Mobile apps have become a competitive space, and some may argue having mobile presence is as essential as having a website. So how do you make your app stand out among 2+ million apps in the app store? The obvious answer is marketing, brand recognition and having a good product. While developers have limited control over marketing for apps, they do have control over the engineering of the app which includes:
- User Experience – user experience is critical. It makes or breaks your app. This is an area where testing is critical. Getting user experience right, can be tricky when localizing apps. What we found is that North Americans prefer simple design with a clear path while Europeans prefer lots of features. Finding the balance can be tricky. Listen to your user feedback and test different variations until you get it somewhat right. As with design, you will never be able to please everyone but you can ensure that your user base and app’s usage is growing.
- Privacy Policies – with the new iOS 14 coming in the fall, it will make it difficult for app developers to collect data on user’s location and you have to disclose where all your data will be used. This is going to make it harder for apps that relay on data for monetization but also to run machine learning and artificial intelligence.
- Augmented Reality – will continue to grow not just in the gaming industry but also in other parts of the app store. Think retail where you can picture an item such as a chair in your own space or maybe it will evolve in trying on a dress without having to go to the store.
- Security – Ever growing concern is your app’s security. This is becoming a critical issue for any apps which handle consumer’s data especially financial information (think about storing credit cards). GDRP goes beyond financial information where all consumer data including an email address is considered private.
- Cross Mobile Development – With the Android market’s continuous growth, iOS exclusive apps are becoming a thing of the past. Maintaining two code basis one for iOS and one for Android may not be economical and can have time constraints especially for small mobile teams or mobile agencies. The solution is Flutter, which has the same quality of writing for native platform without having the need to do it twice.
If you are looking for an iOS developer to help transition into iOS 14 or you are looking to transition your app from Swift or Objective-C to Flutter, Brian Kayfitz can help. He has been writing flutter apps for the past 2 years and has over 10 years of experience working on native iOS apps.