Book sale, Hotwire Native LIVE #2, and Hotwire Native around the web

Hey folks! Can you believe it’s June already? The summer has officially begun in Portland. I mean, just look at that forecast. 😍

Hotwire Native LIVE

Last week I ran the first Hotwire Native LIVE episode on YouTube. I built an iOS and Android app from scratch and answered 20+ questions from viewers. Between YouTube and Twitter, the recording has already been viewed over 2000 times. 😲

And this week I’m covering bridge components: what they are, how to add them to your iOS and Android apps, and examples of components I’ve built for clients. I’d love to see you there!

Book sale

My book’s publisher, Pragmatic Bookshelf, is wrapping up their spring sale. That means you can get my book, along with almost 50 others, for 40% off until the end of the week.

Use code SPRING2025 on the Pragmatic Bookshelf website to grab your discount.

Hotwire Native around the web

Seamless Loading with Hotwire Native

Stephen and Alan from Katalyst Interactive documented their approach to building a Hotwire Native app with seamless loading on launch. They weren’t satisfied with their iOS app showing the native launch screen then dropping the user directly to a blank page with a spinner.

By preloading the web view, detecting when it’s ready, and using a smooth crossfade transition, we made the Hotwire Native app feel truly native.

Custom Android Keyboard Extension

William Kennedy wrapped up his series on Hotwire Native Android with an article on building a custom keyboard extension. He uses a bridge component to add a native toolbar when a Trix editor is focused. Users can then tap native buttons to toggle bold, italic, and headings.

This is a great feature to build if you want to build a markdown editor in your app that’s accessible via mobile.

Until next time, everyone!