title: Significant differences between Cookies and JWT for native mobile apps
body: <p>I have been using Cookies for authentication and session control in my web apps, and am content with its functionalities.</p>
  
  <p>I was introduced by an iOS app developer that the new hot thing is JWT (JSON Web Token). He told me that JWT is <em>the way</em> of doing authentication and sessions for native mobile apps, and without giving specific examples, he suggested that both iOS and Android apps have various problems with Cookies.</p>
  
  <p>So I looked up JWT, e.g. <a href="http://angular-tips.com/blog/2014/05/json-web-tokens-introduction/" rel="noreferrer">http://angular-tips.com/blog/2014/05/json-web-tokens-introduction/</a> and <a href="https://auth0.com/blog/2014/01/07/angularjs-authentication-with-cookies-vs-token/" rel="noreferrer">https://auth0.com/blog/2014/01/07/angularjs-authentication-with-cookies-vs-token/</a>, and I failed to see why it is significant better (or even that different) than Cookies, and more specifically, why it does better in native mobile apps. It seems that, at least iOS, handles Cookies just fine (<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4597763/persisting-cookies-in-an-ios-application">Persisting Cookies In An iOS Application?</a>).</p>
  
  <p>So my question is, for a native mobile app that interacts with a server-side API, what are the specific advantages and associated use cases for using JWT over Cookies for authentication and sessions? Please highlight the ones that Cookies simply cannot do or does it much worse. </p>