The Future of Mobile Apps: Trends Shaping Business Technology

As more consumers use their mobile devices to interact with the web, companies around the world have to make some pretty significant adjustments to ensure they remain on the radar and avoid losing market share to their competitors, who may be more willing to embrace the change. Although still relatively young (only around 15 to 20 years old, depending on your point of view), the mobile application revolution has utterly altered the landscape and made it both far easier for consumers to access the companies they enjoy interacting with while simultaneously causing smaller companies to completely rethink their approach to marketing and consumer interaction. In this post, we will explore what the future could hold for this rapidly evolving situation and see how businesses can make use of this brave new world and make the most of what's ahead for mobile applications.

Rise Of Artificial Intelligence Integration

The buzzword on everyone's lips over the past couple of years has been "AI." While it isn't quite what many of us were expecting when it was first announced by OpenAI in 2022, it has undoubtedly changed the overall landscape in terms of what can be achieved. In fact, it is so prevalent that most of the largest tech corporations in the world have fully embraced it and are rapidly adding it in some form or other into their existing systems. In this regard, standard mobile app development is no different, as many new apps have begun integrating a range of the more popular AI services (usually ChatGPT). However, before choosing to incorporate it into any app that you're currently considering creating, it's worth having a look to see if it's needed and if it will make any material difference to the user experience. If the answer is not really, then you will save a tremendous amount of time and resources, but if the answer is yes, then you must ensure it's integrated correctly. There are myriad ways in which you might be able to utilize AI, including:

• Personalization: AI has performed this in some way for a while now, but modern algorithms are so advanced now that they allow a far more profound form of personalization than before.
• Natural language processing: Our current interpretation of AI works best when using LLMs to parse natural language inputs, understand what it's saying, and create an answer. This kind of NLP can offer an incredible level of interaction with those using your app, as they can almost have a natural conversation with the application. 
• E-commerce: Just as AI can power forms of personalization, so can it help e-commerce businesses. It does so by personalizing product recommendations, optimizing pricing, and detecting fraudulent transactions.

Increased Focus On User Privacy

Data privacy has become an enormous thing in the past decade, partly spurred on by large data breaches and the blatant use of personal data by large companies like Meta and Google, etc. Nowadays, if you create an application that will collect user data, you had better ensure it complies fully with industry best practices and gives users a granular level of control over how you use their data. Obviously, this will cost you in terms of having less data to use for your data analysis, but the trend toward more stringent controls only looks to be advancing, making it worthwhile to be one step ahead rather than one step behind the curve.

Evolution Of Mobile Payment Systems

Online payment solutions have become more sophisticated over time thanks to the sheer number of people making transitions multiple times a day online. This can be a massive advantage for you if your app is aimed at turning users into paying customers, as it allows you to add in a range of options, streamlining the process. The more payment methods you can reasonably add, the more likely it will be that a user will be convinced to make a payment, helping you avoid abandoned carts and other issues that tend to plague the user experience.

Emphasis On App Accessibility

Since applications have become more mainstream, the need to create apps that are accessible to everyone, regardless of their status, has become crucial. This means integrating settings that those with disabilities can access and turn on or off depending on their needs, which can help them to use the app as designed. Although this is additional work on the part of the developer and will thus cause an increase in the cost to you, the fact that you're opening up your application to a far broader segment of society means you will gain access to even more potential customers, off-setting some of that initial expense over time.

Expansion Of Subscription-Based Models

While not entirely loved by users, a subscription-based approach to your services can ensure a steady flow of revenue each month, making it far more straightforward to budget and project cash flow over the year. Depending on your app and what services or products you sell, consider the option of yearly at a slightly discounted cost. This will assuage some of the annoyances of those who utterly loathe monthly subscriptions while still enabling you to benefit from having a steady flow of income. Lowering the price (e.g., only chagrin 11 months instead of 12 if they opt for yearly) is also a great way to convince users to make the plunge, as it offers a sense of savings, which is something that not many people can pass up when given the option.

Enhanced Cloud-Based Solutions

We began this post discussing the buzzword de jure, which is AI, but we will finish on one that was once also in a similar position but has now approached mainstream adoption so much so that it can no longer be called a buzzword! The cloud has completely taken off and is now sued by so many that it can't really be considered emerging tech anymore. Nevertheless, more applications are starting to be developed on the basis that they fetch data via the internet rather than making use of only the data stored on your device. By incorporating the cloud into a modern application, you can open up many more possibilities that could actually benefit the user.

It's never wise to try to predict the future, particularly when it comes to technology, since things can change all of a sudden and without warning. Nevertheless, when it comes to mobile applications, there is a lot currently going on, making it extremely exciting for those currently in the process of developing an app since the possibilities are truly endless.

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