.NET MAUI New Features for Building Powerful Desktop Apps

Quick Overview:
Desktop and mobile applications are a must for most businesses. It supports them in reaching out to a broader audience and expanding their business operations. But, in the technology-driven world, where every person is using a different operating system, it gets time-consuming to provide a compatible desktop app. But, with the .NET MAUI framework, the time-to-market for such desktop software has been shortened. It offers some efficient features, such as hot reload, shared codebase, and more, leading to building amazing applications. Further, in this blog, you will undergo all the .NET MAUI new features, enabling you to build desktop apps with amazing features.

Introduction

.NET MAUI is a new-age development framework preferred by experts for building cross-platform-compatible applications. Most of its features are evolutional from Xamarin.Forms, making it a trending technology in recent years.

Whether it’s about .NET MAUI for desktop apps or building cross-platform mobile apps with .NET MAUI, the results are exceptional. In this blog, you will understand .NET MAUI’s new features, providing insight into how it enables building amazing desktop apps.

A Brief Overview: What is .NET MAUI?

.NET MAUI is a framework from Microsoft that you can use for creating cross-platform desktop and mobile applications. In its name, MAUI stands for Multi-Platform App UI. And its coding gets completed using XAML and C# programming language.

Primarily, .NET MAUI is compatible with significant and most popular operating systems, including:

• iOS
• Android
• macOS
• Windows

You require a single .NET MAUI codebase to run the application on all the mentioned platforms with utmost performance, quality, security, and scalability. In addition, this framework is open-source, due to which professionals consider .NET MAUI for desktop app development.

Furthermore, with its advancement/evolution from Xamarin.Forms, you can effortlessly use it for native and hybrid mobile applications. It’s a reliable .NET development framework with .NET MAUI’s new features, flexibility, and seamless coding. And you will undergo all its top-notch characteristics in further sections.

The Prime Users of the .NET MAUI Framework

Mainly, .NET MAUI is for the following users/businesses:

• Organizations that want a cross-platform application using a single codebase.
• Businesses that want to save money, time, and effort.
• Companies that want to share a UI across all its applications.
• Developers are compatible with C# and XAML development.

If you fall under any of the mentioned categories, .NET MAUI is for you.

.NET MAUI New Features: Benefits For Developers and Businesses

Following are the .NET MAUI new features, supporting the build of avant-garde desktop applications to improve user satisfaction, productivity, and compatibility within business constraints.

• Cross-Platform and Multi-Window Applications
• Saves Money, Time, and Efforts
• Outstanding Pointer Gestures
• Context Menus
• Efficient Menu Bar Implementation
• Maximum Uptime with Hot Reload
• Enhanced Tooltips

Cross-Platform and Multi-Window Applications

.NET MAUI is highly beneficial for building cross-platform desktop and mobile applications. The developers can use the same codebase for curating the apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and other operating systems.

In addition, .NET MAUI’s new features offer multi-window functionality, which helps to improve the user experience and take advantage of the desktop’s real estate web development. With multi-window, you can open a new window while maintaining the current operation. For instance, if you are using a weather forecasting application with the option to view the weather for the upcoming ten days. Then, in a traditional application, the current interface will be rendered to display the updated details or open the new interface.

However, with .NET MAUI, a new window will be opened, showcasing the weather details. Due to this, end-users can effortlessly consume the data and navigate through the application. Additionally, once you write a code for opening a new window, it will work in Windows as well as macOS-based devices.

Saves Money, Time, and Efforts

Creating desktop applications is a hefty and time-consuming task. But, with the introduction of the .NET MAUI framework, developers are building software for desktops promptly. It’s greatly helping the development teams to create designs, build them, and deploy them across all significant desktop operating systems.

In addition, it provides a highly elaborated engine for creating alluring, responsive designs. Also, you can customize the handlers for an optimized display of all the user interface components across different screen sizes.

As you now know, .NET MAUI’s single codebase is enough for different desktops. Thus, you can utilize the same hardware, software, and human resources for .NET desktop development. As a result, you will save time, money, and effort.

Outstanding Pointer Gestures

Creating an event with a mouse gesture is an advanced feature in many applications. Primarily, it gets used in eCommerce stores for highlighting product details and providing an extended overview.

Similarly, you can embed a feature in your desktop application using the .NET MAUI framework. It will help your customers recognize the features effortlessly, utilize them appropriately, and even initiate an operation. In .NET MAUI, you get the leverage of some extended pointer gestures as follows:

• On Pointer Entered
• On Pointer Exited
• On Pointer Moved

You can ask the .NET developer to implement the gestures according to your requirements. For instance, if you want to zoom in on a picture when the customer hovers over it, you can use the On Pointer Entered gesture. Likewise, numerous operations can be executed only through mouse gestures, and that too on all compatible platforms.

Context Menus

Context menus are an essential component of an application, and the .NET MAUI framework helps efficiently provide them to all users. It helps the customers to perform tasks more efficiently and with less effort, leading to improved experience and satisfaction. In addition, it makes your app charismatic and easy to use.

You can consider a context menu like the primary menu bar but for a specific context. The most common example of a context menu is MS Word. When you right-click on an incorrect word in MS Word, it opens a menu with options with the correct word, add to dictionary option, etc. The menu that gets displayed after clicking on the incorrect word is the context menu.

You can add this feature to your desktop application in numerous places, such as in the comment section, editing text, creating a reminder, and more. In addition, you can also embed it with a multi-windows feature for extended functionality.

Efficient Menu Bar Implementation

Every desktop application you see on Windows and macOS machine have menu bars for seamless navigation and selection of features. With other development technologies, it’s complex to implement a menu bar. But, with .NET MAUI, it’s a task of only a few lines of codebase, leading to saving time during development.

In addition, you also avail of an added benefit. If your customers utilize the application on a tablet or an iPad with a keyboard, the menu bar will function similarly to a desktop. The accessibility, look and feel, and compatibility will be retained across devices, regardless of the device, screen size, and type.

Furthermore, .NET MAUI enables the creation of dynamic menu bars through two methods – using the XAML and directly writing the code. To select the most relevant option, you must hire .NET developers from a reputed and trustworthy firm, such as Positiwise Software Pvt Ltd.

Maximum Uptime with Hot Reload

Hot reload is one of the most prominent features of the .NET MAUI framework. It is highly supported during the application maintenance phase. When the desktop software gets deployed, it still requires new features, patches, and upgrades. But, whenever a new update gets pushed, the app faces a downtime or stops working until it reaches a stable state.

However, with hot reload, your desktop app will remain active while the upgrade is executed. It aids the application to function accurately and make changes in the background. Also, even the user doesn’t recognize something happening at the backend.

In addition, It also provides XAML hot reload support, leading to changes directly in the active application. Therefore, .NET MAUI can help you maximize availability and enhance user satisfaction, experience, retention, and conversion rate. Moreover, if you think of building cross-platform mobile apps with .NET MAUI, you must consider using the hot reload feature.

Enhanced Tooltips

You may have noticed or not, but tooltips are now everywhere. Even the icons on your computer’s desktop hold some tooltip value, which gets showcased when you hover the mouse over them. You can try it by hovering over Google Chrome to see the “Access the Internet” message.

.NET MAUI for desktop apps provides a similar functionality. You can use the tooltip properties for any button, menu, and feature in your software to optimize the end-user experience.

For instance, a tooltip can be implemented on the “Save” button to tell the user they need to click the button to save content. The following snippet defines the code for this tooltip feature:

<Button Text="Save" ToolTipProperties.Text="Click to save your comment" />

Likewise, when you hire a dedicated .NET developer, you can ask them to create such functionalities in your application. It will also help reduce the support team’s efforts, as customers will understand what a feature executes. Thus, .NET MAUI’s new features make the user experience impeccable.

How Positiwise Software Pvt Ltd Helps With .NET Desktop Development?

Positiwise Software Pvt Ltd has been offering .NET development services for 10+ years, and all their engineers hold expertise in curating .NET MAUI applications. They have built numerous applications for their global clients in eCommerce, hospitality, medical, finance, HR, and other sectors.

In addition, Positiwise ensures 100% transparency, flexible packages, and an agile approach for every .NET desktop development. Also, you can avail of a 30-minute free consultation with 15 15-day risk-free trial. Thus, you can test and then only hire .NET developers for your .NET MAUI project.

You can undergo the Positiwise .NET development services and choose the one you need in the most affordable manner. And they will guarantee to deliver it within a defined time.

Concluding Up on .NET MAUI New Features

.NET MAUI is an advanced application development framework introduced and developed by Microsoft. Consider it as an upgraded version of Xamarin.Forms and use it for creating mobile and desktop applications. It provides several top-notch features, such as tooltips, hot reload, pointer gestures, and more, which make the application alluring and easy to navigate.

In addition, it helps save time and money, as you are required to build and maintain a single codebase. And that individual codebase will run on all compatible operating systems. Therefore, the .NET MAUI framework is your solution for .NET desktop development.