I need my App to connect to other devices on the LAN such as printers. Is this possible or do I need to build a native app? If it isn't possible are there any creative workarounds?
I found that it is possible to connect to other devices using Bluetooth or Usb through Web Apis. Sadly I don't think there is a similar Web api for devices connected on the LAN. Since the devices are likely to be served through http and not https as well as having a dynamic IP it is almost impossible to find a workaround. I do think it is possible in Native Apps but I am no expert in that field. If however what you want to do is have a device running your app be setup as a local server and have other instances of the app connect to it over the local Wifi, this is possible!!! You will have to make the device running the instance of the server static and then assign it a subdomain which runs on https by using a wildcard https certificate (the device running the instance of the local server must be a native app in order to run server code but the apps you use to actually browse the app can run on the web).