In essence it's a UI library with a HTML-like syntax. You write your application in Angular, React, or Vue and you don't have to mess with recreating UI elements. Here is a list of the pre-made Ionic components that you can glue together to create your app [1]. Here is a site where you can play with the components and see them in action. [2] You can also purchase "starter apps" that have boilerplate such as Facebook login, geolocation, and more built in [3]. You can also use Capacitor JS to access native platform features (camera, clipboard, localstorage) without knowing any native code. [4].
I too am new to this and to me it makes much more sense to use Ionic rather than learn the deep and ever-shifting platform specific-code.
Take a look at the Ionic framework + Capacitor.
In essence it's a UI library with a HTML-like syntax. You write your application in Angular, React, or Vue and you don't have to mess with recreating UI elements. Here is a list of the pre-made Ionic components that you can glue together to create your app [1]. Here is a site where you can play with the components and see them in action. [2] You can also purchase "starter apps" that have boilerplate such as Facebook login, geolocation, and more built in [3]. You can also use Capacitor JS to access native platform features (camera, clipboard, localstorage) without knowing any native code. [4].
I too am new to this and to me it makes much more sense to use Ionic rather than learn the deep and ever-shifting platform specific-code.
[1] - https://ionicframework.com/docs/components/
[2] - https://ionicsvelte.firebaseapp.com
[3] - https://ionicthemes.com/product/ionic5-full-starter-app-pro-...
[4] - https://capacitorjs.com/docs/plugins