Cross-platform OTT app development – what you should know

In the OTT industry, cross-platform app development has become a strategic imperative rather than a choice. Consumers expect seamless access to content across multiple devices, and providing a consistent experience is key to meeting these expectations. By ensuring cross-platform compatibility, OTT providers can maximise audience reach, increase user satisfaction and drive engagement. In an increasingly competitive market, robust cross-platform performance is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage.

An overview of cross-platform app development

Cross-platform development refers to the process of creating software applications that are compatible with multiple operating systems and devices, allowing a single codebase to be deployed across platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows, and the web. In the context of OTT services, cross-platform development enables content providers to deliver a consistent and unified user experience across a range of devices including smart TVs, mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers etc. This approach significantly reduces development time, costs, and complexity, while ensuring that users can access the same features and interface, regardless of the device they are using.

Determining the number of platforms the OTT app should support

When deciding how many platforms your OTT app should be available on, understanding user behaviour is key to making informed choices. Most users of smart TVs or OTT devices are largely unaware of the specific platform powering their experience. They do not concern themselves with whether their device runs on LG’s webOS, Google’s Android TV, or any other system. Instead, they simply expect their favourite streaming app to be available on all devices. For these viewers, convenience, accessibility, and a seamless user experience are crucial.

Given this expectation, your app’s presence on multiple platforms directly impacts your ability to meet user demands and expand your audience. However, expanding to every platform is not always practical or beneficial, as it introduces additional complexities, costs, and maintenance burdens.

Prioritising the right platforms

To ensure your OTT app reaches the widest possible audience while keeping development manageable, it is crucial to focus on the most popular and widely used platforms first. Starting with key platforms such as webOS, Tizen, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV ensures your app will be available on the devices that dominate the market. These platforms cover a large portion of smart TV and streaming device users, giving you the greatest potential for audience reach without overwhelming your development team.

For instance, some platforms, like Roku, have specific development requirements that must be considered. Roku only supports applications built using Brightscript and Scenegraph, which means a dedicated codebase will be necessary for this platform.

The benefits of cross-platform development

Cross-platform development has become a critical approach for OTT providers aiming to deliver seamless, consistent experiences across a wide range of devices and platforms. With the growing demand for multi-device accessibility, cross-platform solutions offer significant advantages in terms of efficiency, scalability, and user satisfaction.

Wider audience reach

Cross-platform development enables OTT providers to reach a wider audience by making their apps available on different devices and operating systems. Whether users stream on a smart TV, mobile phone, tablet, or games console, cross-platform development ensures a consistent app experience. By supporting multiple platforms simultaneously, OTT providers can gain greater market share and cater to the diverse needs of their audience, ultimately increasing their global reach and impact.

Cost efficiency

Developing a single code base that works across multiple platforms reduces the need for separate, platform-specific development teams. This consolidation saves both time and money during initial development and throughout the application lifecycle. In addition, maintenance and updates to a single code base are much more streamlined, further reducing ongoing operational costs.

Shorter time to market

Cross-platform development speeds up the launch of OTT applications, allowing developers to create applications for multiple platforms simultaneously, rather than building each application from scratch for individual devices. This faster development cycle allows OTT providers to bring their services to market faster, giving them a competitive advantage. By reducing the time required to deploy across platforms, providers can gain early adopters and respond more quickly to market needs or new technological developments.

Consistency of user experience (UX/UI)

Cross-platform development ensures that app design, navigation, and features are consistent across platforms, providing users with a seamless experience regardless of the device being used. This uniformity in UX and UI reduces confusion, improves usability, and increases customer satisfaction. Users are more likely to remain engaged with a platform that provides a consistent experience, which is particularly important as many OTT subscribers regularly switch between devices.

Faster feature rollouts

By using a single codebase, OTT providers can implement new features or improvements across all platforms more quickly. This ability to roll out new updates and features simultaneously ensures that users on all devices have access to the latest functionalities without delay. In the highly competitive OTT market, the ability to innovate and introduce new features rapidly is crucial for retaining subscribers and staying ahead of competitors.

Best practices for successful cross-platform OTT app development

To ensure the success of cross-platform OTT application development, it is essential to follow key best practices that increase productivity and maintain consistency and performance across all platforms.

Choosing the right cross-platform framework

Choosing the right framework is at the heart of successful cross-platform development. Popular frameworks such as React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin enable developers to write a single code base while supporting multiple platforms. Each framework has its strengths – React Native, for example, excels in mobile development with near-native performance, while Flutter offers fast rendering and a rich set of ready-made widgets. To determine the most suitable technology, the specific needs of the project must be assessed.

Focusing on performance optimisation

Performance is crucial for OTT platforms, especially when delivering content-heavy services such as streaming. Ensure your application is optimised for all platforms, minimising load times, handling multimedia content efficiently, and using adaptive streaming technology (such as HLS or DASH) to deliver video based on network conditions. Optimising the code base for cross-platform performance ensures a smooth and consistent user experience, regardless of the device used.

Planning for device diversity

Multi-platform OTT applications need to accommodate a wide range of devices, from mobile phones and tablets to smart TVs and game consoles. Screen sizes, resolutions, and hardware capabilities vary widely across platforms, so the application’s user interface and user experience must be adaptable. Implementing responsive design practices, such as using flexible layouts and scalable assets, ensures that the app looks and works great on all devices.

Implementing effective testing and quality assurance

Given the wide range of devices and platforms that an OTT application must support, testing and quality control are important elements of the development process. A well-defined testing strategy should include both functional and non-functional testing, covering everything from UI consistency to performance across platforms. Automated testing tools can be very effective in ensuring that an application works across multiple platforms without the need for extensive manual testing for each upgrade. However, manual testing should also be carried out, especially in areas where user experience is critical, such as navigation and playback.

Testing should also include network conditions simulation to ensure that the app performs well under various bandwidth constraints, particularly for video streaming. By testing the app under real-world conditions, you can identify and address performance bottlenecks before the app is deployed.

Ensuring seamless integration of third-party services

OTT platforms often rely on third-party services to improve the user experience, such as payment gateways, analytics tools, content protection (DRM), and recommendation engines. Seamless integration of these services across platforms is essential to ensure a consistent user experience.

When choosing third-party services, it is important to select providers that offer comprehensive cross-platform support and robust APIs that can be easily integrated into the application architecture. Thorough testing of these integrations is essential to avoid issues that could affect functionality or user satisfaction. In addition, it is important to ensure that third-party service updates do not interfere with the application’s cross-platform operation.

Conclusion

Cross-platform OTT development is right now a necessity for providers who want to thrive in a crowded and competitive market. By leveraging the right frameworks, optimising for performance, and focusing on delivering a seamless user experience across diverse devices, OTT providers can capture a broader audience and ensure their services are available where users expect them.

As the demand for cross-platform compatibility continues to grow, don’t get left behind. If you are ready to take your OTT service to the next level, contact our media experts to discuss how we can help you implement a scalable, cross-platform solution that will increase engagement and growth.