C# for Cross-Platform Mobile Development with Xamarin

How I built apps once and shipped them everywhere.

When I first got into mobile development, I was juggling Java for Android and Swift for iOS. Two codebases, two headaches. Then I discovered Xamarin and realized I could write apps in C# and deploy them across Android, iOS, and even Windows — without sacrificing performance.

Here’s my journey building cross-platform apps with Xamarin.

1. Why Xamarin for Cross-Platform?

Xamarin lets you:

• Use C# and .NET across platforms.
• Share up to 90% of code between Android, iOS, and Windows.
• Access native APIs with a single codebase.

And because Xamarin compiles down to native binaries, performance is almost identical to writing in Java/Swift.

2. Setting Up a Xamarin Project

I used Visual Studio (Community Edition works fine).

1. Open Visual Studio → Create a new project → “Mobile App (Xamarin.Forms)”.
2. Choose template: Blank App.
3. Solution generates three projects:

• Shared Project (.NET Standard)