Mobile apps have come to play a significant role in our daily lives, and for businesses, mobile apps are one of the most effective ways to connect with and engage their customers. As a result, companies need to stay informed about the latest app development trends to remain competitive in the market and continue to delight users.
If you’re interested in learning more about some of the trends driving app development, we will cover a few of the trends that you should not ignore. Adding some of these features to your mobile app can help you stand apart from your competition and engage more fully with your customers.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are two forms of technology drastically improving every year. We have already seen the success potential for AR games like Pokemon Go, but VR and AR features have so much more potential outside of mobile gaming. For example, companies have used AR features to show users what they will look like in a particular outfit or how a piece of furniture will look in their room.
Imagine you run a real estate company. Adding AR and VR features to your app can give you the ability to offer users Virtual Reality tours of available listings. Furthermore, with AR, users could imagine what an empty home will look like once they move their furniture in. When you combine these features with the mortgage calculator, you give users everything they need to make a decision about buying a home.
Virtual Reality could also be used in real estate arbitration and other meetings to bring parties together conveniently without the need for travel. The possibilities of VR and AR are only growing. Now is the time to start considering adding these features to your mobile app.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has been gaining a lot of momentum in app development. AI is still not at the point of true, human-like sentience, but it can still prove useful for many essential tasks.
Many businesses have begun using AI-powered chatbots to assist customers at all hours of the day, direct them to the proper live agents, and in many cases, solve common problems that users might have. In these cases, Artificial Intelligence can save businesses time and money and improve their brand image by giving users the ability to always get help for issues they are having.
Artificial Intelligence is also being used to power popular voice assistant features like Alexa and Siri. However, businesses are seeing the biggest value of AI away from their user-facing assets. Instead, artificial Intelligence is used behind the scenes to better understand and predict how users will act. This gives organizations a valuable advantage when it comes to developing new features and marketing new products.
We might not yet have the truly sentient Artificial Intelligence made popular by science fiction, but there are AI tools that can be a huge benefit to your mobile app and business.
Progressive Web Apps
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are changing the entire mobile app development landscape. These apps are web apps that can be downloaded and saved to mobile devices just like any other app. However, PWAs are downloaded directly from a web browser which means it doesn’t have to go through the approval process associated with the two major app stores (Apple and Google).
Furthermore, PWAs are cross-platform by nature. Instead of developing one app for iOS and another for Android, you can spend your time and energy developing one Progressive Web App that can reach any user with a mobile device. The major drawback of hybrid mobile apps is that they cannot access a device’s native features or send push notifications.
PWAs improve upon the experience of hybrid apps by allowing developers to send push notifications and access native features like the camera. In addition, developing Progressive Web Apps can save your organization a lot of money because they are built using common web technologies JavaScript, HTML, and CSS instead of more specialized programming languages like Swift or Kotlin.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the trends that are shaping the future of app development. If you want to remain competitive in the market, it is time to start thinking about utilizing the latest technologies and development trends in your mobile app. Your organization could take several different approaches, but ultimately, certain options will be a better fit for your business than others.
If you need help parsing through all of the information and options available to you, reach out to an app development partner. Trust in a partner with industry experience and technical expertise to help you create a digital product that truly delights your users.
