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Native Navigation Overview

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Native navigation menus allow you to build high-performance mobile apps with intuitive, platform-consistent UI elements - matching the look and feel of top iOS and Android applications. Median supports four types of native navigation components:

These native navigation menus improve user experience by displaying instantly - before your web content loads - and persisting across internal or third-party pages displayed within your app. This is especially useful for enterprise and multi-source web apps, allowing seamless transitions between embedded services.

Benefits of Native Navigation Menus

While modern mobile browsers and webviews offer smooth performance, native navigation menus provide distinct advantages:

  • Immediate rendering: Displayed before any web content loads.
  • Persistent navigation: Shown across internal and external (third-party) web pages.
  • Cross-service navigation: Enable deep links across apps and services via native tabs or sidebars.
  • Flexible UI control: Configurable at build-time or runtime via the Median JavaScript Bridge.

Example Use Case

You can use native navigation to integrate and switch between multiple web-based applications within your app. An example, as illustrated below, could include the following destinations which could all be accessed using the same consistent navigation.

IconDestination
HouseSharePoint intranet site
Address BookActive Directory corporate contacts
CalendarASP.NET shift scheduling system
UserThird-party HR or benefits management portal

A visual example for this use case for Android and iOS (using FontAwesome Icons) can be found below:

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Example Bottom Tab Bar Menu

Icon Support for Native Menus

Median supports both standard and custom icon libraries, giving you complete control over your app's design. You can also set different icons for the active and inactive states of a tab bar item, giving users clear visual feedback about which tab is currently selected.

Icons can be configured per menu item and are supported in top bars, sidebars, and bottom tab bars. Like other Median features, native navigation menus including icons can be configured at build time and built into your app and/or set at runtime through the JavaScript Bridge.

Platform Guidelines and Design Consistency

Median follows platform-specific UI/UX best practices, ensuring your app adheres to mobile operating system standards and compatibility with the latest app publishing guidelines.

iOS Design Guidelines

Android / Material Design Guidelines

Updated 10 days ago

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