Why Native Still Matters

In the companion piece, Beyond the WebView, we looked at why teams should embrace PWAs and TWAs on Android: faster, smoother, and easier to maintain, while keeping the door open to native SDKs like AppsFlyer and GeoComply. The message was clear: the web has caught up, and for many experiences it is now the best vehicle.

But the journey does not end at the cabin door. The web will get you to the destination. Native boards you in first class. Both take off, both land, both arrive in the same city. But in first class the journey has another layer: the touches that follow you beyond the seat itself. That is where native now shines. Not in duplicating what the web already does but in the spaces only it can reach. The lock screen. The widgets. The ecosystem SDKs. The moments woven into daily life.

From Parity to Differentiation

For a long time, the case for building native apps rested on performance. If you needed speed, smoothness, or access to hardware, you built native. That argument no longer holds. Modern browsers, WebAssembly, and progressive web app standards have brought the web so close to near-native performance that for most use cases players will not notice the difference.

The web already delivers offline support, push notifications, payments, background sync, and installability. It is not the stripped-back environment it once was. Which means native developers are no longer winning by duplicating those same features. So where does native shine?

Living Beyond the App

Native matters because it does not just run when a player opens it. It lives in the operating system itself. That is where the web still cannot follow.

Widgets keep your product on the home screen, where players glance dozens of times a day. A widget showing a live bet slip, a favourite team’s next match, or a quick balance check creates value without the player even opening the app.

Live Activities on iOS and Ongoing Notifications on Android put real-time updates on the lock screen. Scores, countdowns, or transaction statuses appear at the exact moment they matter.

Lock screen integrations make your app part of the daily rhythm. Media controls, fitness stats, or alerts sit in the most visible space on the device.

App shortcuts let players jump straight to what they care about most, reducing friction and making everyday tasks effortless.

These are not “nice extras.” They are the features that make an app feel embedded in a player’s life, rather than just another icon they occasionally tap.

Beyond Features: Ecosystem Levers

Native development also brings advantages that extend beyond product features.

App Store and Play Store discovery still shape acquisition, with promotion, featuring, and recommendations built into the platforms.

Ecosystem SDKs such as AppsFlyer or GeoComply are often still native-first, giving you better attribution, fraud prevention, and compliance options than the web currently allows.

These may not be technical differentiators, but they are practical ones. They influence growth and trust in meaningful ways.

Focus Where You Are Strong

For native developers, the future is not about chasing parity with the web. That ground has been lost, and rightly so, because parity is wasted effort.

What you bring to the table is different, and arguably more important. You can meet players where they already are, in the flow of their device. Every time someone checks their lock screen, glances at their home screen, or swipes down a notification, there is a chance to deliver value instantly, without asking for effort.

That is the space the web still cannot touch. It is exactly where native developers should double down.

Conclusion

The rise of PWAs and TWAs changes the balance of power, but it does not end the story of native development. It clarifies it. The web is now the right tool for cross-platform logic, speed, and parity. Native is the right tool for presence, ecosystem leverage, and moments of value that happen outside the app itself.

Together they form a complementary whole. Teams can stop wasting cycles on duplication, while native developers can focus on what only they can do: making the product feel alive in the operating system, woven into the daily habits of players.

That is not a loss of importance. It is a sharpening of purpose, and a new reason why native still matters.