Mobile development

10 questions to help you decide if you need a mobile app

Andrew Douglas 21, Mar, 2022

Mobile development

10 questions to help you decide if you need a mobile app

The more people use smartphones and make purchases using applications, the more companies are thinking about creating their own mobile service. The application can indeed be a useful tool for business, but in some areas it can only be a waste of time and budget.

Ask yourself the 10 questions in this article to help you decide if you should develop an app.

1. Maybe it’s a feeling of FOMO (Missed Profit Syndrome)?

The field of mobile development over the years of its development managed to oversaturate: with the advent of Instagram and WhatsApp, people realized that you can earn good money on applications. Now everyone wants to release their own service, but more often out of a feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – the fear of missing out on a good opportunity and benefit. Consider whether the new site will bring the expected profit. Often, companies simply need to adapt the design of the site for mobile devices.

It can often seem to an entrepreneur that if he does not use a channel, he is losing money.

2. Will the app be different from an optimized website?

It usually depends on the scope and type of business. In most cases, a smartphone-optimized site can be just as effective as an app, but requires less time and effort from developers. Ask yourself how much easier it will be for the customer to choose and buy from the new service, and whether it will be different from the user’s journey on the site.

3. How does creating an application affect your competitiveness?

In some areas there is a vogue for applications: few people get real benefits, but every company is obliged to create it in order to keep up with others. A business is forced to become a developer company in order to compete, and hundreds of useless services appear on the market. As a result, they solve the problem of image, not benefit for customers.

4. Are PWAs right for you?

PWAs are progressive web applications that allow you to download a website to your phone. Now companies do not need to develop separate applications for Android and iOS: it is enough to keep the website up and running.

Such services are suitable for most areas: online stores, delivery and booking services, online publications. The exception is mobile games that need special system resources for fast work, complex social networks, and highly loaded systems.

5. How often do you interact with people in person?

It happens that a business mainly sells face to face in offline stores or basically communicates with the client for a short time. Here the application is unlikely to be used. The development of a new service may be necessary only if people interact with personal data – often you have to check the status of an order and search for products using individual filters. In other cases, it is enough to create a convenient and fast website.

6. What is the lifestyle of your target audience?

If potential customers spend most of their time on a phone or tablet and work with them, a mobile application will really be more convenient for them. But if customers mostly sit at desktop computers and like to study information on a big screen, mobile service is unlikely to be popular.
In addition, the segment in which you work is of great importance – B2B or B2C. If you provide services to a business or are a wholesaler, then, as a rule, specialists will look for you, interact with you during their working hours from their office computers, and in this case, the effectiveness of the mobile application may be a big question. However, this may require some system for corporate use or a service for calculating the amount of materials, such as the TechnoNIKOL Master application, implemented by our studio.

There is nothing more important than understanding your client, his needs and behavior.

7. Can the sales process be improved with the app?

Mobile service is a new way to buy, sell and receive information. If it does not solve any of these problems, the game is hardly worth the candle. Probably just to show off new technology to competitors. And if in order to complete a transaction, you still need to leave a request and chat with the manager in person, or maybe even come to a personal meeting – how will the application help you in sales?

8. Is it possible to do without a mobile application?

Ask yourself what problem you are trying to solve and if it can be solved without developing a new platform. If the development goal is vague and does not bring much benefit and profit, it is better to focus on something more important.

Look at your competitors, analyze what problem they are investing in applications to solve. Is it really the pain of your target audience?

Talk to your current clients. As a rule, people rarely turn to one person for a solution to their issue, they look for and choose the most advantageous offer for themselves. No one but the client will tell you better about what he needs and is important, and for sure one of them used the already existing services in your market. Will a mobile application help your client, will it solve his problem better than a website?

9. Do you offer new and valuable experiences?

If you’re already selling enough through the website and other online channels and getting positive feedback, chances are you won’t need an app. A new service is needed only if you cannot give something to users using the site.

Maybe the application will feature a loyalty program, a customer card that is always with you – this is still not a desktop tool; or, for example, the service will suggest the need to perform car maintenance or find the network store closest to the user and show the availability of goods in it at the current moment.

10. Will it simplify the user path?

Personal account login with biometrics instead of a password and reminder push notifications can improve user experience and provide a good customer service experience. This can be a link with accounts on a social network, linking payment data without the need to enter them constantly on a new one – of course, subject to a high level of security. If there are enough such functions, you can start developing the application. The main thing is understanding that your client really needs the features that you add to the application.

Our app development studio AppСraft has been operating since 2011. During this time, we have created more than 200 mobile services – from online stores to complex corporate solutions – and we know what your target audience really needs. We are ready to conduct a personal consultation, where we will tell you about all the pros and cons of creating an application for your business.

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Andrew Douglas 18, Dec, 2021

Mobile development

With the development of the power of smartphones, computer games have moved into the phone, and now anyone can download the application and go through a couple of levels while riding the subway or standing in line. If for people it is an opportunity to spend time interestingly, then for companies it is to make money and gain fame.

In the article, we tell you how to choose the type of future game, how to develop it, and what stages you have to go through.

Popular genres of mobile games

Knowing the basic mechanics will help you make your choice, follow other companies and understand general trends while promoting. According to Newzoo, in 2020-2021, the following genres were included in the TOP-5 genres of gaming mobile applications:

MMORPG

One of the oldest types of games stands for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. Here, the developers create separate fantasy worlds like Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings with dungeons, monsters, dragons, demons and gods. Participants pump the hero, gaining skills and strength in battles with other players or invented characters. In popular applications, up to several thousand heroes can simultaneously play online in online mode, dividing into groups of 5-100 people.

Previously, only computers could pull this, but with the development of smartphones, MMORPG without problems switched to the mobile version.

Examples: Arcane Legends, Adventure Quest, Dungeon Hunter 5.

MOBA

They are a mixture of RTS (English real-time strategy, RTS) and action. A person controls one of the characters and selects skills and abilities: usually they are magicians, knights or warriors. By uniting in groups, people compete with each other for products, objects and power in the virtual world. To successfully complete the stages, you need a good reaction speed and movement of your fingers on the screen and enough patience to complete the fight.

In the mobile version, there is no such depth of mechanics and strategy as in the computer versions, but this does not prevent you from grabbing attention for a long time.

Examples of MOBA: Mobile Legends, Arena of Valor, Vainglory.

Battle royale

The idea was borrowed in part from the films “Battle Royale” and “The Hunger Games”, with players fighting with each other for ammunition, armor, buildings, etc. to stay alive. Resources are distributed across the map, and the player must collect and properly manage them in order to maintain power.

Large-scale maps, a large selection of weapons and armor make the user experience especially exciting. The main audience of Battle Royale is teenagers 8-15 years old. Almost all gaming applications do not charge, and the creators earn through advertising.

Examples: Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone.

Card games

To exchange cards, you need to participate in battles with other participants, earning good cards or buying them for real money.

Matches can be up to 30 minutes long, and the process includes a winning mechanic based on luck – this maintains a sense of excitement and a desire to win no matter what. Card games are usually free, but people can pay extra for a good deck.

Examples: Hearthstone, Eternal, Shadowverse, HEX: Shards of Fate.

Puzzle

They cover a large market share: more than 50% of phone owners install at least one such game application on their phone. Puzzles grab attention and require you to use ingenuity and logic to win, but they do not hurt your fingers when you touch the screen as other types, but they are no less intriguing. It can be Tetris, Sudoku, or number problems.

Examples: Cut the rope, Rusty Lake, Roll the ball, Love Poly.

Criteria for choosing the genre of the game

Budget

Now the competition in the mobile games market is quite high, so it is unlikely that it will be possible to create a project on your knees with a minimum budget. It is better to soberly assess your capabilities and, based on the estimate, choose the appropriate genre. The more complex the mechanics, the more money you will need to create it. If the budget is small, it is better to choose a light game with minimal technical requirements.

Team Capabilities

For a start, it is better to choose genres in which you have experience. You should not immediately take on a large-scale Battle Royale if the people in the team previously developed only races and puzzles.

Competitors

Study your competitors in the genres of interest. When niches are crammed with top-tier projects, it will be difficult to gain popularity. This will require a lot of money and a short time frame to have time to release the project before a competitor comes up with a more interesting version. In most cases, it’s better to choose another option and not waste the money, time and effort of the team.

Trends

The ability to predict trends will help you avoid outdated ideas that will leave marketplaces in the near future and choose promising options. For example, experts predict the growth of 3D technologies in the future. Now such applications are not widespread, but in a few years they may well take off in the ratings. It’s better to create something unique than to uselessly trying to improve existing expensive projects.

Approaches to game selection

Before getting started, developers have two choices: create a completely unique app, or use proven game mechanics. Both options can be successful and have their own merits and demerits.

Copy tested mechanics

pros

Minuses

Minimal risk of failure
The technology has already been tested on users and perfected to the smallest detail

Ready design
No need to spend budget and time creating new game designs. Everything is checked and refined for you.

Short time
Development time is much lower than that of a unique game due to minimal changes to the original mechanics.

Need a large marketing budget
An analogue of a popular game is unlikely to cause a “wow effect” and will spread virally, so the main traffic will have to be attracted through advertising.

Small market share
The main competitors are already taking the main profit. Growth will be slower than with unique development.

Risk of releasing the game lateIf the development process drags on, it is likely that by the time of release it will no longer be relevant.

Create a unique game

pros

Minuses

“Wow effect”
New games bring new user experiences to players, and they seek to share emotions with friends and invite them to join. This creates a viral effect when the game promotes itself without extra investment.

Large market share
If you succeed in creating a new gaming technology, there is a chance to immediately conquer the majority of the audience.

Free publications in the media
Gaming resources and bloggers are always in search of unique content and industry news. It can bring free traffic and organic audience growth.

High risk of failure
Launching a new product on the market is always risky and can lead to application failure.

Long development time
Building mobile games from scratch takes more time and effort to refine, fix bugs, and test.

Large investments
Developing a unique game is much more expensive than creating a clone.

Stages of mobile game development

Idea development

Research the market and genres, select the main target audience and an interesting product that they will like.

Monetization strategy

Usually, it is free to play, but inside the interface, users can buy additional features and functions or watch ads in exchange for free access.

The main monetization methods used by developers:

Advertising. To avoid negative reviews, players are often presented with additional per-view bonuses.
Subscription. The user deducts a certain amount every month and receives a premium account without ads and additional bonuses.
In-game currency. By investing in it with real money, users can make purchases.

Category selection

There are three main categories in the game making industry:

Hyper casual. A short game without a plot with easy mechanics and simple controls.
Midcore. Game mechanics that require more time and strategic thinking. There is an easy plot and action planning. The most popular option in marketplaces.
Hardcore. With a high level of difficulty and a well-developed game world for experienced gamers. Typically created for audiences with an interest in specific genres.

Platforms for creating mobile games

Developers have a wide range of programs:

Unreal Engine. A proven platform suitable for large and small projects on any mobile platform. From tools: C ++ and Blueprints visual scripts.
Unity. A platform with a large selection of tools: a graphical editor, quick debugging, support for any platform and creation of titles.
AppGameKit. There are many ready-made solutions for rapid development, built-in monetization technologies, and a fast compiler.
MonoGame. Suitable for creating cross-platform applications, will help beginners in creating their first projects: many tutorials have been written for the platform.
Marmalade SDK. Includes libraries, tools for quickly coding, testing and deploying applications.

Gameplay development

Giving a sense of excitement and engagement is the main task of the gameplay. To retain the audience, they use short-term levels and unlock additional functions, bonuses and secret items.

Platform

Most often, the platform for Android is chosen for the first launch – it has free publication and a larger audience than iOS. Ideally, the application can be cross-platform in order to get as much traffic as possible.

Game design

In game design, you need to work out the story, characters, small details and the user path down to the details. It is he who will distinguish himself from competitors and create a positive impression.

Testing

Before launching on the marketplace, the application is tested on a potential audience and errors are corrected in advance. The more carefully the check is carried out, the less negative reviews there will be after publication.

Where to order a mobile game

Our AppCraft studio has been developing mobile applications for more than 10 years / We take on all stages: from analytics to publication, help with marketing and provide prompt technical support.

Fill out the form below to get a free consultation and find out the cost of developing a mobile application.

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Andrew Douglas 10, Dec, 2021

Mobile development

Companies often create their own mobile application, but it does not live up to expectations: users quickly delete the service, give low ratings in the marketplace, and the conversion falls every month. Wasted budget and resources seem to be in vain. A UX audit can cope with such a problem: professional developers, designers and marketers will objectively evaluate the interface, find errors and help make the service popular.

We at AppCraft have been developing mobile applications for more than 10 years and tell us what it is for and how the audit process goes.

What is the analysis of a mobile application for?

UX audit helps to find weaknesses that prevent a person from reaching the target action. For example, an online store has an inconvenient filter for searching for products, and the order button is too small and inconspicuous in color – this can cause a large churn of users at the selection stage.

During usability testing, each element is checked: buttons, search bars, personal account, navigation, data storage and security, screen structure, color schemes, etc. An objective and careful analysis will help to identify problematic and strengths, priority and unnecessary functions, technical errors and user friendliness.

Practical recommendations will increase user loyalty, add a competitive edge, and increase conversions.

When to apply for an audit

At the stage of prototyping. The most profitable approach from a financial and labor-intensive point of view. An audit in the process of prototyping will allow us to correct most of the errors and bring to the market the most convenient product with a minimum number of edits.

Before launching to the marketplace. A final usability check will help you re-check features and find bugs to avoid a wave of negative reviews after publication.

If you are not satisfied with the indicators. When the application is already launched, but gives a low conversion, works slowly and collects a lot of negative reviews, there is a reason to test the technical part and interface again.

Audit stages

An individual verification process is built for each service, but there are basic stages that each application goes through.

Data collection

At the first stage, interviews with the client about the existing problems and goals are carried out, after which a plan is drawn up to correct the errors.

Information is usually collected through analytics systems and / or focus group polls.

If analytics systems are integrated into the application, they study the metrics of interaction, engagement and conversion. The analysis will show how people move within the service, with which functions I interact most often and at what stage they leave.
To collect additional information or in the absence of systems, analysts organize focus groups with target users. The respondents are asked to use the app and study their user journey, ask questions and study motivation. A focus group helps to better know the target audience and find solutions to interface problems.

Technical analysis

Problems can be hidden in the code itself. For example, the developers admitted the vulnerability of the code for hacking, problems in the operation of the service and data exchange. Checking the quality of the code and auditing the security of the mobile application will help solve technical problems and improve the interface.

Usability testing

Experts evaluate how convenient it is to use the application: whether the content is clear, whether all the buttons are pressed, how quickly the pages load, and what barriers prevent reaching the target action.

Before contacting the specialists, you can check everything yourself using the questions from the checklist of the usability of the mobile application:

How logical is the user’s path. If the goal of the service is to get an order from a customer, it is necessary to build the correct sequence of screens, gradually guiding the person towards the purchase. An illogical page transition, unnecessary actions and an inconvenient interface can alienate a potential client. If there are many competitors on the market with more convenient services, people will simply go to them.
Are all elements clear and conveniently sized. Each button must adhere to the guidelines for Android, iPhone or Windows Phone platforms. For example, buttons for iOS smartphones must be at least 7 × 7 mm.
Whether a person can easily move between screens. If the interface does not have a button to return to the previous screen and back, or to easily navigate to the main page, usability will clearly suffer.
Is there a convenient filter in the search? If there are many positions of different types in the catalog, make it easier for a person to find the desired position.
Whether the information is retained after exiting the application. The interface will be more user-friendly if customers automatically save items in the cart after adding or data after technical failures. If you have to re-fill your shopping cart every time you exit, there is a chance you might lose a potential customer.

Design analysis

Outdated style, too invisible elements or unreadable fonts can also create problems in communication with users. During validation, professional designers and technicians examine each element and conduct A / B testing to provide evidence-based conclusions.

Report presentation

After collecting information and conducting tests, the team draws up all the data in a single document and presents it to the customer. Usually the report is divided into directions: technical part, usability, design and content, and at the end they present a technical task that will help the customer to eliminate the shortcomings.

Our team has been developing mobile applications since 2011 and knows what potential customers need. We develop services for banking, corporate social networks, instant messengers and online stores, so we can conduct a UX audit for any company and improve your application.

To learn more and order an audit, fill out the form below. We will contact you shortly.

Creation of mobile applications for banks: functions, development stages and trends 2021

The development of mobile applications in the financial sector is one of the most popular directions in 2021. According to Insider Intelligence, 89% of banking users use mobile banking – mostly Millennials and Generation X between 20 and 55. The mobile application allows you to completely replace or reduce the load on bank branches, reduce the cost of renting premises and staff, and increase customer loyalty.

Andrew Douglas 3, Dec, 2021

Mobile development

The main word of the early 2020s is “pandemic”, a phenomenon that turned the lives of many and influenced literally all areas of business. This concerns mobile development to the greatest extent, because due to the fact that people are switching to a remote work format, observing the self-isolation regime, leaving home less often, the time they spend online has increased. Despite the softening of the covid restrictions, according to the e-marketer forecast, in 2022, on average, people will spend on mobile applications 90% of their daily time spent on the Internet – this will amount to almost 4 hours. The development industry should respond to this with a corresponding growth, because the statistics of demand for applications is as follows: according to a study by the Statista.com portal, in the first half of 2021 alone, the number of downloads of various applications in the Apple App Store and Google Play reached 72.5 billion.

We thought about what areas of mobile app development will be relevant in 2022, what trends await us and what features will be in the top. We do not expect innovative solutions in the coming year, it is worth focusing on what is already in demand in the market, or on those trends that are just beginning to appear in the industry, but show their promise.

1. Low-Code and No-Code Development

NCDP and LCDP platforms are gaining popularity due to the growing popularity of the mobile application development industry itself. These solutions allow even companies with limited resources to create new products. No- and low-code technologies are also good for testing a hypothesis – whether an idea will enter the market or not. The development process is greatly simplified with a variety of drag-and-drop tools, flowcharts, user-friendly visual interface. According to forecasts, revenues of the low-code development market by 2030 will reach $ 187 billion and will demonstrate more than 15 times growth in 10 years. 45% of customers already give preference to low-code development due to the fact that this solution reduces dependence on highly qualified specialists.

2. Cross-platform applications

We’ve already written about the benefits of both native and cross-platform development and which industries are suitable for both technologies. Many representatives of the global mobile development industry argue that it is cross-platform applications that will be trending in 2022, and that Flutter is the future of application development. This allows you to reach a large audience of users, optimizes the costs of launching a product, and shortens the time for its creation. And since the winner in the market is sometimes determined by the time of appearance on it, cross-platform development is increasingly chosen for developing MVP and testing hypotheses for its flexibility and compatibility. Such a giant in the market as Alibaba is also being developed using Flutter, without losing either the quality of the interface or the set of available functions.

3. PWA applications

Progressive Web Application is a technology that allows a user to install your site as an application. It has a lot of advantages – at least a significant reduction in development and support costs, the application is very small, works faster than the site and can work offline. PWA works well for brand memorability – if the application is left on the user’s device, then he will regularly see an icon with your logo. Push notifications will help you keep in touch with the customer – notifications about the status of orders or any promotions that can stimulate repeat sales. In addition, according to the study, the conversion rate thanks to PWA increases by 36%.

4. Super-appa.

This is a trend that is likely to come to the fore – multipurpose services that combine the maximum of functions. Traditionally, an application is developed to meet a specific user need: logistics, pastime, communication, education, etc. Now mega-applications are gaining popularity, covering a much wider range of tasks. Here we are talking about an environment in which all the needs of the user will be met. After all, it is much more convenient to use one application for a dozen of your tasks than to install one for each specific task.

In general, this phenomenon is not new at all, the term first sounded in 2010 from the founder of Blackberry Mike Lazaridis, who called the ecosystem of many applications a superappa. However, the new phenomenon gained popularity later, with the arrival of the Chinese WeChat on the market: the service replaced other applications from smartphones of Chinese residents. Using just one system, they were able to communicate, pay bills, order a taxi and delivery, read and watch films, and from February 2020, they could even see cities infected with coronavirus. Billions of monthly transactions conducted through WeChat and other Asian supers have pushed the trend of supers to the west.

An example of the development of such a superapp in Russia is Yandex.Go, which combines the functionality of ordering a taxi, delivering food and groceries, shopping on the marketplace, information on public transport and car sharing. However, this is still not the level of WeChat, but VKontakte is trying to get closer to it, which almost monthly adds new functions, giving its users more and more opportunities to perform actions without leaving the service. In addition, the social network is an open superapp, in which some small function (mini-app) can be launched by any developer (which, for example, Yandex does not have).

And the trend is that superapps will develop and occupy more and more market shares. Of course, it will take a long time and costly for small and medium-sized businesses to create and develop such a service in terms of financial and labor resources. However, it will be possible to adapt to the trend by integrating its services into the super-app of giant corporations, which, for example, Tinkoff said in the release of his application.

5. 3D graphics in applications

This tool will also not be innovative, it has been used for a long time in many areas of design, it is rather worth noting that in 2022 3D graphics will become even more diverse and inclusive. But the trend prioritizes the functional role of 3D and only then – the decorative one. Three-dimensional images have become much more accessible for use due to the fact that the download speed of frameworks is growing every year, and this allows the implementation of complex visual solutions. And 3D illustrations demonstrate the object much deeper and more informative, at least because they are closer to human perception than flat images. Combined with quality animation, this can be a win-win for a memorable interface.

6. Dark theme

After the appearance of dark Instagram, and after it a number of applications in development, they began to pay special attention to this, and now even the operating systems themselves have found dark mode. Someone just likes this theme more, someone it reduces the burden on the eyes, someone is comfortable to “switch to the dark side” when they use a smartphone in an unlit space, and more and more developers are introducing this mode into their products – this is almost a must-have element in 2022.

7. Voice control

In a world where people are faced with the need to do several things at the same time, voice commands are becoming indispensable, so more and more applications give the user this opportunity. Integration is possible with the voice assistant of the operating system itself or with Google voice search, for example. The advent of Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri has revolutionized user interface design. Even just taking notes using voice commands can sometimes be necessary. Moreover, voice control will be important for those who have vision problems.

8. Gestures and swipes

And this is a tool that distinguishes a mobile device from a personal computer, on which it is simply not available. Daily scrolling, scrolling of pages has already become a habit, and the less additional actions need to be performed, the more the user likes it. Some app developers even advocate not using buttons, as if they create a mess, take up a lot of screen space, and suggest replacing their functions with swipes (for example on Dribble), adding good animation. Many are well aware of this action for the most ordinary readers. And on some Honor models, the entire interface for navigating between applications is built on swipes, there are simply no “back” buttons and go to the open applications panel, and this is another trend that will only gain momentum in 2022.

9. Virtual and augmented reality

These two technologies open up very cool sales opportunities. Many brands are already using AR (augmented reality) in their virtual fitting apps (like Lamoda). And facial recognition technology lets you try makeup or accessory options from the comfort of your home. So, for example, Sephora in their application presented a virtual artist who helps to scan a face and demonstrate different images on it. IKEA has also long ago embraced augmented reality by launching an app that shows how furniture will look in different places in the home. Moreover, statistics say that 66% of shoppers will be very interested in using AR technology in online shopping.

IKEA Place im Test: Nur wenige Geräte unterstützen die App

10.5G is coming

By the end of 2021, about 692 million 5G connections are projected worldwide. The launch of 5G networks in Russia is supposed to be done only in 2024, however, in the global mobile development industry, it is assumed that next year this technology will be a new industry standard.

New speeds will provide an increase in the functionality of applications – new features will be added without sacrificing performance. Users expect fewer disconnections due to lower network latency (17-26 milliseconds versus 36 + 48 milliseconds for 4G). In addition, the 5G standard will be distinguished by more accurate geolocation, which is also important for many functions of the application.

What follows from all this?

The direction in which the industry is developing is definitely worth paying attention to. However, this is not the ultimate truth, and when developing your product, the most important thing is to offer a working solution to your user’s problem, think over how your idea will differ from others on the market, and choose a team with a sufficient set of competencies to implement it. It is quite possible that testing your hypothesis does not require virtual reality technology or voice control at all: the performer’s experience can help to determine which trend features should be present in the application: the Appcraft studio has developed and successfully launched more than 200 client applications and is actively developing 4 of its own projects. … We discuss each project individually, share with our customers insights concerning not only the technical implementation or design, but also the features of user behavior and various business models.

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Andrew Douglas 12, Oct, 2021

Mobile development

What tasks does the banking application solve?

Automates processes and saves budget. With the help of the online service, a person can apply for a loan or receive a debit card, download the necessary certificates or ask a question to the chat bot without the participation of bank employees. Thus, the application avoids the factor of human error and saves money on training and maintenance of employees.

Increases loyalty. The opportunity to get any banking service at any time without leaving home gives a good competitive advantage and keeps customers among regular users.

Provides an additional platform for marketing and analytics. In the application, you can inform about new services and changes in work, hold promotions and contests, create a separate loyalty program and send push notifications with an individual offer to each client. The service also provides detailed analytics of user actions: what channels they come from, what functions they use most often, what they spend money on, etc.

Mobile Banking Features

In the process of creating mobile applications for a bank, basic functions with basic banking services are added to the basis and, depending on the preferences of the target audience, additional options are introduced.

The main

user authentication and authorization
setting up a personal account
support chat
linking bank cards
viewing card and account balances, expense history
setting a limit on spending
contactless payment
money transfers to other cards and accounts
replenishment of a mobile phone and housing and communal services
currency exchange
purchase and sale of securities
issuance of account statements, bank details
card blocking and unblocking
push notifications

Additional

budget statistics
system of bonuses and cashback for purchases through the application
payment by QR code
voice menu
creating a family account

Trends in the banking application market

Big data

Big Data is a large amount of data that is processed by automated tools and used to collect statistics, make predictions, and make decisions. With Big Data, the bank can analyze customer behavior, create personalized offers and make decisions on loan applications. Companies that learn how to properly sort and manage data will be able to offer better solutions to users.

Complete ecosystems

In recent years, large banks have begun to concentrate entire ecosystems around themselves with proven consumer services. For example, in the Tinkoff bank application, in addition to basic functions, you can buy movie tickets, book a hotel or sign up for an excursion and get cashback. A person does not need to additionally register on each site and fill in the card number: the data is automatically transmitted through the application.

Voice control

The function is actively moving from everyday tasks to banking products. Otkritie Bank and Citibank were the first to add voice control to the application, the rest of the companies are only developing their voice direction. In the future, this will allow you to find the necessary documents in the service, determine the nearest ATM, answer customers’ frequently asked questions and set up regular payments.

Family Products

Opening an account for several people in Russia was legally allowed only in 2018, so products for each family member are just beginning to develop. For example, Tinkoff, Raiffeisenbank and Alfa-Bank have family accounts in applications. Now the market lacks a separate application for children with an educational approach and a separate set of services.

Augmented reality

The technology is still used in a targeted manner and mainly for marketing, but it has a good perspective. For example, VTB mortgage lending clients are offered a virtual tour of a property, and a virtual consultant explains the basics of investing in an app.

Development stages

The AppCraft development studio is attentive to every step: it helps us to accurately determine the client’s needs and create the desired application functionality.

Consulting and analytics

Before starting the development, we conduct interviews with a client, immerse ourselves in business goals, study the audience and communication channels, analyze competitors – this will help to correctly position ourselves with clients.

Preparation of technical specifications

We write down the project goals, interface and security requirements, functionality, development stages, team composition and budget. We sign a contract and start development.

Prototyping

We reproduce the basic logic, structure and functionality of the future application. Typically, the prototype is created in the form of screens at each stage of the user journey. It is not yet a finished product, but it helps to test its functionality in order to fix bugs and improve the user experience at the initial stage.

UX / UI design development

The UX designer builds the logic of interaction between the pages: registration and authorization screens, filling in data, personal account, shopping cart, purchase payment, order tracking, etc.

The UI designer develops the appearance of the future service in accordance with the terms of reference and the client’s corporate style. He selects a color scheme, fonts, renders icons, buttons, push notifications, sliders, etc. After approval, the prototype is sent back for review to correct the shortcomings.

Backend and frontend development

Front-end programmers develop the client interface and platform logic, and back-end developers create a server for storing and exchanging information.

Testing

To test the features, people who have not participated in other stages of development are involved – they must be impartial and with a fresh eye to evaluate every page, button and push notification. To do this, you can involve a professional QA team with their own test plan, list of features and desired behavior. In the process, they test functionality, performance and design. For additional confidence, a focus group is attracted with people who use the application for the first time.

Publication and revision

After launching in the marketplace in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, you will have access to detailed statistics: which sections are the most popular and which ones are not very popular, how many people completed targeted actions, which pages should be modified, etc. code revision and technical support.

Order the development of an application for a bank can be in AppCraft. We are ready to turn your idea into a full-fledged product that will help maintain communication with customers and increase profits. We deal with all stages of development from analytics to release, help with promotion and provide prompt technical support. For 10 years, we have created several of our own projects and more than 200 mobile applications – banking systems, instant messengers, corporate solutions, e-commerce and social networks.

Contact us via the form to discuss the details and find out the exact price.

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Andrew Douglas 15, Sep, 2021

Mobile development

According to eMarketer, people spend more and more time on their phones, and the trend will only grow in the near future – according to forecasts, in 2022 people will sit on smartphones for 4 hours a day, and 88% of this time will be spent in applications. In this article, we analyze the types of mobile applications, how they work and how they differ from websites.

A mobile application is software that can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet. It all started with simple games on push-button phones, but modern products can cover almost any need: pay taxes, make an appointment with a doctor, find vacancies on demand or a couple for the evening, order food and book a hotel.

If you plan to release your own application, we at AppCraft are ready to develop it and help with marketing – our team has been developing mobile services for more than 10 years and has created more than 200 projects for business. In the meantime, we’ll tell you what applications are and how they work.

Types of mobile applications

By business goals

Internal use

Services that optimize the work of employees within the company: corporate social networks and instant messengers, virtual office, cloud storage, etc.

As a marketing tool

Loyalty programs: discount aggregators, bonus cards and cashback systems for regular customers.
Online business services: programs for making appointments with a doctor, booking tours, hotels, etc. with the ability to conduct banking transactions.

In these cases, the application is used as a tool for implementing a marketing strategy – its interface allows you to send push notifications and reminders encouraging the audience to take advantage of a discount, buy a product, book a room or make an appointment with a doctor.

By appointment

Gaming

Logic tasks, races, quests, quizzes, shooters, children, adults and family games – the possibilities of modern development are almost endless and allow you to create both a simple and a complex multistage virtual reality system.

For e-commerce and service industries

Here we collect everything that helps the company to reach as many potential audience as possible: programs for ordering a taxi, making an appointment with a beautician, buying tickets to the cinema, etc.

Content

They help users to quickly receive relevant content: news from publications and newspapers, blogs with useful articles on psychology, exchanges with exchange rates and stock prices, tasks for language courses.

Social network

Services that help communicate via smartphone and tablet: VKontakte, Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, etc.

By the specifics of work

Native

These are projects that are created for a specific platform, written in its native language and provide all the available capabilities of a smartphone: camera, contact list, GPS, health and sleep data, etc. Services for Android are most often written in Java, for iOS – Swift or objective-С.

Pros: high speed and performance, the ability to implement the maximum set of functions, an intuitive interface, the ability to work without the Internet, a reliable level of security, support from marketplaces.

Cons: high cost and long development process, expensive maintenance.

Mobile web apps

It can be called a site adapted to any phone. The web service can be set as a bookmark in the browser and used regardless of the platform, without downloading to the phone and without wasting memory.

Pros: simple and inexpensive creation process, no need to go through moderation and publish in every marketplace, easy access for users.

Cons: Internet connection required, limited interface, poor performance and speed, push notifications cannot be sent.

Cross-platform

Universal services that are created for two platforms at once: iOS and Android and combine the features of web and mobile applications.

Pros: low cost and high release speed, cross-platform, offline updates.

Cons: the speed is lower than that of the native ones, incorrect work in the case of a bad Internet, limited visual capabilities.

How mobile apps work

How do they differ from websites

Mobile services are more difficult and more expensive to create, but they allow high-quality interaction with users – their costs quickly pay off and help build a loyal audience.

Notifications. Through the application, you can send push notifications and reminders, even if the person does not open the service, perform functions in the background and without an Internet connection.
Prompt feedback from the company via chat and technical support.
Individual service. It is possible to use geolocation, a person’s biological rhythm, data on interests and queries in search engines to offer an individual service: call a car to the house, create a diet and exercise regimen, offer the necessary analyzes taking into account medical history, or find a suitable pair according to interests.
It is more convenient to use: the application interface is adapted to user actions and has a clear structure with buttons.
Detailed analytics. With the help of statistics in the application, you can analyze the behavior of the target audience, draw up a more detailed portrait of the client and select effective marketing strategies.

Architecture

There are two main blocks here: front-end and back-end parts. They act as a split system and interact with each other, transferring information and ensuring the smooth operation of the product.

Back-end the part is not visible to users, but it is on it that the entire logic of the site rests, data is processed and reactions are sent. Backend developers ensure the correct functioning of the interface, force each button to transfer a person to the desired page, make payments through banking systems and collect data.

Front-end provides the look and feel of the interface that users interact with. These are the design of pages, buttons, push notifications and other graphic elements, a map of the user’s journey and interaction with functions.

In which programming languages are they created

Java

Most of the Android apps in the Google Play Market are written on it.

Java is used for development for Android, cross-platform and hybrid interfaces, but in the latter two cases, you will need to use other languages to take into account the specifics of each operating system.

Kotlin

It was created to overcome the shortcomings of Java and is used to write code for almost all new services on Android.

Objective C

It began to be used in the 80s of the 20th century. It was built on top of C and Smalltalk, and in 2008 Apple released the iPhone SDK 2.0, allowing you to create programs for iOS. At first it was considered an add-on to C, but when NextStep and Apple licensed it, Objective C became the official language of all iOS interfaces.

Swift

Swift has not only adopted all the advantages of Objective C, but also has been endowed with new features that make it easier to write and implement code.

Rust

Rust began in 2006 by developer Graydon Hoare, who wanted to combine the speed of C ++ with the robustness of Haskell. In 2009, Mozilla joined him, and a year later he was presented at the Mozilla Summit. Rust is now one of the most popular among developers. Used to create native and web applications on Android, iOS, Linux, Windows and Unix.

WITH#

Used primarily for Windows Mobile, but recently C # has learned to work on Mac, Linux, IoS and Android. Due to its convenient syntax, strict structuring and a large number of libraries and tools, you can write different types of interfaces on it and solve any problems with less time and resources.

When is it necessary for a business

If users use a phone more often than a computer. You can track statistics through Yandex.Metrica or Google Analytics. If more than 50% of customers visit your site via a smartphone, this is a sign for action: provide users with convenient conditions for ordering, before competitors do it.

There is a loyalty system. Replace plastic cards and paper coupons with stickers with a convenient online service (ideally, it will work even without the Internet). Offer customers an electronic bonus card with points, a discount for downloading the application, and a convenient personal account for tracking activity.

Competitors are already using the app. If the market has already begun to use mobile technologies, it is definitely not worth waiting for. Explore the offers of other companies, come up with additional features for your own product and start developing so as not to lose customers.

We need new sales tools. The service allows you to implement marketing campaigns: hold sweepstakes and promotions, talk about new products and services, remind you to register and offer individual conditions for each person.

Application creation – a complicated process, but in the hands of an experienced team, everything is created quickly without loss of quality and at every stage is tested on a real target audience.

The AppCraft team deals with all stages of development: from analytics to release, provides prompt code improvement and technical support.

Over 10 years of work, we have created several of our own projects and more than 200 applications – messengers, corporate social networks, systems for banking products and online stores. If you want to create your own mobile business application, we are ready to turn your idea into a functional and popular product.

Contact us via the form to discuss the details and find out the exact price.

Andrew Douglas 7, Sep, 2021

Mobile development

Content

Distribution of the budget when creating a mobile application
How we help launch a mobile product
Possible scenarios

Any startup has little time, money and no proven hypothesis, which is why it is called a startup.

Throughout the existence of the AppCraft mobile application development studio, we tried to launch our own projects, and we do it now. And from our own experience, we have made sure that the following strategy is optimal:

Think over the idea that has arisen, look at existing examples, and pay special attention to closed mobile applications. Very important do not forget about the survivor bias.
List everything that can be done in the project.
Spend no less time to throw away everything without which the product can exist… If the main goal of the application, that is, the solution to a specific user problem, is achieved without this feature, it should be thrown away without hesitation.
Draw up a marketing plan, at least an approximate one. If you do not think it over from the beginning, then at the start of an advertising campaign you will have to redo and add many things.
Write a detailed technical assignment. For a startup, it should be detailed in comparison with mobile applications for already established business processes. If there, in case of questions, the answers are easily found among the established rules, then revisions of entire sections are possible here. Writing technical specifications is the creation of a product.
Start a marketing campaign in accordance with a previously developed plan immediately, without even waiting for the first version of the product. Recruiting an audience and establishing close cooperation with it is a very difficult task, in fact, this is what you are doing by creating a mobile product. Therefore, you need to start doing this as early as possible.
Develop the first version of the product, test it in focus groups. Complete 3-4 processing cycles and improvements based on the information collected.
Carry out a soft start on the formed cohorts of the intended target audience. Cut off non-working cohorts and focus on the most alive.
Move fastfocusing on early adopters. You need to communicate with them, their loyalty needs to be appreciated.

^{Mobile application development stages}

The way to launch your own project cannot be called easy – there is really a lot of work, especially in establishing productive communication with users, and since resources are limited, first of all they need to be properly allocated.

Distribution of the budget when creating a mobile application

The bulk of the resources, about 60-70%, should be spent on gathering the audience. This includes direct advertising, and the formation of groups on social networks, and the purchase of articles, and partnerships, and many other methods.

Completely viral products that have grown without a single advertising penny are extremely rare. If this happens to your product, that’s fine, but it’s better to be able to fire multiple shots and hit the target without relying on one powerful shot in the top ten.

Of the remaining small part, 25% are for creating MVP and project management, and 50% for revisions based on the results of testing cycles.

It all looks something like this:

Distribution of money at the start of the mobile application — ^{Distribution of finances at the start of a mobile application}

First – MVP, then several quick cycles of improvement and refinement on test cohorts, then transition to large service cycles.

It is important to understand that modern IT products are services. They are not written once and for all, they are constantly changing, adapting both to the surrounding reality and to the changing needs of users.

How we help launch a mobile product

At first, we protect your idea the signing of an NDA – a non-disclosure agreement. Each specialist in our team working on your project has a similar signed agreement with the studio.

Yes, in the modern world, patenting is not as important as the speed of building business processes and the ability to form a product audience. Nevertheless, a successfully launched product is a lot of capital, and you need to work with it very carefully. Therefore, the protection of your right to your mobile application is at the forefront.

Further on the stages of development and development:

1. We carry out market analysis and write a detailed analytical report indicating the history of experiments in this niche, current competitors, links to research from global consulting companies and recommendation conclusions.

2. We help in formation of a marketing strategy…

3. We draw up technical specifications together with you, we make a clickable prototype and organize the collection of focus group information.

4. We develop MVP, preparing for a soft launch, organizing the collection and processing of statistical information. In the article about launching a mobile application we wrote about this in more detail.

5. We help in launching: we monitor the technical condition of the product, provide support, set up A / B testing of key functionality.

6. If necessary – we organize communication with investors and help in negotiations on technical issues.

A large number of developed mobile applications have formed our understanding of how it is worth and how not to do each stage. Of course, each product is different, but there are common features of the technological process that increase the chances of success.

On the blog, you can read our article on the cost of developing an app for android and iOS…

Possible scenarios

Yes, the first version of the developed product may not work. As a rule, it does not work. Everything we do the first time rarely works well.

Therefore, the startup process does not at all assume that this will happen:

1. After the development of the technical specification, the clickable prototype is shown to the target audience. We ask potential users to rate from 0 to 10 – how likely it is that they will install such a mobile application for themselves. Almost everyone puts 7-9 – this is politeness, no one will use the product. 10 – most likely yes. Success is measured in tens. If there are not enough of them, the product needs to be redone.

2. Developed MVP is launched on test cohorts. Here the statistics are analyzed in detail and, again, rotations of individual functions or even the entire product are possible.

3. During soft start, the groping process continues, some functions are amorphous and can be changed at any time, some are removed, and some are added.

4. If, after many attempts, it is still not possible to reach profitability, a more radical change in the business model is considered: partnerships, creation of a product for a specific client, barter cooperation and other options.

It happens that the result is not quite what was intended, even in its essence, but if it works, solves people’s problems and allows you to earn money, that’s great.

We will help you at every stage of this difficult path and will be happy to share our experience. Doing something big together is always very interesting and exciting.

Andrew Douglas 3, Sep, 2021

Mobile development

Whether it is worth choosing cross-platform development for your product or preferring native development is not an easy question, since each business has its own goals and expectations from the product that is planned to be developed. But today we will definitely figure out which development is right for you.

What are cross-platform apps?

Cross-platform applications are applications that are developed and then run immediately on both Android and iOS. The essence of the development is that the source code of the application is translated into native, that is, understandable for a specific mobile device. As a result, the program can interact with the operating system installed on it.

Recall: native applications, as opposed to cross-platform, are written initially for a specific OS.

Pros of cross-platform development

expanding the user base due to the appearance of the application simultaneously in several stores;
single source code saves you the hassle of hiring multiple developers for each platform;
75% of the codebase of a cross-platform application can be reused, adapting it for new projects.

Cons of cross-platform development

1. High dependence on a mobile device

Cross-platform apps usually don’t work offline. Therefore, their capabilities are highly dependent on the presence of a stable Internet connection. The operating system version and model of the device are also important. A cross-platform application is almost guaranteed to degrade the performance of a device older than one to two years. While the native application will work stably even on an ancient gadget with outdated firmware. So if you don’t want your customers to read angry reviews about how your application finally “finished off” someone’s smartphone, choose native development.

2. Unfriendly user interface

Users get so used to the look and functionality of their gadgets that they expect maximum responsiveness from the applications installed on them. They want to be sure that each button will be in its rightful place, that the page scrolls at the speed that is optimal for them, and that any action they take will be followed by an immediate reaction. Cross-platform applications usually have difficulty adapting to the device, and they cannot boast of high-speed performance.

The problem is that there are no guidelines for cross-platform development – development standards from the creators of the OS. Therefore, cross-platform development of mobile applications for android will not be convenient for the iOS user, and vice versa. You can, of course, create separate designs for each platform, but in terms of labor costs, this will be equal to creating two different applications, albeit in the same language.

3. Struggle for primacy among development tools

In the market for cross-platform development solutions, competition is getting tougher every day. So far, the most popular among developers are React Native and Xamarin, but they may well be outstripped, for example, by Vue Native. In this case, the ex-leaders of the race will lose their most important advantage – the operational support of the code. And this can happen with any cross-platform tool.

A specialist develops an application for several OS

This is not a problem for native development. The introduction of new tools occurs gradually, and knowledge of several programming languages, which is mandatory for a narrow specialist, will allow him to quickly deal with all the innovations. In addition, there are huge professional communities around each operating system, as a result of which any difficulty that arises is solved by searching for a similar problem on the forums, where thousands of people are ready to suggest and help solve it.

Which app is right for your business?

Before answering this question, it is imperative to analyze your business. Customer segments, the value of time and money resources, the desired depth of application integration with user devices, plus well-defined long-term goals – the minimum on which your choice will depend. But we will make it easier if you answer the relevant questions right now.

1. What is your audience using?

If you know that your client base is close to 50-50 for iOS to Android users, choose native development. This will show that you respect the needs of all your customers equally, regardless of their income level.

The relationship between the choice of a mobile device and the level of solvency was once again confirmed by App Annie. A study of the number of downloads and sales of mobile applications in Google Play and the App Store in the first quarter of 2018 revealed that Android smartphone users downloaded 135% more applications than visitors to the iOS store. At the same time, the App Store brought its owners 85% more revenue than Google Play. A reason to think about the separate development of the ios mobile application.

The path to success is clear: play on two fields at once. More precisely, at two stores. Just calculate in which one the application should appear first. Unless of course the simultaneous release is part of your digital strategy.

2. How much time do you have for development?

The financial costs of the project depend on the answer to this question. The fact is that in terms of the time spent on development, a cross-platform application only seems to be a more profitable solution. In fact, adapting it to platforms can take almost as long as creating two native applications, since developers have to write additional pieces of code for problem areas.

With a native application, there will definitely not be such problems, which is very important for retaining an audience that is extremely intolerant to errors and bugs. According to statistics from Compuware, 79% of users are ready to restart the application if it did not work correctly during the first launch, but only 16% agree to give it another chance. The rest will most likely just uninstall the program.

3. What features of the device do you plan to use?

We have already talked about the fact that only native applications are able to reproduce heavy graphics quickly and without loss of quality. But the technical advantages of native development don’t stop there. Take the Facebook app as an example. With the release of separate versions for Android and iOS, scrolling has become smoother, image loading times have been reduced and all cache issues have been resolved.

What’s more, native apps get direct access to all services on the device, which allows you to get information about a user’s location or contact list. Cross-platform applications have to use special native plugins, which negatively affects the data transfer speed and overloads the device’s RAM.

4. What results are you striving for?

A digital strategy is a list of goals that your company can achieve using digital tools. The choice of the latter largely depends on the benefits that you want to get in the end.

Break down the process from idea to result point by point, taking into account all available resources. Discoveries can be the most unexpected.

For example, you may find that translating your responsive site with many features and interactivity into a cross-platform application, as you originally intended, is too expensive a task. Or finally make sure that a mobile site always loses to a mobile application – how cross-platform development loses to a native one. And among the reasons, find those that we described above.

Conclusion: a cross-platform application is beneficial only in one case – you create a demo version of the application, limited in time, money and narrow-profile specialists. In all other cases, a native application will give you many times more advantages, since this is a qualitatively different level of development.

In our blog, you can always read about the price for developing applications for ios and android and have time to leave an application for developing a mobile application in 2020.

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Andrew Douglas 2, Sep, 2021

Mobile development

As of Q3 2019 on Google Play posted about 2.7 million mobile applications, and the App Store has about 2 million applications. Quite a lot, right? But don’t think that launching a mobile app is easy. You must be competitive and stand out from the millions of mobile apps in the industry… You need a working strategy that is thought out to the smallest detail to ease the path to success. So how do you launch the application?

Application launch strategy has a significant impact on user acquisition and retention. It is a marketing effort that requires extensive research and ongoing work to achieve results. To improve your chances of success, we’ve compiled a list of six steps that we recommend you follow at each stage of the startup process. By following these guidelines, you will develop a strategy to maximize user retention, daily product use, and reduce post-launch uninstalls.

Step one: know your audience

The first step in preparing a mobile app launch strategy is market research and understanding your audience (e.g. demographics and pain points). Feedback is very important, knowing your audience’s desires will help you better understand how your product fits their pain points and fits into their daily life. In addition, these studies will provide insight into what they dislike about the applications available on the market. Important reveal the main reasons for user frustrationstudying his behavior and attitude. To do this, you must know the answer to a number of key questions:

Who is this product for?
How to solve the user problem?
What benefits should the product bring?
What type of content would be most appropriate?
What tone, voice, and style of content resonates well with your audience?
Are there any visual branding patterns among the audience?
What are the best platforms to use for paid ads?

If you don’t have a clear understanding of who your audience is, you won’t be able to properly target users with your launch strategy. Investing in market research will provide you with a solid foundation to launch your mobile app. Before developing an android application or developing an ios application, ordering audience research or doing it yourself is the right decision.

Step two: positioning

After the market research is completed, you need to turn all the collected information into a result. The knowledge gained about the strengths and weaknesses of your product needs to be communicated to the team and key stakeholders.

Positioning will help determine what sets your app apart from the competition. This is especially important for new applications, as consumers tend to evaluate new products against what is already on the market.

For example, users won’t appreciate a new dating app without comparing its features to Tinder. Is the new app easier to use than Tinder? Does it have a superior algorithm that will lead to better matches? If not, users are unlikely to download the app and instead use what they know.

You must tell your audience why your application is the most valuable. The message will not be heard if you just describe the functions of the application. Instead, focus on how it differs from any other product on the market.

Product positioning needs to be determined

Step three: define the criteria for success

The success criteria for android or iOS app development is what your product will be compared against to determine if the app has been successfully launched. To show stakeholders key information about your success or failure, you need to at first set some goals and define how they will be measured… For example, Active Install Metrics, Number of Reviews, and Average Rating. If you want to be successful on a project, you must define what the success of your project looks like.

Step four: promotion of a mobile application

Have you done market research and identified the criteria for success? Now it’s time to focus on the mobile app launch itself. For everything to go well, there must be a marketing plan in place to ensure that every step is taken in a timely manner and completed properly.

What should a marketing plan include?

Content promotion

“Content” is a pretty broad term that encompasses almost everything: blog posts, social media posts, landing pages, ebooks, white papers, examples, customer testimonials, newsletters, emails and videos.

Press Release Creation

To maximize your chances of getting press coverage, make it as easy as possible for bloggers and influencers to present your app. Structure all of your resources on a website or online directory so that they have easy access to the information they need to promote your product. Here’s the minimum you should include in your press release:

Graphics and creatives (logo, icon, screenshots and promo video)
Description of your application
Links to your website, social media accounts.
Contacts

Optimize your product description

Think carefully about your product description to convince users to download your app. For example, on Google Play and the App Store, users only see the first five lines of your descriptionif they don’t press the button: read more. This means that you have to interest the user literally from the first lines.

Launch the mobile app on Android and iOS platforms

Step five: launch the mobile app!

Now it’s time to finally publish your app on Google Play or App Store. At this point, you should be aware of the submission rules that your app must comply with before submitting them to any app store. The Apple Guide can be found here, and the Android Guide can be found here.

You will need a lot of materials: an application icon, screenshots, a description of the functionality, an advertising description, keywords, a link to the privacy policy (required for the AppStore) and the application itself itself, loaded through platform-specific development environments.

Step six: post-launch follow-up

According to a Localytics report, 21% of users uninstall apps after the first launch. Advertising and user purchases are important factors, but retention of those users is even more important. Therefore, it is imperative that your application makes a good impression within the first few days, demonstrating the most value and providing a good user experience. If you can’t get users interested right away, you will likely lose their interest.

There are several techniques you can use to increase user engagement and retention. One such technique is to encourage users to use your application. Incentives can be anything you want: rewards, access to specialized content, coupons, special promotions, and other offers. All this will give users a reason to choose your application, help increase conversion and stimulate engagement. We talked in more detail in engagement article…

Read also: Disadvantages of a mobile app that affect its success

You can order the development of an application for mobile devices on our website, appcraft managers will answer all questions, and you can read about the price of developing applications for iOS and android in the article.

Final thoughts

The release of a mobile app is not a one-time event. There will always be room for improvementthat make release a cyclical process requiring revaluation as the market changes. Newly launched mobile apps should be regularly updated and re-released. And for the best results, your launch strategy should create multiple touchpoints that potential users can explore before the product is available for download. Raising awareness before launch gives users an idea of the purpose and benefits of the app, so when they land on the store listing, your product will not be overlooked.

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Andrew Douglas 1, Sep, 2021

Mobile development

The methodology for calculating the timing and cost of developing applications is given below. A more detailed description of pricing in the IT development market is in this article.

Calculating the cost of a mobile application

The calculation of the cost of developing a mobile application is based on the amount of labor – time. They are precisely the main difficulty in understanding this market.: Someone promises to complete the task in two weeks, while others claim that it is impossible to voice less than three months in sound mind and memory.

We analyzed a large number of reports from various organizations and mobile development studios, which, in turn, are based on the study of project evaluations by performers on Clutch, UpWork and other sites. There are many of them, for example:

These data give an understanding of the average time estimate for the development of typical mobile applications: social networks, instant messengers, utilities, and others.

Of course, the average price implies a fairly large range even in each segment. For example, the implementation of chat in applications can vary greatly:

Should there be statuses about delivery and reading of messages?
•
Are there group chats?
•
Ability to send images, video and audio messages?
•
Is it possible to delete messages, including those of interlocutors?
•
Should dialogues be archived?
•
Is the encryption algorithm required and which one?
•
In which country will it work: what local legal requirements must be met?
•
Should there be stickers?
•
If so, is it possible to upload my own kits?
•
Should it be possible to reply to messages via push notifications?

And these are just the main questions, not affecting design, animation elements, support for various devices, and so on.

However, the average estimate provides a guideline for the order of labor. If it is a month and a half, then in fact it can be plus or minus two weeks, but not six months.

The resulting estimate of the scope of work is distributed among the number of specialists in the team. If a mobile application is being developed simultaneously for two platforms, iOS and Android, then the work is being carried out in parallel. The design also partially overlaps: the development of promotional materials, for example, can be carried out in parallel with the direct development of the product.

The calculation of the cost of a mobile application is based on the average cost of an hour of work of our Appcraft studio specialists. It is average for the market: the development office is located in Ryazan, which allows us to reduce the cost of maintaining the workspace.

In this article, we described the principle of cost formation for the development of a mobile application in more detail, gave a number of examples and described our vision of the algorithm for selecting a contractor.

And in this – the results of a survey of customers regarding their opinion on the timing and cost of developing mobile applications in Russia.

Mobile app launch

The release of a mobile app is not a one-time event. There will always be room for improvements that make release a cyclical process that needs to be reassessed.

IT today