#apptips Archives - Page 2 of 3

From a Startup’s Perspective: Mobile Web vs. Mobile App

Posted on 22/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Mobile apps have to be built from scratch whereas mobile web are an adaptation of the website version. There is no denying that both the ways of mobility is great but there are some extraordinary factors that differentiate one from another.

If we stop and look around we will notice that the world is turning into a giant mobile strategy stopping at nothing. Every business, every corporation and every institution has come to use mobile in some way or the other for its functioning.

Earlier, the debates used to be between offline and online media but now the case is different. These debates have turned into one online media vs the other online media. For mobiles, there are two strong terms: mobile apps and mobile web. This app vs website discussion has not settled yet and the question of ‘Is it better to use an app or the website?’ always looms.

Many say that it’s better to have a mobile web than a mobile app but then there are advantages of the mole app over a website that proves them wrong. And, the same can be said of mobile websites.

In the end, the most important factor that decides is it better to use an or the website is the purpose. The aim with which the development is done is how the decision should be made.

With statistics hinting at the fact that by 2019 mobile users will grow to 5.07 billion, both website and mobile app seem to be a great option as both are mobile-driven. In a case like that, the only thing that will help make the choice is an understanding of both the elements.

How Are Mobile Apps Different From Mobile Websites?

It is often misunderstood that the mobile website and mobile app is the same. Since both are used on one media, i.e. mobile or smartphone, it does not mean both are same. There are differences between a mobile web and a mobile app which helps in deciding which option would be better for any web and mobile app development company. Developers must know which option to choose for which project to achieve the desired result.

Coming back to the difference between a mobile website and mobile app, let us look at the following points.

A mobile website does not need any separate downloading from the app store. It is simply the mobile view of the website version which is accessible from any mobile device. Whereas mobile apps need to be downloaded from the app store and are developed by mobile app development companies.
Mobile app vs mobile website has another difference of user convenience. In a mobile website, the original website content is composed within the screen of the device whereas mobile apps are built to provide a far better version of the website.
The chances of regular visits are higher on mobile apps than on mobile websites. As mobile apps are stored in the smart devices it can be reopened and used whenever one wishes to. However, mobile websites are used to announce events or programmes to a larger audience.
Because of difference in websites vs app development process, the updating process becomes different on app vs website. Websites update automatically whereas app users have to download and install an update of the app. Sometimes users delay the update of the apps which is not possible on mobile websites.
The data storage location differs in a mobile app vs mobile website. All the data stored in the mobile app is stored on the mobile device itself. And in the case of websites, the data is stored on the website servers.
The app vs website security is another major concern for users as well as developers. It is seen that mobile apps are more secure than mobile websites and are protected by various security tools. Mobile app development vs web development involves a different approach to security which in the end affects the overall mobile security.

Pros and Cons of Mobile Apps vs Mobile Websites from a Startup Viewpoint

The app vs website debate has some valid points and each has its own pros and cons which we will discuss in this section. The benefits of a mobile website vs an app are enough to determine which must be chosen.

Pros of Mobile Websites

Compatibility Mobile websites give more compatibility to users. The reason being mobile websites improve the user experience across multiple devices. Whereas mobile apps have to be built separately for different devices which affects the overall user experience.
Reach Websites have more reach than mobile apps because of its multi-device support feature. Reaching a large audience does not require much effort in case of mobile websites. When it comes to reaching the potential audience, mobile websites take the win.
Maintainance and support Mobile websites don’t need the regular download-install-update process which mobile apps follow. It is easy to implement the update without users having to download it separately. Once all the updates are active, it is visible on all devices.

Cons of Mobile Website

Convenience Mobile websites don’t match the convenience level of mobile apps. Mobile websites cannot use features that a smart device offers. Features such as camera, GPS, calling, etc. may not work with most of the mobile websites which add to the inefficiency to convenience.
User experience Fitting one giant website page within a small device screen seems to be impossible. And even if it is made possible, it will affect the UI of the website. Mobile apps provide a far better user experience by allowing personalization and interaction.
Offline accessibility Websites cannot be accessed offline and do need a network connection. This is not a problem until a user is unable to find the network and needs to access the website. Mobile apps have the option to be used offline without any problems.

Pros of Mobile Apps

Convenience Mobile apps have been ruling the world for a decade now and focus on user experience. By providing fast loading time, high-end performance and ease of use, apps have become a part of human life. Apps are revolutionizing the entertainment world, the healthcare sector, the political sector, etc.
Personalization Personalization is one of the best advantages of a mobile app over the website. Mobile applications are built in such a manner that users can make changes in the way they want to use the app. Apps allow setting preferences, saving useful information and even sharing media on social networks. All these features enhance the overall user experience.
Offline and online Mobile apps can be used offline without any issues. Since the apps are not an adaptation but rather a completely new product developed by app developers, it can work offline. This means that mobile apps can be used in places where there are no networks and gives apps an upper hand in the app vs website security. AI technology is also being implemented in mobile apps for a better future.

Cons of Mobile Apps

Maintenance and support Regular update and bug fixes are required in the mobile app or a mobile website. In the case of mobile apps, a new update has to be downloaded and installed which is the extra task for users. In mobile websites, updates are automatically implemented without requiring any action from users.
Compatibility As we know mobile apps are built from scratch which makes the whole mobile app development a huge process. But even after the efforts, some devices may not support the mobile app due to a different version or different platform.

Mobile App vs Website: Stats That Speak in Support of Both

The mobile app vs mobile website statistics shows that the app industry may be worth $190 billion by the year 2020.
In the above pie chart, it is seen that maximum users like to use a mobile website or application at different times as per the need.
The USA mobile users spend most of their time on mobile apps than on mobile websites on a daily basis. This app vs website usage shows the preference for mobile apps among US citizens in the app vs website debate.
These stats show some famous social media networks that have become mobile-first. Ever since these turned into apps, the engagement has risen two times more than it used to be.
Another mobile app vs mobile website statistics shows that website’s reach a larger audience as compared to mobile apps. However, mobile apps have 2X more usage time than mobile websites.

When To Use Which: Mobile Apps Vs Mobile Websites

The battle of mobile app vs mobile website has another interesting aspect: when to use which? This question can have many answers based on what you are trying to achieve. For a startup, gaining customers is more important so a website will be the way to go. However, this cannot be said for a startup looking for more engagement.

Here are some pointers that will help you find the best choice based on your need.

Want To Reach More Users?

When it comes to reaching more users then websites are always the better choice. Analysing the Google search traffic data, around 21% of the total traffic comes from mobile devices whereas the rest comes from a desktop. It was also seen that iOS apps have more reach than Android apps in 21% of mobile users traffic. So, for reaching a larger audience whether you are a business or a startup, websites would be the right choice.

Have App Visits that are More than 5 times A Day?

If your app has the ability to get multiple user visits in a day then you should definitely go for a mobile app. To maintain regular visits, the app must be fast and high performing. If you want users to ditch the website then make sure the apps have more to give.

Need to Use Device Features?

Features like GPS, Camera or Calling cannot be used in a web app. A dedicated mobile app will give a totally different experience when it comes to using such features. However, you can access these features on a web app with the help of HTML5, NodeJS, Geolocation API, etc. But then again the question lies about the user experience. To be honest, both the options are good for using features like these if the user experience does not matter much.

Need Fast Operational Speed?

Mobile apps are no doubt faster than web apps because of local storage of data. Unlike web apps, mobile apps don’t need to transfer data to the server or download data from the server which makes the app a faster experience. So when speed is the concern, mobile apps are the favourite choice.

Want to Work in an Offline Mode?

Sometimes network is not available in certain places and that’s when offline mode comes into the picture. The mobile app, hands down, wins in this argument. A mobile app can be built in such a way that it can be used offline or be able to download data for offline usage.

Can You Spend $10K+ on Your Project?

If the answer to this question is no then you might want to go for web apps. Mobile app development costs can range between $10K- $100K for Android and iOS which is a lot, especially for a startup. Also, the prices differ depending on the demography, type of app and other factors. It may cost you $10K for a simple app but a cheap app is not worth it. So, if you can’t spend a ton of money then a web app is your wisest choice.

Will You Update Your Offering Very Often?

If so, then go for web apps first and later you can go for a hybrid app. A hybrid app makes launching updates easier since the users will not have to go and update the app. Apps like Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, etc are all well performing hybrid apps. The benefits of going for hybrid apps are there is no waiting time, one platform needed to build more features and real-time updates.

For a Startup, Is it better to Use a Mobile App or Website?

When it comes to deciding one between mobile app vs website, there are some things to consider first.

Mobile web app vs mobile website has always been debatable especially for those who have wanted one developed for their business. We clearly saw the advantages of the mobile app over the website and found more pros than cons. So for a fair play, we can say that mobile apps are a better choice between the two.

If a startup wishes to reach a larger audience in a short time and less cost then mobile websites are the better choice. To gather a large audience and reach a wider population, websites are great.

However, if you want more engagement then mobile apps are the choice. As the stats for apps vs website usage show, mobile apps have increased the engagement among the users. If you are going for native app development then you get benefits like app security, better UI, high performing app, more engagement, etc.

The solution is not the choice between mobile app development vs web development. It is rather choosing the one that will be most effective for your business model. The right solution must be able to fulfill all the needs and execute the business strategies that have been pre-planned.

In addition to mobile apps and websites, businesses also have an option to go for PWA development. PWA stands for Progressive Web Apps which load just like web pages but have more features to offer. With PWAs, you can work offline, enable push notifications, and use any other feature that a mobile app offers. It is basically a web page that appears as a native application to the users. It is also claimed that PWAs are the future of the app development world.

If you wish to build a mobile app or a mobile website, contact us at Anteelo. We have a team of mobile app developers ready to turn your app ideas into reality.

Offline-first Apps: Trending Customer Experience Strategy

Posted on 05/09/202010/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Around the globe over $2.7 billion is lost yearly because of a poor connection and bad internet speed. On a micro level, if an app does not load well more than 75% of the users would leave it, and additionally, more than 45% of users strongly feel that they won’t return to the apps which didn’t load.

There is a strong negative emotion that users carry towards applications not optimized for limited connectivity. This, when added to the fact that quarantines across the globe have made people more reliant on the internet resulting in a massive drop in download and streaming speed, is a bad sign for the app industry. The omen of lowered connectivity has turned app entrepreneurs towards offline apps.

Before we get to the stage of dissecting what are the benefits of offline apps for businesses, especially in the current time, let us first peek into the state of internet connectivity across the US – a picture that validates the need for offline-first apps not just in the coronavirus times but till much after.

What are Offline first Applications?

Majority of the mobile applications in the market access a database located on servers and provide requested data to the users. The offline mobile applications, while still needing a server connection do not require a consistent internet connection. In this case, data is downloaded on users’ devices and can be accessed offline.

On a technical level, the offline apps download updates from the server when a connection is available and simultaneously upload changes the users made when offline to the server.

An offline mobile application development process generally revolves around some assumptions:

Offline apps assume that the users are offline, meaning there will be low latency and unreliable network.
Fetching the resources over the network will be slower than fetching them from a local source.
The app must inform users of low network conditions but must not keep them from completing the objective.
Respecting users’ network and battery conditions, only the data which has changed from the last synchronization must be synchronized.

What Are the Benefits of Offline Mobile Application Development?

1. Seamless Online to Offline Experience

The first of the numerous benefits of offline mobile app development is that the user experience remains unaffected between high and limited connectivity. For a user the benefit of working seamlessly online and offline results into a greater loyalty and return visits.

2. Simplified Storage Process

When you store all the data on the server, you must ensure that there is a powerful network and stable connection. Additionally, the responsibility of providing the perfect condition also falls down on you.

While it is an unmissable stage, you can ease the work with offline app development. In this case, you will have to update information on the server when necessary and possible. The only thing you will have to worry about is choosing the best local database. You can either go with either of the react native local databases or make a choice between MySQL and MongoDB.

3. Faster Loading Speed

Since offline applications do not rely on servers or internet speed, they load faster. The users get to enjoy working on the application irrespective of whether they are in a fluctuating network state or on airplane mode.

4. Competitive Edge

An application that is not dependent on an active internet connection is always a step ahead of competition compared to one that works only through the internet. This is the number one reason why brands like Google, Spotify, Kindle, etc. have an unmatched customer experience backing their growth.

Although the benefits of offline apps give an impression that an offline running app is the route of app success, you have to realize that it is not a universal solution to every problem that comes associated with an unreliable network. The custom application development approach makes the most sense when you are working around features and use cases that put your app in an active state in a no-network area.

But when your app relies on making financial transactions or keeping people updated with real-time updates like cricket scores or share market, going offline-first will deem to be unsuccessful.

Is Offline-First Application Development a Necessity? An IFTTT Answer

Your application will most likely be used in a poor connectivity area

A good starting point when developing an offline-first mobile app is to know whether your app will be used in areas having poor signal – these can vary from apps that travelers use to being a key feature in enterprise applications.

Your app offers limited features which do not necessarily need to be performed online

If your application needs features that are dependent on being online at all times, it would be best to not work on an offline-first option. But if your application is more on data recording or consuming content – basically, one where interaction is not a mandate, you must go with the approach.

Your application offers a large set of content accessible through the search functionality

Searching for large data volumes can be difficult when your users are working with low and unreliable connections. You can better the experience by implementing a lightweight version of the online database.

If these three points stand true in your case – meaning taking an offline-first approach makes the most sense for your business, the next step would be to know how to get started. While your partnered mobile app development company would perform the technicalities, it won’t harm to be in the know-how of the changes that will happen in your app when it moves from online to offline state.

Developing Offline-First Mobile Apps: Ways & Considerations

Show a Proper UI for the Offline State

Communication is the key to a successful customer experience strategy. You should notify the users when the application detects low or unavailable network conditions. This can be done both by displaying a blank interface or via a popup message.

Make Static Information Available

In the case of applications that work with limited connectivity, the static information gets downloaded and stored locally when it first loads. The information generally is of the kind that is not altered frequently.

An example of this can be seen in Google Maps. It comes with offline functionality that enables users to navigate locations on a map and expand to some level of detail even when the connection fails.

Create Cache of Commonly Used Dynamic Data

Unlike in case of static caching, dynamic cache data are expected to be updated constantly. To enable this in a limited connectivity environment, users’ information is stored temporarily in the local cache (a process most commonly seen in PWAs) – this prevents blank screen during the offline mode.

The approach, beside acting as a reason why big brands make use of PWAs, is used heavily by game developers and social media applications. Majority of the social media applications enable users to access their last newsfeed load.

Real Time Data Synchronization

In this case, the data is uploaded automatically in place of manually. With the help of advanced synchronization protocols, the offline app that makes use of this method can transfer the changed data version and the actions taken to edit it?

Parting words

At Anteelo our answer to how to make an app offline lies in multiple considerations. We ensure that your application works with the best local databases, has a seamless workflow integration, faces zero data security and protection issues, and promises seamless connectivity.

Our developers are skilled in not just efficient online-first app development, which comes almost naturally to them, they also have the right mindset and technical know-how to build an offline-first mobile application.

Run Design Sprint with Remote Teams: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on 04/09/202010/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Geographical distances should not be a roadblock to collaboration and creativity. Who understands this better than a digital product development team? Going by this sentiment, for a process that lays down the basics of creativity and collaboration at the product ideation stage – Design Sprint – the steps should be the least complex.

While good to hear, on paper, the reality is that for a lot of brands, the process of a design sprint is difficult when conducted in a room, let alone when conducted remotely.

But with 85% of our clients belonging to other global nations, we have more or less mastered the art of running remote design sprints. So now when remote is the new workplace normal, we are in a somewhat better space.

Here’s our design sprint process that your team can also benefit from.

Table of Content

What is the design sprint methodology?
Challenges of Running Design Sprints Remotely
Pre-Design Sprint Model
4 Days Remote Product Design Sprint Process
Remote Design Sprint Tips & Tricks

What is the design sprint methodology?

The design sprint process – a.k.a one of the top UX best practices – is a four days’ step-by-step methodology that answers critical business and product questions via designing, prototyping, and idea testing. Built by Google and GV, it is a mix of innovation, business strategy, design thinking, behaviour science, etc. brought together to make a way of working that any team can make use of.

The user experience design formulation process works for product managers, developers, and designers, who work in the space of innovation and problem-solving. It answers some of the most critical questions a brand struggles with:

How can we convert an idea into a validated prototype faster?
How can we ensure we are designing the right product before putting a ton of money in it?
How can we test whether the feature-set we are envisioning the ones that users need?

Irrespective of how straightforward the product design sprint process looks, conducting the event virtually is difficult.

Challenges of Running Design Sprints Remotely

The difference in time zone and availability of team – UX sprint calls for intense, engaging sessions. Scheduling and aligning distributed teams for long periods can pose a challenge.
Low engagement – On a remote mode, the concentration of the team is one click away from going to YouTube or Telegram. Keeping them focused is a key issue that sprint teams face.
Tech-specific challenges – Low battery, bad internet condition, and faulty microphone is a trio that can make your design sprint steps take a bad turn. As a mobile app design company, we ensure that the technology part of the sprint is on point before the design sprint commences.

Our first two three sprint sessions brought us face to face with these challenges. Although the failure count was low, the frustrations were galore. Although our struggle phase goes back to 2014 when we were handling our first client interaction, from what we read across the internet, the issues remain more or less the same. Here are some of the pre-sprint setups we settled on to make the remote design sprint process smooth-sailing.

Pre-Design Sprint Model

Prepare the design sprint material and template beforehand

For ensuring that you get the most of the remote design sprint, prepare all the materials beforehand. The existing customer insights, documentation shared by the clients, etc. should be gathered and distributed within the team before the process starts.

Form the team

We created a team of seven people leaving the finance team out of the process since we would hardly need any budgeting activity here. The role of decider and facilitator, although important even in the regular sprint session becomes all the more important in a remote sprint design process. The decider is the one who has the final call while the facilitator is someone who takes the responsibility of bringing everyone on the same page aided by the necessary technical help.

Schedule the sprint event

The UX design sprint method requires the teammates to be available, without distraction for five days. While doable when we were in the same space, fixing 5 days is difficult when operating remotely. But since we pride ourselves on being an app design firm that takes a design-first approach, we knew the importance of the process and convinced the clients to make themselves available as well.

Pro Tip: If you find it difficult to get people available for five consecutive days, put a weekend between the deciding and prototyping days. This way, the team will approach prototype creation with a fresh mind on Monday.

Logistics side of pre-sprint prep

Although a remote-inclined tech and office setup should come naturally for brands that work with a distributed team or overseas client, in case you are not one of them, we recommend you to have:

Camera
Microphone
Cubicle
Good internet connection which can support you being on video at all times for five days
Whiteboard to make the sketches on.

With the pre-design sprint process discussed, let us now give you a peek into our four-day process.

4 Days Remote Product Design Sprint Process

Day 1: Sketching and Mapping

The phase comprises bringing the sprint team together and brainstorming the product and the solution it would offer. The entire day is spent on researching whether or not the product is even needed by the masses and if that as a whole is a solution they are looking for. Here, we also discuss the alternatives of what would people choose had the product didn’t exist.

The more you brainstorm and read into this process, the more you would realize that this step is the same as what a mobile app design and development company follow when they validate an MVP.

Day 2: Storyboarding

With multiple ideas now present, the team on Day 2 fix a plan of action. They draw a storyboard containing how the users would come to the app, why they would open it, the features they would interact with, and what will be the outcome of their time inside the application.

Ensure that you have added all the necessary materials and resources backing the storyboard assumptions.

Day 3: Prototyping

Once you have the storyboard ready and the idea decided, head on to the stage of prototype development. The idea is not to build a product that will be deployed in the stores, but an app that people can run and experience. There are a number of different app prototype tools you can work on to create a clickable version of your app vision.

The process of prototype development should be done with the intent to allow people to test it on Day 4.

Day 4: Testing

This is the last step of the design sprint process where you get people to test your prototype and share their experiences with your team. The best thing to do here is to record those sessions so that you can always go back to them when your application hits the development stage.

Up until this point, you have read everything that you need to know about conducting remote design sprints. But the true success stories lie with brands that know the many side-tips. Ones that every innovative mobile app design agency knows.

Remote Design Sprint Tips & Tricks

In case you are finding it difficult to get team’s availability at the same time, divide the remote design sprint across two weeks.
Prepare sprint brief and template beforehand
Add ample breaks
Restrict multi-tasking – the team focus throughout the design sprint session should be on the session.
Ask everyone to divide their screen into video and the digital whiteboard so that they can see the whiteboard and the participants at the same time.

We have reached the stage where the only thing left for you to do before you go to the idea conception stage is get in touch with a mobile application design company that is an expert in remote design sprint. We can help.

Cost Of a Podcast Application Development

Posted on 01/09/202009/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Let’s be completely honest, you and I. The chances that you will read every line of this article are very slim.

But if we dictated the same article as you were driving or between meetings, the chance of listening to the entire piece would increase by manifold. Better yet, if we pass on this article to you in Chris Hemsworth’s gorgeous Aussie voice, the chance of you contacting us would skyrocket.

Such is the power of podcasting. A power that the world has started realizing and engaging with. The podcast sector is growing at a lightning speed; the industry gained an estimated $479.1 million in revenue in 2018 and can be expected to generate over $1 billion by 2021, according to a report by PwC and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The high revenue can be traced back to the fact that the average number of podcast listeners has been increasing on a constant note. An event that has led to an increase in the query for what is the podcast mobile app development cost.

Our intent today is to give you an answer to the cost to make a podcast app. We will be looking into it from angles like must-have features, the top players in the industry, and how to generate revenue after you make the app.

Table of Content

Major Players of the Podcast Streaming Industry
Must-Have Features of the App Development
How Much Does Podcast App Development Costs?
Podcast App Monetization Models

The rising number of podcast listeners in addition to the growing market revenue has led to a number of new entrants. The market which was earlier dominated by Apple Music is now witnessing new names.

Let us look at some of the most active platforms in the podcast industry.

Major Players of the Podcast Streaming Industry

In June of 2005, Apple added podcasting in iTunes 4.9 and started building podcasts directory at the iTunes Music Store. Under the new iTunes, users could subscribe, download, and organize podcasts. The popularity of podcasts has been on a rise since then. While the growth has been steady for some years, the coronavirus-driven lockdown has increased the rate of new entrants.

Here are some of the most used podcasting apps which are being seen as the reference points when an entertainment app development company builds a podcast app.

Now that we have given you a peek into the podcast industry and the market players that act as a reference when you build the app, let us look into the primary podcast mobile app development cost factor.

Must-Have Features of Podcast App Development

There are a number of features that come together when you create the app – an immersive search functionality, option to record and upload your own podcast, a live podcast, integration of payment gateway, etc. But the ones we are going to discuss here are the MVP-level features of building a podcast.

1. Category-wise Search Functionality

The first way users look for a podcast is through the application. The search functionality when developing a podcast app should allow users to find a podcast through podcast name, episode, genre, how frequent it is, RSS feed, etc.

2. Discover Tab

The discover tab of a podcast application generally consists of the podcasts being divided around genre and categories like ‘trending’, ‘featured’, ‘free of cost’, etc. The aim is to help users find their next podcast with utmost ease. What we recommend is using AI integration at this stage that would refer to what to watch next to the users.

3. Library

This is the part of the podcast app that enables users to keep track of their downloaded podcasts, new episodes, their favorite podcasts, and playlists.

You can think of it as a bigger version of Netflix’s watchlist and Continue Watching section.

4. User Profile

The user profile of a podcast application contains tabs like account details, listening statistics, help center link, settings, etc.

5. Offline Mode

When developing a podcast app, a key feature that every media and entertainment app development company suggests is taking the offline-first mobile app development approach. The reason we have kept the feature in the MVP mode is that even as an MVP you will be able to give your users the feasibility of being active on your app when on an airplane mode.

How Much Does Podcast App Development Costs?

The podcast app development cost is dependent on a number of different factors. Let us look at each of them.

1. Features

Podcast app features are the first thing that contributes to its development cost. The more advanced features you add to the application, the higher would be the cost. An example of it can be seen in the podcast recording or live stream feature. At the MVP stage, we advise integration features that are a must-have for your app’s functioning.

2. Technology Stack

The next cost-impacting factor is the technology stack. Although the choice of tech stack varies from app idea to idea, the general rule of thumb is if you develop APIs and SDKs from the scratch, the cost would be greater unlike if you use third-party integrations.

3. Podcast App Design

It can get very easy for a designer to crowd the app since the number of podcasts that make an app successful is generally on the higher side. Designing a minimal app should be the aim of the developers working on the project. However, creating a design that showcases all the multiple podcasts in an organized manner requires expertise, which in turn comes with a cost.

4. Technology Integration

The other key factor that has a direct impact on the podcast app development cost is technology integration. Although we do suggest using AI in the app if you add in technologies like IoT or Blockchain the cost would automatically increase.

5. Location of the agency

The last element is the location of the agency. As you move from East to West, the cost of app development generally increases. The average hourly rate of development in the US is generally in the range of $100 to $120, while in case of India it can be anywhere near $60 to $80. The number one reason why there is demand for remote developers.

Everything you have read up until this point is in terms of the amount you would have to spend for the development of the podcast application. But noting that the end goal of any application is to generate revenue, let us dwell on that point.

Podcast App Monetization Models

1. In-app advertising

One of the top ways for a business to earn money from an app is through in-app advertisements. By showcasing brand videos or images in the podcast screens or even after a few chapters of an audiobook, you can get the option of earning a good sum of money.

2. Subscription

A monthly subscription is the next best way to earn money on your application. Although we would advise against it since there are a number of free apps available in the market, if you feel that the content you are offering is truly off the charts, add a subscription feature.

3. Premium content

The one option that we 100% back is the premium content mode. You can offer your users a no-advertisement listening experience, access to the most trending podcasts and first look of hottest podcasters at the back of monthly or quarterly charge.

With this, you are now ready to make yourself the next big name in the podcast industry. The next steps? Get in touch with a media app development company and initiate the process.

Make COVID-19 the Springboard for Your next Mobile App Idea

Posted on 30/08/202009/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

The world was sucker-punched as it continues to reel from the ongoing economic paralysis of COVID-19. But fighting to keep businesses alive is not a lost cause. The impact of the pandemic on businesses has sure been merciless, but as we turn the page to a socially distant and digital reality obvious business models are presenting themselves.

Mobile app development services have the proverbial doses to inject new life in dying ventures. It is an opportune time, more so for a few app categories than others, to reassess their strategy or better, reintroduce themselves to the masses in a new nutshell.

COVID-19’s Impact on the Mobile App Economy

Approximately 1.6 trillion hours were spent on mobile apps in the first quarter of 2020. People increased their mobile usage as part of the stay home quid pro quo. And while COVID-19’s effect on the economy presents a mixed picture, the by-product results for the mobile app industry are anything but.
In April 2020, users spent 27% of the waking hours on mobile phones, an increase from 20% in 2019. The period between February and April saw impressive spikes in app downloads. Combinedly, iOS, and Android app stores recorded 12 billion downloads, up from 9.1 billion for the same slot last year.
The download spikes weren’t without cause and translated into higher consumer app spends. For H1 2020, the combined consumer purchases on the Apple Store and Google Play Store reached $50.1 billion. Of this $32.8 billion was claimed by Apple and $17.3 billion by Google Play.

But what were the people downloading and spending on exactly?

For starters, Tinder is the highest-grossing app on both the play stores raking in $433 million followed by YouTube. For the States, we get a good idea of people’s tastes during the initial part of the pandemic in the following graph. You cannot forego education, essential commodities, and work. Apparently, these were the most downloaded categories by Americans from March 2 – March 16. Such was the effect of COVID-19 on mobile apps, making now the best time to start a mobile app startup.

Impact of the Pandemic on Mobile Apps

The scale of economic uncertainty that the virus has unleashed on the planet is parallel to none in human history. It exposed the shortcomings of interdependent countries that shook to the core due to their reliance on a centralized supply chain hub, China. As trading routes were disrupted, few app categories absorbed and began relishing the rising consumer interest. They make the highlight reel of the impact of COVID-19 on mobile apps.

E-commerce Apps

Due to the mandatory stay/work from home (whichever is applicable) stance of the federal agencies, people shifted their preferences to order essential items online rather than step out. Given that the E-commerce locale constitutes multiple categories, the ones that made the priority list of people were food, hygiene products, clothing, and medications. This is evident from a survey in which 52% of Americans admitted to shopping more online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Another survey revealed the itinerary checklist of items that more and more people have opted to order online.

The impact of the pandemic on mobile app development has been such that we experienced a surge in requests to develop MVPs for eCommerce vendors. Some aim to diversify by launching newer subsidiaries, others taking their first steps in the field. It was recorded that global eCommerce sales at the height of the lockdowns hit 66% and that has now flattened at 7% above last year’s sales levels for the same time. In keeping with such forecasts, we think the demand for such apps will continue to rise.

Fitness Apps

Forced to put up at home, people are conscious of the role a healthy body plays in hosting a complimenting mind. There were about 656 million health & fitness app downloads in August 2020 making the total downloads for Q2 47% higher than the same time last year. Strava was the highest gainer with 179.2 million downloads within the first 5 months of 2020. The bottom line is that even couch potatoes are acknowledging the benefits of boosting immunity be it through a robust exterior or vis-a-vis a diet planning and monitoring app.

As a result of the impact of coronavirus on mobile apps development, the health & fitness apps marketplace is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.30% from 2020 – 2027.

Our 600+ team (also working from home) has immense insight into developing healthcare apps such as Soniphi, Mutelcor, and Health-e-People. No matter the impact of COVID-19 on mobile apps development, we know exactly what on-demand e-commerce solutions need especially in times like these.

Messaging Apps

One of the immediate COVID-19 effects on mobile, or rather the impact of it shall we, is that people want to stay connected. And that can happen either through video (more on it later) or messages. Yes, we already have messenger apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, but their rate of adoption differs from one country to another. But one thing is certain until things normalize everyone will make note of maintaining online connectivity through chats.

Factoring in COVID-19, US adults will spend about 24 minutes each day on mobile messaging from 2020 – 2022. Also, considering the next big idea is just around the corner, perhaps it’s still not too late to consider entering the online chat marketplace.

Video Calling Apps

Following a flattening of the curve at many locations and the subsequent lifting of restrictions there has been an upsurge in second waves. Community transmission hasn’t been culled and the majority of people have resorted to the hope of a vaccine, an approved lot of which is expected by the end of 2020, latest. But issues in distribution will remain therefore mandating social distancing to sustain.

Offices could remain shut for a long time, a possibility that has been jumped on to by video calling apps. This impact of the pandemic on technology has been such that online meet-ups are the new normal. Whereas Zoom and Skype have been the go-to apps for businesses there are others like Houseparty and Hangouts Meet, that are designed for lighter occasions.

The video conferencing apps marketplace is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2020 – 2027 and possibly attain a size of $10.92 billion by the end of the forecast period. You can bifurcate the business model of the video conferencing app based on:

Conference type – service-based video conferencing, integrated, desktop, and telepresence
Deployment – Cloud, on-premises
Target Group – Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and large enterprises
Application – Rooms, huddles, middle room, large room

EdTech Apps

Globally, as much as 1.3 billion students were impacted by national school closures due to the virus. Considering the staggering growth rate, it’s not a secret as to why EdTech is a profitable domain.

Google Classroom topped the charts for the most downloaded app for July with 14.8 million downloads. This growth was 13.5 times higher than the same time last year. It was followed by YouTube Kids, Duolingo, Tips for File Transfer 2020, and Cake.

There are multiple ways you can differentiate your app based on the target audience. To give you an overview you, with the help of a mobile app development company like Anteelo, you can design the following types of Edtech Apps based:

Online Learning Management Systems – e.g. CenturyTech, Edmodo, Google classroom, Skooler
EdTech Apps for Smartphone Users – e.g. Ubongo, Funzi, KaiOS
Apps with Offline Accessibility – e.g. Kolibri, Rumie
Massive Online Open Courses – e.g. EdX, Udemy, Coursera
Self-directed Learning – e.g. Byju’s, Code It, Discovery Education
Mobile Reading Applications – e.g. Worldreader, StoryWeaver
Apps for Teachers for Content Creation – e.g. Buncee, Kaltura, Trello
Apps for Distance Learning – e.g. EdSurge, Brookings, Education Nation

Online Food Delivery Apps

The market for online food delivery apps reached a valuation of $107.44 billion in 2019. The impact of the pandemic on the global mobile apps market, especially its food delivery sector, has been mostly affirmative. As more people opted to order essential groceries online due to COVID-19, the market value for such apps in 2020 is projected to touch $111.32 billion. This spells a CAGR of 3.61% in one year.

But experts believe this is the lower-end of the ceiling that was adversely affected due to global economic frailties. As public spending power enters its regenerative state the CAGR would grow by 11.51% through 2023, bringing the cumulative valuation of such apps to $154.34 billion, meaning it is time for on-demand brands to start preparing for the post-COVID world.

As a top mobile app development company, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with brands like Domino’s and working closely to help them grow their business. Based on such exclusive experiences, we know which premium specifications and user tastes help brands stand out.

Bringing It to a Close

By now you would have understood that the impact of Coronavirus on the mobile economy will be far better off than the impact of the pandemic on businesses operating in the retail space. If you need (honest) suggestions on how to improve your app idea or you plan to undertake a makeover of an existing app, then do get in touch. Our experts would be happy to do their bit in your success, as they’ve done on previous occasions in taking handkerchief ideas to million-dollar valuations.

Future of Applications Development- Is it Low-Code/No-Code?

Posted on 29/07/202009/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

We are operating in a digital era where every company is a software company. With the growing advent of digital technologies, it has become impossible for a business to chart their success in the absence of applications supporting their internal and external functions.

This growing dependence on applications – enterprise and customer-focused – although a stepping stone for innovation and creativity, comes loaded with several challenges. Challenges that low code no code development methodology aims to address.

Bandwidth issues – The in-house IT team, across businesses, generally works on the everyday crucial business tasks. Because of this, they are generally left with minimal time for working on enterprise or customer-side applications.
Limited budget – Purchasing semi-custom apps or hiring a mobile app development company can be an expensive affair.
Demand for quick deployment – Even at a time when the adoption of DevOps is on a high-speed mode, the time it takes to develop an application is still high at large. The complexity-driven slow development speed almost every time results in delayed deployment time.

Although these issues can be solved by hiring a team of remote developers, businesses have started taking an alternate route – low code development. But does this mean the trending application development approach is the future of the sector? Let’s find out.

What is low code no code development?

Low code no code platforms enable businesses to develop apps with the help of a visual development approach in place of the alternate development route that requires writing thousands of code lines. Here are some of the top reasons why businesses choose to take the route instead of investing in full-fledged custom application development:

Although low code app development and no-code software development work best when placed together, there are several inherent differences between them, making it impossible for them to be used interchangeably.

No-code platforms are ones that enable teams with zero software development and coding expertise to assemble applications with the help of functional, reusable building blocks.

Low code platforms are the ones that demand a level of coding but make it extremely easy for the developers to develop new apps in the least turnaround time.

Both no code and low code platforms offer IT with complete governance over data, systems, and functionality. When working together, they enable rapid application development which in turn helps businesses reach their goals with the resources they have however limited. Here are some statistics highlighting the opportunities for Low Code Application Development (LCAD) and No-Code Application Development (NCAD) as the code for the future.

Gartner estimates that low-code app platforms would account for over 65% of development by 2024.
Forrester forecasts that the low-code market would top $21 billion spendings by 2022.
According to TechCrunch, the companies operating in the sector are paced to raise around $500 million by 2020.

Numerous benefits together have led to a rise in the LCAD and NCAD form of rapid application development. Let us look into them after looking into some of the most trusted low code no code app development platforms.

The best low code no code applications development platforms

When we enlist the best platforms for rapid application development, some names come on top – Microsoft PowerApps, Appian, OutSystems, Airtable, Amazon Honeycode, Salesforce.com Lightning Platform, Zapier, and Google AppSheet, etc.

The industry, however, is constantly expanding. Meaning the brands which are on top today might not make it to the list in the next quarter. What remains constant though are the benefits that businesses can draw from using low code no code app development.

Benefits of low code no code applications development

High development speed – the biggest pro of low code no-code app development is that the development time gets cut off from months to days. You can not just take your app to the market faster but also quickly work on the user feedback and add newer features, functionalities.
Lowered cost – at the back of low development time and high speed, fewer resource requirements the cost of developing a low code no code application is extremely low.
Lesser bugs – the lowered amount of code leads to lesser bugs occurrences as well. And with lesser bugs in the picture, the development time gets further reduced by manifold.
Better business stakeholder engagement – the inclusion of in-house developers in the low code no code application development process helps the stakeholders be involved in the deployment procedures.
Multiple deployments – low code development platforms enable businesses to build apps for multiple platforms at the same time. Usually, the deployment of an app on one platform is a complex task in itself. A task that becomes easier with low code no code mobile app development.

Amongst the many benefits of low code no code mobile application development lies the fact that it is fit for only certain app types – ones that generally lie in the ballpark of prototypes. The more you deep dive into the approach the more difficult it becomes to distinguish it from the white-label development methodology. The methodology is good on papers but has several ground-level issues attached to it.

Low code no-code application development shortcomings that keeps it from getting the title of software development future

Integration restrictions – Low code applications are more likely to give you integration issues when you connect them with legacy systems.

Absence of customization – Like every DIY software development platform kit, the platforms come with their fair share of customization limitations. At a time when the market favors those that have a competitive advantage, you will be forced to work on the platform boundaries and give up on certain planned functionalities.

Security risks – Multiple risks arise when you work on third-party platforms, especially the ones that make your application uncontrollable. Since you only get access to work on the frontend or the user interface, you have little to zero control over the backend data and process.

Coding is not everything – There is more to the application development process than coding. A custom app development agency works on user journey maps, design sprints, application testing, etc. While low code no code application development platforms can give you an application, there is no guarantee that there won’t be more apps similar to yours in the stores.

Does the code future lie in no code low code? Anteelo verdict

If you intend to develop basic applications that need little to zero customizations and come with low-security vulnerability, we recommend taking the LCAD and NCAD approach. But if your business goal is to enter the mobile app market with a high-quality successful product, customized application development would work best for you.

Irrespective of what your choice is, the future of application development, as opposed to general belief, doesn’t lie in low code no code development approach. The key to attaining a competitive advantage will require businesses to present a customized stand in the industry while ensuring that they have complete control over the backend and users data.

Wanna learn Designing of Social Media App? Come Here!

Posted on 20/07/202008/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

From a business point of view, social media is one of the most promising markets. Want to create a social media app?

There is no denying the fact that social media cannot be ignored by today’s society. From a business point of view, social media is one of the most promising markets.

Many organizations use social media as a marketing tool to promote their business since they have their audience present on Facebook, google+, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

The rapid development is opening new landscapes within this play-area and social media app development has become a major game in the business world!

Want To Create a Social Media App? Let’s Look At Some Facts Shall We?

Over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide in the year 2020. This number is projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.
On an average, internet users spend 144 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps.
Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.7 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide.
In June 2020, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

When planning to design a social media app, it is essential that one understands all the types of apps there are in the market. This will help you find your niche and identify your competitors. Not only this, but also understand your target audience, and offer users a more appropriate functionality.

Types Of Social Media Apps

1. Social networking apps

The main goal of these apps is to connect people for personal or professional reasons. From finding a job, joining a new community to connecting with a long lost friend, these apps will do the magic. For example: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

2. Media sharing apps

If you want to target artists and creators, this is the app for you! People these days love sharing videos, photos, GIFs etc to platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest etc.

3. Blogging and publishing apps

Writing is not as easy as it looks and writers do need an app that would let them write their mind. Such apps help writers to write from any gadget they want anytime. For example: WordPress, Medium.

4. Discussion forums

If you want to build a social media app where a community of people share their insights, experiences, ideas, opinions etc, this type of app is for you. For example: Quora.

5. Customer review apps

The major goal of these apps is to share their reviews about brands, services and products. Good customer reviews can help one grow business. For example: Yelp, TripAdvisor.

6. Service Provider apps

These types of apps help you undertake a particular service. From booking a cab, finding a plumber to booking a hotel etc, these apps are at your service. For example: Ola, UrbanCompany.

Now that we have understood the existing apps, let’s focus on how to make a social media app.

How To Develop A Social Media App?

Step-1: Find your purpose, target audience and competitors

The first step for social media app developers is to know the purpose of their app. Network apps allow people, organisations and companies to create, exchange and share information over a network of people.

If you have an idea, good for you, but a full understanding of the market, target audience, potential users and what your current competitors lack is very important information. Also, if you want to earn money from your app, think of all possible monetization options.

Once you are done with conceptualizing your future application and its missions, goals, user engagement ideas and competitive analysis, get ready for building out of the box growth strategies.

Step-2: Design social network app’s workflow

The next step is to create a defined workflow. This is to attain a specific pathway a user will follow in order to achieve the required set of goals. Hence, this step will define a complete user journey. The app workflow is a very critical step since it defines steps the user takes while they interact with your product.

Step-3: Development and design for both iOS and Android

As the name of this step suggests, it is equally important to design a social media app for android and for iOS. If you are using a SaaS solution then you don’t have to worry about this step but if you are planning to start from scratch so we suggest you start with creating a wireframe. Wireframes are the skeletal structure of the app, which represents how the app’s fundamental looks.

A wireframe will help your design and development team to visualise how the app works and what pages link together. The next step is prototyping which will create a working model of your app. This will help everyone understand how the app is functioning for android and IOS.

Step-4: Build your community and market the app

Now that your app is ready, it is time for you to win users and build a community! Start thinking about initial marketing strategies and campaigns that help draw the people’s attention, increase app downloads and user engagement.

7 Tips To Design Social Network App

Social networks app development is a tricky game! You must be sure that the app’s design is intuitive, easy to use and that same time appealing to your audience. Let’s talk about the best practices one can keep in mind while planning the look and feel of one’s app.

Keep it simple – A clean design always helps since people are already familiar with using the same. It helps you enthrall the users towards your value rather than distracting them away from it. When you focus on your offerings you don’t give your customers the space to think only of your brand, in turn. If you want to use your social media app for business, this is one of the key characteristics that you should focus on.
Communication is key – Allow your users to communicate with each other with the help of video call, audio call, recorded voice notes, ability to share content with each other. This is how you will build your community and keep your users engaged.
Focus on the Navigation – The minimalistic approach is the best one when it comes to designing navigation. If you create navigation with numerous features it will be too complicated for the user to keep up. The best practice is to ensure that all your icons and buttons are placed in the best part of the screen for the user to identify them easily.
Keep it consistent – You need to make sure that the design of your app remains synchronised in order to avoid any confusion that the user might face. By using consistency in your app it will create a logical structure that will clearly define where users can find what. This process will spare your app from confused and frustrated users.
Round design elements – Do you know why Facebook or Instagram use round profile pictures? Well, it helps to focus on a user’s face and further makes it simple for other users to remember or distinguish them from others.
Allow people to personalise – Provide users the freedom and choices to share information, media, links, content etc in order to add their personality to their specific profiles.
Color codes are very important – Choose colors of the same family that help in providing a seamless user experience.

How can you make money from a social media app?

You can easily monetize your social network app design and start earning returns from the cost that you invested in social media app development. Below are a few ways to achieve your goals:

Paid subscriptions: With an app based community, you can offer users paid subscriptions. It is best to first offer a free trial with good content and one or more paid trials that offer more in-depth and high-value content.
Paid content: If you have a lot of users engaged with your content, you can use social apps for business. Paid sponsorship is one way you can convert your user reach into money.
In-app purchases: You can give your users the liberty to directly make digital purchases. For example, ebook, a video or audio file.

Final Words

I hope that creating a social media mobile app is not as tough as you previously thought it was! I have walked you through the facts of social media apps, we have also talked about how to make an app from scratch, right from ideation to implementation and designing. Feel free to reach out to a social media app development company to guide you better and create your own app in no time. Take the first step today!

An Ultimate Guide to Mobile App Monetization Model and Strategies

Posted on 15/07/202008/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

The craze to make money through mobile apps is inextricable. While some developers try different permutations & combinations, others have hit the jackpot overnight.

The craze to make money through mobile apps is inextricable. Whereas some developers try different permutations without any results to show for, others have hit the jackpot overnight. Having analyzed a bevy of such case studies over roundtables, and after-office coffee-talks, we have our list of the mobile app monetization trends of 2021. Building an app isn’t an easy task, but this technological era provides you with the opportunity to create a million dollar app if proper process and guidelines are followed.

As a luminary mobile app development company, Anteelo has partners in every sector from healthcare to Edtech and other industries to obtain an engaging customer base and great ROI. We’ve seen first hand the most effective monetization tools for mobile apps, and with such validated expertise, look forward to empowering the entrepreneurs of new and old.

Why bother monetizing your app?

Before we dive into the reasoning behind monetizing an application, let us clarify one of the biggest confusions – can free apps make money? Yes, they can. Here’s how.

Apps have increased their user-reach multifold over the years. The below given chart appears to climb north in the foreseeable timeline as the internet and smartphones digitize our daily lives. By 2023, it is purported that apps would generate in excess of $935 billion in revenues, the primary drivers of which would be downloads and in-app advertisements.

When it comes to millennials, 21% of the cohort opens an app as much as 50 times a day. With an estimated 72.1 million millennials in the US alone, you do the math!

Having cultivated a regular footfall of app traffic and not knowing how to monetize it, would be like having a treasure chest without a key.

Identifying the Best Mobile App Monetization Strategy

As the modern saying goes, money doesn’t grow on trees but is certainly minted in apps. Let us explore 8 impactful strategies and the reasons promulgating their adoption rate. However, as you digest these points, do note the factors that make up for a profitability-friendly application.

Data Monetization

Data makes digital businesses tick. The public readily gives apps all the permissions to collect “relevant” data in return for premium experiences. Algorithmists decipher the variety and volume of the data they need on each user so as to peel the peripheral layers of behavioral psychology and augment tactics that urge the buying patterns. This can be observed from the fact that Facebook has 52,000 data points on each user.

Such intriguing insights were accessed by Cambridge Analytica by paying Facebook for unbridled data-access. Although the process of data-collection was questionable then, a legitimate market for data access has blossomed since making access to data, one of the hottest app monetization models.

When to use it – to make a killing, your data must be BIG, literally. Big data is something that has volume, velocity and variety. The higher the number of data identifiers you collect, the more vendors you can sell it to.

Premium

You pay for the app before trying it out. This model is receding fast as people are reluctant to spend unless they trust the brand. Most often, mobile gamers partake in such apps that exercise a pay first, play later protocol. It is proven as a matter of fact that free apps are much easier to distribute than paid ones. So unless you are a billion-dollar organization with fever-pitch fanfare to try out your products, refrain from using it.

When to use it – if you have to use it, make sure the marketing budgets are tuned to perfection as the notion of paid apps takes hard-selling. Premium works best for brands that account for majority market share and can fend-off competition with a loyal base.

Freemium

There was a time when in order to monetize mobile apps, 98% of the applications in the market stuck to this model. While that time was in 2014,thus in 2021 freemium apps still account for 94% of the market share emerging as one of the dominant go-to android app monetization strategies. The idea is to open up a basic in-app functionality to users so that they get a hang of it and automatically opt-in for premium features by paying a fee. Those wondering how to make revenue on apps, would be flattered to know that user acquisition costs are lower for freemium apps.

Freemium also provides the scope for incorporating secondary revenue mechanisms such as in-app advertising. In fact, mobile app developers use freemium as a hurdle for users to overcome and discarding-app ads.

When to use it – we recommend using freemium when you have potentially better app features that people will pay for. The model works best when app sessions can be stretched for longer durations. Spotify would be one example.

Subscription

This is a one-word answer best suited to the question how to generate revenue from mobile apps? Usually, mobile app development services design a 3-tier subscription policy targeting users with the spending potential of basic, intermediate or advanced levels. Subscription plans can be classified over separate durations depending on their pricing. A subscription model gives first-time users the leeway to experiment and see for themselves the value proposition by paying a nominal fee.

Whether you discuss android app monetization strategies or the ones applicable to iOS platforms as well, this model has been used to monetize mobile apps far and wide. Documented evidence suggests businesses opting for the subscription services have grown consistently over the last few years. The only thing you need to know is how to choose the right app pricing strategy.

When to use it – This model is best-suited to content-heavy apps that tie users into a fallback loop and long-term app use. Examples include Medium, and Netflix.

Sponsorships

Partnerships can take many forms. Our experience as a mobile application development company spells a common theme wherein one app invites a second one to leverage the user base, reward them for using the app, and mutually benefit from higher user engagement. For instance, Domino’s could offer extra discounts for ordering food from Uber Eats the kind it doesn’t on other apps. Conventional wisdom advises that there has to be a shared user base for the sponsorship model to prosper.

When to Use it – It is mostly used by brands operating in the same domain.

Advertising

Come to think of it, this is just a byproduct of the data an app collects. The same is used by ad networks, to drive relevant ad-traffic to the app as you open the gates to advertisements. In case you were wondering how to monetize android apps under a mobile app monetization strategy, you can find multiple options to charge advertisers on CTC (click through rate), CPC (cost per click), and lead conversions. There are a plethora of app monetization platforms that the advertisers leverage to funnel decent amounts of revenue. Such mobile app monetization platforms include the following:

AdMob
InMobi
Millennial Media
StartApp
Linkury
AdColony
AudiencePlay
Audience Network
Media.net
Smaato
Fyber
Unity Ads
MoPub
Chartboost
Epom Apps
SmartyAds
Leadbolt
IronSource

In addition to them, you can run the following kind of ads on mobile apps:

Rewarded Ads

They reward ad viewers for going through the complete duration of the ad with say an extra discount coupon.

Banner Ads

They appear horizontally either at the top or at the bottom of the screen. The thing with banners is that they can irk people by intervening with the content by sometimes overlapping it.

Interstitial Ads

These are full-screen layovers and produce the best click through rates. Unless the designer screws up, there is little you can do to not get things right with interstitial ads.

Native Ads

They appear as part of the overall content on the screen. It is hard for viewers to distinguish whether it is even an ad or not (hence the name) a fact that increases the likelihood of a click through.

When to use it – Advertisements should be used when you have an abundance of user data such as demographics, search/purchase history etc.

In-App Purchases

Finally, in-app purchases are a tested and highly quantifiable revenue metric that app development services can play around with, while still keeping the app free to download. Users do not pay upfront but rather for add-ons that enhance and enlarge their in-app engagement. Few studies posits global revenues from in-app purchases at $71 billion for the year gone by. Popular types of in-app purchases implemented by gaming apps include the following:

Game currency
Extra health
Milestone points
Health Boost

When to use it – this monetization model was successfully experimented with by the gaming industry following which content driven apps have also taken to it.

Which is the Perfect-Fit Monetization Model for Your App?

The answer is embroiled in further queries that pertain to intricacies of your business goals. For starters, consider finding a black and white answer to the following questions:

What is your apps’ USP?
What is your app’s product market fit?
Would you sacrifice short-term revenues for long-haul users?

The next-big monetization model could be held in your outlook and your approach towards consumerism.

Mobile application development services like ours at Anteelo have a record and reputation for conjuring innovation out of thin air. Well, that’s just an expression, but you get the point. Checkout our most hip-and-happening successes that earned us the laurels of being the best App Development Company of the Year.

Here Is How You Can Prepare Your App for iOS 14 Update

Posted on 10/06/202005/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

Set to release in the fall of 2020, iOS 14 was announced in the June of 2020 with a slew of changes and a series of groundbreaking announcements. Like clockwork, Apple comes with a multitude of industry transforming OS additions devised to make app experiences immersive, secure, and easy. But this time around, Apple has taken it up a notch with changes that would affect how advertisers target users.

While there are significant changes you’ll have to do to make the app UI ready like implement dark mode along with taking care of how to apply scene delegate, and modal presentation; in this article, we are going to look into how to get an app ready for iOS 14, especially in a way that it won’t gravely affect the app marketing efforts.

But before we head on to the part, let us recap the iOS 14 features.

List of iOS 14 Features

1. Home screen with an app library

Apple is changing the home screen with iOS 14. Users will be able to remove the applications from the screen or even remove the screens. The apps also stay in the App Library which is one swipe away from the final home screen.

App library groups all the apps in big folders which shows the recently used apps. It even enables the users to search for apps in the search box placed at the top of the screen. The folders are also automatically organized according to Health and Fitness, Social, etc.

2. Overhauled widget experience

Widgets have been an integral part of the iOS ecosystem for a very long time but only at the backdrop as a vertical list of full-width boxes.

With iOS 14 the tech giant is changing the widgets experience. They are now designed to have a bunch of new sizes and with more information. Above all, they can be dragged to the home screen.

3. Picture-in picture mode

PIP mode is finally coming to the iPhone with the iOS 14 version. When making a FaceTime call or watching a video, you can easily swipe back to the home screen while the video or call screen will continue to appear on the screen.

The users can even move the box around the screen or simply swipe it aside to make the tab little.

4. App clips

Taking inspiration from Google yet again, especially after Tim Cook agreed to relying on Google Search, Apple has launched App Clips with iOS 14. These are micro parts of the applications that enable users to use parts of apps without downloading, installing or signing up to the app to perform the tasks.

iPhone app developers create App Clips ensuring that the experience is under 10 MB. They are also encouraged by Apple to use the Apple Pay and Sign In with Apple facility to prevent users from creating or logging in the application. With the ability of getting triggered through maps, web, messages, QR codes, and NFC tags App clips can help businesses acquire new customers.

5. Substantial privacy tweaks

Apple has always maintained a leg up in the Android vs iOS security faceoff and with iOS 14, the list of privacy features have been expanded.

Users can give the apps details of their approximate location instead of exact location. Additionally, when an application asks for photos, you can select to share specific photos instead of the complete library.

Taking privacy up a notch, iOS 14 update will show a green dot in the status when an application is accessing your camera and an amber dot when an application is accessing your microphone.

6. Apple Arcade updations

It was only a while back when Apple Arcade was launched as a means to transform the gaming industry. With iOS 14, Apple is showing users games their Game Center friends are playing, accessing the recent games played, and making it easy to find and sort the Arcade games.

7. Expansive ARKit 4 tools

Apple is expanding AR tools for every iphone app development company with ARKit 4. Launched with iOS 11, the tools now enable developers to place Location Anchors to make AR objects occupy a place in the real world. Additionally, a device with A12 Bionic chip can perform facial tracking with a front camera even when it’s not a TrueDepth module.

They have also introduced a Depth API for iOS app developers to develop 3D mesh environments on iPad Pro having a LiDAR scanner.

Along with the above mentioned list of features, the process of getting an app ready for iOS 14 calls for an ios app development company to notify the users if the application is collecting a unique device code known as IDFA. The IDFA is a randomly generated code which Apple assigns to every device. The applications then use the codes for tying together the user activity.

Here’s an example of this in works: Through Facebook, a shopping app and weather app might access the identifier. The platform then uses the cross-app data for placing targeted ads for the advertisers in the app.

Facebook warned against the impact that the update would carry on how businesses promote themselves and monetize their advertisements. Facebook added, saying, “Because of advertisers’ reduced ability to accurately target and measure their campaigns, app developers and publishers should expect lower CPMs [i.e., views of their ads] on Audience Network and likely other ad networks on iOS.”

Let us dissect how iOS 14 would affect ad targeting in greater details.

How Will iOS 14 Changes Affect Mobile Marketing & What Can You Do About It?

By giving users the choice to opt-in IDFA, Apple has made it extremely difficult for businesses to make personalized advertisements. The event is even giving brands second thoughts on whether or not to migrate apps to iOS 14.

For the users who don’t opt for tracking, IDFA will return 0s, making the process useless. Ona default mode, a user will be opted out right when they launch the app. Once they get the notification, they can decide to either opt-in or confirm opt-out on an app to app basis.

Several advertisement types like exclusion targeting, retargeting, segmentation, and lookalike audiences presently depend on the IDFA so this change will carry a deep impact on user acquisition and ad monetization.

Here’s how businesses can get their app ready for iOS 14 to take control of the opt-in IDFA update situation.

1. Review present IDFA use

It is important for the advertisers to do a complete internal review of the present IDFA usage. There are a few things that you should ask your iOS application development agency to look at:

Look into the SDKs which are calling the IDFA, ensuring that you talk to the SDK providers if they have a solution for the IDFA requests.
Prepare and plan version release with updated SDKs.

2. Prepare for consent

Gaining user content should be your next priority task. If the users opt-in, you would be able to return to the pre-iOS 14 stage with a greater competitive advantage of high consent rates. In fact, now would be the best time to get on the activity. You can:

Run test on user consent mechanic for existing and new users across apps. By getting on the task before the iOS 14 launch will allow you the space to run multiple design and content iteration of the pop-up.
You can do A/B testing on when to trigger the pop-up. The best bet would be to trigger it when the users have finished a specific activity in the app.
You can use an internal prompt in place of Apple’s pop-up. When a user says “yes” to the application’s internal prompt, the app can still prompt the users and then deep link them in the settings menu of the device to enable tracking in the app.

3. Relook your BI stack

Your BI stack should be prepared for both consent and no consent situations. You should look into:

Which data sets are linked together for analytics and figure out a way to stitch them together once iOS 14 is released. We suggest our partners focus on the ADID, IDFV, and UserID.
While the apps working minus IDFA would be able to place the contextual ads, they will not be able to use personalized ads. Knowing their worth, we would recommend brands to run multiple scenario analysis of Plan Bs and Plan Cs if the ad revenue drops.

Besides these three preparatory steps, you should also consult with your app marketing partner about the updated ways on how to perform user acquisition and revisit the ways that can be adopted to increase the numeric value of the answer to how much money you can earn through an app.

Lower Frontend Maintenance Cost Of The Mobile App

Posted on 08/06/202005/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

There are two types of software projects that come to any app development agency. One which is brand new and has to be developed from scratch and another is one which already exists in the market and has to be updated. In both cases, the benefits of mobile app maintenance are manifold.

While in the case of the former, you will have to spend little time in the whole update and maintenance process, the latter would require your frontend and back end team to come together and understand the product to its entirety before moving on to its updation. Either way, maintenance is a part of the overall mobile app development cost estimate.

In this article, we are going to look into the factors that make mobile app frontend maintenance cost expensive, how can the cost be lowered and ultimately move on to the steps of lowering of maintenance cost in case of Node.js, Angular, and React.js projects.

Table of Content

Why is App Maintenance Process Important?
What Makes App Frontend Maintenance Cost Expensive?
How Can Developers Lower App Maintenance Cost in Angular, ReactJS, and Node.js?
How can Project Managers Lower App Frontend Maintenance Cost?

Why is App Maintenance Process Important?

Improper mobile app maintenance plan leads to challenges in flexibility and stability, which sooner or later translates into application failure. When the code lacks quality or when developers use outdated tools, the app performance suffers and the users experience more app crashes and bugs. Moreover, it hampers app’s scalability capability and the overall next phases of app development.

In business terms, this means more technology and resources inclusion, greater cost, and delayed launch time.

Efficient maintenance, on the other hand, makes apps flexible and stable, enabling you to create new functionalities and improving the present ones. And thus, knowing when to update your app is extremely important.

What Makes App Frontend Maintenance Cost Expensive?

Besides the obvious – multiple types of frontend app maintenance, lesser app tests and absence of continuous maintenance, there are some other prevalent reasons that bring the cost of frontend maintenance up.

A. Non-Structured JavaScript

There are many ways of structuring a JavaScript project, keeping it consistent is the most important part of Android app maintenance. A well defined structure enables developers to understand what is going on in the project at the first glance without making them search a particular file for hours on end. Even when the product is based on famous libraries like Vue or React, it has the probability of becoming chaotic as it grows.

In preparation of lowering the frontend maintenance cost, you should consider defining the style guide for project structure to use as a reference for the development team.

B. Poor Code Quality

The quality of your code is very essential for defining your project’s success, even when keep aside the fact that it is a part of the list of OWASP Mobile Top 10 Risks. While things like identical file structure, consistent incidents, and semicolons are insignificant for a non-technical person, they hold great value when it comes to defining the project’s success.

This, in turn, tends to increase the app frontend maintenance cost in the future.

C. Back-Dated Third Party Packages

There is a high probability that your product uses open source libraries and third party packages. Since these external resources are updated rapidly, it is important that you too update their versions in your app in order to remove project dependencies’ problems because of vulnerabilities and issues. The new versions contain performance improvements, bug fixes, security enhancements, etc which ensures that the app is working up to its fullest potential.

D. Non Automated Build Process and Deployment

Build and deployment are the last stages before the app gets live. When they are not developed in an error proof manner, it might get expensive to kill the bug later. The absence of automated build and deployment pipeline slows down development to a great extent, while lowering the team efficiency. You should go with the implementation of a continuous integration which includes running automated tests for all the new commits. Doing this, enables you to identify bugs and solve them in real-time.

E. Absence of Readme

Readme is one the most important files of a project. It makes the project requirement, its usage, and the development, deployment process clear. If you fail to keep it updated, your development team might end up spending multiple hours in solving issues that have been solved earlier.

How Can Developers Lower App Maintenance Cost in Angular, ReactJS, and Node.js?

Use the latest versions

All the three frameworks keep introducing new versions from time to time. Ensuring that you are using the most recent ones gives you a number of benefits – increased app efficiency, long term support from the parent team, access to all the latest functionalities and features – some of the key reasons for maintaining the frontend of an app.

Ask for clear documentation

Very few projects lasts with the same developers working on it till the end. Documentation plays a significant role here in the application development services for mobile as the developer who is new to the project has a clear understanding of the project and the work status, pipeline tasks are clear to them.

Ensure compatibility with third-party modules

Making a list of third-party modules which are compatible with the chosen frontend framework can be a great start.You will have to proactively ensure that there is a plan B for the future where the modules will get a major update and it fails to be compatible with your chosen frontend.

Test before implementing new features

If you have to implement or rewrite some functionalities, first ensure that the app’s behaviour is tested in advance. For instance, if you have to rewrite a logic in your app, it’ll be easier to implement the changes when you are sure that the present functionality has been tested. This way, in case something stops working, you will know it instantly.

Use microservices

If the issue lies in the monolithic structure, you must extract microservices out of the app so that it can work separately. Every mini-app should serve its purpose right. It will, in turn, streamline scalability for you will be able to move the services around different machines and dev teams – a microservice benefit that is not possible in monolithic.

Improve the code quality

If the app works fine but the code quality seems inconsistent or low, you must start with introducing conventions. Start by clearing the file structure by dividing it into logical units. It will be good to implement the static code analysis tools and use type systems. There are other things that you should follow to ensure a sound code quality:

A properly configured Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
Addition of linters in pipeline for ensuring poor/inconsistent codes are not put in production.
Code refactoring should be a must-have development process.

How can Project Managers Lower App Frontend Maintenance Cost?

As a non-technical project manager, you can majorly take only one step to avoid high maintenance cost in frontend – Hire an experienced frontend team which has the skillset to give you the desired quality and understand the importance of not delaying tests just for meeting deadlines. Even if you don’t have the necessary monetary resources to employ an entire team of frontend developers, you will have to at least employ one skilled resource for the task.

The other strategy to reduce frontend maintenance cost, while not so common, is building single page application.