How to Make Your Mobile App Stand Out

There are more than 2.5 million apps on the Google Play Store and around 2.2 apps in the Apple Store. Many developers, especially those who don�t have the experience, do not think through all the details of their apps when they begin developing it. Since the launch of the smartphone and the beginning of the race of the apps, a lot has changed. Users now pay attention to the app design, check reviews of other users, and think twice before purchasing an app.

Many apps nowadays are advertised as free, but in reality, they have hidden content for which a user will have to pay to use it. The practice of deceiving people is no longer working because every potential user will read the reviews and they will give up on downloading an app that is deemed as deceiving.

There are several things to consider when developing an app. Also, every update of the iOS or the Android OS versions brings more opportunities for improvement, but if followed through, those best practices will make your app stand out on the market.

1. UI design

No matter how good your app is, users will always judge it by its cover. When someone downloads your app, the first thing that they will be looking at, consciously or subconsciously, is the UI design. A well-thought design will let the user interact with the app intuitively. This is something that takes a lot of time to develop and even more time to implement.

Overly complicating the UI design is also something that developers and designers must avid. A simple, intuitive design will be unnoticeable for the user.

2. Make sure you are optimizing the app for different devices

There are more than 240 different brands of smartphones in the world. Some, like the iPhone and Samsung phones, is very popular. Others are little known and have a narrow user base. A lot of developers chose to optimize their apps only for well-known smartphones. This is a big mistake on the developer�s side. While it is true that it is impossible to optimize an app to include every smartphone in the world, it is wise to make the effort to include as many as possible.

Big companies like Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Lenovo only own 70% of the total smartphone market. There are still 30% left for other phone manufacturers. This means that of all the people who own a smartphone,� almost a billion people have a phone that was manufactured by a lesser-known company. If you only optimize your app for the top seven most popular smartphones, you are losing potential clients.

Also, when we speak of optimization, there is one more thing to consider. Besides having different phones on the market, companies manufacture a different version of the same phone. For instance, iPhone 6 and iPhone 11 have different screen sizes and pixel density. This makes it even harder to optimize an app because it will look different on those two devices.

3. High-quality app icon

Even before downloading an app, a person is first presented with its icon. Companies often don�t pay enough attention to icon app design and instead put all their efforts into building the UI. The high-quality icon should be included in the design plan. The icon can play a big role in advertising too because it is the first thing that users see on their phone screen when browsing through apps.

4. Add speech recognition

We have used to interact with our phones through gestures, but lately, Siri and Alexa have changed this. It is much easier to ask the phone by using your voice than to spend time typing a question.

Try to implement voice commands in your app and integration with the phone�s voice assistant. This will make interaction with your app much easier.

5. Chatbot

If you have an app that provides a service or a product, try implementing a chatbot. There are many sophisticated chatbots on the market and some of them are even freely available. Customize it towards your needs so your customers can have immediate help in case they need it.

Amazon Lex, the deep learning technology behind Amazon Alexa, is now available for the developers to use.

6. AR

Augmented reality can be used in many ways. If you are selling paintings or furniture, you can implement AR so customers can see how that sofa they are interested in is going to look like in their living room.

Think about other innovative ways to use AR. Using AR in your apps will make them competitive with the other new apps on the market.