On a regular basis, a lot of money is spent on mobile development for a variety of different industries that use apps and are all competing to be known as one of the best mobile app companies. It’s safe to say businesses understand the importance of providing this communication channel to connect with their customers. However, what may not be so easy is understanding how to develop the app without running into a variety of software development challenges that may arise, especially in android app development. These challenges include staying updated with Android development trends, creating intuitive UX designs, dealing with device fragmentation, and integrating third-party APIs.
Keep reading as we discuss the main mobile app challenges that occur during the mobile app development stage.
What obstacles must be overcome when creating mobile applications?
There is a large range of different mobile application challenges that an app developer will face throughout the development lifecycle. This ranges from choosing the best approach to developing the app, to creating an app that is good enough to stand out in the competitive market.
So what are the main challenges of mobile app development? Let’s take a look at the top mobile issues.
Choosing the Best Development Approach
The best app development technology approach should be chosen before beginning any app development projects. The real challenges in mobile app development are making sure you decide on the right decisions in the early stages so that you create the best possible app for your customers. So let’s take a look at some of the development approaches you can take to overcome your mobile app challenges.
Native app development
The first approach is known as native app development. This type is where you develop an app using right tools specific to a certain mobile operating system (OS). Integrating third-party APIs, ensuring compatibility across Android versions and devices, and maintaining user engagement while implementing futuristic features within tight deadlines are all challenges and complexities of the Android app development process. The native approach comes with a range of advantages.
One of these is the fact that native apps often perform much better than other types of app development and are often extremely reliable and safe, helping meet any mobile development trend.
However, if you use the native approach and decide to place your app in an Android app store, you will need to start from scratch if you want it to appear in another store.
Cross-platform app development
The second approach is called cross-platform development. Just like the name suggests, this development type is perfect for those who are looking to put their apps on a range of different app marketplaces. Developing Android apps comes with its own set of challenges, including security issues, app visibility, device fragmentation, and integration of third-party APIs.
Cross-platform development has a lot of problems, even though it sounds good on paper. Firstly, there is a huge dependency on the type of framework that is used to develop the app. As you will have to do all the work on these development platforms that have a distinct lack of features, you need to ensure it will have everything you will ever need for the app you are developing.
There are simply many more features that can be worked on and at much faster speed in native development than in cross-platform. Because of this, teams working on the app development will often need to work on cross-platform, as well as iOS and Android native development, making the whole process much more costly and time consuming.
Hybrid app development
You can also go for hybrid mobile development. This way, apps are developed using standard forms of coding, like Javascript and CSS that have higher performance than cross-platform apps.
Hybrid applications consist where elements from native apps and web applications are combined. A native app shell has been used to house these web apps. This means that mobile app developers require only one source of code for the app and it will still be usable on multiple platforms. However, the unfortunate drawback is that a lot of native UX is sacrificed as a result, along with all the great features in native development that hybrid apps just can’t replicate.
Choosing the right development approach is one of the crucial decisions in creating mobile products. Be mindful in researching these different types and decide which one is better for you, based on your needs and goals.
Ensuring great User Experience
When developing an app, designing a user interface that provides a great user experience without faults is one of the most important processes and one of the crucial application development challenges faced by UX designers and programmers. This can often be difficult, as it needs to meet the best usability practices or it simply won’t be used as much as competing apps having better user experience.
Great user experience is one of the biggest mobile app design challenges when making an app. In order for users to continue using a mobile product, it must be easy to use and not take too long to load, two of the most important factors in their minds. compatibility with the device and screen size One of the key factors in mobile UX design is ensuring the app works well on a range of different mobile devices. If it is not compatible with certain popular devices and the screen size is not catered to this could make the user experience much worse.
This is often one of the toughest challenges faced while testing mobile applications as there are many different devices and screen sizes, so ensuring the app is compatible with all of them can be difficult.
Although it is important to develop apps with accessibility as a main focus, there are no special requirements that need to be met. WCAG, which is the most reliable Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, suggest that both mobile and desktop apps should all follow all their requirements in the same way.
Developers will need to constantly monitor the WCAG guidelines to ensure that they are meeting their requirements at every stage of the process.
Different mobile operating systems
There are many iOS, Android, and Windows app development challenges that developers face when trying to provide the top-notch user experience. Specifically, the Android OSpresents unique challenges such as fragmentation, security vulnerabilities, and the need for compatibility with various device configurations and versions. Developers have to ensure that the app is working well on every operating system to ensure a high-quality user experience.
Management of finances and funding The next thing you need to consider is how much it will cost and how you will be able to pay for it once you have decided to develop a mobile application. Having a great idea for an app means nothing when you don’t have the funds to make it a reality.
The costs will vary depending on how complicated the app is. For example, apps often range from $3,000 to $150,000. You need to consider all of this before developing the app.
This is frequently one of the most significant issues in software development because it can be challenging to determine the costs and obtain funding. You can get funding through a range of different ways. Angel investors, loans, and joint ventures are some of these options.
Standing out in the mobile apps market
Mobile apps are extremely popular, and as such, the mobile market is extremely competitive. One of the main challenges is app visibility in a crowded market. So how do you develop an app that stands out from the crowd?
One of the biggest mobile app development challenges is promoting the app. There are several ways to do this.
Making it easily searchable is one of them. If people can easily find it on an app marketplace, they are much more likely to download it. If you’ve created a high-performing app that has a great user experience but no one can find it, you won’t reach your business goals.
Make sure to look for a mobile app feature list example to find the best ways to promote the app.
What are the difficulties in managing mobile technology?
When it comes to managing the app development process, there are many challenges such as integrating third-party APIs, meeting tight deadlines, and ensuring a user-friendly design. Otherwise, apps can create major problems, causing them to become inefficient and unprofitable. The key is to comprehend the mobile app development life cycle for Apple, Android, and other app stores.
Mobile product management
Throughout the app’s lifecycle, a digital product manager typically oversees all development phases. In short, they prepare the app, making it ready for a smooth launch by gathering all the necessary user data, getting relevant feedback and researching and creating a relevant go-to-market strategy.
They also construct a product vision and product direction, where they create long term goals that they want the product to achieve, and go about finding a strategy to achieve this.
As well as this they ensure to continuously enhance its features by testing for bugs, conducting A/B testing and many other types of tests to ensure smooth launching, with the aim of providing the user with the best experience possible.
Project managers collect and analyze a lot of analytical data during this time to determine the app’s best features and best-suited audience. From using user feedback to A/B testing, data collection and analysis helps with increasing the company’s return on investment.
