In today’s tech revolution, the notion of a mobile-first approach is the new standard. This comes from my personal experience of creating countless mobile apps for corporations and solopreneurs with a life-changing vision. I have personally seen immense improvements in traffic, interaction and revenue by taking a mobile-first approach.
You need some tips and ideas on how to go about it if you’re an ambitious businessman looking to tap into the treasure chest called mobile apps. And with this post, I’m going to share everything I know that makes me want to create future-proof mobile apps that users love.
Just to put into perspective the entire mobile app development scene, realize that by the end of 2021, there will be more than 7 billion smartphone users worldwide. This leaves part of the Internet Of Things ecosystem for autonomous devices. And it is estimated that the number of app installs will reach over 258 billion by the end of 2022.
These are not the figures you can concentrate on right now no matter how inspiring and reassuring these statistics sound. Instead what should matter to you at the moment is that in the US an average smartphone user has over 100 applications installed on their devices. What would be more alarming? It’s the truth that after a day’s use over 79 percent of users leave downloaded apps.
Does the growth of apps still sound glamorous?
It does, from my point of view, and it’s the sweet spot where you come up with answers to your troubling problems. While these figures can be risky, these are also your chances to look at aspects of mobile app growth that some have ignored. From security points of view to user interface issues, these abandoned applications would have overlooked some key areas that users need.
Here are four features you can’t afford to neglect when creating a mobile app as a collection of experiences.
Protection improved:
Safety is still one of the main goals of both iOS and Android, the dominant operating systems in the industry. With developers introducing layers with the introduction of facial and touch recognition to data protection and privacy, consumers are also increasingly demanding this functionality in the apps they use.
Customers look at this as a type of a firewall that prevents unauthorized access, in addition to using this feature to unlock phones. If you plan to create a fintech app, where individuals can make fraudulent transactions by obtaining access by brute force, this function becomes all the more important.
By introducing this as a layer to navigational areas that are more vulnerable to attacks, one of the easiest ways to incorporate this function is. For instance, any app’s settings module, where individuals can restore passwords, change primary information, and more. Intrusions and data theft can be avoided by a wall demanding permission for access in the form of facial or touch recognition.
Notifications drive:
They are here to stay regardless of what your view on push notifications is. Although they can often be overly noisy with regular notifications and alerts, when they provide us with coupons, promotions and exclusive access to offers, they are also messengers of good stuff. From the perspective of a marketer, push notifications are used by businesses with the purpose of
- Retaining clients
- Drive regular use of apps
- Provide tailored messages for engagements
- Deliver messages in real time
Increase communications with clients as an alternative to emails and more
As an alternative to emails, one of the key reasons I have listed push notifications is because of the backup statistics. The open rate of push notifications is 50 percent, which is greater than emails, according to these infographics. Its click rate is 7 times the emails’ click rate. In addition, over 70 percent of users believe they are useful.
Aside from their personalization functionality, the positive thing about push notifications is that you can run targeted promotions through them. With the power of data science and analytics, based on a variety of variables, you can segment users and interact with each audience persona in a specific manner.
For example, you can pull out data on users who have not used your app for awhile if you run a food-delivery app. With this, personalized messages can be sent with tailored deals and offers to rekindle the use of the app. You may also, instead, award the most active users. Although you need to take care of many best practices to ensure that these techniques do not backfire, push notifications add value to your application.
Access offline:
This is the instant gratification era. We also grew into a generation that is willing to invest money to save time, from quick search results to on-demand product delivery. It is imperative that your app has this ideology at its heart, with such a collective evolution of this mentality. Although the internet is not a problem in third-world countries, strong internet infrastructure is still being introduced by developed countries. That’s why adding key functionality to your app – offline access – becomes essential.
It may be that users don’t get the data they are searching for on your app or access its functionality because of poor connections. This not only brings down the usability of the program, but also paves the way for its abandonment. This is why your app should have a layer where users can also communicate offline or during instances of poor communication with your app. Only when the app is unable to link to the internet could it be cached content or alternative features that pop up. At any given point in time, users don’t want to look at a blank screen.
Think of the most imaginative Dinosaur game from Google, which pops up when your Chrome browser doesn’t link to the internet, to get some inspiration. Not only does it maintain customers during service interruption, but it also communicates uniquely with them.
Rely on the needs of customers:
In the minds of your users, there is a real need for something. That’s why your app is accessed by them. During the process of conception and growth, the emphasis should always be on satisfying your customers’ needs rather than their wishes. Find an app with on-demand taxi service. Customers using the app need a cab that can take them to point B from point A. They are more focused on what they need for these particular few minutes and not what they want.
Your app should provide this hassle-free service. But when they enter the cab, the condition is distinct. If the need is achieved, the mind immediately turns to different wants. For inspiring purposes, to come up with a version of the hierarchy of needs, you can consider the demographics, country, interests, likes and dislikes, spending ability and more of your clients.
This will give you an important understanding of the priority problems that your app should resolve and then if possible, move on to other issues.
It’s an exciting and rewarding process to create a mobile application. But there are also lots of hindrances, pivots, failures along the way. They should certainly teach you to build a mobile application that users find useful, but they shouldn’t annoy you. If all this sounds too overwhelming to you and if you like you just want to get an app built somehow, reach out to industry experts. Any popular software app development company will be aware of the intricacies involved in mobile app development.
