Glossary / Capacitor
What is Capacitor?
Capacitor is an open-source tool that packages a web app as an Android and iPhone app, so the same code can be installed from the app stores and use phone features such as the camera and notifications.
Your app's screens are still web pages, shown inside a native app shell. Capacitor provides the bridge between that web code and the phone, through plugins for things like the camera, push notifications and sharing.
It lets one team ship a website, an Android app and an iPhone app from one codebase, which saves a great deal of work compared with building each separately.
The trade-off is that the interface is web-based rather than built from each platform's own components. For many business apps that is fine; for apps with heavy animation or graphics, fully native code may feel smoother.
On the Pro plan, Mythex uses Capacitor to turn your web app into Android and iPhone apps: an Android file or Google Play internal testing, and iPhone builds sent to TestFlight.
Questions
Is a Capacitor app a native app?
It is installed and distributed like a native app and can use native features, but its screens are web pages. People often call these hybrid apps.
Will Apple accept a Capacitor app?
Apple reviews every app on its own merits. Capacitor apps are accepted when they offer real app value and follow the guidelines, not when they simply show a website.