources and money support native IOs and Android, consider starting from Native IOS app

- if you are indie, startup or small developer, If there will be in future reasonable  licencing options and you can live with UI, size and performance limitations and you wuld like to supoort multiple platforms from start, Qt is great option for you.

Kate



> 
> Answers to these questions will greatly assist in my decision making process so I would be very appreciative if one or more people could respond to them.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -jct
> 
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