These app development trends will help you in making your app stand out in the app store.
The mobile app industry has been reshaping the business for years now. Regardless of the business domain, every organization needs to integrate the latest mobile application development technologies to garner maximum growth and multiply the means to reach the targeted audience.
As per experts, the mobile app industry is one of the leading sectors that is growing at the fastest pace. As per Statista, apps are expected to generate $189 Billion US dollars in revenue by 2020.
However, just implementing the right mobile app development strategy won't assure the success, you need to incorporate the latest trends in mobile apps. And to achieve that, you also need to have a team of professional app developers.
The mobile app industry is one domain that keeps on refining almost every day. So, to keep up with the ever-increasing customer demands, you need to bring the required changes in the process.
After making an in-depth analysis of the mobile app industry, our expert panel has come up with the top mobile application technology trends that will make it big in 2020.
Beacon technology is the first mobile application development trend that is vital and is swiftly embraced by industries like Museums, Hotels, Healthcare, etc. It’s of great use in location technology and proximity marketing, and due to its ease of use, a regular user can quickly get used to it.
Beacons are wireless transmitters that make use of Bluetooth technology to send signals. It helps in the information exchange of sales. For example, Beacons can be handy in the retail sector, especially when merged with IoT.
Mobile app industry trends for Beacon technology in 2020:
Application Performance Management (APM) and Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) are the two elements that are part of the enterprise mobile app development process for long.
APM is the mobile metrics that got integrated into Google in 2016. It was introduced to get rid of the snag that tends to slow down the app performance, and in this way, APM helps to boost the overall performance. And due to its significance, APM has become a preferred tool of quality assurance testers for the app testing process.
Whereas, Enterprise mobility management or EMM is a platform that allows organizations to securely enable mobile devices that are being used by the employees, which further streamlines the business process by helping in mobile computing.
It includes the following components:
EMM not only fortify the security structure but also help the employees to be more productive by allowing the exchange of applications and data over mobile devices.
5G technology is not only going to be one of the top trends in mobile app development but also, it will be of great significance in 2020 and beyond. The first thing that comes with the 5G network is the speed, which is stated to be 100 times faster than the 4G network.
If we talk about 2020, it’s still time for 5G to get in the groove, but by year-end, we can expect to see a shift from currently used 4G services to the 5G wireless network. But even before its introduction, the industry experts are betting high on the 5G technology.
The applications of 5G service are not limited to speed only; it also caters to other functionalities such as:
To hop onto the latest mobile application development technologies advancement, mobile companies like Verizon and Samsung are already up to launch their dedicated 5G-capable chips. Even LG is planning to fuse 5G services into its devices.
With such a wide scope of the 5G services, the app developers are required to design the apps accordingly, so that the user can avail faster network speed for enhanced performance.
Wearable devices are not new to the market. We have already witnessed smartwatches, fitness bands, trackers, and even smart rings. All these wearables have changed the way we interact with smart devices.
A research report by Business Insider states that there will be a jump of 35% in the wearable market in 2019. Another report from Statista claims a staggering revenue of $33 billion generated by the wearable devices by 2019.
Looking at the huge potential in the wearable device market, mobile apps should support wearable technology. But surprisingly, many apps don’t come fused with wearable devices.
Every wearable device requires a set platform to run. For instance, Apple Watch requires watchOS and Android smartwatches sync with WearOS. Therefore, the developers should keep an option to integrate their apps with wearable devices.
Possible wearables trends in 2020:
Once the app is made to function with the wearable devices, it should be kept close to the smartphone to function. But in the future, smartphones won’t be required as a hub for such apps, as said by the Co-Founder of UNA, Ryan Craycraft.
Artificial Intelligence or AI has been in the center of attention for the last few years with a significant breakthrough in new technology in mobile application development. Its Integration with mobile apps not only has made the apps smarter, but also saves a lot of time, effort, and money for the mobile app development company.
Google has also introduced Duplex, an AI program that can make calls on behalf of humans to fix an appointment with a local business. It shows how AI is evolving so fast to benefit the app industry.
The above image shows the industries which have embraced AI innovations and are bound to increase in the future. If we analyze this graph, the IT industry is easily leading, closely followed by the marketing industry.
With time, finance & accounting, customer service, healthcare sector, and more businesses are integrating AI into their native apps.
Here are future AI mobile application technology trends that may be a reality soon:
According to a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the AI market will experience revenue growth of more than $47 billion by 2020.
Be it Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs), Intelligent Apps, Cyber Security, and IoT, every component of the technology sector will employ Artificial Intelligence capabilities to its processes.
Google launched Instant apps in 2016 for making things more convenient for developers and users. These are the native apps that function like websites and can attract people with their functionalities.
To put it simply, Instant apps can be considered as a trial for many apps that users can get access to without downloading them.
Following are the benefits of Instant apps over regular apps:
Google Instant apps are available for the users in the Play Store for accessing apps instantly without the need to download. But for now, there are a limited number of Instant apps available in the Google Play Store.
Interestingly, Hollar and NYTimes claimed that they were able to increase the conversion rate from 20 percent to 27 percent by introducing an instant mobile application.
Moreover, Android Studio’s latest version allows the developers to modularize the app, so users can only use a portion of the app.
The Internet of Things is not a new concept and its fundamentals are quite familiar in the mobile app sector. With its diverse applications, we can surely consider it as a future trend.
The Internet of Things has become an industry itself that is evolving with time. Using this technology, people can control the non-IT equipment via remote controls or apps. This convenience has become an essential part of the user’s life, which makes the developers keep their app IoT friendly.
By the end of 2019, the IoT sales share is expected to hit $1.71 trillion and by next year, the total number of IoT devices will be around 20 billion.
To get going with the IoT in mobile apps, the app developers need to pick a viable platform. Here are some of the popular platforms:
While VR redefines the world, AR is the icing on the digital cake. In the last couple of years, we witnessed obsessive gaming trends such as Pokemon Go, Incell, Dino Trek, and more.
Apple and Google used AR platforms for adding the AR capabilities in their respective apps.
There are many apps like “Ikea” that are already using the technology for uplifting the user experience. Many such apps are on their way to be a part of this revolutionary change. In 2020, AR integration will be an essential step for the mobile app development industry.
The upcoming AR/VR mobile app industry trends can be:
According to a report published by Statista, the count of such apps will increase to 5 billion apps by 2019.
The popular social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram have already been using AR for a while now. The interesting stickers and animated additions to your post are only possible due to the AR technology.
The boost in e-commerce and online banking has added to the tremendous growth in online payment options available for the users. But with the advent of Apple Pay and Google Wallet, customers are gradually shifting to m-commerce. Yet, Blockchain is surprisingly entering into the mobile payments and powering the apps with more secured money transaction options.
But why to integrate a payment gateway into an app?
Earlier, cash was replaced by the plastic money, and now it's time for the plastic money to vanish.
The tech giants like Samsung are working on an enhanced scan and pay technique to make the money transactions and bill payments more convenient. Apple is also working to enable the peer-to-peer money payment system with its Apple Pay.
In addition to these options, there will be more advanced mobile payment options for users in 2020.
Following are the upcoming mobile wallet application development trends that we can experience:
Moreover, the encrypted security in the wallet apps ensures the users that their money is safe. The surge in mobile wallet trend is due to the expansion of the internet payment systems that require fast and more secure channels for money transactions.
AMP is a project from Google in collaboration with Twitter. To put it simply, AMP is a stripped-down version of HTML to accelerate the speed of mobile pages. It enables developers to create heavy websites and web pages with fast loading speed, lower bounce rates, and high performance across all mobile devices.
Google officially integrated AMP listings into its mobile search results and it helped the developers in decreasing the loading time of the web pages. With a good AMP score, you will acquire a better conversion rate, reduced bounce rate, maximum user retention, and will be an excellent boost to the user experience.
Google has also announced that it will soon provide a mobile search box that will help the users in finding out the mobile-friendly websites. And in the future, AMP holds a remarkable shift in the mobile app industry.
Cyber Security is a significant aspect of app development and will keep dominating all technological advancements.
The shift by Apple to its coding language- Swift from Objective-C should be a pivotal reminder to developers and designers to integrate more security measures in the initial stages of the app development process.
Enterprises will also explore deception technologies to arrest the tech mutants that have defiled the organization’s network.
Besides, the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend has also increased the risk of mobile enterprise apps being attacked. It requires the app developers to work on the app security from scratch with a different approach.
Moreover, many apps are including the payment or money transaction feature that calls for robust security infrastructure. The developers need to embed code encryptions, secure backend & API, and include trusted payment gateways to ensure user safety over the app.
In 2020, the adaptation of bots will escalate from being fairly rudimentary to a fierce level. There are nearly 2.2 million apps in the Google Play Store and 2 million in Apple App Store. But how many apps have employed chatbots to facilitate better UI/UX services? The answer is very few!
If you have not integrated this future trend in your app, the business won’t get an impressive growth. The chatbots are appreciated by the users for their quick and precise answers.
Moreover, mobile apps with services like online shopping, food delivery, and cab services are working on integrating the chatbots to their apps. It will help the consumers in getting their frequent queries resolved by the bots without calling customer support.
According to a recent survey, more than 63 percent of US online consumers were interested in an interaction with the chatbots. Another research by Gartner states the chatbots will be saving $8 billion for the companies between 2018 and 2020.
Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant will be smarter in 2020 to serve with new features that will simplify people’s lives by assisting them in their day to day tasks. Such apps leverage technology via chatbots and learning user behavior patterns for a personalized experience.
To make the app function seamlessly across multiple platforms, adaptation to Cloud technologies is a must for the app development.
Make sure to integrate cloud technology in the app development strategy. Out of the many benefits, the clouding technology shares some of the mainstream techniques that include:
Cloud computing integration helps mobile apps to store a large amount of data efficiently and carry out complex tasks. Most of the mobile apps with a bigger database are using the AWS (Amazon Web Service) as their cloud computing backup.
It also helps in increasing the reliability, speed, processing power and security of the apps and enables it to deal with a large amount of data.
Cloud computing mobile app trends that will in great use in 2020:
The Cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, AWS, and SlideRocket has made it possible to run an app directly on the cloud.
Blockchain is a shared, unalterable ledger for recording a company’s information listed as blocks. The ledger can be the history of transactions or bitcoins; none of which can be altered without changing all subsequent blocks of the network.
Data tyrants are hell scared with this technology, as it eliminates the scope of data tampering. Legit businesses, however, can harness more potential by offering transparent access to the blockchain. And in case, you are still not clear with 'what actually is a blockchain' then we recommend you do your research on it beforehand.
This mobile app development trend was successful in acquiring the attention of the giants like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Maa, with its benefits and unrivaled applications.
Talking about the apps, blockchain technology has already been used by many payment apps for providing trustable and uncompromised safety during the transaction.
By making use of the blockchain, there are high chances that developers can design a decentralized mobile app. Such apps are termed as Decentralized Mobile apps or the DApp. It can’t be owned by a single entity and neither shutdown by any external force.
Here are the expected trends of the blockchain technology that will aid in mobile app development in the future:
Predictive analytics is employed to make predictions of the future events by analyzing current data. It utilizes techniques from data mining, machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, and modeling.
Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook has already enhanced the customer journey across the UI/UX by integrating AI to use predictive analytics.
The significance of predictive analytics can be well gauzed by the fact that Netflix offered $1 million in 2009 to anyone who could help the company to improve the quality of its recommendation engine by 10%.
It’s prominence is further fueled by the gush of more data, more storage, and more computing power. And it’s going to be one of the most sort after mobile app trend that will be followed.
With all these mobile application development trends, the app industry will continue to expand at a rapid pace. The competition among the developers and mobile app makers will be intense than ever in 2020. Therefore, it’s crucial that you understand all these trends before you start working on your app.
We understand that every new technology in mobile application development has its benefits and limitations, and if you are new to it, it may be tough to get the hang on. But with our experts at your reach, you can always reach out to us to identify the right mobile app trends for your next mobile app.
Now that you know the key to success in 2020, don’t forget to tie every product launch to these mobile app trends.
Aparna is a growth specialist with handsful knowledge in business development. She values marketing as key a driver for sales, keeping up with the latest in the Mobile App industry. Her getting things done attitude makes her a magnet for the trickiest of tasks. In free times, which are few and far between, you can catch up with her at a game of Fussball.
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