Is there a drop in native iOS and Android hiring at startups?

Fewer startups seem to be building native applications from day one. Why is this, and what does it mean for where native mobile engineering is headed?

Are startups changing their approach to hiring native mobile engineers? During the summer, I talked with a handful of startup founders, who all mentioned they see a move away from native engineering, taking place. Obviously, I wanted to gather more viewpoints, so shared this tweet:

Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz

I'm observing a slow but steady drop in startups hiring native iOS and Android engineers. React Native is starting to be good enough for the first version for many startups with React engineers. And Flutter and other cross-platform approaches are also cheaper & "good enough".

In the following two months, I talked with around 15 startup founders and experienced native mobile developers about how they see the industry changing. In this issue, I share these high-level observers’ takes on this topic.

Today, we cover:

1. The challenge of hiring iOS and Android engineers

2. The cross-platform evolution

3. Continuing strong demand for experienced native engineers

4. The most common challenge when hiring native engineers

5. What mobile development agencies are seeing

6. Where is native mobile engineering headed?

This topic of how native mobile engineering may be changing, is one close to my heart. For one, I was building native mobile apps on Windows Phone from 2011, and later moved on to do native iOS at Skyscanner and Android at Uber. I also published the book, Building Mobile Apps at Scale in early 2021, which covers many of the native mobile challenges for large mobile apps.

Native mobile development is a relatively new field, compared to other parts of software engineering. Apple and Google both launched app stores in 2008, marking the start of native iOS and Android development, which grew more popular over the next decade. Countless startups have since developed from being a mobile app, to become full-fledged businesses. Fourteen years later, it’s interesting to check out how today’s startups approach it. 

1. The challenge of hiring iOS and Android engineers