Ch. 1 - A Simple Guide to Native, Hybrid, and Web Apps They will look the best on their devices, too, as they will most likely have design elements that match and stay consistent with the platforms’ design choices. They will also have access to the widest and most clearly defined set of APIs, and be directly accessible to a targeted and defined customer base through the platform’s app store. Apps like Aura (built with Crowdbotics), Twitter, and Waze are all natively built on their platforms, allowing them to easily access key features like Apple Health, the camera, and GPS Hybrid Applications Hybrid apps can be misleading, since you initially install them like a native app through the platform’s app store. However, once installed, they are actually running a web app that is disguised by some wrapper to look like a a mobile app. Rather than being developed directly on the platform that you want to release the app into, hybrid apps are developed like web apps, using Javascript, HTML5, and CSS. 6