At the 2020 Microsoft Build Conference, the company announced .NET MAUI as the next evolution to Xamarin.Forms. This move comes as Microsoft looks to consolidate development within their .NET platform. While you won’t see any immediate changes to Xamarin, it’s not too early to start learning what this means for your cross-platform development.
What Is MAUI?
As a recap, Xamarin.Forms is an open-source .NET framework for creating mobile and desktop applications. It’s a popular tool in use right now that lets developers build apps using a shared codebase, while still having access to native features of the different operating systems.
Coming in November 2021 with the release of .NET 6, Microsoft will be moving Xamarin.Forms to its next evolution: .NET MAUI. MAUI is an acronym for Multi-Platform App UI. This new, evolved version of Xamarin is part of Microsoft’s larger effort to bring mobile development into the .NET platform.
The change brings with it performance improvements over Xamarin as well as a greatly simplified developer experience from IDE support to targeting platforms, and working out of a single project. For example, you can work out of Visual Studio, Visual Studio Mac, or Visual Studio Code for a shared experience.
When Does Xamarin Switch? Will it Continue to Be Supported?
When Microsoft releases .NET 6 in November 2021, Xamarin will officially be switched to .NET MAUI. Xamarin will continue to be supported for another calendar year (until November 2022), but modern support will transition to .NET MAUI.
Should Your Business Invest in Xamarin Development Now?
If your company was hoping to begin development using Xamarin in 2021, don’t let this news shake your resolve. Microsoft is showing a strong commitment to mobile, cross-platform technology by including it in their .NET platform, so the concept isn’t going away.
As you should expect with any major upgrade, there may be changes required to ensure the continued functionality of your Xamarin apps as you upgrade to .NET MAUI. However, starting your Xamarin project now can give your team a great head start on the technology before it makes the transition to .NET MAUI later in the year.
Are you looking for a team to help you complete cross-platform development projects using technologies like Xamarin and .NET MAUI? A high-performing development team from Core might be a good fit.
