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Android vs. iOS: platform choice When deciding on a platform on which to develop your next mobile app, there are some things to keep in mind. Android has a huge market and in the second quarter of 2018, almost 88% of users worldwide had phones that run on the Android OS. IOS had a much lesser reach with slightly more than 12% consumers. The previous figures also translate into the number of app downloads. The number of Google Play apps installed per user account for the first time is about 2.8 times higher than that downloaded from Apple Store. Despite the lower number of iOS apps available, Apple generates 80% or 1.8 times more profits from its App Store. The trend is motivated by the number of factors. Among them are the availability of Apple Store in China as well as the presence of other Android app stores (like Amazon Appstore and Samsung Store).  Moreover, Apple devices are generally associated with prestige and high-end security and are owned by more affluent users. Android vs. iOS design: where to start? Design for both platforms may not seem much different at first sight. But there are specific platform features that will significantly impact the usability and perception of an app. Both Android and iOS have developed their own sets of rules, that tell how their applications should look like. Android devices are primarily based on Google’s Material Design, while Apple adheres to Human Interface Guidelines. Both operating systems support UI kits to make it easier for designers to understand how the apps should be structured and look like. For example, one can download and try out: iOS 11 iPhone GUI for Sketch by Great Simple Studio or similar GUI both for Photoshop and Sketch designed by Facebook. Android Lollipop UI Design Kit by UXPin or Android Nougat GUI by Great Simple Studio for Photoshop and Sketch. But before going deeper into platforms’ design features, let’s backtrack to this - skeuomorphism. The term “skeuomorph” is compounded from Greek skéuos (meaning 'container or tool'), and morphḗ (meaning 'shape'). According to Techopedia, “skeuomorphism refers to a design principle in which design cues are taken from the physical world.”  In other words, this is the approach of imitating the shape of real-life objects with 3D effects. The users should be able to easily deduce what the function of the element is. The aim is to invoke a feeling of familiarity in users, allowing them to apply their background knowledge. The technique was widely used in the 2000s and first years of the 2010s when most users were transiting to the digital world. It helped users get acclimated to new technologies as painlessly as possible. Source: mashable.com. IOS Newsstand looks like a wooden shelf Source: mashable.com. IOS Podcast app imitates an old fashioned recorder with spools Skeuomorphism was hugely supported by Apple and Steve Jobs was a fan of it. However, the current company's chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, does not share this standpoint. So Apple officially ditched skeuomorphism at the Worldwide Developers Conference and presented its all-new flat-based iOS 7 interface. Source: youtube.com. IOS 6 on the left, ioS 7 on the right Source: cs2024.wordpress.com. Calculator app on iOS 6 on the left, iOS 7 on the right Human Interface Guidelines is now based on three primary themes: clarity, deference, and depth. This approach celebrates minimalism, use of crisp elements, and focuses on typography and flat colors. ‘Negative space, color, fonts, graphics, and interface elements subtly highlight important content and convey interactivity.’ HIG To make the experience with the content smooth and pleasing, a designer is allowed to apply the effects of translucency and blurring. Bezels, gradients, and drop shadows can also be used, but only minimally and just to “keep the interface light and airy, while ensuring that content is paramount.” The planes do not intersect and should allow for a clear distinction between background and foreground layers. ‘Distinct visual layers and realistic motion convey hierarchy, impart vitality, and facilitate understanding.’ HIG This design perspective allows focusing on the meaningful elements while leaving things fully responsive and visually appealing. Google introduced its Material Design out of the need to unify the UI across different Android devices. The design is inspired by the real world and its textures and reimagines the mediums of paper and ink. ‘But unlike real paper, our digital material can expand and reform intelligently. Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch.’ Matías Duarte, Google's Vice President of Design In other words, Material design can be treated as an enhanced version of flat design with a touch of skeuomorphism. ‘Material design may be aesthetically flat, specifically the colors, but it is multi-dimensional: it takes the Z-axis into consideration.’ MK Cook, UX/UI Designer ‘Material design adds animation, layers, and a hint of skeuomorphism to flat design making things easily distinguishable like buttons.’ Melissa Galle, graphic design manager Android’s design aims at creating interfaces that are optimized for the digital and embrace the real world just enough to make the interface intuitive. To make things more illustrative, we will shed light on the main differences that every UX and UI designer should know before designing an app for iOS and Android. Android vs. iOS design: app icons An app icon is usually the first visual expression of your brand that a user gets acquainted with. Icons reflect the key idea and purpose of your product concisely. Every icon should be distinct and memorable, but each platform’s guidelines also have something to say about its concept and execution. All iOS icons are created square-shaped and are later automatically rounded off the corners. Apple vouches for flattened images with no transparency and a simple background. The company also recommends avoiding unnecessary elements like nonessential words, photos, and interface elements. An icon should be friendly and clear. Source: developer.apple.com Similarly, in its Material guidelines for product icons, Android, among other things, approves the use of paper shadows and provides recommendations about the range of colors to use. However, unlike iOS, Android icons can be transparent in the background and therefore get any shape that fits the icon area. Source: material.io Android vs iOS design: vocabulary differences Android and iOS share a set of basic elements, but apply different names to identify them. In order to avoid confusion, it is worth to know how each bar is called on Android and iOS. The thing is, these elements should comply with the platform style and size restrictions to provide the native user experience. Android vs iOS design: navigation Both Android and iOS have taken some different views on how the navigation of their interfaces should feel and look like. One of the core components of both Android and iOS is the status bar, where such information as time, network connection, battery charge and other system data is placed. It has a different layout on both platforms with iOS info distributed along the bar length and Android’s shifted to the right corner. The app bar/ navigation bar goes next and serves to display a name or current page of an app. On iOS, the bar is centered, while on Android it is left-sided. Source: medium.com One of the most common action users take is backward and forward moving within apps. Android provides its users with a navigation bar at the bottom. This is a set of three buttons (either physical or digital, depending on the device) that function as back, home and overview routes. IOS sticks to a little different approach. Neither its devices nor its interface has a universal back button. It means that designers must ensure decent navigation within the app and add a back indicator on the top left corner of every iOS app page.  Source: medium.com. LinkedIn Android app LinkedIn iOS app. Source: medium.com Navigation on both platforms may also differ in terms of tabs use and placement. Android originally prefers a drawer bar on the left side of the page with a hamburger menu or a top tab bar. Source: developer.android.com IOS, in its turn, firmly supports a bottom tab bar that allows for relatively easy access to the menu. Source: www.nextgeekers.com However, since 2016, bottom navigation has also become part of Android Material design and is implemented in such apps as Instagram and Foursquare. Source: play.google.com. Instagram Android app Source: itunes.apple.com. Instagram iOS app And the drawer menu is still sometimes present in iOS apps. Source: itunes.apple.com One of the most eye-catching distinctions between the two operating systems is the presence of a floating action button (FAB) on Android interfaces. It is commonly used to perform the primary action on a screen like composing an e-mail or adding a new post in a social network app. FAB usually appears in the right bottom corner to ease single-hand operation and is positioned in front of the screen content. However, sometimes it can be spotted in other places like at the junction of two areas that makes it more noticeable. As a rule, it has a circular form with an icon in the middle. Source: material.io One can also use extended buttons that are wider and contain a text label. Source: material.io The counterpart of the FAB button for iOS is a call to action button. One can typically find it in the center of tab bars or in the upper right corner, like in twitter app. Source: optocrypto.com. Twitter app for Android Source: 9to5mac.com. Twitter app for iOS However, rules are meant to be broken, and iOS apps also sometimes use those FAB. Take the LinkedIn iOS app, for example. Android vs. iOS design: typography Each system has its own default fonts that are recommended for designers to use. They help to create a sense of consistency and native look and feel across the platform. Android suggests Roboto as its default system font. IOS prefers San Francisco font, which has two variants depending on the point size. SF Pro Text is used for text 19 points or smaller, while for text 20 points or larger one should switch to SF Pro Display, and adjust the spacing between letters appropriately. Source: https://material.io Android vs. iOS: Screen resolutions When designing an app, one needs to have a solid idea of how interface elements will appear on the screens with different resolutions. One of the great tools for examining how the things might respond is Sketch’s Resizing Constraints. Android OS supports devices from different manufacturers, which leads to a number of screen sizes and densities to accommodate. Android uses a density-independent pixel (DP) as a core measurement unit. This is equivalent to iOS’ points. On a standard-resolution screen, one point counts as one pixel. High-resolution screens have a higher pixel density and require images with more pixels. When it’s time to export graphical elements, Android will, as a rule, require 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x and 4x scaling factor. Source: design.google Apple iOS devices are much more uniform in terms of image resolution. Source: developer.apple.com Android vs. iOS design: patterns gallery So we’ve touched upon main peculiarities of both platforms. To get some inspiration designers can also use some nice online galleries with modern apps templates. Some of them are: Dribble for Android and iOS - a resource where designers share their design samples, including the most trendy ones. Pttrns for iOS and Android — a collection of design patterns, resources, and inspiration. Inspired UI for iOS and Android - a showcase of the best examples of beautifully designed mobile apps. Mobile patterns for iOS and Android - a library of screenshots for designers and developers to reference. iOSpirations - a showcase gallery featuring the best iOS apps and icon designs for inspiration. Android Niceties — a collection of the most beautiful, well-built Android apps. Final thoughts This is by no means an ultimate list of differences between the two systems. But paying attention to these features will help you understand how the same tasks can be performed across the platforms. However, there are some examples of apps that borrow certain design patterns from their competitor’s OS principles. The final choice should depend on your users’ preferences. Belitsoft provides mobile development and design services for both iOS and Android. Our talented designers know how to create engaging interfaces that follow both systems’ best practices to make your apps stand out. Write to us to learn more!

Contact us if you need a Mobile Payments integration Modern mobile payment systems make this task easier, but before choosing one you should understand how they all work. In our new article, we’ve explained how mobile payments are organized and which things to consider while integrating them with your app. Check it out and start getting an edge with the right mobile payment solution. Introduction of Google Wallet (now is Google Pay) inspired a gradual decline of traditional heavy leather wallets. It's no longer OK for mobile apps to use one tunnel for card-based transactions. To reach a wider audience of progressive users, one should also accept other payment types like digital wallets, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, and cryptocurrencies. However, integration of mobile payments functionality into a mobile app is more than just adding a new app screen and writing a bunch of code. Read our article to find out what things to consider while adding mobile payments to your app. Mobile payment gateway A mobile payment gateway is a front-end technology that authorizes a transfer of funds between a user’s payment portal (mobile phone) and the merchant acquiring bank. One can think of it in the same way as of a traditional Point of Sale (POS) terminal. Source: squareup.com At checkout, the gateway transfers the cardholder information to the issuing bank to verify the request. The data is further handled by a payment processor at which one has a merchant account, although some processors have their own gateways. At this stage, the bank will either approve or reject the payment with the corresponding message appearing on the end user’s mobile screen. The payment gateway is actually an API you integrate to make a request for charging a customer's card. Most reputable payment platforms provide an API that works with the backend language of your mobile app. Using this API, the app can talk to the payment platform. Typically, API integration services can complete the integration within a few working days. The data traffic that goes through a gateway is transferred privately and always enciphered. If the payment information was transmitted right to the processor (without a gateway stage) it could be easily interpreted. This would allow an intruder to make fraudulent transactions. Integration strategy The integration strategy depends on the types of goods being offered to the customers. Typically, there are two options you can have: Virtual goods (in-app purchases). Both Apple and Google take a 30 percent off any transaction that is made within your mobile app for in-app purchases. For this reason, both OSes do not allow using any third-party payment services and provide the developers with their specialized StoreKIt framework and In-App Billing API for iOS and Android respectively. The purchases are made in AppStore or Google Play via Apple or Gmail accounts that users are already supposed to have. Source: developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit Physical goods and services. When it comes to the goods and services outside of the app, both Apple and Google recommend using third-party mobile payment gateway providers. However, a platform will charge a percentage of the transaction as a fee. The most common figure is 2.9 percent. How to choose a payment solution According to the annual Mobile Payments & Fraud report, merchants that provide mobile payment capabilities in their apps offer a wide range of payment methods. However, there is a gradual shift from standard credit and debit cards to PayPal, mobile wallets, ACH or bank transfer payments, prepaid cards and cryptocurrencies. The top two consideration when choosing a payment method are: How well it integrates with your payment platform and bank account. In fact, most of the well-known payment platforms support the popular mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay as well as ACH and traditional swipe cards. For cryptocurrency adopters, there will be probably a need to turn to specialized payment gateways. Yet, such payment giants as Paypal (through Braintree) and Shopify do allow their customers to pay with bitcoin, while Stripe has officially stopped its support. How secure payment data is. “The biggest fear of corporates and consumers is that transactions will not be processed properly, that their bank access details might be compromised and that their data and therefore their money may be stolen. This is why the focus on data and data security is the key to the future," Chris Skinner, Digital Bank: Strategies to launch or become a digital bank. Today, mobile payment providers have a set of security measures to stick to. Most of them never store raw cardholder information without tokenizing or encrypting it. Tokenization is a process of substituting sensitive information like the PAN (primary account number) with an algorithmically generated non-sensitive counterpart called a token to prevent credit card fraud. It means that during the payment processing the actual card data is never exposed. Tokenization is mathematically irreversible unless you get access to the original key used to generate a token. Even if the system is hacked, all the fraudster will see is a bunch of randomized devalued symbols. Source: https://developer.samsung.com Encryption transforms the data into a form unreadable by anyone without a secret decryption key. Its purpose is to ensure privacy by keeping the information hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended, even those who can see the encrypted data. Both practices decrease the number of systems allowed to see the customer’s data, thus reducing the scope of PCI Compliance. However, neither Apple Pay nor Google Pay does adhere to the standard. Therefore, they need to be integrated with the PCI-compliant payment platform, like PayPal’s Braintree or Stripe and the issuing bank must be PCI compliant. Final thoughts Integrating payments to a mobile app may seem not a big thing as reputable payment systems provide well-built APIs. Yet, being aware of the industry nuances can help to avoid unwanted risks related to the security considerations and technology deployment.

Mobile matters As reported by Statista, global mobile app revenues are projected to rise to 189 US billion dollars by 2020. The data of the researchers differ, but on the whole one conclusion can be traced: about half of the world population have got smartphones and access to mobile devices to another half is just a matter of time. With the increasing number of smartphone users, the growth spurt in app revenues is sure to continue. The soaring number of smartphone users has naturally led to a staggering increase in the number of apps that customers use on their devices. 2017 saw more than 178 billion mobile app downloads with an upward trend to 258 billion in 2022. Google Play alone currently boasts around 4.1 million apps, followed by its main competitor Apple App Store with around 2 million apps. As user behavior is rapidly changing, companies must also adapt to the latest trends in order to meet the needs of their customers. So what does mobile future has in store for us? Blockchain is the new black 2017 Blockchain popularity skyrocketed with more attention drawn to it than to any other technology. Here is was Statista says for «size of the blockchain technology market worldwide»: And it seems that back in 2016 people were hardly aware of the thing. Now, according to IBM research, “nine in ten government organizations plan to invest in blockchain for use in financial transaction management, asset management, contract management and regulatory compliance by 2018.” Analysts from Research and Markets, in turn, expect that by 2020 around 65 percent of all companies will use blockchain technologies. As a result, Google Play and Apple App Store see a continuous increase in new blockchain-related applications. Today mobile blockchain apps are mostly wallets and currency calculators.  However, some of them are really worth having a closer look: Civic allows you to securely register and confirm personal data to partner websites for account sign up and access. For this, it leverages technologies that no longer require legacy usernames and passwords. It is designed to avoid fraud with credit history and information theft. ‘If Civic was to ever get hacked, your information would never be released because we just don’t have it.’ Vinny Lingham, co-founder, and CEO of Civic  Verisart employs blockchain security to certify and verify artworks and collectibles. It also allows creative people to protect copyright. With the Slock.it application, you can rent IoT devices: find them, locate and monitor them using smart contracts. And we surely could not forget about mining mobile apps. Recently, some Android apps that help you mine cryptocurrency have appeared. DroidMiner BTC/LTC/DOGE Miner, Electroneum, and  ARM Miner Bitcoin are just a few examples. There have been even a few mining apps that managed to sneak to App Store, although Apple hurried to remove them out. Calendar 2 had a crypto mining feature, but because of Apple’s concerns over the app’s power-efficiency, the developers had to get rid of the mining feature. If you are looking to build your blockchain-based app, go no further. We know a thing or two about secure blockchains, smart contracts, and their real-life applications. So contact us for a free quote! Sick of just one reality? The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas gave an initial outlook that AR and VR could be one of the hottest trends of the 2018 mobile year. Combined, the AR marketplace and gaming MVR marketplace were displayed on the area of 45.000 net square feet of exhibit space. And that’s not really surprising. According to Digi-Capital, the revenues of augmented reality could increase from 85 to 90 billion dollars by 2022. Meanwhile, virtual reality might generate from 10 to 15 billion dollars. The remarkable success of Pokemon GO showed the true potential of generated realities. For this reason, both Google and Apple are actively improving the compatibility and capabilities of mobile devices in this area. In June 2017, Apple introduced the ARKit platform (and ARKit 2 in 2018), simplifying the development of iOS-applications with augmented reality. After a couple of months, Google released a similar solution for Android - ARCore. However, AR is not only a source of fun but a valuable assistant in practical tasks. For example, a popular language-learning app Mondly makes use of AR to bring the virtual language assistant right to where you are. Google Translate has also benefited from adding an AR feature, Word Lens. Now it is possible to turn on the camera mode within the software and make a pic of the lines you would like to translate. The rest will be done by the app. Magic Leap, Microsoft, Meta, ODG, Mira, and DAQRI have already introduced their AR headsets. At the same time Apple, Google, Facebook, and Snap are actively engaged in developing a smartphone-based AR. The market for augmented reality applications will primarily focus on retail, healthcare, engineering, and real estate. The technology’s value lies in the fact that the customer can test the utility of a product or service before making a transaction. It provides a personal experience, which is one of the main drivers of sales. One of the pioneers is Ikea Place, which enables its customers to have a 3D view from different angles of over 2,000 products. As for the virtual reality, it will continue to be widely implemented in the gaming and entertainment fields. The world is looking forward to the new Harry Potter game by the developers of Pokemon GO. 2018 will certainly have us seeing new exciting developments in mobile apps, with the borders between the reality and virtual world blurring further. Staying connected The Internet of Things wave has certainly reached us and placed the IoT apps in a most favorable position. Mobile app experts predict that 2018 will be a breakthrough year for the IoT market. And integration of IoT with automation technology will be the main trend in the development of mobile applications. We cannot appreciate the trend without actually looking at the market perspectives. For comparison: Internet of Things market amounted to $170 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach  561 USD billion by 2022. The number of connected devices is set to rise from 20 billion in 2015 up to 42 billion in 2022, as shown by Statista.   The scope of industries taking advantage of IoT is also somewhat impressive. Source: Forbes.com Yet we still have to control all this. And this is where apps show up. To ease the process of IoT app development both Google and Apple came up with their own toolkits - Brillo and HomeKit respectively. To have a better idea of what IoT apps actually are, let’s have a closer look at some cool examples of them. Nest allows users to monitor all IoT devices at their homes right from their hands with the help of a dedicated app. You can control your thermostat, arm or disarm the alarm system, see what is going in your home with a camera and be aware of whether your protect alarm is triggered. Blossom is a smart-watering system that employs real-time weather data to adapt your watering plan. The system consists of a Bluetooth-powered controller and a mobile app, that makes it easy to install and manage. Pawscout empowers you to track your pet’s whereabouts. The device, namely a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) GPS tag is attached to a pet’s collar and connects to the mobile app. Other features include digital pet profiles and medical records, the online community for pet owners or a map with pet-oriented places. The flourishing wearables market is immensely contributing to the popularity of IoT apps.   The interest is in large driven by the latest wearables solutions like Apple Watch with eSim, Garmin Forerunner 935, Xiaomi Mi Band 3 or Google Glasses 2.0. Swapping wallets A good old leather purse can soon be a vestige of the past. About 2.1 billion consumers worldwide will use a mobile wallet to make a payment or send money in 2019. This is a nearly 30% increase from 1.6 billion recorded at the end of 2017 - a new study from Juniper Research suggests. Mobile wallets were first promoted in 2014 with Apple introducing Apple Pay on its gadgets. The example was quickly followed by Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Microsoft Wallet. As of 2017, these apps made it to the forefront of the mobile payment industry: During CES 2018, Google Wallet and Android Pay rolled into a single platform called Google Play. ‘With Google Pay, it’ll be easier for you to use the payment information saved to your Google Account, so you can speed through checkout with peace of mind.’ Vice President of Product Management for Payments Pali Bhat announced in a Google blog post According to Allied market research, the mobile payments market size is predicted to reach $4,574 billion by 2023. Part of what has stimulated this trend is the inclusion of mobile wallets in the most popular phones, as well as wide acceptance of such software by its users. For companies, this is a great way to collect data and analyze customers, and for customers - a more clear sailing way to pay for purchases. The product you want is just a few taps away. As they say, time is money. Right? Those who have not yet considered mobile wallets as an option for their customers should definitely do so in 2018. Meanwhile, mobile payment and banking apps are also… Going Artificial? With the introduction of AI, customers' expectations concerning individual experience and interactivity have also shot up, making it another craze for the upcoming years. And the market is definitely reaping these rewards: Сhatbots were among the favorite applications of AI in recent years. Now they are making their way to mobile to become a commonplace attribute of 2018. According to Ubised research, over 50 % of the people believe that businesses should be available for them around the clock. So Bank of America is currently rolling out its Erica mobile banking chatbot. ‘Everything we do is based on what we hear from our clients: how they want to interact with us and how we can make their financial lives better. Erica delivers on this in many ways, from making it easy for clients to find what they are looking for to providing new and interactive ways to do their banking using voice, text or gesture. Through Erica, we are also delivering personalized solutions at scale by providing insights, such as how you can improve your credit score or create a budget.’ Michelle Moore, Bank of America Digital Banking Manage The e-learning industry is also gripping the advantages of chatbots. They assist users in a variety of tasks from foreign language study or feedback gathering to improving corporate learning experience. Juniper Research believes that chatbots will result in more than $8 billion in cost savings per year from now to 2022. This is an increase from the $20 million in 2017. AI-powered solutions are generally associated with providing customers with a more personalized experience. For example, Starbucks came up with its “My Starbucks Barista” mobile app. Customers need to just tell what they want and the order is placed for them. Taco Bell went even further and outshined automated ordering. Their new tool Taco Bot recommends personalized menu options by analyzing user purchase behavior. Pure machine learning can be further represented by Netflix, which leverages algorithms adapting to user behavior for perfect personal recommendations. There is also Tinder, that reorders you photos based on their popularity, assisting you in finding your soulmate. Gartner predicts that by the 2018 world’s largest 200 companies will take advantage of AI apps to refine their offers and increase profits. Android Instant Apps Android instant apps were first presented at Google I/O 2016 but became generally available to all Android developers only in 2017. What are they for? Well, look at this: This is a percentage of mobile apps that have been used only once during the first six months of ownership from 2010 to 2017. Android Instant Apps give you the opportunity to launch apps right away, without actually installing them on your smartphone.   The course of action is simple. You just have to choose an app in Play Store and tap “Try it now” button. Once it loads up from an URL, you can use it like any other app. The same is true for any in-app shared links. While it looks like a better experience for end-users, businesses can also benefit from the thing. Just think about the increased number of potential customers who are more likely now to try out your app due to pages sharing option and better discoverability. New phones - new rules The hype over iPhone X  made bezel-less design one of the most relevant trends for the upcoming year. The ending of the physical Home button era, a fundamentally new screen shapes and dimensions offer its users more display space for better content immersion. iPhone X’ "notch" also makes app designers find ways to accommodate it in style. ‘Don't attempt to hide the device's rounded corners, sensor housing, or indicator for accessing the home screen by placing black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.’ Apple guidelines To reinforce the trend Apple issued the following statement: ‘Starting July 2018, all iOS app updates submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 11 SDK and must support the Super Retina display of iPhone X.’ GDPR If you are also fed up with hearing phrases like “data leakage” or “hacker attack” then we have good news for you. 2018 takes mobile app security to a whole new level. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  took effect on May, 25. It changes the way in which apps are authorized to collect, use, and store personal data and how straightforwardly should they ask for collecting the data in the first place. It also stipulates that users must have access to easily opt-out and remove their data whenever they want to. Make sure you know how to follow the directive’s guidelines by checking our GDPR compliance checklist. Or click here for examples of what a good custom app development company can do.

Responsive and adaptive websites Responsive websites, like any other, consist of a set of interconnected HTML pages that can be opened via any browser. The difference is, they are designed to adapt to the way the content is rendered on a variety of screen sizes with the help of CSS media queries. The idea is to provide a user with a perfect experience regardless of the device they access the website. It saves the need to resize anything manually to view content. One should not confuse responsive and adaptive websites. The latter term is used to name a website that leverages different layouts designed for a certain set of screen sizes. It means that a developer should bear in mind all the possible existing size and resolution options. If the website does not support one of them, it will not be displayed decently. Meanwhile, the former type implies that there is only one layout that is “fluid” and adapts automatically the way it is optimal for the given screen. The animation demonstrates the basic difference between the two. Responsive web design is above, adaptive below. Source: css-tricks.com While both ideas have their right to exist, a responsive website approach is recommended by Google. The history of website adapting its layout to the browser viewpoint width parameters can be traced back to 2001 and Audi.com. The term “responsive web design” itself was coined in 2010 by Ethan Marcotte.  Mashable called 2013 “the year of responsive web design”.   But it was not until 2015 when the “responsive” idea was reinforced by Google. The company announced that it will adjust its search mechanisms to promote the rankings of mobile-friendly pages. The concept was even dubbed Mobilegeddon. Google believes that the measure will lead to better user experience, since “the desktop version of a site might be difficult to view and use on a mobile device”. Google also states, that “61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing from their phone, and 40% go to a competitor’s.” Statista claims, that 52.5 % of all website traffic worldwide in 2018 is generated through mobile phones. Percentage of all global web pages served to mobile phones from 2009 to 2018 Thus, well-designed mobile experience is no more a matter of preference, but an apparent need for businesses. Mobile apps One of the pivotal moments that gave rise for mobile apps was a 2007 Steve Jobs Keynote Speech, where the concept of the first iPhone was unveiled. A year later, on July 10, 2008, Apple launched the first ever Apple App Store with 500 apps. A few months later, on 22 October 2008, Android Market ( Google play since 2012) with 50 apps showed up. The word “app” was named as “Word of the Year” by the American Dialect Society for 2010. After almost a decade, apps hold a predominant position when it comes to the share of mobile time. More than 80% of mobile minutes worldwide are spent on apps. There are three main options for creating a mobile app: native, hybrid and cross-platform. A native mobile app is coded in a specific programming language for each targeted platform, such as Objective C and Swift for iOS or Java, Kotlin and C/C++ for Android. Hybrid mobile apps are designed for multiple operating systems. They are written using web technologies (like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5) and then wrapped into a mobile app with WebView to run on each platform. The most popular frameworks for hybrid app development are PhoneGap, Cordova, and Ionic. Like the hybrid, cross-platform mobile apps are aimed at running on different platforms. However, they do not wield HTML and CSS and talk directly to the mobile OS. Mobile application development is one of Belitsoft’s top priorities. Learn more about why you should choose us for your next mobile app. Do you want to reach a broader audience? Typically, the first move one is likely to do when coming across an unfamiliar brand is google it. While both apps and responsive websites can appear in search results, a responsive website is made for both mobile and desktop browsers and allows to capture a broader audience. Moreover, one generally tends to explore an unfamiliar brand via a website first. The reason is a user does not have to download or install it, thus they should not allocate some treasured mobile storage for an app of a brand they do not know. ‘Mobile web is an acquisition channel, and may be first time people are experiencing our company. Once they have a strong relationship with the brand, we use the app to create personalized experiences that cater to the customer.’ Director of mobile, large US office supply retailer To earn users’ loyalty to the brand, companies cook up all kinds of bonus systems. For example, Starbucks Rewards app enables its users to receive stars for purchases that add up to some free food and drinks later. That is, mobile websites are a good choice for establishing initial awareness and engagement. However, for more personalized customer-user interactions and retention, it is better to go with an app. Another advantage of a responsive website is that it can be accessed via any device regardless of the OS it is based on. The only thing to bear in mind is HTML5 compatibility. In fact, all of the big-league browsers like Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Safari for IOS and Android-optimized browsers support HTML5, but some features vary from browser to browser. What about time and resources? Responsive website development will have a much lower price tag and time needed than a native mobile app build up. The reason is that instead of one responsive website you have to develop at least two apps from scratch (one for Android and one for iOS) and hire a development team for each version. This, in turn, entails two times more work and resources while bug fixing and adding new features. It also makes maintenance cost higher. Yet, responsive websites can’t provide a full-scale mobile experience (more on it below) and you still have to pay for domain and hosting. However, if you still do want an app, but do not have resources and time for native apps development, you may consider going hybrid or cross-platform. Both approaches require building only one app for all platforms, which means shorter development time (including later updates and new features integration) and efficient maintenance. For example, Ionic 2 code is nearly 100% reusable. Such apps will run seamlessly regardless of the OS. Though some UI components still need to be adjusted to the target platform requirements. React Native and Xamarin allow to retain approximately 90% and up to 96% of code respectively. Read more about how Ionic 2, React Native and Xamarin compare in our blog. By the way, to distribute your apps in market stores it is also necessary to pay the registration fee. The price is one-time 25$ to Google Play and annual 99$ for the Apple Developer Program or 299 USD for the Apple Developer Enterprise Program to App Store. Are you going to update a lot? A website requires fewer efforts and costs for its maintaining compared to mobile apps. For example, you only have to edit your website once and the upgrades will be immediately active across all kinds of devices. Meanwhile, editing a native mobile app is a more knotty procedure. After an upgraded version for each OS type is prepared, it should be approved by the marketplaces. On average, it takes from 24 hours for 50% of apps to 48 hours for over 90% of apps to be reviewed on App Store. What for Google Play, it suggests waiting for at least 24 hours for an update to appear before contacting its support team. Besides, an end-user either has to set automatic updates on or upgrade an app manually after each update to get the changes. Since hybrid apps leverage HTML5, you get an ability to update an app without asking a user to upgrade it on their device. It allows for easier app management by enabling developers to implement updates and fix bugs as needed. In addition, there is no waiting time to get the update approved. Cross-platform apps built with React Native can also benefit from the Over-the-Air update feature. However, for some significant upgrades like adding new features, it is recommended to send out an app to an app store for review. What industry are you aiming at? User’s choice of a means for accessing the Internet largely depends on a type of activity they want to engage in. IAB conducted a Global mobile experience study, where they divided mobile activities into 3 groups: functionality, entertainment, and communications. Consumers tend to use mobile web for utility-directed tasks like searching, booking, and purchasing products. When entertainment and communications come into play, mobile apps are, for the most part, a far more favored alternative. Another research further proves the idea that things like communication, weather, games, music, photo and video, physical activity tracking, and daily management are better off as an app. Imagine that if it were not for an Instagram app, you should open a mobile browser, log in and only then could you see that awesome picture of a friend. All this instead of simple tap on the app’s icon. ‘Though responsive design is much better than having to ‘pinch-and-zoom’, it isn’t an optimized experience for mobile visitors. At its core, responsive design makes the desktop experience look good on mobile, but it doesn’t address the specific needs of mobile visitors.’ Talia Wolf, listed among influential voices in conversion optimization Do you need offline mode? Responsive websites require a constant Internet connection. Of course, you can save a certain webpage for offline reading both on iOS and Android, but for anything else you need to stay online. Apps can work both online and offline. While it may not be such an issue for the “first world” countries, it makes a difference for developing states. So when your users must have access to an app’s data anytime and anywhere, better go with an app. Some examples of apps that provide offline functionality are: Google Maps, that offers offline access to maps and turn-by-turn navigation. However, it's necessary to download the area of interest from Google Maps in advance to use it offline. Spotify - a music streaming app, Premium version of which allows users to enjoy their music offline. A variety of dictionaries like Merriam Webster, Dictionary.com, and WordWeb to name a few. Take a look at our mobile app portfolio to see some examples of apps with offline mode. Do you need mobile native features? Mobile devices earned their popularity not just because they fit in the pocket, but also because they are stuffed with such features as Bluetooth, camera, GPS, contact list, speech recognition and many more. Since native mobile apps are designed specifically for each target platform, they can immediately access all device-specific features. It is also feasible to leverage required mobile functionality in hybrid apps with the help of PhoneGap or Cordova. Cross-platform React Native apps can also access native functionality using native modules. Mobile internet browsers are helping to bridge the gap between an app and a website. However, the user experience may depend on the OS and browser one chooses. While both iOS Safari and Android Chrome can support geolocation, they still lack geofencing functionality. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Geofencing integrated into mobile apps is a powerful tool for mobile marketers to boost engagement. It enables triggering push notifications every time a user enters a certain location. The idea is to drive interaction by targeting the right people in the right places and at the right time. According to a Global Market Insights report, the geofencing market size was estimated at over 200 million in 2016 with a CAGR of over 28% from 2017 to 2024. Walmart was one of the first retailers to introduce geofencing in its app with a “Store Mode”. ‘When you enter the store with the mobile app, say you're in Store Mode, you can search the store, and it can also give you the local ad for the store you're in so you know what's on sale in that store. We were one of the first retailers to do that.’ Ojonimi Bako, director of innovation for Walmart Labs By the way, not every mobile browser even supports push notifications. Android/Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS/Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today It means that even if your iPhone or iPad has a browser like Chrome installed, you still will not be able to receives pushes on your device. Android browsers, however, favor the feature. Why does it matter? Leanplum says, that promotional push notifications lead to an almost tenfold increase in purchases and 16 % more money spend with your brand. Neither iOS Safari nor Android Chrome browser won’t be useful if one wants to embrace NFC. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today The technology is widely implemented in the mobile payment industry. Apps like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or MasterCard PayPass are vivid specimens. Yet NFC is not only about payments. For example, InstaWifi app allows to easily share WiFi login information through NFC tag or QR code. EndlessID is a great idea of NFC implementation in healthcare. The app enables sharing of medical and emergency contact information, ensuring the safety of your loved ones. BelitSoft has extensive expertise in healthcare solutions development. Write to us to get a free quote! A responsive website can also strip you of access to contacts, SMS sharing, task scheduling, and wake lock. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today To crown it all, with iOS websites one also will not be able to enjoy the features like speech recognition, VR, AR, fullscreen mode, access to battery status and some others. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today What about Progressive Web Apps? Introduced in 2015 by Google, Progressive web apps (PWAs) are roughly defined as a website that looks and behaves as if it is a mobile app. PWAs are built to take advantage of native mobile device features, without requiring the end user to visit an app store, make a purchase and download software locally. Instead, a PWA can be located with a search engine query and accessed immediately through a browser. There is no need to write different code for each platform - one app will do it all. However, its functionality may be still limited by browsers. For example, Firefox adds icon badges to a PWA’s home screen image, while Chrome still does not. Apple, though neglecting PWAs for a long time, has also finally introduced its main components - Service Workers and Web App Manifest - to Safari 11.1. It allows Safari-run PWAs to work offline and be pinned to the home screen, providing more native-like experience. Yet, Apple, unlike others, still does not allow its PWA users to get web push notifications. Brands like Twitter, Forbes, Washington Post, Flipkart Lite and Aliexpress have successfully implemented a new app-style and are reaping the rewards. For example, Aliexpress PWA resulted in a 74% increase in time spent per session and 104% conversion rate growth for new customers. With its PWA, Forbes saw a 43% increase in sessions per user compared to the previous mobile site, and engagement was up 100%. Twitter designed its PWA with the focus on instant loading, user engagement, and lower data consumption. It helped reduce a size app from 23.5MB Android version to only 600KB of PWA. By this, Twitter aims at covering a broader audience, including those of emerging markets. As a result, the number of pages viewed per session increased by 65% and the bounce rate decreased by 20%. Conclusion Choosing between a responsive website and a mobile app is not a black-and-white issue. The decision should be made based on your business’ goals and resources. While apps generally provide a more personalized experience, going responsive can attract a broader audience and save a lot of money. Besides, a mobile approach can reasonably include both options.

Mobile app quality: why does it matter? According to the survey from Dimensional Research, users are highly intolerant of any software issues. As a result, they are quick to ditch mobile apps after just a couple of occurrences. The key areas were mistakes are unforgivable are: Speed: 61% of users expect apps to start in 4 seconds or less; 49% of users expect apps to respond in 2 seconds or less. Responsiveness: 80% of users only attempt to use a problematic app three times or less; 53% of users uninstall or remove a mobile app with severe issues like crashes, freezes or errors; 36% of users stop using a mobile app if it is not battery-efficient. Stability: 55% of users believe that the app itself is responsible for performance issues; 37% lose interest in a company’s brand because of crashes or errors. The app markets, such as Google Play and App Store encourage users to leave reviews of apps. Low-point reviews will naturally lead to decreased app’s attractiveness. ‘Anyone can read your app store rating. There’s no way to hide poor quality in the world of mobile.’ Michael Croghan, Mobile Solutions Architect ‘Therefore,“metrics defining the mobile app user experience must be measured from the customer’s perspective and ensure it meets or exceeds expectations at all times.’ Dimensional Research The findings reinforce the importance of delivering quality mobile apps. This, in turn, necessitates establishing proper mobile app testing procedures. QA and testing: fundamentals Quality assurance and testing are often treated as the same thing. The truth is, quality assurance is a much broader term than just testing. Software Quality Assurance (SQA) consists of a means of monitoring the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality. SQA encompasses the entire software development process. It includes procedures such as: requirements definition, software design, coding, source code control, code reviews, software configuration management, testing, release management, and product integration. Testing, in its turn, is the execution of a system conducted to provide information about the quality of the software product or service under test. The purpose is to detect software bugs (errors or other flaws) and confirm that the product is ready for mass usage. The quality management system usually complies with one or more standards, such as ISO 9000 or model such as CMMI. Belitsoft leverages ISO 9001 certificate to continuously provide solutions that meet customer and regulatory requirements. Learn more about our testing services! Mobile app testing: core specifics The mobile market is characterized by fierce competition and users expect app vendors to update their apps frequently. Developers and testers are pushed to release new functionality in a shorter time. It often results in a “fail fast” development approach, with quick fixes later on. Source:http://www.perfecto.io Mobile applications are targeted for a variety of gadgets that are manufactured by different companies (Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Sony, Nokia, etc.). Different devices run on different operating systems (Android, iOS, Windows). The more platforms and operating systems are supported, the more combinations one has to test. Moreover, OS vendors constantly push out updated software, which forces developers to respond to the changes. Mobile phones were once devised to receive and make calls, so an application should not block communication. Mobile devices are constantly searching for the network connection (2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi, etc.) and should work decently at different data rates. Modern smartphones enable input through multiple channels (voice, keyboard, gestures, etc.). Mobile apps should take advantage of these capabilities to increase the ease and comfort of use. Mobile apps can be developed as native, cross-platform, hybrid or web (progressive web apps). Understanding the application type can influence a set of features one would check when testing an app. For example, whether an app relies on internet connection and how its behavior changes when it is online and offline. Mobile app testing: automated or manual? The right answer is both manual and automated. Each type has its merits and shortcomings and is better suited for a certain set of tasks at the certain stages of an app’s lifecycle. As the name implies, automated mobile app testing is performed with the help of automation tools that run prescripted test cases. The purpose of test automation is to make the testing process more simple and efficient. According to the World Quality Report, around 30% of testing is automated. So where is automation an option? Regression testing. This type of testing is conducted to ensure that an application is fully functional after new changes were implemented. As regression tests can be repeated, automation enables to run them quickly. Writing test scripts will require some time initially. However, it will pay off with fast testing in the long run, as the testers will not have to start the test from scratch each time. Load and performance testing. Automated testing will do a good job when it is needed to simulate an app’s behavior strained with thousands of concurrent users. Unit testing. The aim of unit testing is to inspect the correctness of individual parts of code, typically with an automated test suite. ‘A good unit test suite augments the developer documentation for your app. This helps new developers come up to speed by describing the functionality of specific methods. When coupled with good code coverage, a unit test acts as a safeguard against regressions. Unit tests are important for anything that does not produce a UI.’ Adrian Hall, AWS blog contributor Repetitive tasks. Automation can save the need to perform tedious tests manually. It makes the testing time-efficient and free of human errors.       While the primary concern of automated testing is the functionality of an app, manual testing focuses on user experience. Manual mobile app testing implies that testers manually execute test cases without any assistant automation tools. They play the role of end-user by checking the correct response of the application features as quickly as possible. Manual testing is a more flexible approach and allows for a more natural simulation of user actions. As a result, it is a good fit for agile environments, where time is extremely limited. As the mobile app unfolds, some features and functionality codes are also changing. Hence, automated test scripts have to be constantly reworked, which takes time. When working on a smaller product like MVP, manual testing allows to quickly validate whether the code behaves as it is intended. Moreover, manual testing is a common practice in: Exploratory testing. During the exploratory testing, a tester follows the given script and identify issues found in the process. Usability testing. Personal experience is the best tool to assess if the app looks, feels and responds right. This facet is about aesthetics and needs a human eye.  ‘While automated tests can streamline most of the testing required to release software, manual testing is used by QA teams to fill in the gaps and ensure that the final product really works as intended by seeing how end users actually use an application.’ Brena Monteiro, Software Engineer at iMusics Mobile app testing: where? When testing a mobile app one typically has three options for the testing environment: real devices, emulators/simulators, a cloud platform. Testing on real devices is naturally the most reliable approach that provides the highest accuracy of results. Testing in natural conditions also provides an insight into how an app actually works with all the hardware and software specifics. 70% of failures occur because apps are incompatible with device OS versions, and customization of OS by many manufacturers. About 30% of Android app failures stem from the incompatibility of apps with the hardware (memory, display, chips, sensors, etc.) Such things as push-notifications, devices sensors, geolocation, battery consumption, network connectivity, incoming interruptions, random app closing are easier to test on physical gadgets. Perfect replication and bug fixing are also can be achieved only on real devices. However, the number of mobile devices on the market makes it highly unlikely to test the software on all of them directly. The variety of manufacturers, platforms, operating systems versions, hardware and screen densities results in market fragmentation.  Moreover, not only devices from different manufacturers can behave differently, but the devices from the same manufacturer too. Source: mybroadband.co.za Source:developer.android.com. The share of Android OS versions When selecting a device’s stack, it is important not only to include the most popular of them but also to test an app on different screen sizes and OSes. Consumer trends may also vary depending on the geographical location of the target audience. Source: https://www.kantar.com As the names imply, emulators and simulators refer to special tools designed to imitate the behavior of real devices and operating systems. An emulator is a full virtual machine version of a certain mobile device that runs on a PC. It duplicates the inner structure of a device and its original behavior. Google’s Android SDK provides an Android device emulator. On the contrary, a simulator is a tool that duplicates only certain functionality of a device that does not simulate a real device’s hardware. Apple’s simulator for Xcode is an example. ‘Emulators and simulators “have many options for using different configurations, operating systems, and screen resolutions. This makes them the perfect tool for quick testing checks during a development workflow.’ John Wargo, Principal Program Manager for Visual Studio App Center at Microsoft ‘While this speeds up the testing process, it comes with a critical drawback — emulators can’t fully replicate device hardware. This makes it difficult to test against real-world scenarios using an emulator. Issues related to the kernel code, the amount of memory on a device, the Wi-Fi chip, and other device-specific features can’t be replicated on an emulator.’ Clinton Sprauve, Sauce Labs blog contributor The advent of cloud-based testing made it possible to get web-based access to a large set of devices for testing mobile apps. It can help to get over the drawbacks of both real devices and emulators/simulators. ‘If you want to just focus on quality and releasing mobile apps to the market, and not deal with device management, let the cloud do it for you.’ Eran Kinsbruner, lead software evangelist at Perfecto Amazon’s Device Farm, Google’s Firebase Test Lab, Microsoft's Xamarin Test Cloud, Kobiton, Perfecto, Sauce Labs are just some of the most popular services for cloud tests execution. ‘Emulators are good for user interface testing and initial quality assurance, but real devices are essential for performance testing, while device cloud testing is a good way to scale up the number of devices and operating systems.’ Will Kelly, a freelance technology writer Mobile app testing: what to test? Performance Performance testing explores functional realm as well as the back-end services of an app. Most vital performance characteristics include energy consumption, the usage of GPS and other battery-killing features, network bandwidth usage, memory usage, as well as whether an app operates properly under excessive loads. ‘It is recommended to start every testing activity with a fully charged battery, and then note the battery state every 10 minutes in order to get an impression of battery drain. Also, test the mobile app with a remaining device battery charge of 10–15%, because most devices will enter a battery-safe mode, disabling some hardware features of the device. In this state, it is very likely to find bugs such as requiring a turned-off hardware feature (GPS, for example).’ Daniel Knott, a mobile expert During the testing process, it is essential to check the app’s behavior when transiting to lower bandwidth networks (like EDGE) or unstable WiFi connections. Functionality Functional testing is used to ensure that the app is performing in the way in its expected. The requirements are usually predefined in specifications. Mobile devices are shipped with specific hardware features like camera, storage, screen, microphone, etc., and sensors like geolocation, accelerometer, ambient light or touch sensors. All of them should be tried out in different settings and conditions. ‘For example, “every camera with a different lens and resolution will have an impact on picture dimension and size; it is important to test how the mobile app handles the different picture resolutions, sizes, and uploading photos to the server.’ Daniel Knott No device is also safe from interruption scenarios like incoming calls, messages or other notifications. The aim is to spot potential hazards and unwanted issues that may arise in the event of an interruption. One should not also forget that mobile apps are used by human beings who don’t always do the expected things. For example, what happens when a user randomly pokes at an application screen or inputs some illogical data? To test such scenarios, monkey testing tools are used. Usability The goal of usability testing is to ensure the experience users get meets their expectations. Users easily get frustrated with their apps, and the most typical culprits on the usability side are: Layout and Design. User-friendly layout and design help to complete tasks easily. Therefore, mobile app testers should understand the guidelines each OS provides for their apps. Interaction. An application should feel natural and intuitive. Any confusion will eventually lead to the abandonment of an app. However, the assessment of an app’s convenience by a dedicated group may be a bit subjective. To get a more well-grounded insight into how your users perceive your app, one can implement A/B testing. The idea is to ship two different versions of an app to the same segment of end-users. By analyzing the users’ behavior, one can adjust the elements and features to the way the target audience likes it more. The practice can also guide marketers when making some strategic decisions. Localization When an app is targeted at the international market, it is likely to need the support of different languages to which devices are configured. The most frequent challenges associated with localization mobile app testing are related to date, phone number formats, currency conversion, language direction, and text lengths, etc. What is more, the language may also influence a general layout of the screen. For example, the look of the word “logout” varies considerably in different languages. Source: http://www.informit.com Therefore, it is important to think about language peculiarities in advance to make sure UI is adapted to handle different languages. Final thoughts The success of a mobile app largely depends on its quality. ‘The tolerance of the users is way lower than in the desktop era. The end-users who adopt mobile applications have high expectations with regards to quality, usability and, most importantly, performance.’ Eran Kinsbruner Belitsoft is dedicated to providing effective and quality mobile app testing. We adhere to the best testing practices to make the process fast and cost-effective. Write to us to get a quote!

‘In the beginning, ecommerce was really about getting commodity products online as cheaply as possible. Now, we’re moving into the more exciting phase of ecommerce, where it’s about emotional products – the things that people really cherish.’ Jason Goldberg, founder, and CEO of Fab.com We’ve cast a look at how top ecommerce traders are responding to the shift in consumer expectations and are sharing their best practices in this article. Mobile apps conquer shopping landscape ‘Big box and department stores have an advantage over Amazon and other ecommerce giants, thanks to in-person interactions with customers.’ The State of Mobility in Department & Big Box Stores 2017, DMI Inc. Consumers may still be super positive about traditional brick and mortar stores, but in 2018 54% of customers expect physical retailers to offer a mobile shopping app. Their willingness to spend online results in about 12% of all retail purchases worldwide made on the Internet. This adds up to almost 2.85 trillion U.S. dollars from global e-retail sales. According to Criteo Global Commerce Review 2018, mobile accounts for more than 50% of online transactions. At the same time, namely, mobile apps make up 70% of sales for retailers who invest in both mobile web and mobile app features. In North America, shopping apps show 3 times better conversion rates than mobile web. Source: Criteo, North America, Q1 2018 More than that, mobile also drives conversions for other channels. In 2017, around every fourth desktop purchase was preceded by a click on a mobile device. Must-have mobile shopping app features Building any mobile app requires knowledge of the target audience. Modern shoppers perceive simple browsing and buying functionality as something that comes with any shopping app by default. To increase customer loyalty, app vendors should go the extra mile and offer innovative ecommerce features such as discounts, rewards, recommendations or augmented reality. Discounts and loyalty rewards - TOP the wanted features list Consumers want e-commerce apps to provide them with exclusive, individually tailored content and deals that would prompt them to make a purchase. 85% of app users would make purchases to get discounts, while 84% would turn on push notifications about any deals. Walgreens offers its customers paperless coupons for certain items. They can clip and redeem them later either in a brick and mortar store or online. However, as more new mobile apps enter the market, it’s becoming vital for top ecommerce apps to introduce more sophisticated features like gamification to engage and retain the customers. ‘Winning is tied into the pleasure circuits of the brain. Every time we achieve, dopamine is released -- achieve bigger goals, release larger amounts of dopamine. In this way, humans are hardwired to want to play games.’ Brandon Marsala, Creative director of content and strategy at Mindspace The basic principle of gamification is to reward the involvement with the brand and nurture a sense of loyalty. This method is often used in eLearning to increase students’ involvement and interest. Some of the top apps, like Duolingo, owe their success to gamification. For example, Aliexpress’ gamified UX is primarily built around urging users to earn coins and exchange them for discount coupons. To get the coins, the users should complete a variety of daily tasks or play mini-games within the app. Source: technewshere.com Offering some kinds of loyalty rewards, your app can attract more than 80% of mobile shoppers. Walgreens also encourages its users to get discounts based on their health habits and exercise achievements. Each mile of walking, running or cycling gives the user 20 points. 1000 points collected is 1$ off a future check. The popularity of Starbucks is also closely tied up to their rewards program, However, the brand went even further with its mobile payment service and became the most popular mobile proximity payment app in the US, staying ahead of Apple Pay and Google Pay. ‘The Starbucks app is one of the bigger success stories in mobile proximity payments. It has gained traction thanks to its ability to tie payments to its loyalty rewards program. For users of the app, the value of paying with their smartphone is clear and simple—you can save time and money at the register, all while racking up rewards and special offers.’ eMarketer forecasting analyst Cindy Liu The Rewards feature of the Starbucks app allows its members to earn 2 stars per each dollar spent, which they can later use to get the sum off the check, birthday rewards, free in-store refills, special offers as well as the ability to order ahead and pay via a mobile app. Recommendations and reviews The mobile shopping journey is much more about browsing than searching. When app users are not yet exactly sure which item or from which brand they want to buy, it is a good time for an app to give them a helping hand. User-friendly e-commerce apps analyze the browsing history and previous orders and come up with recommendations for similar items. 70% of the customers said they would use recommendations. Their enthusiasm is backed up by the fact that 35% of purchases on Amazon come from custom-designed recommendations. Source: www.clutch.co According to Local Consumer Review Survey 2018 prepared by BrightLocal, 91% of 18-34 year old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. In-store integration While the line between digital and physical worlds is blurring over, so is the gap between online and on-location shopping experience. ‘About 57% of consumers surveyed said they have used a retailer's mobile app while in-store’ RetailDive reports At the same time, 44% of customers believe that using mobile devices enriches their brick-and-mortar shopping experience. That gives retailers an excellent chance to engage their customers on a more personal level, driving shoppers’ loyalty and, consequently, sales. Walmart’s re-imagined mobile app is one of the examples of blending the two worlds to enhance the brick-and-mortar shopping. Once a customer enters the store, the app automatically transforms into Store Assistant. With the Walmart app, shoppers can: create sophisticated shop lists (which is 80% of Walmart shoppers actually do) and see whether the wanted products are in stock and even their exact in-store location; locate the wanted items with in-store maps feature; see which special services are offered in this particular store as well as department hours and contact information; scan products to easily read reviews and double-check prices. As most retail operations are linked to barcodes, it would not hurt to get the most value from them and integrate scanning functionality as one of your mobile shopping app features. Source: www.scandit.com For example, Macy’s app in-store mode allows its users to scan barcodes to check the price, study reviews and see color and size options. When the item is in the shopping cart, users can easily apply relevant discounts and rewards. Then they should go the checkout counters where the cashier verifies the purchase, removes security tags and bags the purchase. Augmented reality Consumers love hi-tech features. More than half (54%) mobile shoppers said that they would use an augmented reality technology if an app offered it. 61% of shoppers would shop in a store that offers augmented reality on the list of its ecommerce app features over one that does not. 72% have made purchases they were not going to make just because of AR. And 40% would be ready to pay more for an item if they could experience it through augmented reality. ‘Augmented reality is in a really exciting place right now. It’s a great way to show how the mobile experience can literally exist in real life and help drive confidence to the user that the purchase they are making is a sound one.’ Dan Healy, COO of Prolific Interactive Many retailers are striving to overshadow their competitors by offering a highly curated experience that combines the best of in-store and online shopping. For example, Amazon uses the phone’s camera to scan the surroundings. When a user selects an item from the catalog, the app renders the chosen piece of furniture to show how it will look in your home. Sephora’s Virtual Artist, for example, gives its shoppers the opportunity to virtually try on infinite variations of shades and colors, save, share and buy their favorite looks. ‘With these additions, Sephora Virtual Artist continues to put the power and expertise of Sephora quite literally in the palm of our clients’ hands.’ Bridget Dolan, VP of innovation at Sephora ‘Since launching Sephora Virtual Artist in 2016, our clients have virtually tried on hundreds of millions of shade combinations. It gives her the freedom to choose when, where and how she wants to shop as she creates customized looks and discovers the products that are just right for her.’ Bridget Dolan Image recognition “The future of search is going to be about pictures instead of keywords” Pinterest’s CEO Ben Silbermann, said. And the strategies of such major retailers as Amazon, Macy’s, Wayfair, eBay, and Asos seem to dovetail with that standpoint. Pinterest has published an interesting insight based on the most popular searches its users made with its Lens (visual search tool in 2017). It seems that brands that come from fashion and home decor sectors have the best chances to reap profits from a visual search feature. With eBay’s Image Search one can just take a pic or upload an existing one of the item wanted and the app will show the list of the items with similar visual features. ‘When you upload images to run Find It On eBay and Image Search, we use a deep learning model called a convolutional neural network to process the images. The output of the model gives us a representation of your image that we can use to compare to the images of the live listings on eBay. Then, we rank the items based on visual similarity and use our open-source Kubernetes platform to quickly bring these results to you, wherever you are in the world.’ eBay blog post Social integration 41% of m-commerce customers want their apps to have an option to share the content on their social media accounts. Integration with social networks enriches the user experience. It satisfies a natural desire of people to connect with others, keeps them more engaged within the app and adds a personal aspect to the shopping. For ecommerce apps, sharing with friends feature can not only naturally increase traffic, but also lead to higher sales. A Sprout Social report found out that 75% of people make purchases because they have seen the item on social media. Amazon took a fresh stance on its social media presence when it launched Amazon Spark in 2017. Part of the Amazon app, Spark allows users to discover its inventory with a “shoppable feed of stories photos”. Source: techcrunch.com New users select a few interests to create a feed of personalized content from other followers and are encouraged to post and react to the content they love. One can buy a product with a simple click of a button on the shopping bag icon. The motivation behind the feature was to redirect the social activity from third-party sites and apps back to Amazon. Chatbots According to Statista survey conducted in 2017 worldwide, 34% of respondents said they would be willing to receive customer service from AI chatbots in online retail (more than in any other industry). Many brands have already adopted AI-powered chatbots to improve customer service, provide tailored recommendations and drive sales. As Ubisend 2017 Chatbot Survey states, 70% of consumers are encouraged to interact with chatbots because of the opportunity to get instant answers to their questions; 43% of respondents perceive companies offering chatbots as innovative; 22% see them as ‘more efficient’ in their customer service 1 in 5 (21%) shoppers would buy goods and services from a chatbot Consumers are willing to spend up to $615 via chatbot. Chatbots serve not only as another channel for deals and making mobile purchases. This feature helps to establish a lasting point of reference and dynamic communication with potential clients on their way to the checkout page. The fashion clothing brand H&M developed an interactive chatbot based on the Kik messaging platform. The purpose of the bot is to help mobile users to navigate through the brand’s offerings. The experience starts with selecting the photos of clothing you like and answering simple questions. When the chatbot gets a comprehensive picture of one’s style, it gives the user personal look recommendations, allows to save and socially share the outfit and redirects to purchasing the clothing. Source:https://uxplanet.org Belitsoft has worked with similar ideas. A chatbot we’ve developed for one of our clients handles lead generation for several healthcare companies. Simple and intuitive Hick’s law says that the more alternatives to choose from the user has, the more time they require to make a decision. Users bombarded with options have to take time to analyze and make a decision which is not what e-commerce owners really need. For example, larger product images can increase the conversion rate by almost 10%. Consequently, a fewer number of items on the page encourages a smoother shopping experience. In the world where the average human attention span is 8 seconds, a proper visual hierarchy is crucial for the success of any design. Source: dribble.com Hick’s law is also a principle to follow when designing, perhaps, the most crucial element of any e-commerce app - checkout page. Instead of pressing the whole knotty payment feature on a single page, one can divide the process into several screens. Reduced number of options on a screen makes the process more clear and user-friendly. A satisfied user is much more likely to complete the payment and not abandon it halfway through. Key Takeaways 50% of e-commerce transactions are made via mobile devices; 85% of mobile shoppers want to get discounts on items similar to their past purchases; 81% of users would like to receive loyalty rewards from your app; 70% of the customers use recommendations in mobile shopping apps; 51% of people who use retail apps use them when they are in-store; 61% of shoppers would choose a store that offers AR features over one that does not; 41% of consumers want to share their findings on social media; 21% of shoppers would buy from a chatbot; larger product images in ecommerce apps increase sales by 10%.

What are enterprise mobile applications for? Enterprise mobile applications are meant for internal use within the company. They streamline doing business by bringing together all the processes. Examples of an enterprise mobile app Applications to supervise contractors at a construction site; In-store survey apps; Apps for merchandising audit; Field reporting applications; Applications with reference information; Applications for employee communication on work-related questions. 5 reasons for enterprise mobile application development To skip the paperwork and free up employees from transferring these data to a digital format; To enable photo and video recording; To provide an employee with the most relevant information about the task online; To manage dynamic data; To avoid communication issues within the company. A corporate mobile application should be based on a business logic that allows performing the tasks of each department and employee with minimal costs and maximum efficiency. To increase the efficiency of the application and help the business to grow, identify weak points, analyze business processes preliminarily and optimize them. Should companies provide employees with devices or require them to bring their own? Advantages of purchasing devices Development in a single native language If you don’t purchase devices for employees, you need to develop the application both on iOS and Android. Of course, now it’s possible to use Flutter or ReactNative to develop on two platforms at once. But in practice, applications in non-native languages are more suitable for simple solutions where information from the server should be displayed. There are cases when the application has to work with poor internet or no internet at all, for example, in the construction industry (a car park, a site outside the city), in supermarkets (jammers on site), etc. In such cases, the application needs to store a large amount of data (photos, videos) until the Internet restores, otherwise, all the work done will be lost. For such applications, we recommend using the native languages Swift, Kotlin, Java. Simple support Most likely, some of your employees have old gadgets. When purchasing devices, there is no problem with maintaining outdated technologies. You will know what performance you should count on and be confident in the performance of the system. Users will not complain that there is no free space on their devices Seems that in 2021 it’s not a problem, but the fact is users save megabytes. The ability to set up MDM (Mobile Device Management) You will be able to control all device data: geolocation, usage time, files, blocking. Install and update applications, restrict website visits. Cons: You will have to spend money on purchasing devices and accessories for them (cases, chargers); You will need to keep records of devices and establish the process of issuing; You need to buy SIM cards and top up the balance. How to distribute enterprise mobile applications to employees? The security team often prohibits distributing corporate mobile applications in Google Play and AppleStore. There are also the companies that don’t want to opt for the open distribution for the following reasons: Sensitive data (security requirements increase because any user can download); Customers and competitors can see the company's applications; Dependence on the moderation from Apple or Google (sometimes an application can be under moderation for 1-2 weeks due to constant addition of new requirements). And if to Android users you can simply send a link or file to download, then with iOS app development it’s much more difficult. You have two options here: Apple Developer Program ($100 per year) Apple Developer Program suits you if the number of employees who will use the application is lower than 100. Employees install the application through the TestFlight program and become its internal testers. Keep in mind that if there are more than 100 employees, the application will pass Apple moderation and go to the public AppStore.  Pros: low cost, no moderation, and no legal approval.  Cons: the limited number of users. Apple Developer Enterprise Program ($299 per year) The best way is to use the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. After passing legal procedures, you can send a download link (outside the AppStore). You don't have to wait for moderation, and most importantly, you can use over 100 users without public access.  Pros: the unlimited number of users.  Cons: the cost of service and legal restrictions on use. Bottom Line Ask yourself a few questions before a proprietary enterprise mobile app development: For which operating systems do you want to develop an application? Are you ready to purchase devices and pay for mobile services? How many employees will use the app? And where will you distribute your application? The advantages of implementing corporate mobile applications are obvious. But there are still fears that prevent some managers from digitalization. There is also a danger of sabotage by workers or a decrease in motivation if the staff is conservative. Employees are not always happy with innovations requiring a new collaborative culture in the company, and a leader himself may be at the head of such ideation.  But today, even if your company has a great past, even if it is an integral part of the country’s infrastructure, there is a risk of losing its advantage overnight. Young companies with an agile approach and creative products can overtake clumsy conservatives at once.  As stated in a press release from the British airline company Thomas Cook Airlines Limited, they could not compete with online services. This is happening everywhere. During the lockdown in many industries, only the companies that have mastered the technology have survived. And the companies that had implemented corporate digital systems before the coronavirus were the least affected and quickly moved their work to remote locations. Today it is obvious that there is no turning back, and corporate mobile applications in any company are only a matter of time. Belitsoft specializes in mobile application development. If your business is ready to level up in enterprise technologies and competitiveness, contact us for a free quote.

What is Dedicated Mobile App Development Team A dedicated mobile app development team is responsible for building and maintaining mobile applications over an extended period. They are full-time employees hired by a client to work closely with their in-house team. Outsourcing through this option allows companies to start their project without the need to individually hire mobile developers. Additionally, the client is not responsible for welfare, taxes, or other HR administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on the core business activities. The dedicated mobile app development team model allows for flexibility in the number of developers on the team. The vendor assembles the workforce and can quickly increase or decrease the team size as needed. Renegotiating the contract with the vendor also eliminates the risk of lawsuits and financial obligations associated with layoffs. Additionally, this model provides access to a global talent pool and is often chosen for cost-effectiveness, as it allows companies to access top-quality work at a lower price by utilizing a dedicated workforce based outside their country. When to Hire Dedicated Mobile App Developers? You have an idea for an app that will fill your pockets. You want your app to compete with the top ones in Android/Apple stores but can't complete this large task yourself. Partnering with an Android app development company or iOS app development company could be the solution. You need to augment your tech team to develop a mobile app and get enough capacity to meet an agile and aggressive development schedule. You have pivoted your brand to broaden offerings. You require a cost-effective way to grow in your early stages. Build upon your beta app and create an optimal user experience with mobile app development services from Belitsoft. Get a user-friendly, intuitive, mobile app that reflects your revamped business direction. Things to Consider Before Hiring Dedicated Mobile Developers When hiring dedicated mobile app developers, it is important to have a clear understanding of the desired outcome and communicate it effectively with the team.  Understand App Type and Technology Stack Determine the type of app (native or web), the operating system(s) it should support (Android, iOS, or cross-platform), and the technology stack required. Different app types require different technology stacks. Understand Team Roles and Responsibilities Determine whether you are looking for a reliable technical partner, a team of developers who just can get the job done quickly and efficiently, a group of mobile development consultants, or a combination of all three. Each of these options has its own management, deliverables, and engagement requirements.  Understand allocated budget and deadlines Hold meetings with the business analyst and project manager to understand the financial implications of the workflow. Discuss the mode of communication, legal issues and functionalities. After the meeting, you will have a project blueprint, which details the agreed expenses and milestones, and helps to determine the deadline for the MVP and final version of the application.   Legally formalize agreements Create and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and a Contract. The NDA binds all parties to keep any corporate secrets confidential and the contract outlines specific terms such as completion date, deliverables and payment timelines. The contract should also include information such as hourly rate, and warranty timeframes and conditions. How do We Select the Best Dedicated Mobile App Developers We consider more than just their resumes. In order to be considered for high-value roles, an applicant should possess particular skills. Independence Such mobile developers can take on a project, understand its requirements, come up with innovative technical solutions, and then expertly implement them - all without the need for constant supervision. They possess the skills to not only bring your project to life but also ensure it's delivered on time and to the highest level of quality, thanks to their ability to effectively manage their time and resources. Versatility in programming languages We look for mobile developers who have a strong understanding of popular languages used for different operating systems. This includes languages such as C, HTML5, C++, JavaScript, Swift, Python, and Java.  We identify mobile app developers who have experience working with both native and hybrid apps, including Xamarin app development. When conducting interviews, we try to identify candidates with diverse tech stacks and ask technical or language-specific questions to assess their skills. Ability to design and test user interfaces for multiple mobile platforms We consider their skills in designing user interfaces for multiple mobile platforms, specifically for both Android and iOS.  We test developers' ability to use reusable codes and templates, as opposed to writing new code from scratch, to speed up the development. We also look for mobile app developers with a proven track record of testing apps on both of these platforms. Knowledge of cloud infrastructure With modern app development heavily reliant on cloud technologies, it's important to find mobile developers who have experience working with multiple cloud platforms. Popular options include Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.   The ability to use version control systems We consider applicants who have experience using these tools as they are widely used in the industry. They allow dedicated mobile teams to add and test new features, judge their efficiency, and make decisions about the next steps. They also allow mobile developers to quickly upgrade or roll back to a stable version as needed. Popular version control tools include GitHub and similar ones.  Industry-specific business knowledge When conducting interviews we assess the applicant's business-oriented knowledge. This helps us ensure that the mobile developer has the ability to build applications that align with current trends and meet the specific needs of our clients’ industries (security, telecom, healthcare, logistics, e-learning, and so on). Why Dedicated Mobile App Developers from Belitsoft? Expertise at Your Fingertips Our dedicated mobile developers are experts in their field and adapt quickly to become an integral part of your team. We understand the importance of a smooth onboarding process and work with you to streamline it. Customized Talent Matching We focus on finding the perfect fit for your needs. Our dedicated account executive and expert talent matcher will work closely with you. We ensure that the dedicated mobile app developers we help you hire are not only technically qualified but also a good cultural fit for your company. We conduct rigorous tests to verify the candidate's interest in working for your company and gauge their abilities. We assess their skills through challenging problem-solving exercises and open-ended questions to understand their thought process. We provide detailed feedback on both the test task and the technical test after evaluating their expertise. Finally, you have the opportunity to interview the shortlisted candidates to confirm that they meet your requirements and are a good match. Scaling Made Simple Our hiring process allows you to quickly add or reduce team members as needed. Worry-Free Hiring Leave the administrative tasks to us, we handle everything from billing and payments to NDA agreements, allowing you to focus on your mobile project's success. Flexible Engagement Models  Our engagement models offer flexibility, enabling you to select part-time, or full-time options and adjust as needed.