Wrappers
Capacitor and Tauri: your website in a native shell.
Rung three is the clever middle path: keep your existing website and wrap it in a native shell. A wrapper takes the web app you already built and packages it as an installable iOS, Android, or desktop app, so you ship to the stores without maintaining a separate native codebase. Two names to know.
Capacitor, for phones
Capacitor (by the Ionic team) wraps any web app into a native iOS and Android container and gives it access to native features (camera, geolocation, notifications) through plugins. If you already have a working website, it's the fastest route to a real app-store app. The tradeoff is that it runs your site inside a native web view, so extremely animation-heavy or gesture-heavy interfaces can feel a touch less native than the React Native path.
Tauri, for desktop
Tauri (say “tao-ree”) does the same trick for desktop apps: it wraps your website into a small, fast native app for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and it has grown to cover mobile too. Its shells are notably lightweight. This is the answer when someone asks “can I make this a Mac app?” The honest version is yes, and it's mostly a wrapper around the website you already have.
Ask your agent to set either one up against your existing project:
Wrap my existing web app with Capacitor so I can build it as an iOS and Android app, and tell me exactly what I need installed to make a build.React Native builds a native app that happens to use React. Capacitor and Tauri take the website you already have and put a native frame around it. If you love your web app and just need it in a store, wrap it. If you need true native feel from the ground up, build native.
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