Top 5 Must Have Features For Your Next Mobile App

    200 billion apps are expected to be downloaded in 2017.  According to eMarketer, mobile users are estimated to spend 3 hours 15 minutes per day using apps. Developing a dedicated app is one of the best ways for brands to better engage and build relationships with customers. While there are as many as 60,000 new apps created every month, not every app gets a chance to stay in a user’s phone more than a couple days. Having a long life cycle could be challenging for a mobile app. Here are the 5 top features everyone is looking for in a user friendly app:

Personalization

    Personalization is the foundation of good user experience. We only have a certain amount of time to consume media, and we want to make every second count. Users now expect a high level of control over their apps, as everyone has different preferences on what they like to see and what they think is useful. Allowing users to customize - from the fonts and colors on an app interface to the layout of  content, would definitely give users a better degree of control and build stronger connection between users and apps.

Real-time offers

    Many studies have shown that creating urgency and scarcity would drive more sales. If your app involves ecommerce, in app real-time offers should be considered as soon as possible. Before implementing offers, the first step is to provide enough information to drive a purchase decision in-app. Though it seems to be a basic element, many businesses fail to provide such accessible product information to users, which loses a lot of conversion during the last stage of the consumer journey. But, users are tired of ordinary product listings. Next, choosing a perfect time to get the message delivered to the user’s dashboard is key. With all the data gathered about the user’s activities, a personalized campaign can be created based on users’ preferences and real-time location data, so this offer can be more relatable.

Offline Capability

    Making an app user-friendly is every app developer’s ultimate goal. However, as the Internet brings in helpful information and fun content, app developers can focus too heavily on creating a seamless online experience and some times forget about a time when we didn’t have access to Internet. And, a loss of Internet still happens. It’s frustrating to users when an app is completely unusable when the cell reception is weak. When creating your next mobile app, building in functional features and accessible content without Internet could make for a better user experience.  

Social Media Integration

    Nowadays, users expect their mobile experience to have less friction, which means app developers have to make sharing easier. Instead of making users create another login account, integrating social media profiles not only eliminates extra user clicks, but also allows your app to gather more user data and reach more potential users.

Feedback

    Feedback is one of the most important features app developers should consider, yet it’s not usually well executed. Users are the ones who actively engage with  your app, and they know what works for them and what fails. So, having an outlet for users to express their thoughts not only shows them you care about their experience, but also allows your app to improve. However, no one wants to be bothered with a “Rate Us” push notification every 10 minutes. There’s a good balance of getting user feedback without too much outreach, and it requires more data collecting than just a “Rate Us” pop-up.

    Besides these five essential features above, there are certainly more functions that could be built into the app for better user experience. While your app is created for users, the best way to improve is to get feedback from users. Apple just launched a new feature in the App Store where app developers can reply to users’ reviews. With such helpful connections with users, your next app update is certainly expected to be more efficient.