Let’s face the fact: modern technologies develop with the speed of light. That puts high pressure on mobile app development segment along with endless opportunities for growth. Understanding that application modernization topic can be rather confusing, we are here to shed some light upon it. In this article, we will take you through the latest trends, modernization reasons, and upgrade tips.
Why modernize?
If you are looking at the modernization process from the developer’s standpoint, you can see that app updates are a powerful tool for the app to become more relatable to the clients, to show personal approach and to stay relevant with the bug fixes and new features.
Frequent updates, especially if they include those requested by users, help to show your dedication and effort to improve the user experience. In case release notes are shown to the audience, it also helps to show the users the amount of work that stands behind the application and earn users’ loyalty.
Latest trends
One of the most important trends of this year is adaptability. A great step towards adaptability is the cloud technology. According to the research conducted by Cisco, cloud applications will drive 90% of all the mobile data traffic by 2019. Mobile cloud traffic will have the compound annual growth rate of 60%. This clearly indicates that it is going to be one of the most significant topics in 2017 and will take application usage to the next level.
This brings us to other essential points: proactive innovations and focus on user experience. Due to the fast and furious technology development, it is no longer enough to just have a pretty application. It has to be functional, easy to use and, most importantly, it has to be constantly upgraded to suit the system it is used with. That is the only way to keep up with the pace of the competitive mobile development market.
API usage popularization is the trend we keep from 2016. It is a great and very versatile instrument which allows to tie together the best technologies on the market and provide top-notch user experience.
Revolving around UX, there is one more trend that takes the stage in 2017 and that is security. According to the estimation shared by Gartner, around 75% of mobile applications have difficulties passing basic security tests. Due to ever growing mobile apps popularity and their usage for financial operations or sensitive information transfer, it is vital to make security level match functionality.
Types of updates
As you can see, modernization is a rather general term and we need to break it down to understand what kind of update will be the best solution for us. There are two major categories which define them: size and type.
In terms of size, updates can be minor and major. As an example, a bug fix can be considered a minor modification, and a feature release is considered to be a major update.
Mobile application developers tend to reflect the update in the version number, desktop applications usually have a simplified update number, and it is changed only with major updates.
There are three types of updates:
- monthly updates: although the majority of app developers are focused on the qualitative updates rather than updating for the sake of updating, with the ever-changing nature of mobile applications and user’s feedback, there are updates to take care of every month. Keeping that in mind, some developers prefer to have a defined update schedule. App updates released with over a month frequency are not welcomed as their relatability is questionable;
- bug fixes: bug fixing updates is another way to modernize your application. Sometimes it is reasonable to gather all the feedback and concentrate solely on fixing the imperfections of the performance of the existing features. According to statistics, usually, such releases occur weekly or twice a month;
- feature releases: such updates are usually irregular and the answer to the question “when it is better to release” highly depends on the number of features for release and their complexity. Minding the demand of the market as well as the app store approval time, most of the app developers try to fit a feature building cycle into a two weeks term. If the feature will be developed for months, it may become outdated before it is even released. If it is something crucial, it could be developed on the background while some new update releases are performed.
Read also: How to Reduce App Development Costs
Time to modernize your application
Finding out about the latest trends and reading users’ feedback, many application owners might question: “Is it necessary to update apps?”. Typical reasons why one should consider updating apps can be summed up into several categories:
- performance degradation: in case the app is malfunctioning;
- old-fashioned design: design trends are constantly changing, so with time your app can start looking outdated and old. Make sure you keep up and make visual design updates from time to time;
- transformation of business: the service the app was made for was either developed further and needs additional features or it was re-organized;
- changes inside the industry: for example, new methods of handling the data within the app were introduced by one company and its competitors wish to integrate them as well;
- appearance of new user devices, operating systems, browsers and their versions while the popularity of the old ones is going down;
- increased income via flexible and dynamic improvement of existing systems;
- smooth transition: converting the app to a newer, more efficient code makes it easier to update your app in future without having to rewrite or replace it entirely.
Top 5 Modernization Tips
1. In order to estimate the necessity of the upgrade for your application, in particular, it can be useful to look through all the above reasons. It may help to trace certain issues you were reluctant about and help you start the improvement.
2. Also it will be very useful to ask the users of the app for the feedback. After all, they are the final target and the most honest judges.
3. Checking app usage statistics can also help to obtain more information. It allows understanding which features were not accepted by users successfully and probably need modernization.
4. Independent analysis by the third-party company can also bring useful insights on the weak point of the product.
5. And finally, keep an eye on your competitors on the market. Finding out how other people solve the tasks you are solving with your app, applying their successful practices in your business may help you stay successful and prosperous.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your current or next project.