How do you improve mobile app engagement?

1 Understand your users

The first step to improve mobile app engagement is to understand who your users are, what they need, and how they behave. You can use analytics tools, surveys, feedback, and user testing to collect data and insights about your users' demographics, preferences, goals, pain points, and satisfaction. By segmenting your users based on their characteristics and behaviors, you can tailor your app's features, content, design, and messaging to their needs and expectations.

2 Optimize your onboarding

The onboarding process is the first impression your users get of your app, and it can make or break their engagement. You want to make sure that your onboarding is simple, intuitive, and helpful, and that it shows the value and benefits of your app. You can use tutorials, walkthroughs, tips, and incentives to guide your users through the app's main features and functions, and to motivate them to complete key actions. You can also ask for permissions, preferences, and notifications settings during the onboarding, to personalize your app and communicate with your users.

3 Provide value and relevance

One of the main reasons why users stop using an app is because they don't find it useful or relevant. To improve mobile app engagement, you need to provide value and relevance to your users, and to demonstrate how your app solves their problems or enhances their lives. You can use push notifications, in-app messages, emails, and social media to remind your users of your app's value proposition, to inform them of new features or updates, to offer them rewards or discounts, and to encourage them to revisit your app. However, you need to be careful not to spam or annoy your users, and to segment and personalize your messages based on their preferences and behaviors.

4 Enhance your user interface

The user interface (UI) of your app is the visual and interactive element that your users see and interact with, and it can affect their engagement and satisfaction. You want to make sure that your UI is attractive, consistent, and user-friendly, and that it follows the best practices and standards of mobile app design. You can use colors, icons, fonts, images, animations, and gestures to create a pleasing and engaging UI, and to ensure that your app is easy to navigate, to understand, and to use. You can also use feedback mechanisms, such as progress bars, alerts, confirmations, and error messages, to communicate with your users and to improve their confidence and trust.

5 Improve your user experience

The user experience (UX) of your app is the overall impression and feeling that your users have when using your app, and it can influence their engagement and loyalty. You want to make sure that your UX is smooth, fast, and reliable, and that it meets or exceeds your users' expectations. You can use performance optimization techniques, such as caching, compression, and lazy loading, to reduce your app's loading time, to save your users' bandwidth and battery, and to prevent crashes or glitches. You can also use user feedback, ratings, reviews, and analytics, to identify and fix any issues or bugs, and to improve your app's functionality and quality.

6 Experiment and iterate

The last tip to improve mobile app engagement is to experiment and iterate, and to keep learning and improving your app based on your users' feedback and data. You can use A/B testing, multivariate testing, and other methods, to test different versions of your app's features, content, design, and messages, and to measure their impact on your app's engagement and other metrics. You can also use analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, Firebase, or Mixpanel, to track and analyze your app's performance, user behavior, and user feedback, and to identify what works and what doesn't. By experimenting and iterating, you can optimize your app's engagement and create a better user experience.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?