Below is a description of Super Apps and Mini Apps.
A Super App is a native application that can host small applications inside it as a way to provide several services.
You can think of it as an ecosystem of services that coexist within the same application (Super App domain), but that are not necessarily related to each other.
The small applications that can be used within a Super App have the following characteristics:
- They live within the Super App.
- They consume services exposed by the Super App, such as Login, Payments, etc.
- They are dynamically loaded in the Super App according to the user’s request.
These small applications that live within a Super App are called Mini Apps.
A Mini App is a singular, small application that solves a specific problem within a Super App domain. But it is also an autonomous app, in the sense that it may have a different development and maintenance lifecycle than the Super App.
Compared to a regular app, it must be very user-friendly and intuitive, especially for infrequent use. It is recommended to offer a User Experience as simple as possible and try not to replicate a fully blown app.
Unlike an app downloaded from the platform’s store, the Mini App does not take up extra storage space on the device. It is loaded dynamically according to user request and from different discovery mechanisms such as search, QR codes, user location, etc.
A Mini App is also a native application, but you don’t need to compile and publish it in the platform’s stores.