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Instant Apps: Do They Pose Any Kind Of Threat To Native Apps?

Author: Nishtha Singh
by Nishtha Singh
Posted: Aug 11, 2017

As a person, I have always believed to carve your own way and choose not to drift along. Similarly, the concept of instant apps has been evolving with each passing day across the globe. Though, the announcement of bringing Android Instant apps to the limelight was made in May 2016 at the Google’s I/O. Since then it has been releasing in installments and slowly and gradually popularizing.

Whether you call it a bridge that fills the gap between mobile apps and mobile web, or dawn of a newly defined app world; the concept of Android Instant Apps, by all means, is grabbing the attention globally. Well, the buzz is not just about their flourishing, but does it possess any threat to native apps? Let’s find out.

Why Has Google come Up with These Instant Apps?

According to Google, "Android Instant Apps enables Android apps to run instantly, without requiring installation." Which means they have been built with this capability to get rid of "installation friction" or the time required to install an app and get specific content. So now developers can upgrade their existing apps, modularize them in such a way that only the elements a user needs in a scenario are loaded. For example, to know how long you want to park and for paying one simply requires to tap the parking meter with their phone. With the help of such instantly available components, you can park and pay without downloading the app.

With the information available so far, Android Instant Apps:

    • Will run on most Android Devices, Android 4.1+ or higher.

    • Use the Android API’s as regular apps but block access to certain features, such as background services, notifications, and reading unique device identifiers.

    • Use the same permission models introduced in Android 6.0. This means permissions are asked at runtime so, if for example, an app tries to send an SMS, you’ll get the permission request the first time the app tries to send a text.

Some of the Company’s common concerns include:

  • Bridging Code Becomes a Bigger Attack Vector- The upgraded apps have been modularized and can be delivered via Google on the fly. The entire process of modularizing and delivering involves a translation from mobile web scripts to native Android code. Which eventually leads to some additional security risks.

  • More Access Via Pre-Marshmallow Access Settings- Google says "Instant apps tend to take advantage of Google Play services features — like location, identity, payments, and Firebase — which are built right in for a seamless user experience." This means apps delivered to pre-Marshmallow OS device may have more binary and less secure access settings. For example, those who haven’t upgraded to the latest OS don’t benefit from the security upgrades that are part of each new OS release.

  • Risky Behaviors Become Harder to See- Malware is already present in the Google Play store and apps have been approved of containing risky behaviors. So here comes the big one, will Google’s process for evaluating Instant Apps – in their modules or their entirety – change to improve security?

Do They Pose Any Kind of Threat?

First of all, global chat apps such as Facebook, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, are miles away from becoming the kind of all-encompassing one-stop shop. The best example I could think of is the WeChat app in China where users can perform a wide array of tasks within the chat app, such as play games, listen to music, hail a cab, order groceries, and book a restaurant. Although there were seen instant-game deployments by BBM, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Telegram, unfortunately, none look likely to rival WeChat’s scope anytime soon.

Second, if you think that instant apps and bots are solely responsible for transforming WeChat from a humble app to mega platform then you are probably wrong! The apps mini program has been totally flop and chatbots on messenger have not taken off in the way that many expected. On the contrary, in order to become major game platforms- Asia's KakaoTalk, Line, and WeChat – have done so with native rather than instant games.

Third, it’s quite true that the new instant-game offerings has the potential to provide any mobile app development company a variety of advantages such as the ability to develop once with HTML5 and publish everywhere with greater discoverability but some game studios are hailing the advent of a new HTML5 mobile games era. Which means as long as chat apps continue to form part of the Android and iOS ecosystems, much of the revenue generated from these instant games will be billed via Apple and Google.

Final Thought

There are features which native apps have and instant apps lack and that’s probably why these are safe. Certain features such as Location, camera integration, billing, and majorly payment are till today considered as the monopoly of native ones. Users feel privileged when they are given attention and notified about the deals and offers which eventually makes them feel connected with the app. So, the threat of being eaten up is nowhere around the corner for now and also for the near future to come.

About the Author

Nishtha Singh works as a Presales Manager with a software development company named TatvaSoft UK. She relishes writing about various technology trends, management and much more.

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  • memoryfoam99  -  7 years ago

    excellent article about Threat To Native Apps

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Author: Nishtha Singh

Nishtha Singh

Member since: Jul 17, 2017
Published articles: 10

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