Dynamic App Content: An Introduction to Truly Native Apps
Article Summary
Zalando faced an impossible triangle: daily content updates, premium native UX, and distributed teams without native experience. Their solution? Server-driven UI before it was cool.
Back in 2016, Zalando's engineering team built Truly Native Apps (TNA), a custom framework that renders JSON layouts as native components across iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. This predates many modern server-driven UI approaches and solved real production challenges at scale.
Key Takeaways
- Custom JSON format describes UI elements rendered natively on three platforms
- Flexible Layout Kit renders without JavaScript VM (lighter than React Native)
- App Layout Service aggregates content from CMS, ads, brand shops in real time
- Decouples release cycles: app updates in weeks, content updates daily
- Content teams avoid learning native development while maintaining premium UX
Critical Insight
Zalando built a lightweight, server-driven UI system that delivers daily content updates through native rendering across three mobile platforms without requiring JavaScript.
