If you have developed an app before, or are thinking about doing so, you probably know that it isn’t an easy process.
That isn’t to say it doesn’t have its fun and creative moments, such as brainstorming for the idea and welcoming feedback once the app has launched.
There are other moments where things are a lot more technical, involving matters that you need to research and think carefully about to get right.
One of these things is the features that your app will include.
As well as this being what your app will look like, you need to go behind the scenes and work out the non-negotiables that you’ll include.
This isn’t always an easy process, but some people can find them prolonging it because they don’t know where to start.
That’s why we’ve come up with this list, where we take you through every feature that you should include on your app.
A Strong Unique Selling Point (USP)
Having a USP is an essential feature of any app as it will be responsible for making you stand out from a crowd of similar apps.
This is especially important when you consider that there were 205.4 billion apps downloaded in 2018, meaning you have a lot of competition.
This isn’t only important for acquiring customers, but also for retaining them, as the above statistic shows that people are downloading so many apps they won’t look twice at yours if there isn’t something drawing them in.
Determining your USP isn’t always easy, but you should focus on finding something that other similar apps do not have.
To do this successfully, the first thing you need to do is identify your competitors so that you can find out what you are doing uniquely.
You also need to take into account the main advantages of your app, and combine the two to come up with the USP you tell potential customers about.
Cross-Platform Usability
The app store with the most apps available in the first quarter of 2019 was Google Play, which had 2100000 apps available for download.
Most people would assume this means you should focus on android users, but doing this would cut out a big part of the market that uses iOS devices.
By being inclusive and making your app available on multiple platforms you’re able to appeal to larger portions of your target audience, increasing your success rate.
Simple User Experience & Navigation
If you’re creating an app, you need to make it as accessible to the general public as possible.
There’s no point in creating an app with features most people won’t be able to access or understand, after all.
You might think this is unachievable in some industries where technical language is required, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
In the healthcare industry, for example, there are a number of apps making it easier than ever for people to access, share and store complex data in an easily understandable way.
You simply have to think smartly about ways to simplify this process, even if it makes things slightly more complicated behind the scenes.
A Monetization Strategy
If you don’t have a monetization strategy from the moment you launch your app, you have very little chance of implementing one further down the line.
This is because it’s a lot harder to introduce paid-for features than it is to have them there in the first place.
Though you might not necessarily consider this important, monetization is the only way to recoup the costs of creating your app in the first place.
According to Digital Authority Partners, these costs average out at $270,000 per app.
Despite these figures, lack of thinking and consideration means that just 0.1% of apps were considered financially successful in 2018.
Security Measures
Regardless of the industry you’re launching your app into, you’re going to be dealing with your customers data to some degree.
For this reason, you need to protect their right to privacy and security by thinking carefully about the security measures you have in place.
There have been many mobile app developers caught short in the past for not doing this, which includes Uber, who reported that hackers stole the information of over 57 million riders and drivers in 2016.
Even if you aren’t dealing with sensitive data like bank details, you might have people’s identities within your code and they need to be protected to prevent identity fraud.
Even things like user behaviour, which can be found in your analytics, can be potentially dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands.
Many people are turning towards blockchain, a decentralized ledger that is almost impossible to hack, to store information in order to avoid this.
Regular Updates
If you want to have any chance of retaining the customers you have acquired, you need to update your app regularly.
What you define as regular depends on you and the niche you are in, but we recommend doing it at least a few times a year.
To put it in perspective, the average app is updated 7.9 times a year.
But some successful apps update even more regularly than this, with frontrunners like Amazon, Walmart and Geico found to update between 20 and 25 times in a single year.
This helps to keep people engaged and make them feel listened to if the changes you make are reflected by the feedback you have been given.
It may also give your app a new lease of life if your analytics show that users are becoming bored of the older features.
Summary
Like previously mentioned, choosing the features that your app should have isn’t an easy process.
These features will help you with the launch of your app, but they will also be important during the post-production process, where you can use your features to market your app.
Things like maximizing security and creating a strong USP are extremely crucial towards building an audience, whereas things like monetization are more important for recouping the costs of your endeavour to create an app in the first place.
While our list isn’t a completely comprehensive list and you may have to think about niche-specific additions, this is a great place to start when it comes to developing your app.
This article was written by Julian Gnatenco @ JGBilling a medical coding company
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