JWT
JSON Web Token
A signed token carrying its own claims, so a server can tell who a request belongs to without looking a session up. Standard for mobile authentication. The signature proves it was not altered; it does not hide what is inside.
Glossary
The terms we use when we talk about building software — protocols, platform features and the business words that turn out to mean something specific.
Protocols and formats
Server-Sent Events
SSE
A one-way stream from server to client over an ordinary HTTP connection. Simpler than a WebSocket and enough wherever only the server has something to say — a progress feed, an AI response arriving token by token.
WebSocket
A protocol that holds one connection open between client and server so either side can send at any moment, instead of the client asking over and over. What live prices, chat and presence indicators run on.
Platform features
App Clips
An Apple feature that runs a small slice of an iOS app — under 15 MB — without installing the whole thing. Invoked from a QR code, an NFC tag or a link, for when the first thing a user does should not require a store visit.
Deep linking
deferred deep linking · universal links · Android App Links
A link that opens a specific screen inside an installed app instead of its home screen or a web page. Deferred deep linking survives an install, so a tap that leads through the app store still lands on the right screen.
Install Referrer
A Google Play API that hands a freshly installed Android app the campaign parameters from the link that led to the install. The Android half of deferred deep linking, and the dependable way to attribute where a user came from.
Kotlin Multiplatform
KMP
Sharing business logic written in Kotlin across Android, iOS and the server while each platform keeps its own native UI. The alternative to Flutter when the interface has to be native but the rules behind it do not.
Architecture
REST
REST API · Representational State Transfer
The conventional style for HTTP APIs: a URL names a resource and the HTTP verb says what to do with it. The default way an app talks to a backend, and what most third-party integrations expect to find.
Practices
CI/CD
CI · continuous integration · continuous delivery
Automation that builds, tests and ships every change without anyone running commands by hand. On mobile it is what turns a release into a button press instead of an afternoon of someone else being unavailable.
PCI-DSS
PCI DSS · Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
The card industry security standard binding anyone who stores, processes or transmits card data. Most apps stay out of its scope on purpose, by handing card entry to a certified payment provider instead.
Business terms
MVP
minimum viable product
The smallest version of a product that can go in front of real users and still answer the question you built it to answer. A decision about scope, not about quality — an MVP still has to work.
White-label
white label · multi-tenant app
One product shipped under many brands. A white-label mobile platform builds each client a store-ready app with its own name, design and content from a single shared codebase, instead of forking the project per customer.
Something here you need built?
If one of these terms is on your roadmap rather than in your reading, we have probably shipped it.
Talk to us