The mobile app business is the largest and most competitive industry these days. Around 2 million apps have been developed till now for Android, iOS & Windows by companies small and large across the globe. There are more than one billion active users of mobile apps on the Google Play store alone.

As per the  India has emerged as one of the top three countries globally in terms of revenue generated through Apps with Indian developers giving tough competition to their US counterparts with a 12% growth rate as compared to 7% global average growth rate in 2020. With such a huge number of choices and development happening at an exponential pace; businesses all over the world are trying hard to deliver a better experience, utility and convenience to their customers using mobile applications. In this race to the top, businesses are constantly looking for new and trendy ways to keep their mobile apps ahead of the curve.

Here we have tried to capture some exciting mobile app development trends that will be big in future:-

1. Growth Of Progressive Web Apps (PWA): Progressive Web Apps is a cutting edge technology that makes websites as powerful as native mobile apps. Any progressive web app can be installed like any other native application on any device but it doesn’t need App Store approval to install. It works without an internet connection also so it is very useful when you don’t have access to good Internet connectivity & want your users to stick with a particular platform one uses most often. This is a boon for businesses and also helps them to stay ahead of the competition.

2. Importance Of Chatbots And Conversational UI: Chatbots are the future of customer service and support, as human beings we love talking a lot but sometimes it becomes quite hard to talk with a support team of companies and wait for an hour or two before someone comes online to help you out. Every entrepreneur wants more conversions from their websites/app and chatbots can bring them exactly that. According to research by Live Person, 40% of people prefer self ticket resolution over waiting on hold and 20% of customers abandon websites immediately if they are faced with a traditional chat interface. When compared to humans, Chatbots score very high in terms of output vs input and can be trained in a variety of ways to help businesses deliver better customer satisfaction.

3. Voice Assistants: Gone are the days when we used to rely on mobile websites or complicated commands for getting information from our phones. Customers now have an option to get all their queries solved by simply talking. With Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa & more voice assistants ruling the smartphone world; businesses will also want to make use of these powerful tools and offer customers hands-free solutions. According to research by analytics firm Verto Analytics, 52% of smartphone users currently own a device with voice assistant ability as compared with 269 million Americans who owned smartphones in 2020. This number is expected to grow substantially over time as well so it is a great idea to start incorporating voice assistants into your mobile apps from now.

4. Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality: Augmented reality and virtual reality are two very exciting technologies that will change the way we see things in the coming years. Augmented Reality, which superimposes computer-generated images over the real world, can be used by businesses for better customer interaction by making use of retail displays or training manuals & guides etc. They are being increasingly used for entertainment purposes as well; people across the globe are enjoying augmented reality games like Pokemon Go. Similarly, virtual reality has just started to gain popularity but it has tremendous potential in terms of its applications. For example, if a company wants to provide its customers with an experience of going to their shop, they can create a virtual reality experience with headsets & other accessories.

5. Mobile Payment: People love convenience over everything else and mobile payments are the best example of this fact. A large number of people use online payment services for transferring money or shopping online because they don’t have to go through any hassles like carrying cash, waiting in lines and other issues related to traditional methods of payment. Businesses can also make use of this technology by enabling mobile card readers or offering digital coupons & deals on their app/website etc. The number of smartphone users is expected to reach 4 billion by the end of 2021 so these smartphone owners must be provided with easy payment solutions before anyone else does.

6. Virtual Assistants For Business: One of the most common customer queries is to know what the weather will be on a given day. In such cases, virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant come in handy by providing detailed information without any extra effort. They can also be trained to provide other kinds of information; businesses just need to design them in a manner that makes them more conversational and less robotic. This way customers will get prompt service while interacting with these virtual assistants and feel that they are interacting with a real human being.

7. Better Security Protocols: It has become a common practice that whenever we use any third-party application or visit any website, an “Are you sure?” pop up appears on our screen demanding us to accept the terms & conditions for using the service in question. This can be better understood by imagining how users will respond if each app requests its users to enter credit card details every time before giving access? Things would not go as planned and most of the users would just click cancel on the payment option and move on to the next app. With this in mind, businesses must start using better security protocols & policies to protect their customers from getting compromised.

8. Multi-Device Experiences: In today’s world people have both Smartphones and PCs or Laptops for access to information. It makes sense for businesses to target them with services that can be accessed anytime anywhere without any issues. This would also mean that developers need to create applications that work smoothly across multiple platforms instead of creating apps separately for specific platforms like Windows Phone, Android etc. Businesses should opt for cross-platform development so that they get maximum reach as well as a consistent experience while using the application/website.

Conclusion

Well, these are the most common mobile app development trends that will be accepted in future as well. Businesses must keep these things in mind while planning for their next app/website. If they want to make their business a global success, it is important to deliver services that are both useful and time-saving for customers so they can earn some love.