What is mobile app? Everything you need to know about mobile apps development

A?mobile application?(also called a?mobile app)?are applications that allow you to use to access the content you desire on devices such as mobile phones or tablet.

What is mobile app?

App?is an abbreviation of the word Application. This application is written by programmers to run on many different platforms such as phones, computers and websites.

Mobile Apps?are applications that allow you to use to access the content you desire on devices such as mobile phones.

Mobile App?is nothing new to programmers. But for users, many are still vague. It is roughly understood that it is an application only used for mobile devices or tablets, through the "online store" such as Apple's App Store or Google's Google Play.Why Mobile Apps are necessary?

Mobile applications have transformed the way businesses operate. It is projected that around 3.5 billion people in the world will own a smartphone by 2020. Mobile applications are currently the most effective, direct, and flexible way to communicate product information to customers and increase brand loyalty.

Why Does Every Business Need a Mobile Application?

Companies are continuously battling for the attention and loyalty of their clients. It's a never-ending battle to give the best product to a broader audience. As a result, in such a fast-paced environment, the winner will always be the company that has built the most efficient and convenient communication channels with its customers.

Achieve strong brand presence

Some businesses may be hesitant to invest in mobile app development, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. The ability to be visible and accessible to customers 24/7 is one of main reasons. Nowadays, a average person in the United States spends 2.7 hours per day on their phones. Various apps account for up to 86 percent of that time, rather than browsing in a browser.

Installing a mobile application with a clean icon design can pique and sustain a customer's interest on its own. There are many different sorts of mobile apps available, and you can select the one that best suits your target demographic.?

Even if the client does not interact with the app on a daily basis, establishing a consistent presence goes a long way toward establishing a connection between a service and a certain firm.

Deliver Information More Quickly

Companies can interact with their customers in real time with push notifications and updates faster than ever before. Notifications through a mobile app are more likely to be noticed than checking the company's website or even the individual's personal email. This makes it easy to provide information about price changes, sales, promotions, and new items to customers while also ensuring that they receive it.

Digitize Loyalty Programs

The old card system is useful, but it isn't quite up to par with today's world of technology solutions. While transferring a loyalty program entirely to mobile is not a good idea, giving this choice and encouraging users to use it is undeniably advantageous. This digitized loyalty program is likely to attract new customers as well as boost the number of app downloads, thereby broadening the audience and including existing customers who might not otherwise install the app.

Extend the Brand and Improve Recognition

Any excellent business will make every effort to make its brand work for them. Through the app's design and icon, a mobile app offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to establish a very memorable and compelling brand image. It might be vibrant, energizing, educational, or simple. In general, it may effectively describe the company, its overall ideals, and its emphasis.

Expand the Target Audience and Increase Customer Engagement

Mobile apps are particularly appealing to the young generation (like Gen Z), which has grown up in a world where they can chat, order items online, and communicate with their service providers at all hours of the day and night. Due to this reason, if a company does not have its own app, it is losing many potential customers.

Furthermore, through chats and order forms, mobile applications assist boost consumer involvement. For many people, ordering a products with just a few clicks is far faster and less stressful than making a phone call for the same purpose. Mobile apps also allow businesses to obtain feedback on the quality of their service, allowing them to improve both their performance and the experience of their customers.

Mobile Applications are Crucial for Modern Business

Over the years, online platforms have prove themselves as critical components of any organization. In 2020, it will be vital to elevate online platforms' recognition to the next level, and to adjust the structure of a company's products and services to suit the mobile market.

Smartphones are an ever-present feature that most shoppers in the United States and throughout the world carry in their pockets at all times. These tools allow users to browse, evaluate, and buy things in minutes, effectively streamlining the process and minimizing the amount of time consumers spend debating whether or not to buy something. Mobile apps can help you grow your consumer base, gain customer loyalty, and remain ahead of the competition. Platforms for Mobile app development.

Human hand holding mobile phone with text messages. Person touching screen with chat conversation flat vector illustration. Phone communication concept for banner, website design or landing web page

These applications develop against code or frameworks for each platform. This will interfere with certain machines. In low-end smartphones, it may not be possible to run the application due to low configuration or the need for a newer operating system.

Developing a mobile app seems more professional than the above two ways. If you want to have an interaction with users or between individuals in a group or organization, mobile app development is an appropriate direction.

RWD and mobile web will make your website easier to be found by Google and users as the SEO process is simpler. As mentioned above, the cost to develop RWD and mobile web is at a moderate level and the coverage of mobile device users is higher than that of mobile apps.

Different Types of Mobile App Development

Native Mobile Apps

When you hear the term "native app," it simply signifies that the software was created specifically for a particular operating system (OS).

The most common mobile operating systems are iOS and Android. As a result, developing a native app for one of these platforms necessitates maximizing the device's capabilities.

As a result, native apps made for Apple devices, for example, cannot be utilized on other platforms, such as Android.Progressive Web Apps and Web Apps

Web apps are web-based programs that may be accessed by a web browser such as Chrome, Safari, and others. To access the app, all a user needs is an internet connection and the URL to type into their browser.

Unlike native apps, which must be downloaded from a smartphone's app store, there is no need to download or install anything.

Hybrid Mobile Apps

Hybrid apps combine online and native app technologies to provide the best of both worlds.

People enjoy hybrid apps because, unlike native apps, they can run on a variety of devices and platforms, which saves time during creation.

What's the difference between Native Mobile App and Hybrid Mobile App?

Native Mobile App

• Description: Application installed on mobile devices
• Setup: Develop mobile apps for each operating system
• Development and maintenance costs: Expensive
• Content Updates:?Content updates via app upgrades
• User Experience: Very good because it was developed with a mobile user experience in mind
• Speed: Depends on how the application is written
• Usability: Can be used even without network
• Application size: Depends on how the application is programmed, but some native apps like games tend to be heavier because they have to download the entire content.

Hybrid Mobile App

• Description: Website developed to display on mobile as an application
• Setup: Just develop the container, the content is from the website
• Development and maintenance costs: Less expensive
• Update content: Content is updated depending on the website
• User Experience: Good but in some cases not as good as native app
• Speed: Depends on internet speed
• Usability: Cannot be used without network
• Application size: Depends on how it is programmed, but in general, hybrid apps are usually smaller because they only need to download the necessary parts, the content is mainly from the website.
• Native Mobile App?provides the best user experience, but it costs a lot of money, time to develop and maintain the application. Upgrading the content is also not easy. Native applications can work even without the network if all the necessary files have been downloaded to the phone.
• Hybrid Mobile App?gives users better experience and less complicated development than Native Mobile App. Updating content will be easier because the content has been synchronized from the application's website.

What operating systems does App Mobile work on?

Currently, mobile app layout design is used on two popular operating systems, iOS and Android. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of these two operating systems?

iOS operating system

? Advantages

• Application software running on iOS is built faster and costs less to design than applications running on Android.
• Paid apps on the app store are easier to make money because phone users of this operating system tend to spend more money to buy apps.
• Principles of the iOS app store has many strict principles to ensure the quality of the App.
• Business apps running on iOS often perform better than running on Android.
• Apps running on iOS are easier to use because there are fewer software problems.

? Cons:

• The cost of storing applications on the App Store is about $ 200.
• Apple's strict regulations make the approval process from the app store difficult.
• In Asia, Android users account for more than iOS users.

Android OS

? Advantages:

• In Asia, the number of iOS users is less than Android users, so apps running on Android get more responses than running on iOS.
• It usually costs less to download an App on Android than it costs to download an App on iOS.
• Mobile App on Android does not need to be updated as often as on iOS, helping to reduce maintenance costs.
• There are no strict regulations, so the cost of developing and hosting an App on Android's app store is lower than iOS.
• The cost of storing applications on the Play Store is about $ 25.

? Cons:

• Designing an Android application takes a lot of research because the application has to work on a variety of devices with different sizes, performance and screen resolutions.
• Android app development takes longer than iOS.

Important Notes During Mobile App Design

In the experience of many programmers about how to design an App, it is especially important to note the following important things:

? Simplicity in navigating between features

A great mobile app – making it easy for users is bound to have simplicity in navigating between features. Therefore, you need to pay special attention to customer experience when designing Mobile App.

Always keep in mind that the resulting application must have a logical layout, a user-friendly interface, and a navigation bar that specifically guides the user to use the features. Buttons and links should not be too small for the user's finger.

??Simple design

In order for users to focus on the most important elements of the application, the way to design the app to remember is to keep it simple, modern, create a lot of space and combine the use of clusters. familiar words and symbols.

??Careful in choosing colors and fonts

Color plays an important role - contributing to the user's emotional orientation. Fonts are another factor that affects the visual aspect of a mobile application. So carefully consider using the right colors and fonts for the main message you want to convey to the user.

??Mobile App Layout Design needs specific consistency

An important note that cannot be forgotten is that mobile app layout design needs to be consistent in terms of images - in terms of usability - in terms of consistency with other platforms of the business.

Costs of developing a mobile app

The cost of producing an app can range from practically free to millions of dollars, depending on the app's design and usage. Here is a breakdown of the price ranges for developing a mobile app:

• Builders of no-code apps:?If the program only has minimal feature needs, a developer does not need to know how to code. You can consider Appy Pie, GoodBarber, Appery.io, Shoutem, and BuildFire to build the app. These are of free tools that allow you to create apps without having to learn Swift or other programming languages. Although the capability of these tools is limited and they cannot be used to develop a game using no-code apps, the no-code method will fulfill the demands of most organizations.
• Apps for Enterprise:?The concept of Citizen Developer, where anybody may build a mobile app, is growing, thanks to tools like Amazon's HoneyCode, Mendix, and Microsoft Power Suite. Drag-and-drop interfaces are used to connect to data sources and control content flow on these devices. A monthly subscription that costs less than $50 is frequently related with the cost.
• Mobile-friendly website:?Despite the fact that it's advisable to develop websites for both desktop and mobile devices, the website content management platform you're using is likely to include mobile-optimization plugins that cost less than $100.

What is the mobile app development process?

What is the procedure for creating a mobile app??

The instructions below should assist you in creating a framework for developing an app. Based on the answers to the following questions, develop your strategy:

• What is the goal of your application? What issues will it address?
• Is this a function that already exists in an app? If that's the case, what do they excel at? What is it that they are missing?
• For whom is the app intended?
• Will you hire developers or build an in-house team?
• What kind of business model do you have?
• How much money are you willing to put towards the development of this app? Will you be able to attract investors?
• How long would it take you to develop this app?
• What marketing plan do you have in place?
• Are you planning to submit your app to an app store? Do you have the right licensing agreements in place, as well as design and testing standards, if that's the case?
• Do you plan to submit your app to one of the app stores? If that's the case, do you have the proper licensing agreements in place, as well as design and testing criteria?

1. Choose your team. Do you need to employ a developer if you're making this app yourself? Are you a marketer? Will stakeholders from all departments (e.g., C-level, marketing, sales, IT) be involved in the development of this app?
2. Consider how your mobile app will address the issues you've identified,?as well as the features and functionalities it will provide. Prototyping can be as easy as sketching ideas on a whiteboard or piece of paper, or utilizing software like InVision, Balsamiq, or Adobe Experience Design. When creating your vision, keep the user experience in mind. Design, usability, security, and performance are all factors to consider.
3. Using the information from the previous stage, create a product roadmap. You'll be able to establish a step-by-step procedure for evaluating your priorities and deliverables as a result of this.

Choose app development tools that meet your needs.

Start working on your app. When it comes to developing apps, an agile is an ideal approach. When developing the software you should go for DevOps. DevOps is a modern delivery technique that incorporates crucial features like:

• Automating whenever possible; using cloud computing services.
• Using free and open-source software.
• Communicate with the team on the regular basis.
• Testing the code on a frequent basis is a good idea.

Create a prototype of your app so you may show it to investors or other stakeholders. Use their suggestions to improve the app's development and testing. This includes testing the site's functionality, performance, and convenience of use.

It's time to release the app to consumers for official beta testing once it passes these checks. Before developing a deployable version of your software, you must go through numerous rounds of review and incorporate user fixes.

Your app is ready to use once it has received the necessary testing and evaluation. Create a conduit for customer feedback and give ongoing support at this point.

About BiPlus

BiPlus has a team of experts with more than 15 years of experience creating mobile applications. We know well about developing a mobile app and helping customers find your company.

At BiPlus, we provide a variety of software services with the application of advanced technology and innovative solutions to meet the needs and expectations of our customers. We always put the quality of products and services on the top with a professional and experienced team to bring the best value to customers.

You are looking for a Mobile Application Development company to provide solutions for your company. Contact the experts at BiPlus to get all your questions answered about Mobile Application and?get the first 2 weeks for free!