Ready to Overhaul Your App? Here's What You Need to Know
You’ve made the investment, devoted months of planning and development, and you’ve finally launched your mobile app. The work is done, right? Don’t kick up your heels just yet. Whether it’s adding new features, working out kinks, or keeping up with trends and expectations, your mobile app will need frequent updates. In fact, according to Appbot, the median number of days between updates for top apps on the App Store is 18 for free apps and 55 for paid ones.
All digital products have a shelf life, so there will come a time when you need to completely revamp your mobile app. In this article, we’ll tell you all you need to know about updating your app.
Signs That It's Time
If you’re thinking you need to start overhauling your app, here are some signs it's definitely time.
No Voice Control
Google says that 27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile, and that number will keep going up in the next few years. If it doesn’t have a voice control feature, you might want to start planning on refreshing your app. You don’t need to completely rebuild your app from the ground up. You can use Siri and Google Assistant APIs to run your voice input controls.
Lack of Accessibility
Today’s user expects accessibility in an app, and there are many frameworks available to reduce your research and development time. It is vital to have an app that can be used and enjoyed by your entire audience. An accessible app should support standard text scaling so users can change font sizes. The layout should be simple and easy to follow, and the navigation should be consistent. Also, be mindful that font color matters for accessibility. Test out your accessibility before launching your app to ensure it is usable for all.
Embedded Web Store
It might be easier to embed an eCommerce web store into your app to speed up development time, but the modern customer is expecting a completely integrated mobile-first experience. Web stores embedded into apps generally offer a poor user experience and interface. It might be time to update to a sleek, customer-focused eCommerce interface to drive better sales.
No Dark Mode Support
The dark mode is becoming more widely available on Android and iOS devices and apps. Users love this feature because it reduces eye strain, cuts down on blue light exposure, and can increase battery life. If a user has opted to have a dark mode on by default, they’ll be very disappointed when they open your app to a bright white interface. Both Apple and Android offer guides for supporting dark mode in your app, so take advantage of this as you do your next update.
You Don’t Support Apple Pay
If your app has goods or services for sale within, your users will want to pay with their preferred methods. While many users will still want to pay with credit cards or PayPal, a growing majority will want to use Apple Pay and Google Pay. Digital wallets can improve efficiency in your app, but they also shorten the checkout times and improve the user experience.
You Don’t Use Single Sign-On
When it comes to reducing friction and boosting engagements, you can gain a lot of traction by offering a single sign-on option. Users find it frustrating to constantly be manually entering usernames and passwords, assuming they remember them. This frustration can lengthen your onboarding process and even reduce your sign-up numbers altogether. Apps that use SSO through Facebook or Apple have a much more seamless and engaging user experience.
How Often Should You Update Your App?
Most app development companies will have a different answer if you ask how often you should update your app. Some developers would recommend maintaining a regular schedule of updates while others would say it is only necessary to update an app when there is a new feature to introduce or a new market to target.
Unfortunately, there is no cut-and-dry answer here. In addition to improving an outdated look and feel, there are a few other reasons you should consider refreshing your app:
Bug Fixes
Errors can happen, even when we try our best to prevent them. Apps are not excluded from this. Bugs can pop up even after the most rigorous testing. One of the most common reasons for app updates is to fix these bugs. Once a bug is uncovered, it is important to act quickly and get an update in motion.
Change In Strategy
Your app is a tool to help drive your business strategy. If your strategy gets an update, your app should too. Whether it is a new product focus, updated branding or a change to service priorities, the change in strategy should also be evident in your app.
User Feedback
Since your app is for your users, their feedback is extremely valuable. If the reviews and ratings of your app start to reflect a poor user experience, use that feedback to drive your app update. While not every single review will contain helpful information, ignoring feedback can send the message that you don’t care what your users have to say.
The Cons of Updating
If updating your app will bring a better user experience and an increase in conversions and revenue, it is worth it. But it is important to be aware that there can sometimes be a pitfall to refreshing your app. Occasionally, the app update process can create a ripple effect of issues like bugs in the application or resetting your existing review and rating. These issues shouldn’t be a reason for putting off overhauling your app, but you should be aware of the potential problems and make a plan for how to address them before the update is launched.
Conclusion
Overhauling your app is a key part of keeping your customers engaged for boosted sales and better ROI. If you need an Android or iOS app development company to refresh your app, AppStem wants to work with you. Contact us today to see how we can help.
