UPDATED 16:08 EDT / MARCH 02 2021

APPS

Lyft, Microsoft, Airbnb and others launch the Mobile Native Foundation

A group of leading tech firms has teamed up to launch the Mobile Native Foundation, a new industry group dedicated to encouraging the creation of open-source developer tools for building mobile apps.

The Mobile Native Foundation was announced today by the Linux Foundation, which is hosting the initiative.

The group’s founding members feature some of the biggest names from the consumer technology market. They include Lyft Inc., Uber Technologies Inc., Robinhood Markets Inc., Airbnb Inc., Peloton Interactive Inc. and others. There are quite a few enterprise software providers on the list as well. Microsoft Corp. is backing the initiative, along with its GitHub and LinkedIn subsidiaries, while Slack Technologies Inc., mobile development tooling provider Sauce Labs Inc. and Square Inc. have joined as well.

Lyft is contributing several internal projects to the Mobile Native Foundation to help launch the group’s efforts. The ride-hailing provider has donated a library called Kronos, which helps apps keep track of what time it is more reliably. It’s also contributing tools that simplify the task of turning raw source code into working services and make it easier for developers to configure the iOS simulator Apple Inc. provides to help test new apps.

The Mobile Native Foundation’s backers said in the announcement that they’re launching the group to address a gap in the mobile development tooling landscape. 

There are many open-source tools that aim to make it easier to build iOS and Android apps. Those technologies are valuable for smaller projects, but they’re often not designed to be used in truly large-scale apps such as Lyft’s ride-hailing platform, which is maintained by hundreds of developers. As a result, Lyft and many of the other companies backing the initiative have had to create their own custom development tools to address their engineers’ requirements.

The Mobile Native Foundation will enable participating companies to pool their resources. Instead of building tools for large-scale app development separately, the group’s members can now collaborate on a common set of open-source projects.

“The mobile developer community is innovating and we know that open source and collaboration can ensure that continues,” said Mike Dolan, the executive vice president and general manager of projects at the Linux Foundation. “The MNF will accelerate and smooth mobile app development and brings new contributions to the Linux Foundation ecosystem.”

There are several areas in particular on which the Mobile Native Foundation will seek to focus. The group’s backers have plans to develop tools that can make it easier to build user interfaces and networking features for mobile apps. They’ll also seek to create related resources such as industry standards, best practices and architectural patterns. 

Image: Lyft

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