How to turn a Website into an iOS App

Before we dive deep into the procedure of converting a website into an iOS app, let’s answer some of the basic questions first. Would this conversion be beneficial for you? Would it benefit your customers? Well, converting your website into an iOS would not only help you, but it would help your customers a great deal too. Let’s check out why:

• Your existing customers, as well as your potential customers, will find your iOS app much quicker than your website if it is developed with precision.
• iOS apps provide you with fresh and brand-new streams of conversion.
• iOS apps offer much more enhanced branding opportunities and experience.
• Launching an iOS app enables you to reap the benefits of smartphone features such as GPS, camera, etc.

How To Convert Your Website Into An IOS or iPhone App?

Now that you’ve identified the importance of converting your website into an iOS app, is there anything left to ponder over? Well, apparently, there is one small yet decisive thing that you need to ensure before you begin with the whole conversion process, which is the need to develop a full-fledged native iOS app.

It might sound challenging right now, but don’t worry! Because throughout this blog, you will see how to go to about developing a native iOS app and learn all the steps involved. So, let’s begin!

1. Project planning

Plan thoroughly so that you can make this project a huge success! Pay special attention to the following things:

Finalize The Requirements of Your IOS App

While converting your website into an iOS application, a handful of additional and attractive features would only make your app stand out. Hire an adept team of business analysts, an IT architect, and a PM (project manager) to finalize the features that will be integrated into the official version of the iOS app.

Zero-In On The Perfect Development Approach

To execute the development project with perfection, first zero-in on an efficient development approach and then perform the following steps:

• Keep a strict watch on the security of your iOS app.
• Use controlled cloud services platforms so that the IT infrastructure management doesn’t drag you through the mud.
• Make sure to develop APIs for your primary features and use the leading third-party APIs for secondary features.

2. Organize your development environment

Now that your plan is finalized, kick-off the proceedings by organizing your development environment.

Look for A MBaaS Platform

Use an MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service) to significantly decrease the amount of time spent controlling and creating the app’s backend. It provides several benefits, such as:

• APIs could be integrated with ease.
• Various features like push notifications and user management could be implemented effortlessly.

• This platform offers a great opportunity to scale-up your iOS app.

Sign-Up For A Mobile Device Lab On The Cloud

To make your iOS app compatible with most of the Apple devices, some tests have to be done against a broad range of devices. Avoid the usage of famous open-source test automation frameworks because they are not much of a help!

3. Form a Team

It’s almost impossible to turn your website into a full-fledged iOS app all by yourself. So, to make your project successful and execute your detail-oriented plan, you’ll need a bunch of mates! Don’t worry; you won’t have to hire an entire IT team, just people experienced in the following roles:

• DevOps engineers
• Testers
• Swift developers
• UI designers

4. Decide on the technology stack

Without a doubt, choosing the right technology can have a significant impact on your app. Because if you end up developing your app with the wrong mix of technologies, it would have some serious lapses!

In order to avoid that, consider using the following technologies:

Swift for Coding

Swift and iOS apps are a match made in heaven. Swift is the perfect programming language for your iOS app. It has several features, such as:

• It reduces the overall coding effort.
• It helps in coding permanent iOS applications since it’s exceptionally lightweight.
• It eliminates the most commonly occurred coding errors.
• It is easier to read and understand.

5. Design and develop your iOS app

Contrary to popular beliefs, designing the app aesthetically requires ample time. For a successful conversion, the design of the app is equally important. Crafting the perfect icon for your iOS app and choosing the color schemes are some of the tasks that require proper attention. Furthermore, you need to make sure that your app offers a user-friendly UI. How do you achieve that? Well, by simply reading the Human Interface Guidelines for iOS apps.

Use widely known IDEs like Xcode for coding & developing iOS apps. Later on, Integrate your APIs into the code, as well as the 3rd party APIs.

6. Review your code, test your app, and publish it

Now that you have finally designed your app, coded it, and integrated APIs, it’s now time for the “validation and verification.” While you are advised to test your iOS app, know that only testing won’t highlight all the bugs, you need to get a thorough code review as well. And during that review, an individual must check if:

• The code can provide all the intended features & functionalities.
• The code follows the proper guidelines and standards.
• The code has any shortcomings that would heavily impact its performance, scalability, etc.

You could conduct a test on your iOS app using XCTest. And once you’re done, publish it to the Apple App Store.

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