The Mobile App ecosystem is a vast and extending network filled with different apps for all needs. Numerous apps are being developed and published on the app store and play store every day.
However, only a few get to the top position based on how useful and easy functionality could be. Mobile app development is an easy task only when each step of the development cycle is analyzed and appropriately framed to be successful.
Every minute step is essential for Mobile app development, and cutting corners may significantly impact the final product sustainability. Here, we’ll see the importance of mobile app deep linking and the essential steps that are not missed during app development.
Mobile App Deep Linking is a URI, uniform resource identifier. It connects to a particular page or the locations inside a mobile application. The primary purpose of deep linking is to offer related information requested to the user through e-mail, push notifications, social media, SMS, etc.
It fundamentally improves the user retention ratio and drives user engagement. In the absence of deep links, URLs will direct the users to the home screen alone and not to the particular content. It will leave the user hanging on the irrelevant page and eventually make them lose interest or rebound.
But, Deep linking has altered mobile apps’ interaction aspect and effortlessly bridges the gap between apps and websites.
Some of the top brands that harness the power of deep linking are Zomato, Google maps, Ola, Uber, and many more. There are other important tasks involved while creating a mobile application that should not be neglected during the mobile app development process.
The necessary groundwork for mobile app development is crucial. Research should be done about the target market, competitor analysis, and target audience before commencing the development process. Analyzing whether your idea fits well for the users in the current market trends needs to be determined.
If it is an already existing idea, your unique things must be given much attention to attract consistent active users. Also, define your budget and perform a detailed survey in the beginning stages to smooth the development process.
Preparing a detailed scope of the work, developing a wireframe of your app, and drawing detailed sketches of the product are necessary. It can help check the usability issues
and make sure that the mobile app development process meets your requirements. It can be useful to take feedback from industry experts and rectify any loopholes at this stage so that changes can be incorporated easily.
Checking whether the backend systems support the app functionality is important by accessing public APIs. Moreover, based on different platforms like iOS, Android, etc. there may be varied requirements. So, the technical limitations need to be analyzed during a technical feasibility assessment.
Delivering a great user experience is what all boils down to grabbing user attention. Varieties of layout design, navigation buttons, colors, graphics, fonts, styling, and other visual elements can be tried and tested.
It should be aesthetically pleasing and must include functionality, design concepts, timeline, budget, etc., for creating an engaging user interface. To have a first-hand picture of your app, it is best to develop static mockups.
Testing the app for bugs, and incorporating features that are necessary and compatible with powerful smartphones is essential. The app is tested for compatibility, usability, interface checks, stress, security, and performance to ensure that users are happy with the interface.
Here is where your app gets launched! App store standards and security requirements must be met to publish the app. After release on the App stores, regular updates and maintenance must be done.
Mobile app deep linking is beneficial in revenue generation and offers a superior user experience. When done correctly, it can increase the profitability of your mobile app.
For mobile app development services and custom app development, reach us for more information.
Native app development can be complicated and tedious. Android and iOS have various languages between them, like Java, Kotlin, and Swift. You can also make use of React Native, and the chances are that you will have to alter the way of the entire development.
If you wish to launch web apps, it reaches your customers directly, but in the case of a native app, you need clearance and certification from the independent app stores available for Android and iOS.
Progressive web apps make use of web standard technology, JavaScript, and JSON. It has the advantages of native apps, including performance and UI tweaks. Write once you work everywhere. You build it one time, and it works almost everywhere.
A progressive web app is a case of different technologies. They are capable of increasing the performance of your app. With added features, the merits across desktop and web always keep comparing against native apps, but many of these performances are also present on the website.
If you have a website, you don’t care so much about your mobile customers, a lot of these technologies can improve your website’s performance.
Since progressive web apps are websites, app stores don’t need their publishers’ permission to publish on their specific platforms. They are like website directories. The App stores will have to look at PWA sites, and if specific standards are met, they’ll automatically have a place in the store.
Putting progressive web and mobile apps right in the store eliminates the difficulty of discoverability and the problem of searching the website, logging in, and then pinning it to your home screen.
Many progressive web apps are present already, like Google Maps. All you need to do is pin it to your start screen and have a PWA of Google Maps. It uses your location and works exactly like the app.
Every business is exclusive and so requires a complete solution to cater to the requirements of customers. Today when the customer is too busy to reach out to you, you need to reach them and make it effortless to link with you. This way, you can hike up your sales, and that’s the reason on-demand mobile app development services have created a buzz in the IT market.
The best examples of on-demand businesses are Uber, NetFlix, AirBnB, etc. which have created a niche in the market space. They leveraged customer behavior and revolutionized the way people utilize on-demand services.
In the simplest term, it is developing custom mobile apps that can quickly and effortlessly meet the customer’s stand-alone requirements. Having a thriving on-demand business model and a user-friendly mobile-based platform, you have the secret formula for making it big.
Some of the essential must-have features to be incorporated are as follows:
The use of on-demand is on the rise, and so should the right feature integrations. All the susceptible paths must be looked for to enjoy highly extensible and useful mobile applications. If done correctly, these apps will surely add value to your business, making it more dynamic.
The significant benefits of having an on-demand mobile app are:-
Another critical aspect that needs to be highlighted is the target audience. It is the segment for whom you are developing this application. It will give you a picture of whether the app will be used and the possibility of demand for your mobile app development.
By identifying the target audience for your app, you can perform the following:
Furthermore, the knowledge of the target audience is crucial for the mobile app development process. For example, if you are developing an online food delivery service mobile app in Manhattan, one can assume that the target audience will be those living in New York.
Earning the trust of your customers for your on-demand mobile app is crucial. It all comes down to the level of convenience, swiftness, and how efficiently your app supports their orders, tracking, payments, and reviews. Ultimately the deciding factor will be the waiting time between placing the order and delivery.
If you all eyes to develop an on-demand app for your business, you can always reach out to us, the USA’s best app development company. We offer flexible, responsive, and custom mobile app development that meets the needs to grow your business.
GDPR is Euro Zone’s new data protection regulations. General Data Protection Regulation or ‘GDPR’ was established on 25 May 2018 and brings how a company, application or website must protect stored and in-transit data of its Euro residents whether operating inside or outside the continent. GDPR infringements can lead to fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher. British telecom conglomerate TalkTalk made quite a name for itself after European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued it a half million fines over a data breach.
GDPR TIP#1: Don’t put your European users in the same basket as Asian and Americans
It’s not European Union officials being overly cautious; Euro residents are equally vigilant. TalkTalk lost more than 100, 000 customers in the aftermath of the breach. Unlike Americas and Asia, privacy is a big deal in Europe that some European, even American and Chinese companies use data protection and privacy as a selling for their digital products. A hefty fine for GDPR non-compliance will gather a lot of bad press, which for many years will negatively influence decision of potential customers researching their options.
EDPB won’t take your ignorance as excuse if you come under the scanner. When Vanson Bourne surveyed 1,600 organizations, it found that 37% of respondents don’t know whether their organization needs to comply with GDPR, while 28% believe they don’t need to comply at all. GDPR has the potential to make your firm file for liquidation to pay up the fines or from operating in the zone. Europe is a key market and preparing for GDPR compliance is barely an impossible task.
GDPR TIP #2: Stop thinking you’ll get away with penalties by playing dumb.
EDPB might slap you an even higher fine because you made a dumb person sit in charge of your user data’s privacy, not to mention the, subsequent, bad press.
The smartest move right now would be to start reviewing the data you collect and store. If you ever end up in a GDPR hearing, the member of GDPR board would be very much interested why you collected a set of data. For example, if your mobile app plays nursery rhymes, then a member of the board would love to learn why you collected location data. An answer that you target nursery rhymes according to the location of the kids would make the case only worse. So start acting and stop thinking. Mobile apps of course are at a greater risk if you put them against websites because they collect a lot more data, store most of it, and are infamous for sharing data without users’ consent.
The more the data you store, the greater are the implications of GDPR on you. As I said, EDPB won’t let you get away with excuses, and non-compliance with GDPR will probably cost you more than compliance. GDPR compliance won’t even be an effort if your organization runs the best practices of user privacy and data protection. However, if your privacy policies clearly state that you will share customer data with advertisement partners if somebody agrees to the T&C, then you’re already under the breach and may attract penalties with a printout of your T&C page put against you as an evidence. ‘Consent’ is repeated many times in the GDPR documents and you don’t want to ignore it.
Both Android and iOS have excellent permission managers. The problem is they take every permission access on the same level. That is a navigation app and the Fluffy Bird clone both can ask for location permission in the same way. However, GDPR would constitute both permission on a different level of severity. Flapping birds on your mobile doesn’t need to learn where you’re sitting at. However, the Maps app needs access to highly accurate location data to run navigation services.
GDPR TIP #3: Don’t ask for unnecessary permissions
If your application asks for unnecessary permissions, then GDPR expects that you tell your users why you need those permissions. If you need certain permissions to store information to enable targeted advertisements, then you must warn your customers about the true intent.
So I downloaded a news app and did not give permission to share my personal details with advertisers. The app clearly mentions that advertisements are its methods of monetization and if I want an ad free experience I need to upgrade to a premium version of the app to continue. Fair enough!
Data is the new oil and businesses don’t want any of it to go away. Most business logics dictate storing every piece of data their mobiles app collects. When it comes to GDPR, the more the data you store, the more the risk. Collecting data you don’t need is not a problem as long as you subscribe to a secure way to delete them. Companies that store too much data for their size are already under GDPR scanner. GDPR won’t be a problem if they know what they are going to do with that data.
GDPR TIP #4: Do not collect data in the first place
However, EDPB would consider any act of storing the data you don’t need as a case of suspected infringement and may subject you to further investigation. The philosophy is if you’re storing the data, then you need it and the board wants to learn the reason. If you don’t have a reason, the board will have many things to suspect which may not be restricted to selling data in dark web, sharing with CPC officials, illegal data mining, social engineering, etc.
If you have any piece of data in public directories, which you can identify to a person, you’re playing with fire. User privacy is of utmost importance to Euro people and government won’t let go off an abolisher without a fine.
GDPR TIP #5: PII data attracts the highest penalties
Euro Zone has some strict regulations around personally identifiable information or PII. For example, a user’s IP address is not classed as PII on its own, but is classified as linked PII in the US and elsewhere. However, in the European Union, the IP address of an Internet subscriber may be classed as personal data. If you log IPs of people using your app and store them in .txt files, you’re already in breach.
PII deserve an encrypted and secure location on the cloud or local storage of your app. A server storage inside a Euro Zone country would turn out to be a life saver if the Euro officials ever come knocking on your doors.
Any stored data must be encrypted and transmitted over an SSL connection particularly when dealing with PII. If your application accesses an API that is over a non-secure connection, you mention that to the user with the statement, “he should proceed at his own risk”. If the user suffers a privacy violation while accessing data from the API that would be at his discretion and would give you an upper hand if you ever end up in a GDPR trial.
GDPR TIP #6: Say good bye to HTTP once and for all
Breaches happen and even the finest security measure and practices can’t prevent them from happening at times. If your mobile app encounters a breach in which the intruder got hand of your users’ PII and uploads it on a public domain, you must report the breach immediately.
The board fined TalkTalk heavily because it reported the breach many months later after the rumors mills got too strong to turn a blind eye.
GDPR TIP #7: Report data breaches at the earliest
You’re the head of the company; the board expects you to act accountable for the breach and not play blame games on your colleagues. These games only show your incompetence to take account of the situation and act responsibly. The board will levy even higher fines for hiring a douche and not being serious about your users’ data security.
If you adhered to the best practices as dictated by GDPR, there is nothing to worry about but present your case in a systematic manner and convince the jury that the intruders broke the locks and the keys were in safe hands.
If the GDPR notice ever comes knocking at your door, there is a no point of playing hide and seek with the investigators. Chances are they already have enough evidence to file a charge and are only here to clear some air and find some supporting evidences. If you don’t co-operate, it will raise more questions than they want answers to and this will weaken your case further.
GDPR TIP #8: Confess, when you’re at fault
If you co-operate with them at the time of interrogation, answer the questions they are asking and clear the doubts; perhaps, that will clear some misconception regarding your practices around stored data, and you might come clean
At TOPS, we follow the best security and data protection practices to safeguard your users’ interest regardless of their country of residence. Mobile apps developed at TOPS deliver superior level of data security for stored and in-transit data owing to encryption and HTTPS respectively. Mobile app development is done in a way that follows the strictest security standards of data security and protection. Apps developed by us receive security updates from time to time for security. When developing for European markets, we already comply with most of the guidelines issued by GDPR; and are working closely with our clients and partners to deliver application in compliance with GDPR.
Choosing an outsourcing partner for your next mobile app is everything but easy. First, there is endless number of mobile application development companies out there. Try to Google, ‘mobile app development company’ and you’ll understand what I mean here. Apparently, Google is the best place to look for an app development company.
With so many companies showing up in Google search results, it’s easy to get lost. However, don’t lose your hope already. There are some neat tricks and after a little scrutinizing to the parameters, which I am going to present by means of this blog, you’re going to run out of quality mobile app firms to choose from.
One of the major problems with firms looking to outsource mobile app development is this that they start searching and approaching firms without gaining any intelligence into the market or perfecting their app idea. This anomaly makes them an easy target of fraudulent app developers that disappear somewhere upon the receipt of payment.
You’re not the only firm looking for an app development company. There are many on the same trail. The only difference is this that many of them are not doing this for the first time. With mobile development getting larger every day, every firm wants to make money out of it. No doubt, there are so many companies out there, confusing the hell out of you.
When you approach a company over a cold online search, it expects you would have done some sort of research. When it realizes you did not, they are going to either over-quote you or won’t take you seriously.
I would recommend going through a few YouTube videos and a number of blogs to get a basic understanding of mobile app development before running the hunt.. While the pricing varies greatly from firm to firm and geographies, you should get a fair estimation how many hours it will take to bring the app to the market.
In addition, you can meet some local mobile development companies in your area to gather intelligence.
As I said, the internet isn’t short of companies that stuff “mobile app development company” in their webpages. However, not every company that stuffs the keyword to manipulate Google search algorithm in its favor develops mobile apps. So are mere vectors to actual companies. Beware! these agents disappear as soon as they get their commission.
Nevertheless, it’s not hard to tell an agent from an actual development company that specializes in mobile app development.
Tip: Remember, a website shows only the best of a company. If you want to learn the truth, look elsewhere.
When you look for an app development company in Texas, you will encounter three types of websites: development companies in Texas or operating in Texas, a website that lists such companies, for example, Clutch and GoodFirms, and education websites teaching you how to develop an app.
While outsourcing development to a firm in the states is a much safer option, a mobile development company easily charges anywhere $100-$150 per hour in the US, which isn’t affordable unless you’re fine spending upwards of $50000 in mobile development alone. On other extreme are mobile developers in Bangladesh and the Philippines that are ready to work for less than $10 per hour. If you are looking for a balance between cost and quality, you can pick East Europe and India.
I personally prefer India as developers there are much more fluent in English than developers in Europe. Also, it’s easier to find a development company in India that is ready to work for less than $40/hour.
Most of the development companies demonstrate their portfolio on their websites. If a certain website you shortlisted do not, it’s ok to ask for it. Most websites have a contact us page to contact the administrator.
Once you have hands-on the portfolio, try to contact the companies whose portfolio has been shared with you. It’s easy to find their contact info as long as their websites have a contact us page. Don’t be shocked if you find a few companies that fail to recognize the developers. In the mobile development market, ‘fake till you make it’ is a common mantra.
I’ll suggest you drop such developers already and go with only those developers whose portfolio you could validate. Credible mobile development companies won’t hesitate from sharing the info about the client they worked with unless an NDA is involved.
It’s time to contact the shortlisted development companies. At this stage, you do not have to share any info about your idea or the app. Just let them know that you’re interested to work with them on an app. Most of them, will contact you back within a couple of days to gather ideas and details for the app you are looking to develop.
Commonly, development firms expect the interested parties to share their contact information on their website from the contact us page. A few firms also offer you free estimation or consultation on request.
Do not share any details of the app or your ingenious app idea unless the development company has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with you. Once they have signed the document, they are under legal obligation not to disclose any info about the app to anyone. NDA will give you creative and technical freedom to share your thoughts with all the shortlisted companies.
Passing the info is important for development companies to understand the scope of your work and translate into the number of man-hours required and, ultimately, cost.
Once the shortlist is ready, try to negotiate the cost for the number of features available. Most of the development firms are more flexible with pricing if you commit them long term development plan or give a handful of references. You will be negotiating with more than one firm at a time so keep a tab of the price you last negotiated with a firm.
You can make the final decision once you have all of their prices. It’s apparent to go with the lowest price but there are more factors to consider. A major one is a features-to-cost ratio—the greater the ratio the better the deal you’re getting.
You will be working with a virtual team sitting somewhere on the globe. Most firms let you interview and select the members of the cloud team. Remember, you’re going to pay them hourly. So this may occur to you: you don’t need the most efficient person who can deliver the maximum in minimum time. A senior developer will help you make most of the hours you’re going to pay for. However, they are costlier.
A balanced team is consists of a couple of senior developers and 5-10 junior developers working under the command of a supervisor. Selecting candidates for your team is a one-time process. Most companies to cut down chaos allot you a single point of contact, mostly a team leader or a project manager, depending upon the size of the project.
In case you find the developers not up for the job, it is better to look elsewhere probably for a higher cost.
This goes without saying but most new companies looking to develop a mobile app rush through their apps development cycle and try to stuff more features that it can take. This rush leads to the development of an app with half-baked features and too high a cost.
The biggest benefit of going agile is that new features are added gradually. So you have more time to test the features of an MVP. In addition, the developer will bill you for only the features he added, which will help you keep costs in check.
If you are looking for a mobile app development company that works with a global clientele and has presence in various countries, there is no better app development company but TOPS Infosolutions.
Do you practice the Agile App Development Process?
Indeed we do. The most significant advantage of going agile is that you can add new features progressively. So, this gives more time to test the features of an MVP. Additionally, we will bill you only for the added features, which will significantly keep the costs in check.
How secure is my app during the development process and post that?
We follow strict ethics when it comes to confidentiality. We encourage our clients to sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which entitles us to be under legal obligation not to disclose any app-related information to anyone. So, you need not worry about it.
Will You Maintain My App Post-Launch?
We support maintaining your app post-release. Our developers at Tops are available around the clock to offer maintenance assistance.
What will be the cost involved to develop an app?
The cost varies according to the various features and aspects that your application demands. The timeline and workforce allocated also play a significant role in determining the cost. To know exactly how much it would cost for development, drop us your requirement, and our experts will get back within 24 hours with a free quote.
MEAN stack brings full stack development under purview of a single programming language, JavaScript. Alongside bringing the best of the frontend and backend technologies under a single basket, MEAN stack inherits security vulnerabilities each of these technologies are susceptible to. Some of the security threats augment when these technologies play together inside the framework. If those vulnerabilities are not subsided by the MEAN stack developers at the time of writing code, they will put the entire organization using those applications at jeopardy.
For example, MongoDB is a NoSQL database and an integral part of the MEAN stack. A common myth is NoSQL means no injections. In reality, MongoDB has a concept of query selector operators. These operators start with a dollar sign: $gt means greater than, $ne means not equal to, $not for negation, etc. If an attacker can inject these queries selector operators into the query, he can alter the logic of that query.
Here the presence of Express.js in MEAN stack makes the situation worse; it acts as a catalyst to NoSQL Injections. When Express sees nested URL encoded parameters in an input, it’s going to automatically parse them. This allows a person to inject a query operator into hid statement and alter the logic of this operation. And that’s only a part of the problem with MongoDB and there are three more technologies with their own share of risks and vulnerabilities.
Let’s take a look at the all the technologies inside MEAN stack and what are the potential security risks they can expose your application to.
As I said, MongoDB is immune to SQL injections but not every type of injections. In fact, MongoDB are more susceptible to something called Query Selector Injections or NoSQL Injections than MySQL is to SQL injections. The JSON documents with some neat, little tricks can be altered to achieve some malicious results. This as I mentioned above involve built-in logic operators to alter queries.
Another problem with MongoDB is this that it doesn’t force authentication that means that five year old hacker living next door can query the database with little to no difficulty. The icing on the cake is MongoDB’s optional HTTP and REST interface, which not only puts the database and the sensitive information inside it on the public domain but also the underlying file system.
To make sure, your database is not accessible to anybody make sure you disable HTTP and REST interface. You can configure /etc/mongodb.conf file’s bind_ip, auth,httpinterface, and rest options to contain access to the database and, thus, secure the MongoDB instance as demonstrated below.
Ransom-wares targeting the insecure default conf file on these servers exploited more than forty thousand instances of MongoDB by January 2017.
Node.js facilitates the development of web applications with broad backend capabilities:server and networking capabilities. It makes way for real-time bidirectional communications back and forth from server and client. Node.js is a standalone package of Google’s V8 JavaScript engine and; thus, works outside of a web browser.
Developers love Node.js as it allows creating HTTP web servers while building the web applications. The very reason MEAN stack exists; Node.js isn’t without its share of security vulnerabilities. In fact, it inherits all security flaws JavaScript suffers from. In addition, the ability to execute at the server exposes it to a new set of attack vectors. Nevertheless, the CVE database compiles an up-to-date list of Node.JS vulnerabilities.
In a nutshell, full stack development may be the epitome of DevOps; nevertheless it necessitates stringent adherence to protected application development practices. The MEAN stack, and any stack for that matter—be it LAMP, .NET, or MEAN—needs apt controls to make sure that security is baked into an application since the initial phases of development. In the MEAN stack, complete vulnerability assessment and monitoring for web applications, databases, and servers is required.
A minimal, flexible web application framework built around Node.js, Express hasmany features that simplify web and mobile application development. Express.js is to Node what Ruby-on-Rails or Sinatra is to the Ruby language.
Unluckily, the framework is susceptible to numerous injection and cross-site attacks and is vulnerable to all of Node.js’s core vulnerabilities.
For example, in MEAN stack, session state client-side stored in JSON Web Token (JWT) is encrypted. Thus, persistent session data server-side makes the application scalable when deployed in clustered servers. However, this handiness comes at a cost, explicitly the incapability to nullify a user’s session. Of course, you can expire the cookie afteryet the server will accept a replayed cookie even when you purged the cookie.
This issue can be moderated by keeping an inner expiration value within the session cookie.
Another problem with Express is this that the Csurf plugin is omitted from GET, HEAD, and OPTIONS methods. Csurf plugin protects web application from cross-site request forgery (CSRF). That is, an application with GET routes will not be protected from CSRF attacks.
That means the below code and the resulting app is vulnerable to CRSF because of the GET part.
To mitigate this, developers should do one of the following:
Angular has inherent Strict Contextual Escaping service ($sce) by default. This service secure Angular from malicious HTML tags (e.g., <script>, etc.), attributes (e.g., onmouseover, onerror, etc.), and URI protocols (e.g., javascript) from data rendered as HTML with the ng-bind-html directive.
The problem is Strict Contextual Escaping service ($sce) can turned off by sceProvider.enabled() method globally while $sce.trustAs methods turn it off per-instance. In short, Angular is quite vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks when binding insecure data as HTML.
The easiest method around this vulnerabilities is to enable $sce service for untrusted bound to the ng-bind-html directive. Removing the $sceProvider.enabled(false) method from the excerpt above means the malicious onerror attribute will be sanitized appropriately.
Another security risk with Angular and thus MEAN stack applications is expression injection. An attacker can enter a curly bracket to Angular template to modify expressions. Aforementioned functions do not take in account expression injection using curly brackets.
To mitigate the risk, sanitize curly brackets from insecure input or by prevent the input from being written inside an Angular template by reducing the scope of the ng-app directive.
MEAN stack development is the epitome of DevOps that forbids insecure development practices. Besides, this approach entails sufficient controls to make sure that security is an integral part of every stage of development.
Who doesn’t love the idea of getting their favorite pizza delivered home? If you’re a restaurateur delivering food to the location, it’s a win-win situation for you. You can cater to more diners than the sitting area in your restaurant allows, which means more business without additional investment into real estate.
Let me give you an example, suppose, you run a little diner in your backyard that can accommodate 20-30 people at a time. Your average income per diner is $2 and every day you welcome 200 such diners, making an estimated $12000 every month.
Now suppose you open your doors to home delivery and hire a delivery boy. The delivery boy delivers 30 food packets every day and you have set the minimum order amount to $10. Now, you’re making an additional $10000. Even if you deduct the expense on the delivery boy. This is still an incredible deal.
Had you invested in additional real estate for the restaurant, that would have cost you anywhere between $40000-$100000.
However, managing a food delivery business or any type of on-demand delivery business is a lot more complicated than the example above is. Let’s take a look at what it takes to run an on-demand delivery business.
We have grown many times since the first pizza home delivery service started. What happened in the meanwhile is this that soon restaurateurs got overzealous with the whole idea of increasing business income without substantial investments. Every restaurant started some form of phone ordering business. It was so much booming that online orders soon took over diners sitting at the restaurant. Soon restaurants were getting far more order requests than their tele-callers could handle, kitchen could cater to or delivery boys could deliver. The growing competition means thinning profit margins. The system crumbled under its own weight and proved inefficient at the end of the day.
Many restaurants capped no. of phone order they will take, thus, putting a full stop to the boom.
In July 2010, an app-only taxi-hailing app was doing rounds in tech circle of San Francisco, at the heart of the Silicon Valley. Many called the app at the forefront of latest mobile and cloud technology revolutionary. The idea was simple rather than going to the taxi the taxi will come to you with a single tap on your iPhone.
The ingenious idea soon infested other industries including the vulnerable food delivery and later professional services like plumber and baby sitter, even a doctor.
By the turn of 2015, everybody from your local grocer to your favorite restaurant to the baby sitter who lives next door were part of one of the various on-demand marketplaces mushrooming on the app stores and catering to local businesses and professionals in your area.
The decreasing cost of Android phone, a rising middle class, and affordable cloud computing services were the principal contributors to the reincarnation of on-demand delivery business.
The success of Uber gave confidence to many industry pundits in renewing mass’s interest in on-demand delivery business. After all, mobile applications are much more capable than dumb phone calls to telecallers. This gave way to on-demand boom. Every startup or industry player wanted to capitalize on the new playground given birth by Uber in chassis of a mobile app
Soon, there was an Uber clone for every sort of thing or person whether a person wants a plumber to fix a dripping faucet in his living room, monthly grocery delivered at his place or taxi or Uber to head to the next meeting.
As I said there are all sorts of on-demand marketplace for everything or person you can think of. So is the number of players competing in the space and apps for each of them. This is where the term came, “There must be an app for it.”
On-demand delivery apps are relevant because local businesses and professionals back them. Those apps are only the marketplaces that connect with the local providers or businesses. While the latter can work with the former, that is not the case the other way around.
If you’re looking to enter the opportune market yourself, you’ll have an edge if you have influence in the local market. You need people to deliver what your users demand. If you’re a grocer, then you need delivery boys to deliver grocery. If you are cab company, then you need drivers to drive your cars around and if a home services provider, then you need a number of handymen ready to deliver services to your users.
In a nutshell, you need to convince a lot of people to join your app-based marketplace before you seek an app developer to build the app ecosystem around your marketplace.
At the center of on-demand economy, is a powerful ecosystem of mobile apps. No doubt, mobile app developers have been constantly busy since Uber came. There are all sort of startups keeping them busy and they have every reason to.
The investment in on-demand startups has grown more than 1400% from $74 Billion in 2014 to $10,293 Billion in last quarter of 2017. Moreover, an on-demand startup has better chances of capturing seed funding, a study by CBInsight indicates.
And it’s not just the investors interest. The revenue from on-demand economy will multiply 23 times from $14B in 2014 to $335B in 2025, predicts PwC
Evidently, users’ spending in the on-demand mobile app economy is rising at unprecedented pace. The total spending from year 2016 to 2018 grew 58%, National Technology Readiness Survey. Some of the sectors that received the largest piece of pie were online marketplace, transportation, and housing. Food delivery, surprisingly, came 4th in terms of investment but grew maximum in the period, Rockbridge report suggests.
While those are great numbers, on-demand services won’t have existed in the first place had it not for mobile technologies and applications. If you have used Uber in the past, you know what I mean here. The level of convenience provided by apps like location awareness, turn-by-turn navigation, real-time locations sharing, in app chat and support and flexible payment options were unheard of before.
The Uber you use to book taxis is only a part of the app ecosystem. A larger part of the ecosystem is shared various players in the on-demand business and each role has a dedicated app.
In on-demand delivery business, there are generally two sets of people involved in addition to the admin, manager, or owner. Of course, at the center are the end users, who originate the demand. Then there are delivery boys who fulfil those demands.
Therefore, we need three apps: users, delivery boys, and merchants. Let’s take a look what their app look like.
The user app originates the demand–what he or she wants. The app is simple, the users requests what he wants, when and makes payment—all in the app. Upon request fulfilment, he waits for the desired person to arrive and deliver him the thing or service.
In on-demand delivery business model, the delivery boys either pick up an item from a user or drop off an item from a user to a hub. So when I want a parcel collected from courier company and delivered at my doorsteps I use their app. Alternatively, when I want a food parcel from my favorite restaurant to reach me. I ask a delivery boy to deliver it to me, who picks the parcel from the restaurant, which acts as hub here.
If you think developing on delivery apps is too much on your side, you can ask us to. Our team of mobile app developers has an experience of developing tens of on-demand apps. Being a top ranked, an award winning mobile app development company, we have a global clientele and worked with more than 300 different clients since inception.
There are many advantages of developing on-demand mobile apps with TOPS Infosolutions:
TOPS has the reputation of delivering end-to-end IT solutions to startups into on-demand businesses. Companies around the globe prefer us for faster development time, advancing on deadlines, transparency, cost checking, above all, top of the line support.
Let’s take a look at one screen from an app that is purely React Native and ask ourselves what is the UI that we see here.
Is this an HTML? Is this a webview like other implementations like PhoneGap or Cordova?
The answer is, without a doubt, No. The views in React Native are purely native views so from our app the navigation controller that you see here the top bar is UINavigationController. Now, if you are an iOS developer you would these are the same UI views that you use in your native apps.
If I had shown you the same screen on Android, you would see that the implementation is completely different. It renders to the native views. If the UI is completely native with React Native, where is the JavaScript?
JavaScript is what running under the hood. Where you as a developer specify the business logic and which components you want and then the framework renders it for you. To understand this better, let’s dive into React Native a little deeper and see the architecture from the inside.
Consider there are two realms running side by side in your app. You have the JavaScript realm and you have the native realm.
The JavaScript realm is where you program in JavaScript, naturally. The code there is running on a JavaScript engine. Specifically in React Native it uses jscore, that is the open source JavaScript engine for WebKit. You are probably familiar with other engines like V8. They do the same things and this engine is running inside your app on one of the threads. Your app is a process that has several threads in it. JavaScript is just one of them.
In the native Realm, you still develop an objective C and Swift if you are on iOS or with Java if you are on Android. You use the native platform specific languages that you use before and you have the main UI thread as usual. In all platforms, you can usually change UI only from the main UI thread and you can create as many background threads as you want.
These two realms are different and connecting these two realms is the bridge. The React Native is a very important construct in this entire setup. Did you ever try to debug a React Native application using Chrome for example, so when you debug a React Native application using Chrome, then you have the two realms actually running on different computers. You can run the JavaScript role entirely inside Chrome itself.
You can debug it inside Chrome debugger and you have the native realm still running on your phone. Then instead of going inside your app, you would go through a WebSocket. The bridge, which is just a communication protocol, can travel over WebSocket as well.
You can use your existing web development skills and can produce native iOS and Android app using those skills. It’s completely possible to utilize your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills to develop native Android and iOS apps.
I’m not talking about hybrid apps or just an app wrapper around a mobile website but actual native apps–pure, native apps that you design in iOS using Swift or in Android using Java or Kotlin. Thanks to React Native, native apps can now also be developed with common web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
If you still don’t believe me that these apps can be really be awesome. Take out your phone and have a look at one of these apps: Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Skype, and Airbnb. They are developed in React Native.
Facebook was facing a lot of problems about redesigning their apps and everything. The problem was handling many users and rolling out new features. Facebook needed something more robust, fasts that can handle a lot of traffic as well as can be designed really quickly. The brilliant team at Facebook started working on a JavaScript library, which came to known as React.
The best part is React employs faster virtual DOM. Although React is a library, lightweight component can be injected anywhere. You can use react with PHP, MySQL, Firebase, MongoDB or any database system of your choice.
You must be wondering isn’t React for designing web applications? Consider React Native as the successor of ReactJS for mobile app development. All the things that you learned in React like components props, States, Redux, Modal, etc. are part of React Native as well.
The things that you learned in React can be applied in React Native in the same workflow. Components, props and states are all used in react native and thus you got your native application.
In React Native unlike native Java and Swift codes, you don’t ever compile your app. You just reload it just like do you a website in a web browser.
Moreover, you don’t have to maintain two separate codebases for your application. For example, let’s say you are a business and I am application development company whom you have outsourced a mobile app project.
Of course, you want an app for both Android and iOS in addition to the web. It requires two teams one for each mobile platform: one team for Android application and one team for iOS application. Those you aren’t aware implementing the same, exact features in iOS and Android app require a lot of communication exchange between those teams: app features, deadline, delivery, client expectation and requirements, etc.
React Native apps perform, more or less, like an app written in Native iOS code. A Medium user ran a few tests to compare its performance with the native code and found performance at par with an equivalent app in Swift, sometimes even better. The Medium article measured performance in three areas: CPU, GPU and Memory utilization at the run time.
In CPU usage the performance was similar although maps performed better in Swift.
To calculate GPU performance, Native vs React Native, the author calculated frames per second (FPS) of the application under GPU load. Surprisingly, although by small margins, React Native outperformed Swift code by more 6.25 frames per second.
For memory tests, the author concentrated on maps as the memory footprints of other features was negligible to figure out a contrast. Evidently, at the peak performance, React Native used a whopping 61.11 MiB less memory than Swift. While performing the task and recording the measurements, a spike in Memory usage was observed at the exact moment, he pressed the “Maps” tab, which prompted the MapView to find my current location and highlight it with a blue, pulsating dot.
In the React Native, you just have to maintain a single codebase and that code will produce native Android app as well as iOS app. React Native is getting a lot of attention nowadays and people are loving how the things are shaping for React Native and the community is growing. You must be jumping on your couch. Finally, you can use cheaper web developers to design native Android and iOS app. You no more have to hire programmers or train them in Java, Kotlin, or Swift.
No, there existed always side-by-side technologies. Some businesses prefer React Native while others prefer native codes in Kotlin or Swift. It’s always good to have many mobile technologies around to choose from. Desktop application developers always had a lot of programming languages and technologies to choose from and most of them are still here, going strong.
For example, there are still apps that are being developed in Ruby on Rails, Django, PHP as well as node.js. Technologies evolve as per the demand.
The biggest takeaway of React Native is now there are more options than ever. Developers can go with Android development using Java or maybe Kotlin. Likewise, they can go for iOS development using Swift. With React Native, they have one more option to native development. Not to mention, now everyday web developers can also be part of native app development party.
Nevertheless, React Native is growing at a tremendous pace and if the growth sustains, soon, we will find more React Native developers than those into Swift or Kotlin development. This development in mobile ecosystem will mark a huge shift from the traditional form of mobile development. The field will evolve to absorb React Native development or any similar emerging or upcoming technologies into mobile app development.
Google Trends is a popular tool to understand people’s interest in a search term. When used to forecast people interest in technology or a mobile development technique in this context, it can tell which of them are growing which are plummeting.
Source: Google Trends
Clearly, while React Native, as I said, has grown exponentially and iOS development has remained static, Android development has a seen a huge plunge. This made me think. Is the growth in React Native at the expense of Android development? It is too early to say but one thing is for sure: iOS development is here to stay while the future of Android because of React Native is in quite a disarray.
Android developers have a consistent complaint. They don’t earn as much as their iOS counterparts and the ROI is hard to come by. And the revenue gap is almost twice in a few demographics.
Source: App Annie
Perhaps, app platforms find React Native as the answers to their Android development vows.
The popularity of React Native and similar JavaScript frameworks are blurring the lines between web and mobile app developers. For the first in the history of mobile development, a developer can say I don’t want to learn Java or Objective C and still can build a mobile app.
For businesses looking to develop mobile apps, React Native brings a sea of opportunities. They can target both mobile platforms at the fraction of the cost. As businesses prefer iOS to Android for the reason I mentioned, React Native will give a new lease of life to Android development.
Android 9 or P will be called simply Android Pie. Google launched the 9th iteration of Android after more than an year of testing by early adopters. Android Pie is high on machine learning that is your phone will become smarter with time.
For developers, Android Pie gives you new ways to drive engagements and enhance your apps. So let’s look at what Android Pie brings for Android app developers. As I said, the highlight of this year’s Android release is machine learning. Machine learning makes the smartphone faster, long lasting, and easy to use.
To save battery, Android Pie will restrict background activity of rarely used apps. If you’re a developer, make sure your app is optimized for Doze, App Standby, and Background Limits or adaptive battery will inhibit your app’s activities when the user will upgrade to Android Pie.
With Slices, you can enable UI templates that will display outside your app’s full screen experience. User can interact with these rich, dynamic elements belonging to your app from outside it like Google Search app.
Developers can take advantage of the TextClassifiermodels which revolves around TextClassifier API. The model via Linkify API lets developers enable augmented options for quick follow-on user actions.
The machine learning model can identify object like Dates and Flight Numbers.
Android Pie officially supports notched displays now. The display cutout APIs contemplates the place, size and shape of the ‘notch’ and request full-screen layout around it. A developer Option simulates several cutout shapes to shape apps around them.
The new MessagingStyle API displays conversations, adds photographs and stickers, and suggests smart replies. Developers can use ML Kit to enable smart replies on their app.
Android app developers can enable magnifier for all the view options. The Magnifier widget can zoom any view or surface, not mere text.
Developers no more have to build their own dialog for an app. Android Pie introduces BiometricPrompt API that has a stock system dialog. The API at this moment supports Fingerprint, Face and Iris authentication.
Android 9 introduces Android Protected Confirmation to ensure that a prompt is indeed confirmed by the user and happened in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). The app can only verify prompt when TEE does.
This will keep the apps safe from false prompts that mimic system prompts.
StrongBox is the new KeyStore type that provides API support for devices that have secure, dedicated hardware to store keys. Keys should be protected by a StrongBox security chip in your KeyGenParameterSpec.
To raise user’s security, all the traffic to and fro from your app and application server will happen over a secure connection. Android Pie will block by default all exchanges between cleartext traffic.
Android Pie will restrict idle apps to gain access to mic, camera and other sensors. Moreover, developers will now need READ_PHONE_STATE permission too to access build.serial. Android app developers can use Build.getSerial() method.
Android Pie natively supports more one streams of open camera in an app for the devices that support multi-camera API and have two or more camera setup. You enable features like loss less zoom, bokeh, and stereo vision.
Android Pie support HDR VP9 Profile 2 on HDR capable devices. In addition, it adds HEIF image encoding. HEIF format compresses image without loss in quality. Developers can use ImageDecode for jpeg-to-heic conversion.
With the API, developers can filter out certain sound frequencies when a user plays audio from their app. If a person is speaking in loud environment, the API can filter out the noise.
The API makes it easier to decode images to bitmaps or drawables. Apps can create bitmaps from URI, byte buffer and file.
Android developers with Android Pie can build indoor positioning support in their apps with native support for Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT). If the hardware is present on the device, they can use RTT APIs to find relative distance from an absolute Wi-Fi Access Point.
Google brings GlobalPlatform Open Mobile API to Android Pie. Android app developers can now enable apps to use the OMAPI API to access secure elements (SE) to enable smart-card payments and other secure services.
Android Pie brings several compiler optimizations to Kotlin, especially those that target loops, to extract better performance.
As part of Android 9 we are modernizing the foundations of Android and the apps that run on it, as part of our deep, sustained investments in security, performance, and stability.
One of the biggest mistakes made in app development world is putting the technical details first and neglecting the target customer base. Coming up with a unique idea is just not enough to climb the ladder of success; you will have to create an app that delivers value for the target group of people. It is crucial to define target market so that you can know whether they will use the app and can even identify if there’s a demand for the type of mobile app developing.
By figuring out the target audience for your app, you can:-
But, how would you identify the right target audience for your mobile app? Let’s dive-in deep to know more…
Knowing target audience is the first step of mobile app development process. For instance, if you are planning to develop a food delivery mobile app in New York, one can assume that your target audience will be the one who is living in New York. In –case, if you are unable to decide on who is your end-customer, you need to work on your app concept to come up with the refined target audience.
Secondary research includes in-depth analysis of the industry, competitors and actual customers. For instance, food delivery app, it would be boon for the people who are busy working late-nights or get back home late. You can even focus on how often people order from your app, what are the common items they generally buy, which factor is driving them to buy – new products, discounts, reviews etc. and you must keep an eye intact on competitor’s audience.
You need to know the nitty-gritty of your ideal customers! The more granular you can get with the information, the better you can know the buyer’s persona. Look at the traits such as:
The above-mentioned information is essential in basic profiling of your customer…
You can conduct surveys by directly interacting with the target audience and asking about their preferences. However, there are different ways of conducting the survey.
By using effective marketing strategies, you can gather deep insights about your app’s target audience.
Apart from figuring out the behavior of the customer, closely monitoring competitor’s app will help you to know what they are doing right and their weaknesses. Check out features and designs that are missing in your app and peep through the review to know what people are saying. Make a note of positive and negative reviews; check out what users say about the app speed and performance. With all this insights, you can develop an app which is more in line with the preferences of your target audience.
Now, you may have clear idea for whom you’re developing your app for, what are the opportunities and how your app can fill the gap and gain popularity on app stores. Doing thorough research and developing effective strategies can help to know your potential customers and can aid in getting ahead of the competition.
Would you like to know more about how to define the right target audience for your app to open up countless opportunities? Connect with our experts to know how TOPS Infosolutions can help to get you an edge over your competitors.