How should you protect your mobile app from becoming another common app failure?
It is a fact that mobile app usage, in terms of downloads, sales and viewership is on an all time high. In fact, with more than 37 billion downloads in the 2nd quarter of 2020, the industry has been witnessing a year on year growth of more than 9%.
But do not let this fact soar your expectations from your mobile apps to unrealistic scales. To sober you down, it is also a fact that due to problems with mobile apps, approximately one-thirds of mobile apps get uninstalled within one month of their installation. The mobile app failure rate is thus, also on an all time high.
App development does not occur in a day or at whim. It takes a lot of patience, effort, focus from the developers as well as a lot of time and money from the app owners. You obviously don’t want all of this to go in vain due to minor negligence or app developer mistakes. We have thus, consolidated reasons that lead to these mistakes and remedial measures to either avoid or correct them.
Remember, that downloading an app is mostly an impulsive decision for the viewer and happens within a matter of seconds. But, if they find no use for it, they tend to uninstall it after a certain time period. When this happens repetitively, it gives rise to the ‘fail app’ scenario.
To avoid application failure completely, you should be minutely looking into:
Before you begin any business, you need to first identify your customers, identify your target markets, understand their personalities, expectations and requirements and try connecting with them on a more personal basis (emails, social media,etc.) as soon as possible. Not able to do this well, is a perfect recipe for a fail app.
If your user feels that your mobile app is unable to fulfill their requirements or is able to satisfactorily do the task it was meant to, they would sooner, than later end up uninstalling your app.
If there are problems with mobile app and it becomes:
So, you need to move fast. Your users might end up uninstalling your app for the same.
Remember that, when you develop your mobile app business, you do not have all the time in the world to make an impression. For instance: If you are aware that Generation Z is your target audience, you should not be including long forms to fill within your app. They won’t have the patience or inclination to fill them and are more likely to completely uninstall your app on encountering them.
To avoid biggest app failures, early on, you should have the complete information of your user and industry market with a complete vision of user options. Try and ensure you develop a mobile app that fulfils a market gap in terms of productivity, as well as click with your user base in terms of usability.
We understand that building an app is a complex procedure that involves various tasks like creating backends, frontends, user communications, content, data, etc. that needs to be well organized by an experienced app developer. Though you might have done all this correct, there might be issues or UI/UX mistakes within the final mobile app product that might end up categorizing your app within badly designed apps. Your app may :
As per google reports, ‘the probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds’. A number which is far too high to not consider. So remember, that a second extra can actually make you lose viewers and become a reason for app failures.
To keep this under control:
For this, you would need to hire an app developer with the appropriate skill set to track and manage all these aspects of app development.
If, within your mobile app:
Your viewership and sales numbers are bound to suffer, leading to high chances of app failure.
Why? With millions of apps to choose from, why will users choose to download and keep mobile apps with bad UX that drains battery and performance of their phone? Thus, your mobile app developer should be able to optimize their requirement and utilization by the mobile app, in order to save it from app abandonment and uninstalls.
To avoid the ‘fail app’ scenario, you should ask your developers to use app development best practices and track memory usage of the app at every development stage, in order to keep things under control.
Apps with bad UX jots out separately, even if it is presumably a simple app. The reasons could be many:
The above stated reasons have been the cause of several bad mobile app examples. Avoid them all to create a mobile app that is pleasing for the user.
Design an app with :
These design trends can actually help you avoid application failures.
Though there are more than 5 billion smartphone users across the world; remember they stand divided amongst the Android and iOS platforms for usage. So, do their uninstall rates.
The two technology platforms and frameworks include different app interfaces, guidelines, work procedures, etc. For instance, androids generally have a back button option, whereas the Apple phones do not. Ignoring one for the sake of the other could thus prove as a reason for app failures.
When hiring app freelance or remote app developers or hiring an app development company altogether, lookout and analyze whether they have expertise and experience in developing mobile apps on the platform(s) of your choice with the requisite mobile app frameworks.
There are more than 5 million apps out there on Google and Apple’s play stores. Having one more makes no difference, until and unless it has something new to offer to its customers. Thus, if you intend to build a successful mobile app, lookout for some original app ideas. Also, research about the idea across markets to ensure that is your app idea worth it? A bad app idea has been a prominent reason for apps that failed.
To avoid application failure at a later stage, research your markets and develop a prototype before developing the final app. It would help you understand market inclinations better and evolve your mobile app as per these requirements. An original app idea has its weight in gold, but simply mimicking an already developed and successful app is only a waste of funds, effort and time. For instance, with Ola and Uber already big names on the cab radar, developing a similar taxi aggregator platform could easily become an example of apps that failed because developing it is in itself a very complex task, both in terms of development as well as user acquisitions.
One of the major reasons for mobile apps that failed has been the issue of not testing enough for glitches before launch. This leaves a bad first impression on the user, leading them to abandoning the apps.
Thinking about ‘why do my downloads keep failing’ at a later stage could prove quite costly for a mobile app business, leading to investment , sales and brand value loss. Even if a User interface, User experience or any other above stated app developer mistake is present in a mobile app, it should be analyzed and removed beforehand in the testing phase, before launching the apps to the users. To avoid such app failures, you could:
There is an average 57% churn rate of apps within the first 1 month for mobile apps, growing to upto 71% in the first 90 days. Providing users with a mobile app that is not tested enough, can lead to unsatisfied user uninstalls and can become a prime reason for mobile app failure. So look to hire app developers that have testers and testing toolkits within their teams.
You have a good app on your hands, you have launched it already; but how will an app user know about it until and unless it is marketed well.
You need to clearly set in place a clear marketing strategy that will help your app to reach its desired audiences. In this aspect, you should be pretty clear about the channels you wish to include in your app marketing strategies and investments that you are to put in. Hiring a well-established app marketing company for this also could be a good idea. You could look for them in mobile app directories like Appdexa, that provide complete app marketing and development companies descriptions, reviews and other details.
Having a sought out ASO or app store optimization strategy ensures that your app ranks high in app stores leading to more downloads. It totally helps to avoid a fail app scenario.
Mobile apps are increasing by the day, and so are the hackers out there who intend to use mobile app downloads to track user data and make use of its vulnerabilities.
To avoid it, you should ensure that you hire app developers that utilize the best practices for app security, leading to a safe online experience for the user as well as your data. Remember, that even the iOS is no more completely safe to use.
In the coming time ‘app security’ is going to be a big issue, and foregoing it to launch a product or service fast, could become a big reason for mobile apps that failed.
We know, you have been thinking that ‘why do mobile apps fail’. The above stated points will give you an answer but, do not let them deter you from your mindset of developing an app. These are only the points that you need to take care of to avoid app failures.
If you already have an app, and are facing uninstalls due to any of the above stated reason; do not be disheartened. Every issue stated above has a remedy, which can help you achieve re-installs from your intended users. You could be looking into the app maintenance and updation options for the same. Just do the needful and get things going!
What should you be looking for when hiring an app development partner?