Xamarin is a cross-platform technology that makes it possible to build native mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone using C# and a shared codebase. Like its younger siblings NativeScript and React Native, it allows development teams to build mobile applications using the skills they already have, and spend less time writing code for each platform.
If you haven’t tried Xamarin yet, now is a great time to get started! Earlier this year, Microsoft bought Xamarin and made it free (and open-source). You can build Xamarin projects on Windows (using Visual Studio), or Mac/Linux (using Xamarin Studio).
I’m excited to dig into Xamarin because mobile apps need authentication and authorization, which Stormpath makes easy. We already have rich SDKs for .NET and ASP.NET, as well as SDKs for iOS and Android separately, but a Xamarin-specific SDK could provide even more value and make it super simple to secure your apps. It’s something I’m currently digging into, so stay tuned!
Download Android Studio for Mac Download Android Studio for Mac android-studio-ide-2-mac.dmg. Download Android Studio. Before downloading, you must agree to the following terms and conditions. Terms and Conditions This is the Android Software Development Kit License Agreement.
- Install Android Studio on Mac OS X The purpose of this section is to guide you to install in your development environment all the dependencies for Android development. The fastest way is to download and install Android Studio.
- Install and setup Xamarin.Android.; 2 minutes to read +4; In this article. The topics in this section explain how to install and configure Xamarin.Android to work with Visual Studio on Windows and macOS, how to use the Android SDK Manager to download and install Android SDK tools and components that are required for building and testing your app, how to configure the Android.
- Step-by-step instructions. Xamarin can be installed as part of a new Visual Studio 2019 installation, with the following steps. Download Visual Studio 2019 Community, Visual Studio Professional, or Visual Studio Enterprise from the Visual Studio page (download links are provided at the bottom).
- Install Android Studio on Mac OS X The purpose of this section is to guide you to install in your development environment all the dependencies for Android development. The fastest way is to download and install Android Studio.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Visual Studio and Xamarin to build a basic app for iOS and Android — even if you’ve never done any app development before!
Setting Up Visual Studio and Xamarin
If you don’t have Visual Studio 2015 installed, download the free Community Edition from Microsoft. If you already have Visual Studio, make sure you have the latest update (Update 3 at the time of writing).
You’ll also need to install some optional components for Visual Studio. If you’re setting up Visual Studio from scratch, make sure these items are selected:
If you have an existing installation, you can verify that these components are installed by opening the Control Panel, choosing Uninstall or change a program, and selecting Microsoft Visual Studio 2015. Follow the installation wizard to make sure the above items (at a minimum) are checked.
Once you have the tools set up, you’re ready to create a Xamarin project!
Xamarin vs. Xamarin.Forms
The Xamarin SDK provides bindings to the platform-specific APIs on each mobile platform, so you can call Android or iOS APIs from C# code. This allows you to build native apps using C#, but you still need to design the UI separately for each platform.
Xamarin.Forms is an additional layer on top of the Xamarin SDK that makes it possible to build your UI once (in XAML markup) and let Xamarin do the hard work of translating it into the appropriate UI elements on the target platform. You can drop down to the Xamarin SDK level and interact with the platform APIs if you need to.
Should you use “raw” Xamarin, or Xamarin.Forms? It depends on what you are building:
If you’re building an app that needs little platform-specific functionality or custom UI, go with Xamarin.Forms. This is a good choice for straightforward readonly='><?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><ContentPage xmlns='http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms' xmlns:x='http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml' x:Class='HelloWorldApp.HelloWorldPage'> <ContentPage.Padding> <OnPlatform x:TypeArguments='Thickness' iOS='20, 40, 20, 20' Android='20, 20, 20, 20' WinPhone='20, 20, 20, 20' /> </ContentPage.Padding> <ContentPage.Content> <StackLayout VerticalOptions='FillAndExpand' HorizontalOptions='FillAndExpand' Orientation='Vertical' Spacing='15'> <Label Text='Enter your name:' /> <Entry x:Name='NameEntry' Text='Jane Doe' /> <Button x:Name='SayHelloButton' Text='Say Hello' Clicked='SayHelloButton_OnClicked' /> </StackLayout> </ContentPage.Content></ContentPage>2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 | <ContentPage xmlns='http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms' xmlns:x='http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml' <ContentPage.Padding> iOS='20, 40, 20, 20' WinPhone='20, 20, 20, 20'/> <ContentPage.Content> HorizontalOptions='FillAndExpand' Spacing='15'> <Entryx:Name='NameEntry'Text='Jane Doe'/> <Buttonx:Name='SayHelloButton'Text='Say Hello'Clicked='SayHelloButton_OnClicked'/> </ContentPage.Content> |
This XAML code creates a basic layout containing Label, Entry (text box), and Button controls. The control names (specified with x:Name) will be used to refer to the controls in code.

The Clicked= attribute on the Button element wires up the button click event to a handler called SayHelloButton_OnClicked, which doesn’t exist yet (but it’s about to!)
Open up the code-behind for the XAML file by expanding it in the Solution Explorer and double-clicking on the HelloWorldPage.xaml.cs file.
Replace the generated C# code with the following: