Multi-experience development: creating apps for multiple devices

Companies are no longer asking whether to develop a platform or application optimized for desktop, mobile, or both. Instead, the focus is now on managing the growing market of devices and the experience for each one.

Today, any application that wants to be competitive must adapt and function seamlessly across different devices.

Multiexperience development focuses on creating accessible touchpoints that serve a specific purpose, all while maintaining a consistent experience across various mediums such as websites, mobile and desktop applications, and so on. Let’s learn more.

What’s Multiexperience Development?

Multiexperience development is a paradigm that redefines how users interact with digital environments through diverse modalities like touch, voice, and gestures.

It focuses on creating cohesive experiences across multiple devices (mobile phones, tablets, wearables) and digital touchpoints (web, apps, chatbots, augmented reality). More than just a simple responsive adaptation, it involves designing multisensory interactions where each device provides a unique yet interconnected experience.

This approach responds to the evolution of user expectations, who are no longer satisfied with static interfaces but demand fluid and contextual interactions. Leading companies use MXDP (Multiexperience Development Platforms) to develop applications from a single codebase that work on browsers, mobile devices, IoT, and even immersive environments.

The goal is to create a unified journey where the user transitions between devices without losing continuity in their experience.

What to Consider for Multiexperience Development?

When implementing multiexperience strategies, it’s essential to prioritize channel consistency and adaptability to different interaction modalities.

Low-Code/No-Code Platforms

These tools accelerate development through intuitive visual environments, reducing reliance on specialized technical teams.

Low-code and no-code platforms offer pre-configured design libraries that maintain brand identity across all devices without the need for custom coding. For complex cases, Digital Experience APIs (DX APIs) integrate existing front-end frameworks with centralized business logic.

AI-Powered Personalization

AI-powered personalization is another critical pillar, where machine learning algorithms analyze user behavior to offer relevant content in each context.

This includes predictive chatbots on WhatsApp or Alexa that anticipate needs, and systems that automatically adjust interfaces based on the device used. Simultaneously, security must be guaranteed in sensitive flows like payments, implementing consistent biometric authentication between wearables and mobile devices.

Touchpoints

Touchpoints are the specific channels where users interact with multiexperience applications. Each requires particular design strategies to optimize the experience.

Web Browsers

Browsers remain the most universal entry point, especially for complex tasks like long forms or product comparisons. Here, the priority is to ensure ultra-fast loading and adaptive design that works from mobile devices to high-resolution desktop screens.

Semantic structure with clear H1-H3 headings improves navigation and accessibility, especially when users switch between mobile and desktop reading.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) elevate this experience by offering native functionalities like push notifications and offline access directly from the browser. This eliminates installation friction while maintaining consistency with native mobile versions. For critical transactions, integration with payment APIs allows secure flows without leaving the browser context.

Mobile apps

Native apps leverage specific hardware like cameras, GPS, and sensors to create hyper-contextualized experiences.

For example, retail apps that use augmented reality to overlay furniture in real spaces via the phone’s camera. Development should prioritize intuitive touch gestures (swipes, zooms) and optimize battery consumption, especially in prolonged interactions like live streaming.

Integration with wearables extends these capabilities: vibrating notifications on smartwatches for urgent alerts or continuous health monitoring that syncs data with the mobile app. Platforms like Pega allow developing mobile functions through mashups that integrate external services without rewriting core code, accelerating updates.

Tablets

Tablets occupy a unique niche by combining portability with large screens, ideal for content creation (graphic design, annotations). Here, the design must enable advanced multi-touch interactions like two-finger zoom or object rotation with gestures, along with stylus support with pressure sensitivity.

In education, this allows apps that simulate chemistry experiments through tactile manipulation of 3D elements.

For business use, tablets optimize flows like digital contract signing with a stylus or inventory management via QR scanning. The key is to maintain consistency with the mobile version: a user who starts a task on their phone should be able to continue it on the tablet without repeating steps, syncing data in real-time.

Smart TVs

Smart TVs present unique challenges such as remote control interaction and greater viewing distance. Interfaces must use large fonts, high contrast, and simplified navigation with few clicks (e.g., horizontal menus). Platforms like Android TV allow developing apps with integrated voice commands for searches without a physical keyboard.

In entertainment, experiences like 360° sports broadcasts or home cinema with complementary virtual reality enhance engagement. For retail, TV apps allow visualizing products in real scale using AR with the mobile camera as a complement, creating a cohesive multi-device flow.

Where to Explore Multiexperience Development?

Emerging technologies open new dimensions for immersive experiences that transcend traditional screens.

Augmented Reality

AR overlays digital information onto real environments using mobile devices or specialized glasses. In retail, apps like IKEA Place allow visualizing furniture in the user’s real space before buying, reducing returns.

For industrial maintenance, technicians use AR glasses that display instructions overlaid on machinery while keeping their hands free.

Visual markers (like QR codes) activate contextual experiences: pointing a mobile at a museum sign displays 3D historical information. MXDP platforms like Pega include low-code tools to create these experiences without developing AR engines from scratch, accelerating implementation.

Virtual Reality

VR creates complete immersive environments using headsets like Oculus. Beyond gaming, it’s used in medical training to simulate complex surgeries with haptic feedback, or in real estate for virtual tours of unbuilt properties. The key is to design intuitive interactions using hand controls that replicate natural gestures (grabbing, pushing).

To prevent motion sickness, developers optimize frame rates and reduce latency using techniques like foveated rendering. Social experiences like virtual concerts allow users to interact through avatars synchronized in real-time, creating new forms of multisensory connection.

Mixed Reality

MR combines physical and digital elements interacting in real-time, using devices like Microsoft HoloLens. In industrial design, engineers manipulate holographic 3D models on physical tables to adjust components before manufacturing. In logistics, picking systems use MR glasses that project optimal routes over real warehouse aisles.

Spatial computing allows interactions like «pinning» holograms to specific physical locations: a user can leave virtual notes visible only to colleagues in that space. Platforms like Unity facilitate the development of these experiences with integrated multi-device support.

Wearables

Devices like smartwatches or smart glasses offer minimal but contextual interactions. In health, wearables monitor vital signs and alert with vibrations about anomalies, syncing data with medical apps. For retail, glasses like Google Glass display product information when looking at shelves, with voice commands to add to the cart.

The challenge is to design micro-interactions: smartwatch notifications must be ultra-brief (<5 seconds) with differentiated vibrations for priorities. IoT platforms like Samsung Tizen allow developing applications that work offline on wearables, syncing data when connected.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The IoT connects everyday objects (appliances, industrial sensors) to multiexperience applications. In smart homes, mobile apps control thermostats that learn usage patterns, while voice assistants allow hands-free adjustments.

Security is critical: platforms like Azure IoT Edge encrypt communications and enable local processing of sensitive data. Standardized APIs (MQTT) ensure compatibility between devices from different manufacturers, creating cohesive ecosystems.

Multiexperience development represents the natural evolution of digital interaction, where cohesion between devices and adaptability to specific contexts define success. Low-code platforms and emerging technologies like AR/VR are democratizing the creation of these experiences, allowing companies to offer fluid journeys that anticipate user needs.

The key lies in maintaining the essence of the human experience: intuitive, relevant, and friction-free interactions, regardless of the device used.