User privacy concerns and lengthy checkout processes often partake the accusation for high shopping cart abandonment rate of m-commerce apps. Whereas, the metrics on users consideration at different stages of virtual shopping, often skips the bare eye. In this read we will narrow down upon- What are the main reasons and how can m-commerce apps lower their cart abandonment rate?
Imagine you are at a shopping store. You pick all the stuff that you intend to buy, place it in your cart when suddenly your phone starts buzzing. It’s a call from your longtime friend. You lose focus from shopping, or rather forget about the shopping bucket altogether before you leave the store.
We all know that is very unlikely to happen in a brick and mortar store.
But for virtual shopping carts on mobile and web, this scenario is recurring, common and obvious.
Even the slightest of interruption from calls, messages, notifications, or environment can make your buyers leave the cart without making an actual purchase.
Marketers must know that there is a reason for every cart abandoned!
What are the major shopping cart abandonment reasons? In an empirical study by Research Gate, we find the following cognitive and behavioral reasons for high shopping cart abandonment rate in 2019:
Fact: MasterCard and University of Oxford came together to hold a study in 2017 that reveals a drop in one-third of purchases is due to users forgetting their passwords. This leads to a common user preference of biometrics over passwords.
Statista Shopping Cart Abandonment Statistics:
Shopping cart abandonment is the pain in the foot of every m-commerce or online retail store today. For vigilant marketers, they bring meaningful learnings about user behavior. You can try and turn your cart abandonment into key insights to restabilize all that is wrong with your marketing plan.
Let us look at the shopping cart abandonment Statistics 2019, to see if there is a silver lining to this problem- A technique for every m-commerce app that needs shopping cart abandonment optimization.
So how to fix cart abandonment? One thing that is fairly evident is that a good conversion rate optimization approach can sustain and re-engage your audience to lower your cart abandonment rate.
How to convert abandoned carts? The Conversion rate Optimisation Approach
What if you choose to do nothing about the high cart abandonment rate?
You miss a lot of revenue and fail in conversions as your users continue to jump off the ship. On an average rate of cart abandonment is 68% for ecommerce retailers.
Everyone is looking for a quick fix to develop a customer base that keeps returning for more. The quest to recapture the lost value has become the food for thought, for many bloggers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and agencies.
We all are users at some point in our day.
Think like one! One technique to reduce shopping cart abandonment is to get the knack of your customer’s mind is to step in their shoes and generate your own perspective. What makes you snap back before you enter your cart details?
Make a list of these points just like we did to arrive at the main causes for effective abandonment cart strategy. While we took a generalists approach, you need the one specific to your business needs.
Many think of their mobile apps as currency vending machines, which they are not. Your mobile app is a platform that brings you an opportunity to develop a relationship with your customer, promote loyalty and leave a lasting impression in your heads.
1. Guest Checkout
Save your shoppers from new account fatigue. Allow them to make a purchase without creating and signing in to their user accounts.
Remember all those times when a paywall or overbearing request kept you from accessing the products on an app. Enabling guest checkout will let your customers browse through the products and share their details only when they are ready.
Understand and accept that the user wants to compare, assess and evaluate the value you offer against the purchase. Encourage users to sign up and log in once they ensure that you offer the maximum value.
In fact, the e-commerce market leaders like Amazon, Walmart, and others are already doing it. They all have a one-step checkout implementation option on their mobile apps.
2. Device optimization
With smartphones taking over the internet, another thing you will like to consider is the device your customers are using to access your website. Users spend about 15 hours a week on their smartphone browsing products on different m-commerce applications. Once the users set their eyes on a product about 45% switch to their laptops or tablets to make the purchase.
Make the mobile-responsive design your first priority. This approach is a great value add to your competitive growth. Optimize your website for mobile shoppers.
Come to think of it from a users point of view. A user who comes to your site has already been there through a smartphone.
Mobile shopping cart abandonment rates are high pertaining to casual browsers. Carts abandoned on mobiles are reopened on websites. So if you let them save the products that they like, you can seal the deal. Later they will come to your site with their visa and keyboards.
3. Add to Smart Wish List
We all have a long list of items that we want to purchase. A wish list lets your user bundle all on that list. With emerging technologies, Smart Wish List can make you stand out and nurture your audience.
The basket works and that is why the cart format has stuck. But very few have the Wish List feature.
Taking an example of an m-commerce app that deals in clothes. Suppose a user really likes a scarf but can’t find a matching pullover with it. Wishlist helps your customers to make a bundle of items in their own time.
Another scenario can be that you are out of stock and running low on the inventory of the pullover. The user can simply add it to the wish list. Once the stock is in the inventory the user gets automatically notified.
Wish least can also help manufacturers make pre-launch bookings, like on new gadgets before the price is disclosed. This brings a lot of customer feedback to the retailers and manufacturers to devise combos, offers, and discounts on selective merchandise. These are all part of the Shopping cart page best practices.
Now make the wish list feature smart. Add options to categorize the wish list for birthdays, anniversaries, paydays and others. Allow users to share the wish lists with each other.
A little push can add the right spices and increase sales revenue. Add a ‘buy before’ criteria to the wish list to bring a sense of urgency. Suppose an expiry time of 60 days can bring the shoppers back before their itinerary disappears into the black hole forever.
4. Quick sign-ups
It’s good if you are not forcing user registration. But it does more harm if you do not remind your shoppers to log in before they go. Keeping it simple and subtle, can capture the user’s attention.
‘Sign up with Google’ is a simple yet strong call to action. Users recognize google in a blink. It is secure, familiar and ideal. Give users the perception of choice, with a quick sign up.
This also tells you about when, where and how users prefer to communicate with you. So strive to secure your m-commerce app using best practices of network encryption.
Communicate with your customers to re-stimulate their interest. One of the wise old tricks of marketing is direct communication with your user. Workaround a great email reminder campaign. Being too zealous won’t put you at the right foot here, like bombarding the inboxes with a streak of reminders. By rule of thumb, here is a list of what a good reminder email encloses:
Vibrant images of the product- To remind the buyer
A strong call to action- To stimulate decision making
Brief service guarantee or refund policy- To alleviate any concerns
Another alternative you have is of smart push notifications. If you make good offers the ones that bring a sense of cost incentive to the users, you will hit the jackpot.
6. Short-lived discounts
Cutting down prices may critically affect your bottom line. But it’s a good bait to drive in the shoppers waiting on the fence.
A study of the effect on price discounts and bonus packs on online impulse buying speaks of the impact on users. Percentage discounts make the best detours for items bought for pleasure, while combos and bonus packs work best for utilitarian items.
Time-bound discount offers on items with elastic prices can show your intent that you value your customers. And to a customer that is a great feeling.
7. Brand Familiarity is not a myth
Google Trusted Store badge is one heck of a tag that ensures certainty, reliability and trust factor through visual representations.
A name that your buyer has not heard before is bound to add skepticism about your credibility and offerings. Promote your brand to raise familiarity with your audience. Showing up in google search or social media advertisements will not bring you great returns.
8. Eliminate surprise costs
High shipping costs and taxes often switch off the buying intent in customers. Free shipping on orders above a certain value is not a new idea but the one that makes magic happen. Disclose the additional costs early in the buying funnel.
A Forrester study confirms that surprise costs make 44 percent of online shoppers drift away and uninstall the apps.
Make a serious attempt to reduce all potential barriers between you and the wallet of your users. An active, persistent approach to curb the checkout leaks, navigation and performance issues are a few other things to spot.
Ecommerce shopping cart abandonment solutions are easy to implement if you understand their customers. Implementing the Techniques to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment as discussed above will soon make the bounce rates wind down and conversions ramp up.
Application development can be a little overwhelming for some people since it involves so many decisions and choices. If it’s your first time then we sure can understand the questions you might be asking yourself. With technology advancing so rapidly apps have to be developed in a way that it matches the latest technological trends.
Going for application development will be the best decision for your business especially if you are a startup. Startups need to gather an audience and convert them into becoming their regular customers. This can be achieved with the help of mobile apps as it will give the audience a platform to engage, interact and gather information about the startup.
An app must be developed in a way that there is no waste in the application development process, every opportunity is explored and the end result is worth all the effort and costs. To make this happen, we are writing this blog about things to consider when developing mobile apps for startups.
Let us begin with why should you get an app for your startup.
Why build a great mobile app for your business?
The fact that by 2020, there will be 20 billion mobile devices makes building an app that can profit your business is very important. Majority of the mobile users are preferring mobile apps to get things done and apps are more of a lifestyle than just a technological solution.
Here are some compelling reasons why businesses should have an app.
Additional sales
With a mobile app in your customer’s pocket, you have a lot of things to use to increase your sales. The simplicity and convenience of using an app to buy a product encourage users to buy repeatedly. When compared to websites, apps have more accessibility and people can make a purchase on the go. Another way to gain revenue is by showing ads on the apps. You can also charge users for your app. If the app is worth paying for, customers will buy it.
Reduces marketing cost
Marketing costs are huge and not every startup can afford it. With apps, you get a free marketing tool which reduces the cost of marketing, unlike traditional marketing. Mobile apps are low-cost marketing tools where push notifications can be used to market new products, inform about offers and re-invite users to increase the activity of the app. Not to forget that it takes less time, low cost and reaches a large audience at the same time.
Customer experience
A business runs because of its customers and impressing them is the biggest job. Mobile apps are no doubt a great way of enhancing the customer experience. Websites are great to reach a larger audience but it cannot give the same feel as an app. Apps are deliberately designed such that it fits small screens while giving visual satisfaction to users. Apps have quick access to the device features like calling, camera, GPS, etc. which makes them more likable.
Edge over competitors
Even though most companies have got an app, there still might be a chance for you to flourish. There are two possibilities that make your chance to succeed with an app possible. First, there might be companies in your niche that haven’t gone mobile which gives an edge. Second, even if some businesses have, they might not a great app. A poorly developed app is of no good use and you get a chance there.
Broader Reach
There is a population that only operates its business through mobile apps. If you don’t have an app, you are missing out on that particular population. A large number of users prefer a mobile app over the website as seen in the statistics above. To know what percentage of your users are mobile-driven, check out the percentage of website visitors that access it through mobile phones. Also, younger users are more likely to use mobile apps as compared to adults.
Feedback from customers
If a business doesn’t meet the needs of its customers, it’s hampering its own growth. Most businesses take the smart route and consider the customer feedback a serious benefit. With feedback from your customers, you can reshape the business or make necessary changes. A great way to gather feedback is through reviews from the app store or from the in-app feedback section. You can also run in-app surveys from time to time.
Stickiness
Mobile apps are a strategy to get into the customer’s pocket. The convenience it brings for the users is very much appreciated by them. Having an app in their pockets and being able to access it anytime and anywhere creates stickiness with your brand. Unlike websites, apps are always a click or a tap away and that encourages repeated interaction with the business. There are also high chances that mobile apps can bring your business a great percentage of loyal customers.
Now that we have seen why you should get an app for your startup, here are some tips for creating an app that is profitable.
What are the main points to consider when developing a mobile application?
It’s easier to decide to get an app than actually planning to build a good one. Mobile app development is a process that needs proper consideration. It requires one to look into tips for bringing success to app business, implement them, and much more. In this section, we will state some things to consider when developing mobile apps.
Solidify the app idea
One of the mobile application development tips for beginners is the app ideation. Before you even think about the application development process, make sure your app idea is great. The entire base of the app is the ideation and you need to make sure you have everything it takes to make the app a success. You have to ask yourself whether the app idea is strong enough to survive the cut-throat competition or not. The app should also have an edge over the competition and should be able to solve problems on a business level.
Define your elevator pitch
One of the things to consider when developing mobile apps is the elevator pitch. You get a short time to present your business in front of investors and that’s why having a perfect elevator pitch is important. This also helps in finding the clarity in your app idea and business model. You should be prompt about your business, the problems it is going to solve, the funding it will need and the audience it’s going to target.
Identify the target audience
People think that the entire app using population is their target audience since they all can use an app. But there is a huge difference between someone who can use an app and someone who wants to use an app. Defining your target audience will bring more traction to the business. Knowing your target audience helps in building an app as per their liking. An app that satisfies the customer needs is going to become successful.
Consider the app platform
Factors in developing mobile applications also include the app platform. It is actually one of the most important things to consider when developing mobile apps. In the world of mobile apps, iOS and Android have become the top platforms for application development. There is an ongoing debate between Android vs iOS for startups and it isn’t going to end any time soon. Some find iOS to be the right platform for them and some find Android is the way to go. Both platforms are great in reality and have their pros and cons. iOS uses the Swift or Objective-C language whereas Android uses Java or Kotlin.
However, there is an option to select both platforms at the same time. Cross-platform apps are developed to be accessible on multiple platforms. The cross-platform frameworks that we use today are Ionic, Xamarin, etc. A simpler name for cross-platform apps is hybrid apps.
App store optimization
So far you have seen many things to think about when building an app. App Store and Play Store optimization are other crucial factors for consideration. Your app store page is a way of creating a good impression in front of users. 60% of apps are found through organic search and they are directed to the app store page of your app. You need to make the app look as appealing as possible while following the app store optimization guidelines.
Monetization options
One of the things to keep in mind while developing a mobile app is the way of monetization. As good as earning money off of the app directly is, there are other ways to earn money from the app.
If your app is good enough then you can earn from different ways using your app. You can earn money directly from your app in the following ways:
Freemium apps: These apps are the most common types of apps. The apps can be download for free, however, to access some features users have to buy it from the app.
Paid apps: The paid apps have to be bought by the users in order to use them. But for this to work, the marketing of the app needs to be strong so that the true value and unique features of the app are displayed.
In-app purchases: Apps can have special features that the users can pay for. These features are only accessible to those who have made the in-app purchases.
Subscription: Subscription is a way of earning on a regular basis. Users can subscribe to an app on a monthly basis and enjoy the best version of the app. Most apps have freemium for the simple version and subscription for a premium version of the app.
In-app ads: Earning revenue from the ads is quite common these days. There are no barriers for users since watching ads don’t cost anything. The app can have a section to display ads or can add video ads to the app. However, user experience should not be compromised with when going for in-app ads.
Sponsorships: This method of earning money is possible when you have generated a good user base. You can partner with some brands and advertise their products on the app. There is a two-way benefit in sponsorship for you. First, the brands will pay you for the user actions and second, users will increase the in-app engagement.
App security measures
If your app is not secure then your app is not for the users. With so much advancement in technology, there comes a great risk of security breach and hacking. This is why you need to make sure you follow security practices for a hack-proof app to protect your users’ data. Most users are naive with the concept of hacking and need an app they don’t have to worry about.
Marketing strategies for pre-launch and post-launch
The marketing strategy of the app is one of the things to consider when developing mobile apps. Before the app is launched, proper awareness should be created about the app. This will help in boosting the app downloads once the app is launched. The pre-launch is as important as post-launch and the marketing strategies for both should be ready.
This was our take on tips for mobile application development. Have an app idea? Contact our team of developers today.
Imagining Artificial Intelligence in situations and use cases where there are a massive number of data in picture makes perfect sense. But what happens when the situation is entirely based on human discretion? Will an artificial intelligence user experience design would also be able to do what AI did to several other industry verticals?
Designing, almost in all its different forms is driven by keeping the human part of process at a much higher ground than the analytical and data driven side. While there are some domains like CAD design or Product Design that leaves some space open for machine learning to enter, when the design form in question is mobile app design, the gap seems to become negligible.
However, Artificial Intelligence, like a number of other industries have found a place in the Mobile App Design vertical as well, giving birth to the concept of artificial intelligence user interface design. A concept that is ought to bring a new level to the relationship between artificial intelligence and customer experience.
While, the answer to whether machine would replace designers is next to impossible, there are ways that the designer community has started taking AI user experience together in their journey to designing memorable mobile apps in multiple ways, like –
Getting time-taking manual works like image resizing automated
Making designs localized by taking help of AI based translation
Bring system consistency between users and products
Give insights into which elements are users interacting with, which needs attention
This participation that the deisgning industry is witnessing coming in from the AI driven UI domain is something that is showing to have a huge impact on the industry’s present, while paving the way to a world where AI and the future of design is much better linked.
Now that we have seen the impact that AI carries on Mobile app Design and how it is soon becoming one of the proven tips to enhance mobile app design, the next step is to look at the principles that guide their unison in the domain of designing AI experiences
The Guiding Principles that Combine Mobile App Design with Machine Learning
Develop a Shared Language
Elements like user experience review, product vision, and business goals are something that needs to be understood and shared by the complete team. You would only be able to create a meaningful and truly intelligent user experience if the mobile app design and machine learning development methods complement each other through shared concepts and common language. The machine learning experts and user experience designers should come together to develop a common blueprint which includes data pipelines and user interfaces, with the aim to set a blueprint that grounds the team’s product planning with the users’ reality.
Focus on Use Case
The important thing when developing a consumer facing app, as the top software designers would tell you, is not the technology that backs it but the business goal and the user experience that you plan on achieving. And so, it is extremely important that you crystallize the use case. With a separate focus on the use case, you can then put your intricate attention on the user flow, which then allows the team to identify the main points where machine learning can be added to enhance the experience.
A clear understanding of the use case also enable teams of the mobile app design company to determine the right KPI for the development of user experience program, which in turn is aligned with machine learning metrics.
Mix Quantitative and Qualitative Data
In order to understand the true impact of combining the machine learning solution and user experience design, it is important that both qualitative and quantitative data is considered. You should make use of qualitative research methods like questionnaires, interviews, etc to measure how the users are experiencing your app.
The reason why we are emphasizing on using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data is because when designing a new app, it is possible that you meet unexpected factors that affect machine learning developmant and user experience. Factors like: Effectiveness of feedback loop, ability of data point capturing intention and user behaviour, which are must to know parts of Artificial Intelligence app design can best be answered only after a deep consideration of both the data types.
Bring Your Combined Data to Real Life Setting
How do you make sure that machine learning is actually used to develop comprehensible and fluent user experience? By setting up an end to end solution that shows how machine learning and user experience fit together in real world. An MVP that includes the working data pipeline along with the machine learning models makes it easy to iterate the AI assisted design together and helps in getting a direct feedback from the users via beta or user testing.
When both UX designers and Machine Learning experts of your partnered AI app development company share the understanding of product design issues, iteration is productive and fast. While on the other hand, user experience designers become aware of possibilities that surrounds machine learning: when it can be used to improve the user experience and how.
Be Transparent About Collecting Data
Designing for AI and with it, needs a constant effort and for it to be absolutely on point, it is important that you give a special focus to the data you have collected. It is very important to consider the end user side in this cycle of collect data – convert data into information – iterate design. Tell users that their data is being used to feed the AI and give them the option to alter the collected information in a way that the best context comes through. In addition to giving users the option to change what data is collected by the AI, you should also give them the option to change what the AI learns – to ensure that the predictions are what the users desire.
While these principles that we just saw help in giving some clarity into how the combined AI and UX design should function, let us look at how some of the famous designing and editing tools that are backed by the developers community across the globe are using the technology to offer better mobile app user experience.
Tools That Use Artificial Intelligence for Design
Tailor Brands
The Tailor Brands logo maker is a famous product used by businesses to get professional logo in a small budget. The AI designs are built upon with your input coming in form of information that would be entered in logo.
Adobe Photoshop
The Select Subject functionality that Photoshop offers make use of AI for memorizing the shape, and then shifting, changing, and editing them with much ease. The tool works on an internal AI system known as Sensei that enables changing backgroungds by recognizing the different subjects in the image.
Prisma and Deepart
Both the famous image editing tools/AI design software make use of artificial intelligence for identify the different aspects of your video and photo and transforming them in a style of your choosing. They give you the option to work around filters and colours among other things.
Let’s Enhance
One of the most frequently arising issues in the designing industry is low quality images. Let’s enhance, powered by AI improves the quality of images using three filters. Anti-JPEF filter converts image to high quality PNG while Boring filter scales up image to around 4 times without any compromise on the image quality. Magic, the third filter allows you to add detailing inside the image. Making Artificial Intelligence a primary part of the Mobile App Design process is something that comes packaged with several add on factors that have to be considered to ensure that that User Interface and User Experience is intact.
And this in turn is not an easy process.
Packaging your app’s user experience with Artificial Intelligence in a way that the whole process gets translated into Artificial Intelligence design patterns calls for a lot of homework, which in itself is heavily dependent on the information that the users provide with consent.
If you are just starting with making your designs smarter, there are some UI patterns that would help you start on the intelligent journey.
A. Criteria Sliders
A number of apps use machine learning algorithms to predict an outcome or pass recommendations. A criteria slider comes in handy here for it helps userss adjust and then fine tune recommendations on the basis of criteria that is meaningful to them. Here, you will have to ensure that the criteria that the users are manipulating with is mapped correctly to data which the machine is using in algorithms.
B. Like and Dislike Button
A simple like and dislike button help better the user experience that someone shares inside the application. Wwhen you ask users to feed in their experience even through a simple like and dislike button, you give them the option to not just build upon the recommendation system but also give feedback on what they don’t like and why.
C. Confidence Inducing Tips
More often than not, users not just not know how the whole prediction and artificial system works, but also they don’t know how much confidence they can place in the system. When you ask users to feed in their data or answer questions in return of something – better matched clothes choice, next show to follow option, etc. The confidence quotient increases even more when you give users the result and let them approve or disapprove it. Doing this makes your users in charge of the charge – something that automatically instills confidence in the app.
D. Give them an In and Out Option
Not all users would want to feed in data for you to fetch and feed in the artificial intelligent system or even want to take the smart route. So, give them the option to opt in and out of the smart options as and when it suits them. Doing this, they would not just have a more positive outlook towards your app but also, knowing that they have an out option, they will be more willing to add in their data in the future.
Now that you have seen the ways AI powered UX is impacting the app design industry, the guiding principles of designing for AI, tools that are already using AI, and the UI patterns that you should add in your design manifesto to make your users open to the idea of AI, there is only one last thing left to do.
And that last thing is to make AI an active part of your mobile app design process. Let our team of UI/UX designers help you with that.
Mobile apps have become a go-to for industries. Ever since apps were recognized for their abilities to boost businesses, everyone wants to go for it. If you are a well-established business with a huge budget for an app then you can easily hire an app agency and get started with your app. However, if you are a startup on a budget, you might want to tread carefully here. Mobile app development requires more than just funds. Of course, the cost factor is there but the quality of the app also determines its success. What makes an app ‘successful’? What tips to consider for making your mobile application successful? For any app to be successful, it should have amazing features.If we look at the latest apps, they are all using the latest technology in them. Technologies like AI, VR, AR, Machine Learning, etc. are being used to improve the overall app experience.
When any user has the first encounter with an app, they notice the UI of the app, features of the app and the performance of the app. This is followed by the regularity of updates and bug fixes.
We have already talked about all other factors in our previous blogs so today we will discuss what are the key features of a successful mobile application – features that should satisfy the users and their needs.
What makes a mobile application successful?
Other than the features of the app, there are some other factors that also contribute to the success of an app.
Mobile app development is like a journey that has many phases and many stages. Before the features are put in an app, some factors are considered to ensure the success of the app. Here are some points that must be considered when answering how to develop a reactive mobile app.
User-centric
When your app gets launched, who the users are going to be? Think about them and understand their characteristics. This will help you in building an app that suits a particular demographic. When the app is user-centric, it gets more active users, more engagement and more audience. User feedback is a great way to gather information about what your users need. Most successful apps use this feedback to improve their apps, making it more likable by the users.
A polished feel
An app with poor designs shows the level of effort put into making it. A great app will put efforts in the slightest feature which is what makes them great. Users are looking for visually appealing apps that solve their problems and if it’s not worth their time then they will leave it immediately.
Has a strong USP
The Unique Selling Point of a successful app is always strong. What makes the app unique is what makes it successful. See, for example, UrbanClap started providing home services like beauty salon services, repairs, etc. on their app. This was very different from any other business model. The user has options to select from various services that UrbanClap provides.
Focus on one core feature
Your app should be known for one of its strongest features. Users prefer not to use apps that are complicated so don’t focus on promoting multiple features all at the same time. What makes a mobile application successful is its ability to do one task and do it very well. The best way to focus on one feature is to find the core that drove you to build the app in the first place. That very same reason will be the driving feature of your app.
Solves a problem
A mobile application is also called a digital solution and it is because it solves a problem. With so many apps in the market, you have to see which problem is your app solving. Even the slightest of change between two apps make a difference. Suppose, an app provides parking solutions at malls but does not have a car locator feature. If you add the feature in your app, that would make the app more likable and usable.
What are the successful mobile app features?
Talking about successful mobile app features, there is a misconception that the more features an app has, the more it will be likable. But more features means more app development cost and more complications in the app.
Too many features are not what makes a successful app but its the smart combination of features that do the magic. Here are some of the best features that you can use in your app.
1. Use of latest technology
Apps using the latest technologies like data science, machine learning, AI, etc. have made their name as a successful mobile application. The truth is people are looking for more and more convenience in their mobile apps and these technologies provide that. Not only does the technology help in providing maximum user satisfaction but also helps industries in handling the business quite well. With data science technology, great models can be created that predict demand and sales for a business.
2. Augmented reality in apps
Augmented reality is one of the biggest talks of the town in the digital world. AR has seen tremendous success after being used in apps and gaming apps. Pokemon Go was the most successful example of AR being used to enhance the app gaming experience. Now many retail stores are using the AR technology to give users the benefit of trying on products virtually before buying them.
3. Cross-platform
Apps supporting multiple platforms are always appreciated. Building native apps may be costly for a startup but that’s when cross-platform comes into the picture. Cross-platform not only saves cost but also saves effort that goes into building the same app twice. Cross-platform development frameworks include angular native framework. This framework allows developers to build apps that give native feels while saving high cost.
4. Secure the app
Time and again we have said that the security of the app is crucial. Secure apps have loyal users and gather audience faster. There are many practices to make a hack-proof app and most app development companies are using them to provide a secure solution to users. E-commerce apps and any other app that includes in-app payments would need a secure payment gateway.
5. Business solutions
When an app is capable of solving problems on an industry level then that’s what makes a successful app. To be honest, solving industry level problems is what an app is built for. When a startup app is launched, it functions on a small scale and as it grows it starts solving bigger problems. So the idea of the app should be somewhat related to finding solutions for business problems. Even big enterprises go for app development because they have some issues they want to deal with.
6. Connectivity standards
The app is being built in a modern world which means it should have the connectivity features that support the modern world as well. When the app is using any sort of connection feature, be it Bluetooth or anything else, it should be able to support the technology it is being connected to.
7. Offline functionality
Having offline functionality is very trendy in the app development world. People are demanding the offline mode for apps since the connectivity issues prevail at times. Of course, there are apps that cannot do without a network connection but they still can support offline feature with the help of background downloading. There had been complaints about some e-commerce apps that didn’t show anything without a network connection. This will annoy the users since they at least should be able to browse through already loaded pages.
8. Customer support services
Recently we have seen users complain about the customer support system a lot. First of all, every app should have one customer support section since not every user is tech savvy. And this customer support should be well functioning too. Not only the design and performance but also the customer support is what makes a successful app.
9. Personalization
Users love an app they can personalize according to their need. More than 70% of app users expect the app to personalize their experience. The search results, notifications, text, themes, etc. are all ways to personalize an app according to the users’ needs. With the help of a user profile, better personalization is done as the profile stores more information about user behavior.
10. Marketing and analytics
An app is not just a digital solution but also a great marketing tool. With the help of analytics measuring tools, app owners can gather significant information about users activity on the app. This information includes what users want, what they are looking for and how they interact with different sections of the app. With this analytics, proper marketing strategies can be created for every user. Marketing and analytics are seeing a major hit in the market because of its ability to increase sales rapidly.
Mobile app industry is not new to businesses making an entrance on a semi-hourly basis, trying to gauge whether they fit in or not and all the way hoping to get a share of all the good things that the stores have to offer – Global Reach and Sky-High Revenue Chart.
But, mobile app industry is also not new to seeing new businesses come in trying their luck in the domain and leaving because of failed success.
For an app entrepreneur, there can be nothing worse than the time where after investing a very good amount of time and money all they get left with is an app that sees either low or very short lived success. And the sad truth is that it is a very common occurrence.
A huge challenge for any app based start-up entrepreneur is to search for the consistent and calm focus among the various highs and lows and finding the things to avoid after app launch. One minute they experience a great euphoria as they witness hundreds of installs instantly for they have employed all the factors that make apps successful, and the next second they feel despair that those were the only installs.
Developing a startup takes time. But ensuring that your startup isn’t the one that meets the same fate is something that you cannot leave on time. And knowing what problems faced by startups can definitely give you a head start, especially in devising post app launch strategies.
Let us give you the kick and beware you of all the challenges that your app entrepreneur can face after your app hits the market.
Challenges That Help Devise Post App Launch Strategies
1. Establishing Yourself in a Crowded Market
No matter how truly amazing your startup business idea is, there is a very minimal chance that they app idea you have is truly the one that the world has not seen or at least the mobile app market has not seen. In fact, chances are that if your startup business idea is actually the one that has never been seen before, it will be only a matter of time before the market gets crowded with it.
And for a startup working on a situation of low resources – manpower and funds – it can be one of those things to avoid after app launch an app that can keep you from establishing yourself in a crowded market place and not get lost in the crowd. The scariest part of it all is that the chance of you getting lost in the crowd are still prevalent even if follow the unwritten app ideation manifesto that the app should be developed only after understanding the users’ needs, the exact buyer persona, etc.
2. Getting a Team Together
Most often than not the team that you got associated with to develop your mobile app gets left behind once the project is complete and launched. So, once it all ends, the team that you have left is the one that you have to create.
Now, theoretically, it sounds much easier than done. In words, you have to employ the “right” people with the necessary experience to take your mobile app forward till the end of time. But, when you enter the practical grounds in a reality where what you have to offer to those “right” people is next to nothing, it all seems to fall apart. After all, if it was this easy, it would not have been one of the most thought of post app launch strategies.
Getting a team together – the most thought upon after mobile app launch strategy – that is in sync with your mobile app ideas and your vision of the business when in return all you have to offer to them is hardly anything bigger than a tag of experience is something that takes a toll on the longevity of any startup.
3. Scalability
One of the biggest mistakes that app entrepreneurs make is confusing scalability with growth. They believe that scalability, like growth is expanding the business, witnessing a time when the revenue inflows are on an all time high, etc.
When, in reality, there is a very thin but prominent line of difference between scalability and growth. While, in case of growth, you know you have to incur expenses in order to reach the next level, scalability, in its idea itself, means that you will have to work on growing your business while the expenses are kept very low and constant.
Now going by the mere definition of scalability, something that we must go through for it is one of the most important to be followed eventually tips after new app launch, there are some other issues that get stringed along. Issues like the timing of scalability and the scope of it. If you scale your business too soon or too late, you will face failure and if you scale at the right time in the wrong domain, you will face failure.
4. Marketing
The task revolving around finding an answer to how to market a startup app is not even half as glorious and a piece of cake as the many listicles on the various marketing platforms tell you.
There are A NUMBER of things you have to decide between – the right platform vs the cost effective platform – less expense vs wider reach – and the list of confusions and struggles goes on.
The answer to how to market an app successfully itself has been the cause of demise of a number of brilliant app ideas such as your in the market and it is not going to stop. In fact, the more the platforms coming up to expose your brand to the world, the greater are becoming your chances to get sidelined.
Spending to your company’s intent to create a presence in the market and not getting any results at the back of it can be very scary and the truth is, this scariness is what is keeping entrepreneurs awake every night.
5. Funding
No matter what fund scheme you have backing your mobile app project till now, chances are that once the other side of real expenses kicks in, the money would run out. In fact, half of your money would run out when looking for best app marketing strategies only. That and the fact that in the mobile industry, the new trend that we see shaping up is one where the applications that get funded are the ones that are most talked about and thus used, are together making it an utmost necessity to find investors and quick.
Now, getting investors, if anyone of you who must have tried is NOT EASY. There is always a company with a much investment wise unique idea knocking on the investor’s profile across platforms.
And then the less talked in the open issue of the investors being a little soft on established names backing an app idea. All in all, getting funded is not easy.
6. Frequent Market Changes
The tech market is on a continuous change trip. There’s no denying that. Everytime you think you are offering something truly unique, the next day industry moves on to the next big thing. Example, had you ever thought of an AR based game like Pokemon Go, which was once on everybody’s phone to get into a state where it is not even talked about anymore?
It happened though, right?
The tech market changes too much for our liking. And for you to think that you are offering something of value today and assuming that it would always remain in demand is nothing more than being naive.
The timeline of an app being IN in the market is reducing because of this very reason. There is hardly an app today that can promise survival in the market operating on the same business model.
7. Constant Update
Launching an app, as we all know, is never enough. There is always something that needs to be tweaked and removed and added. Having an app developed is that is why called a continuous process, because the work never really ends, making what to do after an app launch, an endless list
And, until and unless you are associated with an agency that is your app’s lifetime partner who helps you understand why to update your app and how, chances are that your app and its user base will ultimately succumb to non-existence because of the simple fact that it is never looked over from maintenance point of view.
Constantly maintaining your mobile app can be a very difficult and a lot more easily ignored than one would like it to be, solely because without a team, you would hardly know what is actually technically wrong with the app and thus the circle of complaining reviews would only keep growing bigger.
8. Distributed Focus
It is not new or even difficult for new app entrepreneurs to get deviated from the main app or the goal that they started the journey to achieve and why not after all, the time is too low to get stuck to one idea and keep at it, right?
While seem to be very well fitting to the idea of carpe diem, it can do more bad than good. When you lose your focus and start looking at other feature set or technology addition, even if it doesn’t quite fit with your application, you often experience an event of chaos sooner or later. You find yourself sitting with multiple projects that have been started but are not going anywhere.
Keeping a concentrated focus to at least bring it at a point of constant growth is a lot easier said than done.
Here were the mobile app startup challenges that are in so many ways the sure shot medium to your startup’s quick demise.
JavaScript frameworks are changing the scenario of the front-end development world. They are proving to have the potential to build cross-platform mobile apps with ease and better future considerations. However, not all the front-end JavaScript frameworks are enjoying the same limelight in the marketplace.
While many new frameworks like Vue and Ember have entered the market and are gaining momentum with their exceptional options, frameworks like jQuery and Aurelia are losing their charm in the JavaScript world. They are struggling with getting the attention of the mobile app developers – a mandate for remaining in the development world.
In such a scenario where JavaScript frameworks are losing the market at a considerably higher pace than they enter into the market, keeping yourself abreast with what are the best JavaScript frameworks in 2019 can act as a helping hand in curating a profitable future in the marketplace. And when talking about the JavaScript frameworks to consider in 2019, looking at the two popular frameworks, Angular and Vue, and seeing how to choose the right option among them can be worthwhile.
Taking the same thought forward, we will have a brief look of both the JavaScript frameworks and look into Vue.js vs Angular comparison in this article.
So, here we begin with the first section, i.e, the brief introduction of Angular and Vue.
A Basic Overview of Angular and Vue.js
Backed by Google, Angular is an open-source framework considered for building dynamic websites and applications. The framework falls under the category of MEAN stack and is supportable with a wide range of code editors. Its latest version is Angular 8, which introduced various exciting features in the development environment, such as differential loading, dynamic import for lazy routes, CLI workflow improvements, support for Node 10, and support for TypeScript 3.4.
Whereas, the answer to what is Vue is that it is an open-source framework created by Evan You for tackling the challenges associated with Angular and React JS frameworks. The framework is highly recognised in the market for developing a simple page web application. Its latest version is Vue 2.6 which has come up with features and update that adds to its popularity in the market, such as the introduction of Slots, Async error handling, template compile warnings with source information, dynamic directive arguments, Explicit creation of standalone reactive objects, and more.
Both these JavaScript application frameworks are loved by various reputed brands for reaping higher profits of the mobile market, including:-
While there can be various reasons behind why these brands have adopted Vue.js 2.6 vs Angular 8, a few of them are stated below:-
Benefits of Considering Angular Development Framework
Some of the pros of Angular that proves it to be the right JS framework for your app needs are:-
Server-Side Rendering
Angular JS framework offers better Server-Side Rendering (SSR) features that improve the page speed on the client side. This makes the JS framework more SEO-friendly.
Separation of Concerns
Angular follows the MVC model, which makes it good for separation of concerns and cleaner faster development.
Deep Linking Module
The framework provides developers with an extensive linking module for single page app development that assists in understanding of how Ajax works and introducing its advantages into your app project.
Tools and Filters
As stated earlier, Angular 8 comes up with various features, tools, and filters that makes development environment better and faster. Some of these features are lazy loading, virtual scrolling, preview of Ivy, support for Node 10, and more.
Testing and Maintenance
The Angular IO framework comes with advanced refactoring and debugging options that aid developers in the testing and maintenance process. Besides, it renders the opportunity to test the complete project with a single testing tool like Jasmine, Karma and Protractor. This cut down the hassle of developers and ensure highly-effective results.
Update Scope with CLI
As we have already seen in our article React vs Angular covered a few months ago, Angular CLI is easy to install and use. It also serves mobility experts with simpler commands and effective testing tools and is supported by several engineers and platforms that make it possible to update all the app components – including those having dependency on third-party libraries and APIs.
While these are the advantages of Angular that supports the idea of choosing it for front-end development, it’s good to have a glance at the benefits of Vue to determine what to consider in Vue.js vs Angular to do justice to your app needs.
Advantages of Going with Vue.js
Vue.js is emerging out as one of the most popular front-end JavaScript frameworks to rely upon for your application development needs, with benefits like:-
Memory Consumption
One of the pros of Vue.js development is that the app developed can be as light as 18Kb after zipping. This makes it the first choice to target the user base demanding for low memory consumption with impressive features availability.
Ease of Learning
Vue CLI comes under the category of most popular JavaScript frameworks in 2019. Its CLI is too basic when compared to other frameworks including Angular. Besides, it has an extensive and updated documentation. All these reasons make it the first choice of all those who are or wish to enter the development arena.
Readability
Being written in JavaScript and having the property of clean codes, this framework makes it easier for anyone to read and understand the code to take the app development process further.
Download Speed
Since the app size is minimal, the Vue.js – based application is faster to download and employ.
Integration Scope
As specified earlier in our Vue.js vs Reactjs article that was covered last year, Vue.js facilitates a simpler and easier integration process. This makes it developers’ favorite to build both single page application from scratch and integrate high-end components into an existing one.
Server-Side Rendering
Another factor that counts under the benefits of Vue.js is that it also offers option of Server-side rendering. This improves the speed of the working of pages on the client end, which eventually result in better user experience.
Now as we have grasped the basics of both, let’s jump directly into the JavaScript frameworks comparison part so that you could select the optimal framework for your business needs. In short, let’s take a turn towards Vue.js vs Angular.
Vue.js vs Angular: Factors to Determine the Right Development Option
1. Popularity
As per the 2018 State of JavaScript survey, the percentage of people who have never heard of Vue has reduced from 5% to 1% in just a year. This signifies that Vue.js popularity is growing.
But as disclosed by GitHub, while Vue is getting higher stars and forks, it is lagging behind in terms of the number of commits and contributors. This makes it tough to say which framework is better in terms of popularity – Vue.js vs Angular – Angular vs Vue.js.
2. Learning Curve
To develop an application with Angular frontend development framework, you need to get expertise at concepts like TypeScript and MVC. But, this is not in the case of Vue.
Vue.js framework offers inbuilt app templates and higher customization which makes it easier than Angular and React. Besides, Vue.js – being designed by blending Angular and React – makes it easier to bring Angular or React-based mobility solution on Vue platform.
3. Architecture
Another factor that influences the decision in JS framework comparison is architecture. While Angular implements MVC (Model-View-Controller) and MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) for creating dynamic websites and web applications, Vue primarily focuses only on the ViewModel and shows limited data. This makes Vue.js become inferior to Angular in the development world.
This makes Angular win the title of Angular vs Vue.js battle.
4. Complexity
Since Vue.js has been developed much later than various other JS frameworks including React and Angular JS (the earlier version of Angular), it is much simpler than Angular in terms of design and API.
In other words, Angular comes with a much higher complexity than Vue.js in the development arena.
5. Scalability
When you look at scalability as the deciding factor in Angular vs Vue, the former leads the competition. This is because Angular has a proper modular development structure while Vue.js employs template-based syntax, which reduces the reusability of code in large-size apps.
6. TypeScript Support
Angular is highly integrated with TypeScript – the upgraded version of JavaScript. It is not possible to code in Angular ecosystem without Typescript. Whereas, when talking about Vue.js, JavaScript is considered for writing codes. But, it also provides Vue.js developers with official typings and official decorator to easily collaborate TypeScript features into Vue development environment.
7. App Size and Loading Time
Though the recent Angular versions have traits like AOT compilation and tree-shaking which reduces the app size to a considerable rate, an Angular-based app is still not as lighter as the one developed using Vue framework. And since loading time depends heavily on app size, Vue.js mobile app ensures faster loading.
Thus, the winner of Vue.js vs Angular battle is the former.
8. Flexibility
The next factor that holds the key to choosing the best JS frameworks between Vue.js and Angular is flexibility.
Vue.js, when compared to Angular, is less opinionated and provides developers with an official support for a wide range of build systems with no constraint upon the app structure. This indicates that Vue.js is a better option over Angular in terms of freedom and flexibility.
9. App Performance
In web and mobile app development, the performance level is directly associated with DOM (Document Object Model). While Angular uses real DOM in which the complete web/app page is rendered even on changing a single component, Vue.js works with Virtual DOM in which changes are reflected on the real DOM only on those components that are modified. This approach accelerates the app performance, making Vue.js a winner over Angular in the front-end JavaScript frameworks market.
10. Data Binding
Just like React, Vue.js also relies upon the concept of one-way data binding in which the UI elements cannot be altered before changing the model state. Whereas, Angular employs two-way binding approach in which model state changes when UI element is changed and vice-versa.
While two-way binding seems an easier method, it lags behind Vue.js’s one-way data binding approach in terms of making faster data flow and creating non-trivial apps in less time.
11. Ease of Deployment
Earlier it was required to focus on writing a “good” Angular application to reap the perks of lazy loading, Ahead-of-Time compilation (AoT), module system and other related features. But, the Angular 8 version has come up with changes that revolutionized the whole scenario. The Angular update introduced options like differential loading, CLI workflow improvements, dynamic import for lazy routes, and more which added ease to the deployment process.
Whereas, in the case of Vue.js, you can either import anything into your app environment or build a complex local setup (created using Vue CLI) which regulates the code optimizations. You can employ lazy loading of components and even pre-compile the templates already available on Vue.js.
12. Testing
When taking testing as the prime factor, Angular is a better choice over Vue.js. It has a great testing mechanism and offers multiple tools like Jasmine and Karma that test the complete development code individually. Whereas, Vue.js lacks the right testing guidelines making it tough for developers to deliver a bug-free application.
13. Mobility Solutions
Angular is a web-based app framework considered for creating real-time apps like instant messaging or chat applications. Whereas, Vue.js is suitable for designing lightweight single page web applications with an easy interface.
14. Community Support
Vue.js, unlike Angular which is backed by Google, is driven wholly by an open-source community. Because of this, it lags behind Angular and other JS frameworks in terms of the number of commits and contributors despite having a higher number of watchers, stars and forks on GitHub. Besides, the migration helper tool of Vue.js is not effective for large-scale application due to the absence of a roadmap that concentrates upon versioning and their plans. All these factors indicate that Angular is a winner over Vue.js in terms of community support.
Though the aforementioned factors will help in deciding the right option and leverage maximum advantages, it’s good to look into which JS framework is best for which situation – Vue.js vs Angular.
When to Consider Angular for Your App Project
You are developing a large, dynamic and complex app project.
You want a real-time application like Instant messaging and Chat app.
You require easy and reliable scalability.
You have time to learn TypeScript before the project begins.
You are fond of Object-oriented programming.
When to Pick Vue.js for App Development
You are developing a lightweight and single-page app.
With this, we have now reached the end of this article. We have looked into the factors that can help in deciding the right JavaScript framework among Vue.js vs Angular for your application development needs and the situations you can relate to. But, if you still can’t decide what to choose for your app needs and how to proceed further, consult with our app development experts.
Our team, with their years of experience in app development for different business verticals and needs, will guide you in considering the right factors and thus, launching a profitable mobility solution in the market.
How your site feels and looks to its visitors is a huge determinant of the user experience (UX) offered on it. Site developers and designers leave no stones unturned to make their website’s style and design line up with its utility and functionality to give it a comprehensive look and make it practical. The most crucial decision amongst this is the successful utilization of CSS and its features.
Since its previous version, CSS3 has taken a giant leap and emerged as one of the most brilliant technological advances in the web design industry. With CSS3, internet browsers locally produce plenty of styling effects that were once just feasible through inventive HTML hacks and editing software like Photoshop. What’s extraordinary about CSS3 is that it’s exceptionally amazing at lessening the requirement of pictures and code that you previously had to put on your site as a significant aspect of your structure. This implies decreased server requests and loading time for your website. This article talks about some of the most striking CSS3 features, which will help you to augment the feel and aesthetics of your project effortlessly
Features of CSS3
1. Advanced Animations
We can utilize both Transition and Animation when it is required to change a component starting with one state moving/transitioning onto the next. The thing that matters is that animation can be comprised of numerous states, giving command over its animation. These animations are now available and compatible with all browsers. There are two different ways to make CSS animations. The first is simple; it is done through animating the progressions of CSS properties with the transition assertion. With transitions, you can make float or mouse down effects, or you can trigger the animation by changing the style of a component with JavaScript.
The second route for characterizing animations is more complex- it includes the portrayal of specific moments of the animation along with the code. This enables you to have recurring animations that don’t rely upon user activities or JavaScript to get activated.
2.Multiple Backgrounds & Gradient
With multiple backgrounds, creators can accomplish extremely intriguing impacts. They can stack various pictures as backgrounds of a component. Each picture (or layer) can be moved and animated effortlessly. CSS3 features also include the provision of having gradients in the background. Gradients enable website specialists to make smooth advances between hues without turning to pictures. CSS gradients likewise look extraordinary on retina displays, since they are created the moment the page loads. They can be straight or outspread and can be set to repeat.
3.Multiple Column layout
This CSS3 feature incorporates properties to enable web designers to display their content in multiple sections with alternatives like column-width, column-gap, and column-count. Column-based formats were previously hard to pull off in CSS. It normally included utilizing JavaScript or server-side processing that parts the content into various components. This is superfluously convoluted and wastes valuable development time. Luckily, presently there is a route around this by utilizing the CSS columns rule.
4.Opacity
This property can make components more transparent. You could approach setting the opacity of a picture in a picture manager or photo editing software, and afterward, save it as a .png or .gif document with opacity enabled. Or on the other hand, you could simply get this done with a single line of code in CSS. It’s up to you. The opacity ranges from 0 (totally transparent) to 1 (totally opaque).
5.Rounded Corner:
Greatly utilized by the social media giant Twitter, this CSS3 feature is already very renowned on the web. Rounded corner components can tidy up a site, however, making a rounded corner requires a web designer to compose a great deal of code. Modifying the stature, width, and location of these components is an endless task in light of the fact that any adjustment in content can break them. CSS 3 tends to simplify this issue by presenting the rounded corner property, which gives you the equivalent rounded corner impact, and you don’t need to compose all the code. Truly, rounded corners simply look more appealing and easy to use than square boxes. The best part currently is, you can apply this effect to HTML components with CSS3. That is the reason why you’ll discover rounded corners all over the web.
6. Selectors
Selectors enable the web designer to choose on increasingly precise degrees of the website page. They are basic pseudo-classes that perform halfway-matches to assist in coordinating with crediting and trait esteems. New selectors focus on a pseudo-class to style the components focused on the URL. Selectors likewise incorporate a checked pseudo-class to style checked components, for example, checkboxes and radio buttons.
CONCLUSION
Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) is a version of the CSS standard utilized in the styling and designing of Web pages. CSS3 features fuse the CSS2 standard with certain progressions and upgrades. CSS3 is a fantastic asset for Web creators. From the time CSS3 has been presented, there has been a superior control over the exhibition of content on a site. Regardless of where we choose to utilize our programming capacities, it will be seen that web advances are really basic and important to take advantage of on each stage. Give CSS3 a try and utilize it in case you’re making a site. Mess around with it. You’ll find it very intriguing to work with its cutting edge features while also sparing yourself a great deal of time that you would have otherwise spent to make precisely the same thing in a photo editing software.
With a new feature of CSS3’s modularized specification, it has further eased out the process for browser developers as it permits them to support incremental modules without doing any heavy modifications or refactoring of the browsers’ codebases. This concept of modularization makes it much simpler and faster to implement individual CSS3 modules.
When we talk about the present, we don’t realize that we are actually talking about yesterday’s future. And one such futuristic technology to talk about is how to implement ML and how to add AI to your app. Your next seven minutes will be spent on learning what is the role of Machine learning and Artificial intelligence in the mobile app development industry and what you can do to take advantage of it.
The time of generic services and simpler technologies is long gone and today we’re living in a highly machine-driven world. Machines which are capable of learning our behaviors and making our daily lives easier than we ever imagined possible, all the way, making it necessary for us to understand the process of integrating Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence into apps.
Technological realm today is fast-paced enough to quickly switch between Brands and Apps and technologies if one happens to not justify their needs in the first five minutes of using it. This is also a reflection upon the competition this fast pace has led to. Mobile app development companies simply cannot afford to be left behind in the race of forever evolving technologies.
Today, if we see, there is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning incorporated in almost every mobile application we choose to use. Which makes it all the more important to know How to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence in mobile apps.
For instance, our food delivery app will show us the restaurants which deliver the kind of food we like to order, our on-demand taxi applications show us the real-time location of our rides, time management applications tell us what is the most suitable time to complete a task and how to prioritize our work.
In fact, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that were once considered top complicated technology to work on or even comprehend is something that has become an everyday part of our lives without even use realizing of its presence. A proof of which is the following functionalities offered by the top brand apps.
The wide inclusion of the two related technologies has made the need for worrying over simple, even complicated things cease to exist because our mobile applications and our smartphone devices are doing that for us.
The below provided stats will show us that ML and AI powered mobile apps are a leading category among funded startups and businesses.
Allied Market Research has predicted that the market for ML will reach $5,537 million in 2023 further demonstrating its growing prevalence.
According to the 2019 CIO Survey by Gartner, the number of companies implementing AI technologies in some form has grown by 270% in the past years.
According to Microsoft, 44% of organisations fear they’ll lose out to startups if they’re too slow to implement AI.
Research by Fortune Business Insights predicts that $117.19 billion is the expected value of the global machine learning market by 2027 at a CAGR of 39.2% during the forecast period.
The Wall Street Journal, states that the advancements in AI and machine learning have the potential to increase global GDP by 14% from, now until 2030.
The idea behind any kind of business is to make profits and that can only be done when they gain new users and retain their old users. The difficult task can be made easy through AI as it comes as one of the benefits or advantages of integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence in apps.
Ways To Implement AI and ML
There are three primal ways through which the power of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can be incorporated in mobile apps to make the application more efficient, sound, and intelligent. The ways which are also the answer to how to add AI and ML to your app.
Reasoning
AI and ML are two proficient technologies that imbibe the power of reasoning for solving problems. Applications like Uber or Google Maps that are used by individuals to travel to different areas, many times change the course or route based on the traffic conditions. This is where AI works – by harnessing its thinking capacities. This facility is what makes AI beat a human at chess and how Uber makes use of automated reasoning for optimizing routes to get the users to reach their destination faster.
Hence, real-time quick decisions are presently being controlled by AI to provide the best customer service.
Recommendation
As you are familiar with OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and others; the streaming features of these platforms acquire a large number of customers with high rates of user trust and retention. Both Netflix and Amazon have implemented AI and ML into their applications that examine the customer’s decision based on age, gender, location, and their preferences. The technology based on the customer’s choices then suggests the most popular alternatives in their watch playlist or that individuals with similar tastes have watched.
Giving the users insight into what they would require next has turned out to be the secret of success of some of the top brands in the world – Amazon, Flipkart, Netflix, amongst others have been using the Artificial Intelligence backed power for a very long time now. This is an amazingly popular technology for streaming services and is currently being executed into numerous other applications.
Behavioral
Learning how the user behaves in the app can help Artificial Intelligence set a new border in the world of security. Every time someone tries to take your data and try to impersonate any online transaction without your knowledge, the AI system can track the uncommon behavior and stop the transaction there and then.
These three primal bases that answer what are the best ways to incorporate machine learning and AI in application development can be used in multiple capacities to enable your app to offer a lot better customer experience.
And now that we have looked at how to integrate AI in android apps along with integration of ML, let us answer the why?
Why should you integrate machine learning and AI into your mobile app?
Why to Integrate Machine Learning and AI Into Your Mobile App?
Personalization
Any AI algorithm attached to your simpleton mobile application can analyze various sources of information from social media activities to credit ratings and provide recommendations to every user device. Machine learning application development can be used to learn:
Who are your customers?
What do they like?
What can they afford?
What words they’re using to talk about different products?
Based on all of this information, you can classify your customer behaviors and use that classification for target marketing. To put simply, ML will allow you to provide your customers and potential customers with more relevant and enticing content and put up an impression that your mobile app technologies with AI are customized especially for them.
To look at a few AI ML examples of big brands who are setting standards on how to implement Machine Learning in apps?
Taco Bell as a TacBot that takes orders, answers questions and recommends menu items based on your preferences.
Uber uses ML to provide an estimated time of arrival and cost to its users.
ImprompDo is a Time management app that employs ML to find a suitable time for you to complete your tasks and to prioritize your to-do list
Migraine Buddy is a great healthcare app which adopts ML to forecast the possibility of a headache and recommends ways to prevent it.
Optimize fitness is a sports app which incorporates an available sensor and genetic data to customize a highly individual workout program.
Advanced search
Through the AI and Machine learning based app development process, you will get an app that lets you optimize search options in your mobile applications. AI and Machine Learning makes the search results more intuitive and contextual for its users. The algorithms learn from the different queries put by customers and prioritize the results based on those queries.
In fact, not only search algorithms, modern mobile applications allow you to gather all the user data including search histories and typical actions. This data can be used along with the behavioral data and search requests to rank your products and services and show the best applicable outcomes.
Upgrades, such as voice search or gestural search can be incorporated for a better performing application.
Predicting user behavior
The biggest advantage of AI based machine learning app development for marketers is that they get an understanding of users’ preferences and behavior patterns by inspection of different kinds of data concerning the age, gender, location, search histories, app usage frequency, etc. This data is the key to improving the effectiveness of your application and marketing efforts.
Amazon’s suggestion mechanism and Netflix’s recommendation works on the same principle that ML aids in creating customized recommendations for each individual.
And not only Amazon and Netflix but mobile apps such as Youbox, JJ food service, and Qloo entertainment adopt ML to predict the user preferences and build the user profile according to that.
More relevant ads
Many industry experts have exerted on this point that the only way to move forward in this never-ending consumer market can be achieved by personalizing every experience for every customer.
According to a report by The Relevancy group, 38% of executives are already using machine learning for mobile apps as a part of their Data Management Platform (DMP) for advertising.
With the help of integrating machine learning in mobile apps, you can avoid debilitating your customers by approaching them with products and services that they have no interest in. Rather you can concentrate all your energy towards generating ads that cater to each user’s unique fancies and whims.
Machine Learning app development companies today can easily consolidate data intelligently that will in return save time and money went into inappropriate advertising and improve the brand reputation of any company.
For instance, Coca-Cola is known for customizing its ads as per the demographic. It does so by having information about what situations prompt customers to talk about the brand and has, hence, defined the best way to serve advertisements.
Improved security level
Besides making a very effective marketing tool, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning for mobile apps can also streamline and secure app authentication. Features such as Image recognition or Audio recognition makes it possible for users to set up their biometric data as a security authentication step in their mobile devices. ML also aids you in establishing access rights for your customers as well.
Apps such as ZoOm Login and BioID have invested in ML and AI application development to allow users to use their fingerprints and Face IDs to set up security locks to various websites and apps. In fact, BioID even offers a periocular eye recognition for partially visible faces.
Now that we have looked at the different areas in which application of AI and ML can be incorporated in the mobile app, it is now time to look at the platforms which will make it possible, which we in our capacity has experienced AI app development company have been relying on, before we head on to the strategy that a business should devise to ensure a smooth implementation.
User engagement
The AI development services and solutions engage organizations to offer balanced customer support and a span of features. Few apps provide small incentives to the customers so that they utilize the application consistently. Also just for entertainment purposes, chatty AI assistants are there to help the users and hold a discussion at any hour.
Data mining
Data mining, also known as data discovery, includes analyzing the vast set of data to gather helpful information and collect it in different areas, including data warehouses and others. ML offers data algorithms that will generally improve automatically through experience based on information. It follows the way of learning new algorithms that make it quite simple to find associations inside the data sets and gather the data effortlessly.
Fraud detection
The cases of fraud are a worry for every industry, particularly banking and finance. To solve this problem, ML utilizes data analysis to limit loan defaults, fraud checks, credit card fraud, and more.
It also assists you with determining an individual’s capability to take care of a loan and the danger related with giving the loan. E-commerce apps frequently exploit ML to discover promotional discounts and offers.
Object and facial recognition
Facial recognition is the most loved and latest feature for the mobile apps. Facial recognition can help improve the security of your application while additionally making it faster to login. It also helps in securing the data from unknown sources.
With the improved security, facial recognition can be utilized by medical professionals to evaluate the health of patients by examining a patient’s face.
Best Platforms to Develop a Mobile App with Machine Learning?
1. Azure
Azure is a Microsoft cloud solution. Azure has a very large support community, and high-quality multilingual documents, and a high number of accessible tutorials. The programming languages of this platform are R and Python. Because of an advanced analytical mechanism, the AI app developers can create mobile applications with accurate forecasting capabilities.
2. IBM Watson
The main characteristic of using IBM Watson, is that it allows the developers to process user requests comprehensively regardless of the format. Any kind of data. Including voice notes, images or printed formats is analyzed quickly with the help of multiple approaches. This search method is not provided by any other platform than IBM Watson. Other platforms involve complex logical chains of ANN for search properties. The multitasking in IBM Watson places an upper hand in the majority of the cases since it determines the factor of minimum risk.
3. Tensorflow
Google’s open-source library, Tensor, allows AI application development companies to create multiple solutions depending upon deep machine learning which is deemed necessary to solve nonlinear problems. Tensorflow applications work by using the communication experience with users in their environment and gradually finding correct answers as per the requests by users. Although, this open library is not the best choice for beginners.
4. Api.ai
It is a platform that is created by the Google development team which is known to use contextual dependencies. This platform can be very successfully used to create AI based virtual assistants for Android and iOS. The two fundamental concepts that Api.ai depends on are – Entities and Roles. Entities are the central objects and Roles are accompanying objects that determine the central object’s activity. Furthermore, the creators of Api.ai have created a highly powerful database that strengthened their algorithms.
5. Wit.ai
Api.ai and Wit.ai have largely similar platforms. Another prominent characteristic of Wit.ai is that it converts speech files into printed texts. Wit.ai also enables a “history” feature which can analyze context-sensitive data and therefore, can generate highly accurate answers to user requests and this is especially the case of chatbots for commercial websites. This is a good platform for the creation of Windows, iOS or Android mobile applications with machine learning.
6. Amazon AI
The famous AI based platform is used to identify human speech, visual objects with the help of deep machine learning processes. The solution is completely adapted for the purpose of cloud deployment and thus allowing you to develop low complexity AI-powered mobile apps.
7. Clarifai
The solution based on AI analyzes information with the help of complicated and capacitive algorithms. The apps made using the platform (which can be integrated in-app using REST API) – can adapt to individual user experience – which makes it the most preferred choice for the developers who wish to invest in Artificial intelligence for app development to enter the world of intelligent assistants.
With this, you now know that the ways your mobile app can become an AI app and the tools that will help with Machine learning and AI app development. The next and the last and the most important part that we are going to discuss now is how to get started.
How to Start Implementation of AI into Apps?
Implementation of Artificial or Machine Learning in an application calls in for a monumental shift in the operation of an application that works sans intelligence.
This shift that is asked for by AI is what demands to look at pointers that are very different from what is needed when investing in the usual mobile app development process.
Here are the things that you will have to keep into consideration when managing an AI project:
Identify the issue to solve through AI
What works in case of applying AI in a mobile app, as we saw in the first illustration of the article is applying the technology in one process instead of multiple. When the technology is applied in a single feature of the application, it is much easier to not just manage but also to exploit to the best extent. So, identify which is that part of your application that would benefit from intelligence – is it recommendation? Would the technology help in giving a better ETA? – And then collect data specifically from that field.
Know your data
Before you look forward to AI app development, it is important to first get an understanding of where the data would come from. At the stage of data fetching and refinement, it would help to identify the platforms where the information would come from in the first place. Next, you will have to look at the refinement of the data – ensuring that the data you are planning to feed in your AI module is clean, non-duplicated, and truly informative.
Understand that APIs are not enough
The next big thing, when it comes to implementing AI in a mobile app is understanding that the more extensively you use it, the more unsound Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) would prove to be. While the APIs that we mentioned above are enough to convert your app into an AI app, they are not enough to support a heavy, full-fledged AI solution. The point is, the more you want a model to be intelligent, the more you will have to work towards data modeling – something that APIs solely cannot solve.
Set metrics that would help gauge AI’s effectiveness
There is hardly a point of having an AI or Machine Learning feature implemented in your mobile app until you also have the mechanism to measure its effectiveness – something which can only be drawn after getting an understanding of what exactly do you want it to solve. So, before you head out to implement AI or even ML in your mobile app, understand what you would like it to achieve.
Employ data scientists
The last most important point to consider is employing data scientists on either your payroll or invest in a mobile app development agency that has data scientists in their team. Data scientists will help you with all your data refining and management needs, basically, everything that is needed on a must-have level to stand and excel your Artificial Intelligence game.
This is the stage where you are now ready to implement the intelligence in your mobile application. Since we talked about data a lot in the last segment and because data is an inherent part of Artificial Intelligence, let us look at the solution of problems that can arise out of data as the parting note.
Feasibility and practical changes to make
Now that you have known the which, why and how about the implementation of AI and Machine Learning apps, you might have an idea regarding a plan in mind like what steps should be taken as a top priority and how your application would work/appear, once the changes are made. Along these lines, it is an ideal opportunity to perform a couple of checks prior to moving ahead, for example, –
Perform a quick possibility test to know if your future execution will profit your business, improve user experience and increase engagement. A fruitful upgrade is the one which could make the existing users and customers happy and attract more individual towards your product. If an update is not expanding your efficiency, then there is no reason for putting in effort and money for it.
Analyze if your current group can deliver what is required. If there is less or no internal team capacity then you need to hire new employees or outsource the work to a reliable and expert artificial intelligence development company.
Data integration and security
While implementing Machine Learning projects for mobile applications, your app will require a better information configuration model. Old data, which is composed in a different way, may influence the effectiveness of your ML deployment.
When it is decided what abilities and features will be added in the application, it is important to focus on data sets. Efficient and well organized data along with careful integration will help in providing your app with high-quality performance in the long run.
Security is another basic issue, which can’t be overlooked. To keep your application strong and secure, you need to think of the correct arrangement to integrate security implications, clinging to standards and the needs of your product.
Use strong supporting technological aids
You need to pick the right technology and digital solutions to back your application. Your data storing space, security tools, backup software, optimizing services, and so on should be strong and secure, to keep your app consistent. Without this, the drastic decrease in performance may occur.
Solutions to the Most Common Challenges in AI Technology?
Like any other technology, there is always a series of challenges attached to AI as well. The basic working principle behind machine learning is the availability of enough resource data as a training sample. And as a benchmark of learning, the size of training sample data should be large enough so as to ensure a fundamental perfection in the AI algorithm.
In order to avoid the risks of misinterpretation of visual cues or any other digital information by the machine or mobile application, the following are the various methods which can be used:
1. Hard sample mining
When a subject consists of several objects similar to the main object, the machine is ought to confuse between those objects if the sample size provided for analysis as the example if not big enough. Differentiating between different objects with the help of multiple examples is how the machine learns to analyze which object is the central object.
2. Data augmentation
When there is an image in question in which the machine or mobile application is required to identify a central image, there should be modifications made to the entire image keeping the subject unchanged, thereby enabling the app to register the main object in a variety of environments.
3. Data addition imitation
In this method, some of the data is nullified keeping only the information about the central object. This is done so that the machine memory only contains the data regarding the main subject image and not about the surrounding objects.
Concluding Thoughts
Now that you know the reasons and how to implement mobile apps, it is time to apply the top-notch performance and quality for AI and ML together to bring out the best in the application. AI and ML together are the future of advancement of mobile app development.
If you are still confused and want to clear your doubts, you can contact us. If you are looking to develop an app that is advancing with the time and technology and want to update your existing app with all the latest technology features, then you should partner with ML and AI development company that is well-adapted with the changing market needs. You can also opt for professional development providers in your area like AI development services USA or other regions. But make sure you choose the best to get quality results.
Not many people are familiar with the benefits of mobile app deep linking but the truth is there are benefits.
The technique not only provides better user engagement but also helps in tracking the most effective campaigns.
In this blog, we will talk all about deep linking in mobile apps and much more. Let us begin with a general idea about deep linking in mobile apps and then move on to further segments.
What is deep linking?
Technically, a deep link is any link that takes a user to any specific content. Deep links are used within mobile applications to locate specific content. Almost all the web links are deep links. Deep links will not only open your app but also will use the information in the link to perform a specific action.
For instance, if the link to your Facebook profile is fb://profile/, then the Facebook app will be launched and will open your profile. This is how deep linking functions. It does more than just launching an app when a link is clicked.
What are the different methods of deep linking in mobile apps?
Deep linking apps may have more than just one method. Deep links with apps provide a solution to the problem that has been bugging the users for a long time now. So basically, web links didn’t work with native apps and whenever the link to a certain product from an app was clicked, the web browser was launched. But when mobile deep linking is done then the link straight away launches the app on the specific page.
Here are some different ways mobile app deep linking is done:
1. Traditional deep linking
Traditional deep links work as long as the app is already installed when the link is clicked. When a user clicks on the link, the device will open the app and not the web browser. If a user does not have the app installed already then the result will either show error or an alternative page.
2. Deferred deep linking
As the word ‘deferred’ suggests, this method of mobile app deep linking directs the users even when the app is not installed. With deferred deep linking when users without the app, click on the link, they will be directed to the app in the Play Store or App Store. Once the app is installed then the user will be taken to the specific content immediately post the first launch.
3. Contextual deep linking
Contextual deep links have all the functionality of deferred deep linking and more. In this method of deep linking app, information about the users’ desired actions is stored. Information like where the user wants to go next, who was the original sender of the link and many other custom information is stored.
This type of linking is great for both users and developers. The developers can build amazing content with personalized messages and the users get better user experience.
4. Custom deep links
Custom deep links or custom URI schemes were the original way of deep linking. These links act as a private internet for the app, giving users a better experience. The advantages of using URI schemes is that they are easy to set up and most of the apps already have it.
URI scheme deep linking is still used for deep linking Android but for iOS app deep linking is no more done with this method. Apple blocked this method in 2015 when it launched the Universal Links for deep linking iOS apps.
5. Apple iOS Universal links
The custom URI schemes had a lack of proper fallback functionality which is why Apple blocked in 2015. With iOS 9, Apple launched Universal Links that locate the content on a web page or in the app. What iOS does when a link is clicked is that it checks for any apps associated with the link. If yes, then it launches the app and if no, then the link is opened in Safari. In a study, it was found that Universal Links have increased the conversion to open by 40%.
6. Android links
Google also created App Links to match the iOS Universal Links and has somewhat the same functionality. The link leads to both webpages and apps depending on the presence of an app in the device. But since Android still has URI schemes running quite well, developers aren’t adopting the App Links that much.
There are innumerable benefits of using deep linking for your app and by now you might have already figured out some of them. Even though the adoption of deep links was quite slow in the past because of its unknown benefits yet it was still being used. And today the benefits are said to be the reason why deep linking is even considered for mobile apps. Here, we will lay down some benefits of deep linking app.
Why use Deep Linking for your app?
1. Enhancing the user experience
It wouldn’t be a surprise to know that deep linking plays a part in enhancing the overall user experience of an app. As much as the UI is important for an app, deep linking is an integral part of it. Users have the freedom to access content via deep links on the app or the web page.
2. User retention, usage, and engagement
What is a deep link to an app? Speaking non-technically, it is a way to bring in more engagement, ensuring high retention and high usage. As seen in the graph above, apps having deep links have more activation rate and more app visits. When compared to apps without any deep links, users are less active and the app has a low engagement rate.
3. User onboarding
Deep links with apps help developers in personalizing the onboard experience. If we take the case of contextual deep links, a developer can easily create personalized application invitations or may as well include some incentives in the user onboarding flow.
4. Re-engaging users
It is very important for an app to have active users but sometimes there are inactive users. With deep linking, you can direct those inactive users to specific content or page on your app which will result in more active users. Sending deep links with push notifications is a great way to do that.
5. Marketing benefits
Deep linking can help in increasing the sales and revenue of a company. The thing with deep links is that they can direct users to any page of content from the app and that is why this can be strategically used to generate more sales. An e-commerce app can use deep links to send notifications about the latest deals and offers and direct users to the offers section.
6. Effectiveness of campaigns
As we saw earlier that contextual deep linking stores custom data about users and their behavior on the app. This information can be used to see which campaign and sources are most fruitful for driving audience or increasing engagement and sales.
When you shouldn’t go for deep linking apps?
Is deep link service for everybody to go with? Well, the benefits are compelling enough to go for it. But it does not mean you should always go where the benefits have an edge. Deep linking may not be the wisest choice for many app owners.
The reason why deep linking apps may not be the right choice for you depends on the app you have. If your native app has poor UI/UX or has a lot of glitches, you can spare your users the trouble of going through such an experience.
The only reason you should be using deep linking in your app is if the app experience is better than the web experience. If not, then it will not be the best decision.
Apps that are totally focused on the industry it is in and has the need to push notifications, filtering search results, etc. should have deep linking. It will be of great use if users find more comfort in shifting from a webpage to an app and that can only happen if the app is worth it.
So, how to use deep linking in mobile app?
Deep linking can be used in both iOS and Android apps. The condition for iOS apps is that deep links are supported in iOS 9.0 and above versions whereas all versions of Android support deep links.
Let us show you the different ways deep linking is done.
1. Mapping out URLs from the website for the app
The first step is to map out the URLs you will be using in your app. You have to make a match of which specific URLs of your website will represent what pages in your app. Also, keep in mind that not every link needs to be mapped.
For instance, if your website has a Blog section then you don’t need to direct users to app for reading a blog. Whereas, you can direct users to your app if they search for any products. It is very important to understand here that users should not be forced to visit the app.
One thing to keep in mind is that the users should only be directed to the app if you can show what they have been looking for. There is nothing worse than an annoyed user who may never return.
2. Universal Links for iOS
By now you know that Apple uses Universal Links for deep linking iOS for version 9.0 and above. The Universal Links not only provide a better user experience but also has good compatibility with the iOS 9.0.
It is recommended that you don’t implement the support for iOS 8.0 and below since it’s not going to be worth the effort. This clearly means that deep linking won’t work for any user having iOS 8.0 or below. However, Apple reported that 83% of iOS users have upgraded their iOS to 12.0 so it shouldn’t be much of a loss. In fact, this number is growing rapidly in the US and Europe.
To implement the iOS Universal Links, follow the steps:
Decide what links will launch the iOS app and represent what products on it. For this, you have to create a file on your website such as https://www.example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association. This basically informs Apple that the app is yours and therefore it should intercept all the links to products and pages.
The second stage will be updating your iOS app so that it can respond to all the changes being made and can receive the links.
And voila! Your iOS deep linking into the app is done.
3. Android App Links
Android has been using the deferred deep linking Android for a long time. But they launched the App Links in Android Marshmallow 6.0. To implement the same in your follow these steps:
To get your website verified by Android, update your AndroidManifest.xml file.
Create a file on the website such as https://www.example.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json which will prove to Google that the app is yours.
And the deep linking for Android is done!
The last and most important step is to promote your app as much as you can. Users will be directed to your website if they don’t have the app therefore, promoting the app becomes the primary job once deep linking is done.
This is our take on deep linking mobile apps as an app development company. Contact our team of developers at Anteelo to know more.
Blockchain technology is one of the driving forces in the world of innovation. It has revolutionized various industries, including Healthcare, Supply chain, Mobile app, Retail, Real Estate, and Finance by adding a layer of security and transparency into their processes. And on the way, it has become one of the most loved technologies by Entrepreneurs.
Artificial Intelligence has also made a similar impression on the business world. The technology, in the form of Chatbot, has revamped the traditional businesses and upgraded the customer experience. It has established itself as a core part of every business – be it finance, travel, retail, healthcare, real estate, or mobile apps.
Both Blockchain and AI have set the foundation of a new business era in one way or the other. But have you ever wondered what will happen when the two technologies will converge? Will their coexistence fit into the industry world? Will they improve the economy or make it worse?
Before we dig deeper into how the fusion of two technologies will appear and how it will change the face of businesses, let’s have a quick glance at what importance does Blockchain and AI holds in the present market.
AI and Blockchain – A Brief Introduction
Artificial Intelligence is the technology that makes machines smart enough to mimic human intelligence and perform tasks on their own. The technology, with its impressive features, has brought a paradigm shift in the business world – making everyone understand why investing in Artificial Intelligence is the need of the hour.
The technology is expected to continue making a major impact on the business market as shown by the following statistics:-
The global market for Artificial Intelligence will be of worth $190 billion by 2025.
By 2019, 40% of digital transformations will be done via AI.
AI-enabled voice assistants will hit more than 4 billion devices across the globe by this year.
Companies relying on AI data will take $1.2 trillion a year from non-insight driven firms by the year 2020.
Blockchain, in layman language, is a distributed ledger that stores all the transactions in nodes in a transparent and secure manner. The technology, with its exciting characteristics, has disrupted the business world in numerous ways and made everyone interested in going through this digestible guide to Blockchain app development.
Blockchain has also demonstrated a wider future scope as depicted from the statistics:-
According to IDC, $11.7B will be spent on Blockchain by the year 2022, with a compounding annual growth of 73.2%.
69% of banks across the globe are experimenting, and around 90% of North American Banks and European banks are investing in Blockchain development solutions to make their processes seamless, secure and transparents.
Banks and Finance firms are predicted to save around $8-12 B annually by embracing Blockchain powered decentralized finance solutions.
While we have covered the basics of AI and Blockchain, let us bring Big Data in the mix too, to gain a better understanding of the relationship of the two disruptive technologies.
So, here we go.
The Trifecta Factor: AI, Big Data and Blockchain
Big Data prepares the ground for the advancement of both AI and Blockchain. It empowers businesses and blockchain app developers to accumulate a heap of data into structured components.
This data is further employed by AI-powered machines and applications to understand the user behavior and deliver personalized customer experience. Whereas, Blockchain relies on Big Data to get the analyzed data that can be stored in its distributed ledger and made accessible to people, depending on if it is on a public or private network.
With this, we have taken a quick recap of the basics of the disruptive technologies, let’s jump directly to how they complement each other – beginning with impact of AI on Blockchain industry.
How AI Can Change Blockchain System?
Though Blockchain has proven to be the finest technology in the marketplace to invest in, it also has some limitations. The answer to how to combine AI and blockchain will lead Artificial Intelligence in the scenario to emerge out as the right solution to make Blockchain a perfect evolution in the following ways:-
1. Better data management
Currently, Blockchain relies on hashing algorithms for data mining. These algorithms work with a ‘brute force’ approach where the algorithm strives to find every possible combination of characters until the one that goes with the verification process is found. This complicates the whole process and demands higher efforts.
This feature of artificial intelligence can give an escape from this approach by providing a more intelligent approach which makes the data management process seamless.
2. Improved energy consumption
By improving the data mining system, Artificial Intelligence for Blockchain can help with streamlining the whole process. This will eventually help in cutting down the number of efforts and time invested in mining the data in the Blockchain sphere.
3. More scalability
As the Blockchain scaling problem explained by Cointelegraph, the size of Blockchain is growing at a substantial pace of 1MB for every 10 minutes – with existing data being somewhere around 85vMB. But, there’s no effective method currently in practice to deal with data optimization and elimination processes.
Artificial Intelligence, in this scenario, can help by introducing an advanced decentralized learning system or a new data sharing technique that makes the system more efficient and open new ways for Entrepreneurs to look into Blockchain for startups and Enterprises.
4. Enhanced efficiency
The speed and effectiveness of performing a P2P transaction in a Blockchain system costs around $600 million a year. And one of the reasons behind is that each node executes the same task on its own copy of data so as to be the first one to come up with a solution.
AI can improve this situation by providing an intelligent system that looks into which node is going to deliver the solution at the earliest and informing other nodes to shut down their efforts. This will eventually cut down the cost involved as well as upgrade the efficiency of the whole system.
5. Higher security
Though Blockchain is known for its unbeatable security characteristics, the applications designed using the technology are not so secure. This is another sphere where AI can prove to be a requisite addition.
Artificial Intelligence can integrate natural language processing, image recognition, and multi-dimensional real-time data transformation capabilities into Blockchain peer-to-peer linking. This avails data miners with an option to turn a large-scale system into several micro-economic environments and optimize data transactions in a secure and effective manner. Above all, it adds flexibility to the process with the help of Machine learning intelligence.
6. New data gates
In the coming years, all the data will be stored on a Blockchain and the organizations will tend to directly buy them from the data holders. In a scenario like this, AI will help with providing an intelligent method of tracking data usage, granting access, and other such tasks. They will act as data gates from where the whole Blockchain data flow will be maintained.
Now, while these are some of the ways Artificial Intelligence can improve the Blockchain system, let’s head towards how blockchain can change AI world.
How Blockchain can Transform the AI World?
The technology behind Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies will also bring major changes into the Artificial Intelligence ecosystem in the following ways:-
1. Better transactions
Blockchain, with the help of Smart contracts and Consensus models, ensure that all the app data, customer details and that of financial transactions are immutable, publicly accessible and recorded in real-time. This guarantees data authenticity and accuracy, and eradicate the need for involving intermediaries, which eventually results in faster, secure and fair transactions.
2. High-Quality data
By providing real-time patient data access, AI is transforming healthcare and various other business verticals. But, one challenge the AI-enabled apps and software are facing is that they have limited access to data. They often could not access data that is governed by some other entity. Besides, they find hard to look into data authentication. An outcome of which is low-quality data is considered many times to predict the results.
Blockchain, in this situation, provides a heap of data which is not owned by a single entity, is immutable and accessible to all. It also empowers the implementation of certain rules, data and analytics into compliance in a sequential and secure manner with the help of Smart contracts. This, as a whole, helps to gain high-quality data in real-time without compromising on data privacy and security compliances.
3. Decentralized intelligence
As we covered in the last point, the existing AI-powered business models faces various issues due to centralization of data. This makes it difficult for an AI system to render the most accurate decisions.
Blockchain, in this context, can enable frictionless access to information that is shared and authenticated by all the stakeholders involved in the network. Besides, the consensus algorithm can ensure that the data written in the blockchain are not limited to any particular scenario and do not lose their credibility. Once it is proved, the AI system can go for a comprehensive study of the data, its behavior, study pattern, and much more to unveil the information never noticed before. These insights can further be used by deep learning algorithms to derive factually accurate decisions and make better predictions for the end customers.
4. Lower market entry barriers
Apps and software designed using Artificial Intelligence suffer from various market barriers due to lack of authentication, involvement of intermediaries, risk of inaccuracy, monopoly ownership on data, etc. Convergence of AI with Blockchain technology can lower down the ownership of a single entity, eliminate intermediary, and assure that the data is secure, accurate and authenticated by the stakeholders involved. In this way, it paves a way to enter the market at the earliest and in a profitable manner.
5. Greater transparency
Blockchain technology features will add transparency to the Artificial Intelligence system. It posts all the detailed involved in making a decision by AI machine on a blockchain, which is accessible in real-time. Whenever a decision goes wrong, the businesses can look into the blockchain to inspect what is the root cause of the failure or issues encountered and plan for a better strategy.
6. Improved artificial trust
AI is bringing a major impact on businesses, but it is still facing major challenges in terms of trustability. Blockchain, in this scenario, will ensure that a publicly accessible yet immutable public registry is maintained that will contain your data and related models in the form of a cryptographic digital signature. Every user can access the information authenticated and verified by smart contracts and consensus models in real-time. This, altogether, will eliminate the need for introducing intermediaries and eventually, upgrade the trustability into the AI ecosystem.
With this, we have seen the impact of AI on Blockchain and vice-versa. So let’s look into the next main part of the article, i.e, what are the advantages of the convergence of the technologies.
Benefits of Co-evolution of the Two Technologies
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, when treated as a single entity, will resolve various challenges and come up with a myriad of new opportunities. Some of these possibilities are:-
1. Better decision making
The co-evolution of AI and Blockchain technology will also improve the decision-making process. On one side, AI algorithms will help to detect the frauds and risks associated with any transaction or app, on the other side Blockchain will assist in improving the accuracy of the data used for fraud prediction by AI algorithms with its simple and secure data auditing process.
2. Secured personalized experiences
The AI and Blockchain convergence will also enhance the personalized experience delivered to the customers. While AI will continue to work with highly sensitive personal data, Blockchain will ensure that the data remains immutable and secure using the best cryptography encryption technique. This will prevent the circumstances when AI fails to serve customers with the right personalized experience due to data violation done by data intruders or others.
In other words, Blockchain will offer security with encryption, while AI will provide more privacy to the end users in terms of their experience on platforms like Netflix and Amazon using the Blockchain-secured data.
3. Higher trustability
Merging the two technologies will empower users to look into what and how their sensitive data is stored, managed, and employed without compromising on the privacy and security front. It will help them to audit every single step into the decision-making process, which will boost public trust.
4. Increased accessibility
Blockchain and AI together will cut down the hassle associated with payment methods. While Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will put the currency barrier to end and foster international trading, AI will improve the operational efficiency of the process, ensure higher security, and reduce the cost associated.
5. New business models
Another benefit of dual technologies is the introduction of newer business models. The Blockchain will provide frictionless access to the information of the complete business ecosystem, with all the stakeholders contributing immutable data without worrying about the ownership of the network. This will provide an AI system with the opportunity to get deeper insights from the patterns, behaviors and other factors related to the working of a business. And thus, deliver with more factually accurate decisions, or better say, newer business models.
6. Improved smart contracts
Smart contracts, as explained in our Smart Contract guide, are offering various perks like higher speed, minimum to zero disputes, improved data storage, etc. to the business world. But, their use is confined due to the sophistication of the program. AI, by integrating with Blockchain, will make it possible for smart contracts to encode and validate complex commercial relationships on a blockchain. Thus, improved smart contracts will come into existence. Besides, the self-executing contracts will provide different levels of quality based on the price changes managed by AI-based system.
7. Data monetization
Another advancement that may be feasible by joining the two technologies is the approval of information. Monetizing gathered information is a big revenue for big organizations, like Facebook and Google. Having others choose how information is sold to make profits for organizations, shows that information is being weaponized against us.
For AI algorithms to learn and develop, AI organizations will be needed to purchase information directly from its makers, through data centers. This will make the entire technique a way more honest strategy than it is in today’s time, without tech giants misusing its users. Such data centers will additionally open AI for more small corporations. Creating and feeding AI is unrealistically expensive for organizations that don’t generate their insight.
8. Smart computing power
If you somehow happened to work a blockchain, with all its encrypted information on a laptop, then you’d like a massive amount of process power. The hashing algorithms used to mine Bitcoin blocks, for instance, take a “brute force” approach – which consists of efficiently systematically identifying all potential candidates for the solution and checking whether every candidate fulfills the problem’s statement before confirming a dealing. Imagine an AI based algorithm, which could practically polish its abilities in real-time if it was provided with appropriate training data.
With this now attended to, it’s time to dive deeper into the concept and determine what will be the impact of technology on your business.
Impact of AI-Blockchain Convergence on Industries
The applications of Blockchain and AI combination are almost similar in all the businesses. But, to ease the process, let’s check the impact of AI-Blockchain collaboration on all the industries individually.
1. Healthcare
Both Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology in Healthcare industry are offering new opportunities for both patients and healthcare service providers at their independent level. But when it comes to work altogether, the healthcare organizations and patients will experience the next level of services.
Intersection of blockchain and AI in Healthcare will offer the opportunity to safeguard the medical records against cyber attacks as well as access the data in a decentralized layer and give people ownership of their data, eliminate the monopolistics power of the top tech giants like Google and Apple, and empower patients to share their data with anyone on their own terms and receive personalized responses.
2. Retail
Merging AI with blockchain technologies will double the impact of AI in Retail business. It will empower the retailers to save the insights of their customers in immutable blocks and record the whole process so as to determine what factors were involved, if their marketing plan fails. Besides, it will enhance the payment process and eradicate the risk of frauds.
3. Supply chain
Benefits of combining blockchain and AI will result into an all new world. The technologies, as a single unit, will help to optimize supply chain in a far secure and effective manner as well as offer better insights into what should go in the first place. This, in turn, will enhance the experience of everyone involved and result in higher business profits.
4. Finance
Integrating Blockchain with AI will also streamline the processes in Finance sector. While Blockchain will build trust into the industry in the form of Smart Contracts, AI will cut down the dependency on humans to understand human emotions and predicting the next step to be taken, which will eventually enhance the automation and performance level.
5. Government
Blockchain and AI merge paths together to revamp the definition of democracy. The technologies will transfer the control over data from big group of people to the whole public, while maintaining the security and quality of data.
Besides, the AI and Blockchain technologies will aid in tracing e-voting procedures and making them accessible to all the citizens in real-time.
6. Mobile applications
Basically the combination of AI and blockchain can increase the efficiency and the reaction time. For example, there is a payment to be made. Thus, blockchain will make the payment channel smooth and transparent, consequently improving the speed. Simultaneously, AI will characterize which gateway should be utilized, and how the client intends to finish the payment. This way both the technologies will accelerate the payment page, hence expanding the checkout experience.
Use Cases of the AI-Blockchain Convergence
Some of the companies that have invested in the combination of blockchain and AI projects to enhance their existing processes are:-
1. Engima
Enigma is serving with a data marketplace that empowers secure off-chain computation. This marketplace is designed with an aim to let companies share data that users can subscribe to and obtain via smart contracts.
2. Numerai
Numerai supplies crowdsource machine learning issues to data scientists and empower them to record their results into an AI-meta model for a short/long period of time and bet on the effectiveness of their proposed output/model. Once the turn period is over, they can check whose result is nearly correct and share the earning based on the terms and conditions pre-decided.
3. SingularityNET
SingularityNET collaborates the use of AI in Blockchain to develop a decentralized open market for Artificial Intelligence where anyone can monetize AI. That implies anyone can buy and sell AI algorithms at a larger scale, and thus improve its capabilities. One of the popular use cases of SingularityNET is Sophia.
4. Computable labs
Computable Labs is creating new Internet infrastructure for AI to get democratize access to data and algorithms and is striving to supply a Token Curated Registry (TCR) that act as a hub for buying/selling of data.
5. Ocean protocol
Another use case of AI-Blockchain coevolution is Ocean Protocol. It is an ecosystem for data sharing and monetization that offers a tokenized service layer with an aim to provide safe, transparent and secure access to data, especially to AI-enabled entities.
6. Synapse AI
Synapse is employing the AI Blockchain convergence to build a decentralized data and intelligence marketplace for trainers, researchers, processors, and contracts that can be approached in real-time programmatically.
As seen in the above Blockchain and AI use cases, the idea of integrating these technologies is attracting a vast number of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. However, the process of combining the two technologies is not as easy as it seems. There are various challenges associated with the convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, about which we will cover in the next section.
7. Hanson robotics
World popular robot Sophia, created by Hanson Robotics, is taking machine intelligence to another level. Sophia has been wired to physically manage data and decide her reactions and responses accordingly. She utilizes various AI modules to take her activities keenly.
8. Namahe AI – supply chain
Aiming to acquire transparency and connect the different components of significant value chains, Namahe AI monitors the inventory and supply chain process in real time and reports glitches, delays and fakes in the framework and highlights such information so that professionals can review it. It leaves less scope for any misuse. Namahe AI will additionally send machine learning that will permit AI to predict future business and irregularities.
Challenges Associated with the Integration of Blockchain and AI
When talking about integrating Blockchain and AI technologies, various challenges come into play, such as:-
Blockchain technology is decentralized and its nodes are heterogeneous in nature. Because of this, if Blockchain is public and open-sourced, it will be difficult for AI outputs to come at a single point.
The two technologies are poles apart and the concept of combining the two is still new. Because of this, a huge amount of time and money is required for exploring AI and Blockchain and look into similar grounds.
Another challenge related to Blockchain integration with AI is Security. Blockchain is a publicly distributed, decentralized and securely encrypted database that serves AI with unlimited and reliable information. The technology is based on cryptography algorithms which make stealing of data a daunting task. But, in order to make AI make changes into the secured data and drive better predictions, it is crucial to decrypt the files first, which results in data hacking.
The ecosystem implementing the convergence of the two technologies demand a higher computing power. For example, a single search on Google search engine will take around a trillion times more time to ensure security and progressiveness. This makes it tough to maintain the speed into the process.
So, here were some of the challenges that prevent companies to leverage the benefits of blending AI and Blockchain together. While you can discuss them with our Blockchain consultants via this simple contact form, let’s head towards what are the future holds for the collaboration of the two technologies.
What Future Beholds?
If you consider Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain individually, both are proving to have a brighter future. On one side, the AI software market is expected to reach %59.8 billion by 2025, while on the other side, the global market for Blockchain is predicted to be worth $3 trillion by 2024.
But when talking about the convergence of Blockchain and AI, the concept of combining the technologies is still in its nascent phase. The collaboration of these technologies through AI development company and blockchain development companies has gained a fair share, but in the experimental phase only, which implies we still have to wait for a while to understand what opportunities the integration offers and how to embrace them.
With our global platform of AI development services in USA, Asia and other countries, we assist our customers and clients to leverage the latest technology to the utmost and provide better ROI for your business.
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