Transition Mastery From Xamarin to .NET MAUI

  • Software Development
  • Dec 18, 2023

As specialists in building mobile apps using Xamarin, we share invaluable insights and strategies to ensure a smooth transition to the robust capabilities of .NET MAUI.

This comprehensive resource is tailored for fellow developers, providing a step-by-step roadmap that capitalizes on the strengths acquired through Xamarin while embracing the powerful features of .NET MAUI.

“Support will end on May 1, 2024 for all Xamarin SDKs and Android API 34 and XCODE 15 will be the final versions Xamarin will target”

Xamarin Forms Migration Process

The first step in the migration is to make sure that your project is up to date and compatible.

The Upgrade Assistant CLI tool serves as a valuable resource crafted to assist developers in the seamless upgrading of their applications to the latest version of .NET. Learn more about this tool and its capabilities by visiting:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/migration/upgrade-assistant?view=net-maui-7.0&tabs=vswin

The next step is to make sure all the nuget packages, namespaces, api changes are all updated to ensure compatibility. There are also some modifications to the project structure and its important these adjustments are made to your project.

Once this has been done the advantages of transitioning to .NET MAUI are significant. The consolidated single project structure simplifies the development workflow, and performance enhancements guarantee seamless operation of your application across all platforms.

Xamarin Forms End of Support

When taking about end of support on Microsoft technologies, what this really means is that Microsoft will no longer provide any further updates. The reliance on the security updates will determine the urgency of the required migration. The official Xamarin support policy can be found at the following URL, which will help make you an informed decision about when to upgrade:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy/xamarin

Future of Xamarin Native

If you are a business that has a native Xamarin app in production, the migration process is slightly less effort than that of Xamarin Forms. Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS is now becoming Android, iOS and Mac for .NET and if you are building with these project types today, they should be upgraded to .Net SDK projects to get continued support.

For native development of .net Android and iOS, you could refer to the following documentation to migrate Xamarin.Android and iOS to .NET 7.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/migration/android-projects?view=net-maui-8.0

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/migration/apple-projects?view=net-maui-8.0

For more information on upgrading Xamarin projects to .NET see:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/dotnet/maui/migration/?view=net-maui-8.0&WT.mc_id=dotnet-35129-website