I have some basic programming experience from college courses in C++ and Python, but I've never built a graphical or mobile application. I have an idea for a relatively simple app that should run entirely on the device, without a backend or cloud storage, and I'd like it to work on both iPhone and Android.
I'm considering Kotlin with Kotlin Multiplatform, Flutter, React Native, or using AI-assisted coding. The number of available courses is overwhelming, and many seem to require dozens or hundreds of hours before reaching the practical parts. I'm not trying to become a professional mobile developer—I mainly want to learn enough to build this one project as a side hobby.
Would React Native with Expo, Flutter, or another approach get me to a working prototype fastest? Is it realistic to learn enough in under 50 hours, and how much programming should I understand before relying on AI to help write the code?
4 Answers
You’ll probably need more than a short tutorial because you have no GUI experience yet. Terminal programs don’t cover concepts such as layouts, event handling, navigation, application state, and platform-specific behavior. You don’t need to master all of mobile development, but expect to learn those fundamentals while building the project rather than finishing a complete curriculum first.
Build the simplest version of your idea first instead of choosing a framework based only on long-term possibilities. With Expo and React Native, you can create a basic screen, add navigation, save data locally, and test on a phone fairly quickly. Once that prototype works, you’ll have a much better idea of which topics are actually worth learning in depth.
React Native with Expo is probably the most practical route if you want one project to run on both platforms. Expo handles a lot of the setup and can also let you test a web version. Start with a tiny prototype, learn the basics of React and JavaScript as you go, and use AI when you get stuck rather than asking it to generate the entire app blindly.
AI can definitely help you get a prototype running quickly, especially for a simple local app. The important part is to understand what the generated code is doing, how state and screens work, and how data is stored locally. Ask the AI to explain each piece and make small changes yourself; otherwise, debugging a broken generated app can become much harder than writing a small amount of code from the start.
Are there any beginner-friendly React or Expo resources you’d recommend for learning the essentials without going through a huge course?