Building mobile and device apps in the agentic era: a practical guide to native, MAUI, React Native, and more
Choosing how to build a mobile or device app used to be a contained decision. Pick the platforms, weigh native against cross-platform, factor in team skills, and choose a framework. The trade-offs were mostly about runtime performance, hiring, and how much code you could realistically share.
Two things have shifted that picture. First, the platform landscape itself has matured: SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, WinUI 3, .NET MAUI, React Native's New Architecture, Flutter with Impeller, and Kotlin Multiplatform have all reached a level of stability that makes a clean comparison possible. Second, AI agents are now part of the daily loop for most teams. They do not just complete code; they read repositories, summarize unfamiliar APIs, generate scaffolding, and shorten the path from "I have never used this framework" to "I shipped something with it." That changes how the framework decision should be made.
This guide walks through the realistic options for iOS, Android, Windows, and Xbox, the main cross-platform frameworks, and the pros and cons of each in 2026.