How to Choose a Custom Mobile App Development Company?

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Documented evidence shows that mobile apps will likely generate $935 billion in revenues through paid downloads and in-app advertising. Needless to say, this statistic highlights the potential and growth trajectory of mobile apps. Businesses across all sectors leverage mobile apps to streamline processes, facilitate payments, and enhance productivity. Therefore, it’s important to develop your first app by choosing the right custom mobile app development company.

Importance of Custom Mobile Apps

In today’s digital landscape, having a mobile app is no longer a luxury but a crucial necessity and priority. Custom mobile apps provide tailored solutions that cater to specific business needs. In addition, mobile apps offer a personalized experience that off-the-shelf solutions often fail to achieve. They provide improved brand visibility, and better customer engagement, and enable businesses to collect crucial insights that they can use to improve their business processes. Furthermore, custom apps can seamlessly integrate with existing systems, ensuring business process efficiency.

Purpose of the Article

It’s crucial to note that choosing a custom mobile app development company is a critical decision that can significantly impact project success. This article aims to guide you through all the essential factors you must consider when selecting a development partner. From understanding pricing models to assessing technical expertise, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive roadmap that will help you make an informed decision.

Understanding Your Needs

Define Your Objectives

It’s important to clearly define your business goals and objectives before embarking on building an app. Start by identifying the primary purpose of your app. Are you aiming to provide a seamless experience by providing users a more immersive experience? Or are you seeking to improve your e-commerce experience by enhancing your customers’ shopping portfolio? Maybe the purpose of adopting a mobile app is to streamline internal processes, enhance operational efficiency, and improve communication. Once the app’s idea is clear, begin to define your target audience. Who will use the app? What are their expectations? Knowing these will help you make more informed decisions on the design and functionality of your app. This will further ensure that the final product drives business decisions and meets user needs.

Key Features and Functionalities

After defining your business objectives, proceed to state any key features and functionalities. Essential considerations could include user registration and login, search functionality, social media integration, push notifications, and secure payment options for e-commerce stores. However, for internal business apps, key features and functionalities may include data analytics, communication tools, and task management.

In addition, it’s crucial to consider the app’s scalability as well as possible updates. Remember that as your business grows, so should your app. Plan for the ability to add more new features, handle increased traffic, and integrate with emerging technologies. Ensuring your app can easily integrate with other systems and technologies will save time and resources in the long run. It will allow your app to evolve alongside your business.

Researching Potential Companies

Look for Experience and Expertise

When looking for a custom mobile app developer, start by looking at their experience and expertise. A company that has been there for several years is likely to have a portfolio and a proven track record and stability. Therefore, assess the type of projects they have successfully initiated and completed. Companies with a diverse portfolio across different industries demonstrate a wide range of skills as well as adaptability.

Specifically, consider whether they have experience and expertise in your industry. This is because industry-specific knowledge can significantly improve the relevance and quality of your app. For instance, a company that has developed multiple e-commerce apps will have valuable insights into user behavior, feature prioritization, and security concerns unique to that specific sector.

Review Portfolios

It’s crucial to thoroughly review a company portfolio. Evaluating their previous works provides valuable insights into their development techniques, technical capability, innovation, and aesthetics. Evaluate projects that are similar to your requirements. For instance, if you need a retail app, check whether they have built retail apps before. Pay close attention to the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design principles. Check their app’s functionality and app performance. A strong portfolio will showcase a company’s ability to deliver technically sound, user-friendly, and high-quality apps. Of special importance is to download and use some of the apps developed by these companies. This will give you a glimpse of what to expect from your app.

Check Client Reviews and Testimonials

Client reviews and testimonials offer valuable insights into user satisfaction and a company’s reputation. It’s advisable to research reputable platforms such as Clutch, Upwork, and Google reviews to know a company’s overall standing and reputation with clients. These reviews provide an unbiased perspective on the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Additionally, it’s important to request references from past clients. Speaking directly to past clients allows you to ask detailed questions about their experience, including communication practices, adherence to deadlines, post-launch activities, and problem-solving abilities. High ratings and positive feedback are strong indicators of a company’s reliability and commitment to quality.

Technical Competence

Technology Stack

When evaluating the technical expertise of a mobile app development company, consider their familiarity with the latest technologies and frameworks. The tech stack chosen for your app can significantly affect its performance, speed, reliability, scalability, and compatibility with other apps and systems. A reputable company will demonstrate expertise working with modern tools and technologies such as Kotlin, Swift, Clutter, and React Native for IOS and Android app development.

The custom mobile app developer must also be able to advise on whether a cross-platform solution, developing one app for various platforms, or native development, developing different apps for different platforms, best suits your project needs. This will help balance factors like performance requirements, time to market, as well as budgetary constraints. The ability to identify and evaluate your business goals vis a vis your app’s requirements is a crucial factor in selecting a mobile app developer.

UI/UX Design

User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are crucial factors to consider when developing a mobile app. A user-friendly design not only enhances usability but also drives user engagement and user satisfaction. It’s crucial to evaluate a company’s design capabilities through its past works or work history. Look for apps that exhibit intuitive design, visually appealing interfaces, and seamless interactions. The design must align with your brand identity and resonate with your target audience. Assess how the company integrates usability testing and user feedback into its development processes to refine and improve the app’s interface.

Quality Assurance and Testing

Quality assurance and usability testing are essential factors in the app’s development stages to ensure bug-free performance and overall reliability. Inquire about the company’s testing procedures and methodologies. They should conduct comprehensive testing across various devices, different network environments, and various operating systems, and resolve issues before launch.

It’s crucial to ask questions about their automated testing and manual testing processes. Of special importance is to inquire about their regression testing to maintain the app’s stability after updates. A custom mobile app development company that’s committed to quality improvement will always have mechanisms for feedback collection.

This further enables the developer to iterate and enhance the app based on evolving needs and real-life usage. Choosing a company with strong technical expertise and proficiency ensures that your app not only meets industry standards but exceeds them. In addition, this helps to deliver a seamless user experience and achieve business objectives effectively.

Communication and Collaboration

Transparency in Process

Effective communication begins with transparency about the development process. A reliable mobile app development company will provide sufficient information about project timelines and project deliverables. Moreover, the developer will outline the phases of the project and provide deadlines. Regular updates and progress reports ensure that you are informed about the project status and outcomes. In addition, this allows for timely adjustments and improved decision-making.

Responsiveness

The responsiveness of a development team is crucial for smooth collaboration. The development team must be accessible and proactive in their communication; they must promptly address issues and concerns. A responsive team demonstrates a commitment to client satisfaction and demonstrates a willingness to attend to revisions and feedback throughout the development cycle. This flexibility in communication and feedback ensures that the final product aligns with the client’s vision and goals and ensures the product meets business requirements effectively.

Cultural and Time Zone Compatibility

Collaborating across different time zones may present challenges if not managed effectively. It’s advisable to choose a development company that demonstrates ease in working in different time zones. This will ensure that communication and project workflows remain consistent across different timelines. Understanding your business culture is also important as it ensures alignment between your development goals and the team’s approach. A company that values cultural compatibility will integrate seamlessly into your organization’s workflow. This will further foster a collaborative and productive partnership.

Budget and Pricing

Understanding Cost Structures

When evaluating budgeting and pricing with a mobile app development company, cost structures are an important factor to consider. Companies offer pricing quotations based on either hourly rates or a fixed price. A fixed cost provides clarity on the upfront cost of the project. However, an hourly rate can be more flexible for projects with evolving requirements. Therefore, it’s crucial to clarify what’s in the pricing. It’s important to clarify whether the price covers design, ongoing maintenance, testing, or development. Understanding these pricing components helps you budget effectively. It also helps avoid unexpected costs during and after development.

Value for Money

While cost is a significant development factor, it’s important to consider the value for money offered by the developer. Balancing cost with quality ensures that you get a high-quality product that meets your business requirements and user expectations. Choosing the cheapest option may lead to compromises in design, performance, speed, and post-launch support.

Choosing the cheapest option may potentially affect the app’s success and longevity. Instead, it’s advisable to prioritize a custom mobile app development company that offers competitive prices while showcasing a strong portfolio, positive reviews, and technical competence. It’s important to note that investing in a reputable development partner often yields long-term outcomes. It leads to higher satisfaction levels and fewer risks for both the client and app users.

Post-Launch Support

Maintenance and Updates

Post-launch support is important for your app’s long-term success. A reliable app development partner will offer ongoing support and maintenance to ensure your app remains relevant and secure. This includes regular updates to adapt to ongoing software upgrades, feature enhancements, and security patches. The development company must have robust procedures in place to handle and resolve issues promptly. These include issues that may arise post-launch, thus minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth user experience.

Scalability

Scalability is another crucial aspect of post-launch support. As your business grows and user demands evolve, your app must be able to accommodate increased traffic and new features seamlessly without compromising on its original functionality. A forward-thinking custom mobile app development company will design the app’s architecture with scalability in mind. Most importantly, this will allow for easy integration with other apps or features without major disruptions to the app’s function. Future-proofing your app involves identifying and recognizing the possibility of future needs and technology trends. In addition, this ensures your investment in app development continues to provide value. Future-proofing ensures that your app remains competitive.

Why Choose NS804? Your Custom Mobile App Development Partner

Experience and Portfolio

NS804 boasts a diverse portfolio of different companies across several industries: finance, education, healthcare, retail, and commerce. With exceptional experience in custom mobile app development, NS804 has delivered innovative solutions that have enhanced client operations and customer engagements. In addition, client satisfaction and positive reviews highlight NS804’s commitment to excellence as well as customer satisfaction. Satisfied clients praise NS804 for their communication, professionalism, and ability to deliver projects within budget and on time.

Commitment to Quality and Support

NS804 prioritizes quality throughout the development cycle – from initial conception to post-launch support. As a custom mobile app development company, the firm adheres to rigorous development practices, ensuring quality and compliance. In addition, the company is committed to continuous improvement, building apps that meet the highest standards of quality, reliability, security, and usability. NS804 dedication to ongoing support means they are committed to maintaining and enhancing your app long after its launch. Notably, this provides peace of mind and ensures continued success.

Contact NS804 today to bring your app’s vision to reality.

App User Acquisition: How To Attract And Retain Users In 2024

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Mobile app user acquisition is a long and complex process that will inevitably consume your time and resources as an appreneur or developer. While that may sound scary, it’s a process you can master and gradually reduce the time and money you need to make it worthwhile. Of course, you can make things easier for yourself by partnering with an established studio like NS804 to help you navigate those rough user acquisition waters.

Whichever path you choose, it’s worth knowing what the user acquisition process entails. We won’t say it’s easy because it’s not, especially with the overly stiff competition you will encounter in the app stores. Google Play is a good barometer of what to expect in 2024.

In February, around 52,000 apps hit the store, which is significant but also denotes a downward trend in app releases. Five years ago, during the same period, approximately 141,000 apps made it to Google Play. While this does show an environment with less competition than before, it also projects many hard truths about the current state of the mobile app environment.

In previous years, it was easier for developers to release low-effort, buggy, and even malicious malware-infected apps. That period is no more, as Google Play follows in the footsteps of the App Store. That means the app stores have no tolerance for apps with poor usability and violate user privacy and safety.

Inevitably, you have more hoops to jump through for your next release since the bar is set higher. So, your app user acquisition strategy for 2024 is more involved. Both the app stores and the users demand more from you, and you need to deliver to attain success and retain it for the long term. 

Why Does Mobile App User Acquisition Matter?

Mobile app user acquisition is a thorough and involved process for obtaining new users for an application, primarily for mobile devices. For this process to succeed, it’s necessary to implement several marketing and promotional strategies that will inevitably increase the rate of downloads and installations of an app.

The best app marketers know that it’s crucial to attract users who are the likeliest to engage with the app. For example, the target users for a dating app like PreVue are those seeking serious relationships. So, it makes little sense to market this kind of app to those who are into the hookup culture and short-term relationships.

Furthermore, app marketers will use advertising and other promotional channels to reach the app’s potential core audience. They will also implement App Store Optimization (ASO) and finetune it to ensure the app enjoys a high visibility and conversion rate in both the App Store and Google Play. Several ASO techniques will also apply to the growing number of third-party app stores available, even for iOS devices.

Without app user acquisition, it’s almost impossible to attract a large enough audience to cover development costs. While you’ll hear about a few apps gaining traction due to word of mouth and organic growth via ASO, these are edge cases. Unfortunately, most apps fail due to a lack of marketing efforts, which only underlines how crucial this process is for releasing mobile apps in 2024 and beyond.

What Steps Are Necessary For App User Acquisition?

It’s necessary to follow these steps to start acquiring users for your app:

  • Pinpoint your target audience: Find the demographic data, behaviors, and interests of your app’s potential audience. Then, tailor your marketing efforts to target this audience as effectively as possible.
  • Implement ASO: Optimize your app’s title, keywords, description, and visual assets. All these steps will help improve its visibility and ranking in all relevant app stores.
  • Create appealing visuals: All your app’s icons, screenshots, and videos must captivate user attention while showcasing the app’s key features. If you do this right, it will dramatically increase your app’s download numbers.
  • Targeted advertising: Use several online and social media ad networks to broaden your reach and grow your audience. But be mindful of your ad spend and always A/B test all your ad campaigns.
  • Work with influencers: Reach out to influencers so that they can promote or endorse your app to their followers. While this is an effective way to gain additional exposure for your app, it will also come at a cost since many influencers charge according to their audience size.
  • Social media marketing: Build your community on the most popular social platforms by creating content your target audience will enjoy and share. However, this is a time-consuming process that you may want a digital marketing agency to handle for you.
  • Start a referral program: Motivate your existing audience to refer friends and colleagues to download your app by offering them rewards or exclusive content.
  • Encourage user reviews and ratings: Always ask satisfied users to leave reviews and ratings, as these help potential users to try your app. If users leave negative reviews, courteously respond to these and make the necessary improvements to your app based on user feedback.

Should I Try Content Marketing To Acquire New Users?

Content marketing is tricky to pull off successfully, especially if you don’t have any prior experience in this approach. If you don’t know how to create compelling and informative blog posts, videos, or podcasts, it’s best to avoid content marketing. Moreover, you’ll need to create and share lots of content consistently, which will take up many hours of your valuable time.

Alternatively, you can hire experts who can create content on your behalf, but that will come at a cost. If your budget allows for this, content marketing will provide several benefits.

Initially, you’ll grow audience awareness of your brand and your app. Users love to read blog posts or watch videos about how apps start from the concept phase and enter production. They also enjoy developer interviews and behind-the-scenes content, giving them an insider’s view of the app development process.  

All this will help your potential audience feel more connected to your brand and its app. So, you’ll drive them down the marketing funnel from the awareness stage onto the consideration stage if you’ve kept their interest. If you’ve built enough trust and conveyed your app as a solution to your audience’s problems, you’ll drive them further down the funnel and increase your conversion rates.

If enough time and effort goes into content marketing, it will significantly help your app user acquisition efforts. A side benefit of content marketing is that it will make you and your brand come across as experts in your field or market segment. But only if your content is available on a high-ranking website you own or other authoritative websites, video channels, or podcasts.

Is The Freemium Model Effective For App User Acquisition In 2024?

Yes, the freemium model is still effective, but with a few caveats. As part of your app’s marketing strategy, you must fully comprehend your target audience. Are they the kinds of users who prefer freemium apps, or do they detest the model? If they’re in the latter camp, your app will fail upon launch, and you’ll need to make several crucial changes very quickly, at additional costs to you.

The freemium model only works if your users are willing to pay for a premium version of your app but still need to try a free version first. Even with the reduced feature set of the free version, users must accomplish a few critical tasks with your app to appreciate its value. If your freemium app conveys all this effectively, it will be easier to convert users to the premium version.

However, the freemium model works best with apps that attract massive audiences. In the gaming sphere, Fortnite, the third-person perspective (TTP) looter shooter, is free to play but employs an in-game currency called V-Bucks so that players can purchase upgrades.

Outside gaming, Tinder, the popular dating app, has converted a percentage of its most loyal users into paying customers. Then, there’s Dropbox, the chart-topping cloud storage app that built its business on providing free storage to users. And users that need additional storage are more than willing to pay extra for the convenience that Dropbox provides them.

Therefore, if you wish to adopt the freemium model for your app, ensure that it can attract and retain a very large user base. This choice will also affect all the frameworks and application programming interfaces (APIs) you use to build your app since you’re building an app designed to scale. 

How To Retain Users With Enhanced Engagement?

No matter how well you’ve marketed your app and how many downloads it attained, it’s easy to lose users due to churn. Thus, you want to implement effective methods to retain these users for the long haul. Of course, you should use churn analysis tools to pinpoint why users lose interest in your app. But you can radically reduce churn from day one by taking the following actions:

  • Better onboarding: While this applies primarily to new users, existing users benefit from an easy-to-understand onboarding process. Whenever you roll out new updates and features, use videos and motion graphics to explain these cohesively.
  • Implement push notifications: Users who have downloaded your app but rarely use it need an occasional nudge. You can do this with push notifications so long as you don’t inundate your users with too many. Instead, keep your notifications focused on new features that add value or offer personalized solutions to each user’s needs or interests.
  • Reward system: Don’t allow your app user acquisition efforts to go to waste, so implement a well-strategized reward system. Incentivize your users to try new features or use your app for longer with rewards at timed intervals.
  • Gamification: Add a game-like experience to your app and combine it with your reward system to keep users hooked. Let users unlock cool extras like badges or gain entries on a scoreboard via a well-implemented gamification strategy.
  • Boost user social media activity: Many users enjoy sharing various aspects of their daily activities on their favorite social platforms. Make it easy for them to share fun and quirky in-app experiences with other users with a single tap.

What Technical Aspects Help Retain Users?

You must treat your app as an ongoing project that consistently receives regular updates, features, and improvements. This is crucial because users quickly lose interest in apps that don’t receive any updates after long intervals.  

Users expect your app’s user interface (UI) to improve and reflect the current trends in design and usability. If you enhance the look and feel of your app regularly, then you’ll retain your users even if new competing apps emerge in the marketplace.

Your app’s performance must also improve with each major update. Furthermore, users must enjoy a similar or better level of performance when they upgrade their phones. And when they upgrade the operating system (OS) on their devices, they should not experience any performance degradation.

Don’t forget to plan a roadmap for your app’s upcoming features. These must align with your business goals, your app’s position in the market, your marketing plan, and the feedback you received from users. You may also need to offer a response to competing apps when they introduce new features that your app lacks. Always communicate about an upcoming update of new features to your users to keep them excited and to retain them. 

In Conclusion

App user acquisition is not for the faint-hearted since it’s long, complex, and often challenging. But it’s a necessary process you must undertake if you wish to gain the maximum visibility, downloads, and installations your app can potentially attain. Furthermore, you must work on your app’s user engagement to retain the users you’ve already gained. 

User churn is a very real problem you can’t risk ignoring, so ensure you take the necessary steps to deal with it effectively. If all this seems too convoluted or troublesome and you’d prefer to work with a professional studio to handle all the minute details, we’re here to help. Contact NS804 today to learn how we can assist you in acquiring users and keeping them engaged for your next app project!

Promoting your App through Apple Search Ads

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Apple providers Apple Search Ads as an advertising service to help developers promote their apps. Developers can set up ad campaigns with predetermined monthly budgets and have them displayed to relevant users. With over 2 million apps listed on the App Store, gaining visibility is extremely difficult. A paid campaign allows developers to showcase the best features of their apps. With a steady funnel of users flowing to download their apps, an app can generate a critical mass of users, which then puts it on the road to long-term sustainability.

Basic vs Advances

When developers create their Apple Search Ads account, they can either choose to use a basic or advanced option. A basic account allows a user to set up a simple campaign where they just select the app they want to promote and their monthly budget. Apple’s technology uses the app’s metadata to automate how and where ads are displayed. The account owner, though, still gets a simper dashboard to track campaign performance.

An advanced account places more control in the account owner’s hands. The advanced account is more likely to be used by advertising professionals and agencies on behalf of clients. They can choose to have ads placed on search results, on the Today tab, and in other places for greater visibility. Whereas ads on a basic account are charged at a cost per install, the advanced account would have ads charged per tap. As expected, the account has a more detailed reporting tool and a myriad of recommendations for campaign improvement.

Why Is Search Ads A Must for Developers

Apple Search Ads is a powerful tool in the arsenal of any developer regardless of whether their app is a mass market product or a niche one. First, the tool is powerful in increasing the discoverability of an app. By just using the app metadata, Apple Search Ads will place an app in relevant search results. Users who are on the lookout for specific solutions are therefore likely to install and try out your app.

The pay-per-tap or install model applied by Apple Search ads is also quite cost-effective for developers who have great products. Users who click or install an app are considered high-quality leads. They are more likely to end up as customers. Paying for such leads only means that the cost of customer acquisition will be low in the long run.

Using Apple Search ads is a great way to create synergy with your app store optimization strategy. While app store optimization increases organic visibility and discoverability, ads serve to maximize the number of eyeballs on the app.  The two can complement each other. By taking feedback on which keywords and visuals are performing better, this information can be used for such things as app descriptions and product pages.

Making the Most of Apple Search Ads

Finding success through Apple Search Ads is a result of sustained efforts and well-planned strategies to build a brand, gain visibility, and convert leads into revenue-generating customers. The rest of the article dwells on specific best practices for developers using Apple Search Ads to drive new customer acquisitions.

Carefully Planned Campaigns

Great campaigns must be well orchestrated from start to finish. There are multiple constraints in any marketing campaign, and the plan must consider this. A recommended best practice is to have multiple campaigns under one account. You could have a brand campaign, a category campaign. competitor campaign, a discovery campaign, and a generic campaign. You then could have keywords and ad groups attributed to each campaign group.

Brand campaigns will have keywords that are specific to your company. Category campaigns encompass keywords relevant to what the app does and the genre under which it falls. Competitor campaign keywords will be mainly focused on other apps that provide the same service as yours.

A well-organized structure ensures your ads have specific and measurable targets and they complement each other. The structure also allows for the effective spreading of the available budget so that areas with the highest return get the most while also ensuring no base remains uncovered.

Thorough Keyword Research

A common mistake Apple Search Ads users make is to slack on proper keyword research. The result is often inefficient use of their advertising budget. Proper keyword research involves using a keyword planner to find statistics on keywords. It also involves looking at the keywords competitors are ranking for and the ones they are bidding on.

There is a feature called Search Match within Apple Search ads that allows users to connect ads with queries. This feature is helpful when attempting to choose which keywords to prioritize for a particular campaign.

Lastly, the use of synonyms is a proven way to expand the pool of keywords. Through this, you may find high-volume search keywords that competitors may not be focusing on.

Negative Keyword Research

You can use negative keywords to add precision to your ad campaign. A negative keyword prevents your ads from being triggered if a person includes the keyword in their search. It is sometimes a good practice to include certain keywords as negative keywords in one campaign when they are the primary keywords in another campaign. This could help prevent an overlap between campaigns and possibly improve overall budget efficiency.

Curate App Metadata with Care

As a developer, it is important to ensure your app’s metadata reflects what exactly the app intends to fulfill. The title, subtitle, and descriptions should not be intentionally misleading. The risk is that the app may attract a large number of people who are not the true target audience. There has to be a balance between the attraction or engagement garnered from ads and relevance. It is not beneficial for an app to appear in search results that are not related to the app’s core functionality.

Carrying out multiple A/B tests for variations of the metadata could help decide on what to settle on. For instance, you could have two versions of an app’s description displayed to separate audiences. Both descriptions would carry the same keywords but have different results in terms of engagement. The same goes for the choice of a name for an app. It should be powerful and memorable as well.  Carrying out empirical tests before launch would be ideal.

Multiple Product Pages

Just as with metadata, it is possible to have different product pages displayed in ads for different target audiences. It is possible to create up to 35 different product pages and this is now seen as a best practice in app advertising. It allows the developers to capitalize on the versatility of an app by showing its different pages and functionalities to relevant audiences.

While creating multiple product pages may seem a daunting task, it ensures that the return on the advertising investment is higher than it would be with just a single page. It may be worthwhile working with professionals to create the different variations of the product page.

Optimizing the Campaign

Apple Search Ad’s reporting tools should be used to continually adjust and optimize your campaigns. Monitoring impressions will reveal well-performing ads versus non-performing ones while you could also adjust your bids on important keywords. The keyword volumes are also changing every so often. As such, keyword research must remain a continuous process within the team so that the available budget is directed toward the most effective areas.

The development team should also review performance from a creative angle. See what creative material yields the best results and double down on it. Normally, the team would have to go through multiple iterations of creative approaches until they settle on one that seems to work best.

Studying the Competition

The competition in the App Store is fierce and only a small percentage of all apps end up as viable and profitable businesses. As such, the space can be seen as a zero-sum game where your success might push a competitor out of the market. It is imperative to monitor what other apps in your category are doing, both in terms of advertising and design.

Find out which keywords they are ranking for because this may help you find gaps to fill. Study their creative assets because new trends are always emerging. Your creative designs should help your app stand out.

Lastly, settle and double down on a bidding strategy. With a big budget, you may decide to bid higher for keywords that your competitor is using. However, a more realistic approach would be to go for variations that allow you to still funnel customers to your app but at a lower cost.

Post Install Performance

One way to further track the performance of a campaign is to monitor the post-install events. Certain actions would signal that a user is likely to keep using an app and can certainly be classed as a successful customer acquisition. Launching an app, completing the registration process, or watching an in-app user guide can all be tracked for a more accurate estimation of the cost of user acquisition.

Post-install events could help to identify specific issues with app features or performance. For instance, if a lot of users do not complete the registration process, it could be a result of the process being too long or the registration feature not working as smoothly as initially intended. This is how an app’s development roadmap evolves organically over time.

Staying Updated

Slight tweaks in Apple Search ads policies and industry trends could make a huge difference in the app advertising landscape. Developers have a responsibility to keep up with the changes both within the platform and the advertising space in general. Beta-testing new features ahead of the competition could give you an unbeatable lead.

A need to strongly focus on return on investment cannot be understated. With multiple campaigns in one account, funds should go towards ad groups and channels with the highest return.

A world-class user experience within the app strongly compliments the advertising efforts. A smooth registration and sign-in process helps to ease any skepticism that first-time users may have about an app. Quick responses to concerns about glitches and bugs have a strong bearing on brand perception. No amount of brand campaigns can paper over poor user experience.

Combining Search Ads with Other forms of Advertising and Marketing

An app listed on the Apple store could benefit from other channels of advertising besides Apple Search Ads. Social media channels are particularly effective because a user who clicks on a post lands on the app download page. Some apps would benefit from awareness campaigns done through influencers. Mentions on podcasts and videos go a long way in building top-of-mind awareness for brands.

Throughout any campaign, all decisions should be data-driven. Behavioral targeting has helped to make campaigns highly nuanced. Users can be re-targeted based on past actions, such as having installed an app before but not using it frequently.

Work with NS804

Creating successful Apple Search Ads campaigns requires a lot of planning and exquisite implementation. Careful thought must go into planning objectives and the metrics to track. The team must determine the different campaign buckets to use and the keywords for the different ad groups. As highlighted, Apple Search ads complement the App Store optimization efforts.

Throughout the Search Ads campaign, the team has to monitor metrics, iterate different versions of ads, and study the detailed reports from Apple’s Search Ads dashboard. They must see audiences through different targeting lenses including demographics, device types, and customer types. It is prudent to have ads that target users based on the different existing segmentations.

All promotional efforts are likely to fail if the app itself fails to meet customer expectations. Building a truly world-class app is the only way to guarantee sustainable success for an app. Finding the right app development partner is the first step in this journey. At NS804, we pride ourselves in delivering world-beating iOS and Android applications for businesses in all sectors. With decades of experience in our team, we deliver projects on time and budget. We advise on every stage of the app development process, including launch and promotion.

To discuss your app development needs, reach out to us today.

Google AdMob: Understanding Mobile App Monetization

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Developing a mobile app is difficult and often costly, so you must find a way to receive a just reward for all that hard work. One of the most efficient ways to do that is with Google AdMob, an advertising network that serves ads specifically for mobile apps. And while it is a popular Google service, it isn’t only for Android but also iOS devices.

But you may think that AdMob, or in-app advertising in the general sense, isn’t a great way to monetize your app. You may have heard horror stories of appreneurs and developers spending thousands of dollars on AdMob ads and receiving few downloads. Or they may have received hundreds of thousands of downloads, but revenue results were worse than expected.

The hard truth is that Google AdMob mobile app monetization is very tricky. If you implement the wrong strategy, you’re bound to end up with a shortfall in your ad budget — which you don’t want! That’s partly why so many digital marketing and advertising agencies have mushroomed over the past decade.

If you’re skittish about implementing AdMob, you should consider hiring an agency. Alternatively, you can partner with a reputable and multi-award-winning studio, such as NS804, to help you with your ad strategy. Getting that ad strategy right is crucial, as it will drastically impact the long-term fortunes of your app.

Whether you partner with NS804, an agency, or go at it alone, it’s best to understand what mobile app monetization entails. That’s why we’ve prepared this in-depth article that covers the benefits, drawbacks, and pitfalls of AdMob. We also reveal a few strategies to help you with the platform and alleviate some of your concerns and fears.

What Do I Need To Know About Google AdMob?

Google AdMob is hardly new at this point. On April 18, 2006, a business school student, Omar Hamoui, founded the ad network in California. In November 2009, Google began the acquisition process of the ad network that concluded on May 27, 2010. On May 16, 2013, Google announced during their I/O 2023 conference that they would revamp AdMob by integrating technologies from AdSense to assist developers in boosting their app businesses.

But has AdMob truly lived up to the promise of helping app developers with their revenue streams? Yes, the massive market share of the Google Mobile Ads software development kit (SDK) speaks for itself.

Near the end of 2023, developers integrated the Google Mobile Ads SDK in most mobile games. Approximately 75% of word games for Android and 32% of all iOS mobile games had an AdMob implementation. It also attained a respectable 55% for the fan-favorite casual genre on Android. 

While this doesn’t mean that every developer enjoyed huge revenues from AdMob, it does show confidence in the platform. Furthermore, in almost every metric, AdMob outperforms its main competitors like Appodeal, Meta Audience Network, and Unity Ads. But it’s not necessarily wrong to partner with multiple ad networks, as this may prove beneficial as part of your overall ad strategy. 

How Does Google AdMob Work?

Google AdMob lets developers display targeted ads within their apps for users to interact with. While the platform initially supported Adobe Flash Lite, Palm WebOS, and Windows Phone, those legacy platforms are no longer supported. Android and iOS still enjoy plenty of support and will likely remain at the forefront of mobile app monetization for the foreseeable future.

To enjoy the benefits of AdMob, developers start by integrating the Google Mobile Ads SDK into their mobile apps after following several guidelines. The platform is free to use, but Google does expect advertisers, appreneurs, and developers to follow its guidelines closely.

The SDK allows banner, interstitial, rewarded, and native ads to appear within an app. Then, developers create ad units within the AdMob dashboard and set their optimal ad formats, placement, and targeting.

The AdMob platform is also where advertisers go to bid for ad space. They will pick the kind of ads that will engage users the most based on their demographics, interests, and consumption of app content. Developers earn revenue through AdMob primarily based on user interactions with the displayed ads, such as clicks, impressions, or ad views. 

But how does Google AdMob work out the revenue for appreneurs and developers? The platform weighs up advertiser demand, ad format, and user engagement. Also, the app category, user location, and device used impact revenue substantially.

The good news is that you’ll have access to a plethora of this information since AdMob offers you powerful analytics and reporting tools. These tools will help you stay current on your app’s ad performance, revenue, and user engagement. Having immediate access to this data will help you refine your ad strategy to increase your app’s revenue.

Why Is AdMob The Best Choice For Android Mobile Apps?

It offers seamless integration with the entire Android ecosystem, which is massive. Considering that Android runs on smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, Chromebooks, and Windows PCs, you’ll want to use a platform that lets you monetize across these devices, with some restrictions on PCs.

Furthermore, most integrated development environments (IDEs) and game engines allow easy integration with Google AdMob. So, if you’re using Android Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio, or the Unity Real-Time Development Platform, you won’t run into trouble implementing your ads. That’s not often the case with some lower-profile ad networks, as there’s often quite a bit of tinkering and back-and-forth with technical support to get things running.  

Since AdMob enjoys so much support, even from the development community, there’s always a solution readily available. There’s almost a never-ending availability of code, documentation, and plug-in solutions for integrating AdMob with your favorite programming language, framework, and tools. So, you’ll never be in a situation where you’ll waste time dealing with tedious integration issues when you could be fine-tuning your ad strategy.

Is AdMob Any Good For iOS Mobile Apps?

Yes, Google AdMob is just as good for iOS as its Android implementation. It could even be one of the better choices since Apple discontinued its ad platform, iAd, in 2016. However, it’s common practice for many iOS app developers to opt for ad mediation services like AdMob, AppLovin, and ironSource.

Ad mediation lets appreneurs, developers, and publishers access several third-party ad networks through a single SDK. It’s a powerful tool because it simplifies the integration process. It also helps to improve the effective cost per mille (eCPM) and advertisement fill rates by picking the most optimal network per ad request.  

But what is eCPM, and why should you care? It’s a metric that helps you determine what you’ll potentially earn after 1,000 ad impressions. On the other hand, cost per mille (CPM) is a metric that helps advertisers determine how much they’ll spend per 1,000 ad impressions. It’s crucial to keep tabs on these metrics, as they reveal conversion rates, the level of user engagement, and if ad campaigns are successful.

Be aware that a growing number of iOS mobile app developers prefer to use alternative monetization methods. Due to the App Store having more premium apps than its counterparts, developers will often focus on paid apps, in-app purchases (IAP), and subscriptions.

One of the main reasons why iOS developers choose this route is because there’s a greater tendency for iOS users to spend on apps than Android users. Some iOS developers and publishers have tried mobile ads but later found that the other types of monetization earn them more. As an appreneur or developer, you should always try different monetization strategies to boost app profitability. 

What Google AdMob Ad Strategies Should I Implement?

There are several AdMob ad strategies you must apply to increase revenue, which are as follows:

  • Strategic ad placement: Test different ad placements and monitor user engagement. Continue to tweak your ad placement until user engagement is satisfactory.  
  • Ad formats: Implement several ad formats and ensure to serve the optimal format for each target group.
  • Targeting options: Use the platform’s targeting tools to serve ads relevant to each user. Constantly fine-tune this process to increase user engagement and subsequent revenues.
  • A/B testing: Always conduct A/B tests soon after you implement an ad strategy to determine if it is succeeding or if it needs further fine-tuning.
  • Analytics: Use AdMob’s analytics and reporting tools to gain insights into your app’s ad performance, revenue generation, and user engagement. Be sure to use this information to help you further hone your ad strategies and boost revenues. 

What Can Cause A Drop In AdMob Ad Revenue?

Several factors can lead to a drop in Google AdMob ad revenue. One of the most common factors is ad fatigue. Users don’t enjoy watching the same ads continuously within short periods and will subsequently engage with them less. Unfortunately, this leads to declining click-through rates (CTRs) and poor ad performance.

A decrease in user engagement within the app can also impact ad revenue. That’s mainly due to a lack of new features, outdated content, and poor app performance. Another cause for concern is market saturation, which often leads to increased competition for ad space. Furthermore, this drives down ad rates and decreases revenue in tandem.  

The wrong ad placement and format will also negatively impact ad revenues. Furthermore, unexpected events, seasonal trends, and changes in user demographics often cause ad revenue fluctuations. 

What Mobile App Monetization Strategies Can Benefit My App?

Mobile app monetization strategies are essential to succeed in the app space. But it’s the most optimal strategy that will help you unlock higher earning streams from your app. Here are several mobile app monetization strategies you should consider:

  1. In-App Ads: Displaying targeted ads to your users is one of the easiest ways to earn revenue from your app. But you must carefully monitor all metrics in your analytics and respond accordingly when Google AdMob revenue drops off.
  1. Freemium Apps: If you release a free version of your app with restricted features, you can later persuade users to unlock those features by purchasing the premium version. Offering extra functionality or content is an effective way to drive revenue, provided your target audience is willing to pay.
  1. IAPs: If you plan to release a mobile game, consider selling additional content, upgrades, and virtual goods. Users unlock these by making small microtransactions, which eventually end up in large amounts, especially if you build a large audience.
  1. Subscriptions: More app developers are implementing subscriptions, as it’s an effective way of generating consistent revenue. Users will pay a monthly or annual fee to access additional content and features.
  1. Sponsorships: Partner with brands to sponsor specific content or features within your app. You will generate additional revenue, whereas your sponsors will build brand awareness. 
  1. Data selling: A monetization strategy becoming increasingly common is selling data to advertising networks. However, the process of selling data must be ethical, lawful, and transparent to avoid angering your users and drawing the attention of privacy advocacy groups. 

How Is AdMob Improving In 2024?

On March 12, 2024, during the online Google for Games 2024 Developer Summit, an announcement about AdMob generated some buzz. A new real-time bidding feature and an upgraded mediation toolkit for Google AdMob will launch soon.

Furthermore, publishers can craft more dynamic ads to appear in-game environments. These ads will blend seamlessly into these environments and become more immersive to boost user engagement. Currently, developers are experimenting with these via the AdMob closed beta.

Due to user privacy concerns, Google will focus more on geo-based solutions in specific countries. The goal is to help advertisers invest further in these efforts and to gain additional insights into the performance of Android and iOS campaign spend. Be sure to take advantage of these new features to serve more exciting ads to your users and be more mindful of their privacy.

The Bottom Line

If you’re considering implementing ads in your upcoming app, then Google AdMob is one of the better choices — if not the best. While there are no guarantees that you’ll strike it rich, a sound mobile ad strategy will keep you on track. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you integrate AdMob ads and derive high revenues from your apps.

iOS App Security Best Practices (2024 Guide)

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In the ever-changing digital landscape, iOS app security has never been more crucial. With the increasing reliance on mobile applications for many things ranging from healthcare to financial transactions, the potential risks associated with potential breaches continue to grow exponentially. In 2024 especially, app security is growing by depth and sophistication. Attackers used the latest technologies and exploited vulnerabilities. The consequences of security breaches can be catastrophic. They can range from financial losses and reputational damage to user trust and legal repercussions.

iOS App Best Security Practices

Overview of IOS Security Features: Introduction to Built-in IOS Security Features

Apple’s iOS operating system is renowned for its strong and impenetrable security infrastructure. The operating system is specifically designed to protect users against outside and inside vulnerabilities. This section of the article describes some of the built-in security features that make iOS a preferred platform for safe and secure mobile applications:

  • Sandboxing: Apple uses sandboxing, a unique capability that allows each app to operate separately and in isolation from other apps. In case one app is affected, it prevents malicious apps from accessing other apps or affecting them.
  • Data protection API: iOS uses encrypted data to ensure that any consumer or user data is inaccessible without the user’s password or authentication.
  • App Transport Security (ATS): This feature enforces secure connections between the app and its servers using HTTPs which in turn prevents and protects data in transit from tampering or interception.
  • Keychain Services: Provides a secure way to store sensitive information such as passwords and cryptographic keys, ensuring that only authorized apps have access to this sensitive data.
  • Face ID and Touch ID: Biometric authentication mechanisms offer a secure and safe way for user authentication and authorization within the app.
  • Secure Enclave: iOS uses a secure enclave which is essentially a dedicated coprocessor designed to handle cryptographic operations, thus ensuring the security and confidentiality of sensitive information.

These steps help provide better app security, leading to the reliability of apps without the worry of unauthorized access of breach of confidential information, including personally-identifying information.

Secure Coding Practices

Input validation and sanitization: preventing injection attacks

Input validation and sanitization are crucial defenses against injection attacks, such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and injection attacks. Ensuring that all user inputs are properly validated and sanitized is crucial in preventing malicious data from being processed by iOS apps. Input validation and sanitization may involve checking input lengths, formats, time, and ranges and escaping or completely removing potentially harmful characters.

Avoid hard-coded secrets: using secure volts and environment variables

Using hard-coded secrets like passwords, API keys, and cryptographic keys into the app’s source code is a risky move. It can lead to a breach if the code is exposed to an unauthorized third-party. Instead, it’s advisable for developers to use environment variables or secure vaults to store such sensitive information. Tools like AWS secret manager, Apple’s keychain services, and Azure Key Vault provide secure storage solutions. These solutions keep secrets outside the codebase and make them only accessible to authorized parties.

Secure API usage: Using https and handling API keys securely

Securing API usage is crucial for protecting data in transit and at rest and ensuring the integrity and confidentiality between the app and back-end servers. Using https is an essential step of protecting data sent over a given network. It protects it against tampering and interceptions by unauthorized third-parties. In addition, API keys must be managed securely. Avoid embedding them in the app’s code or storing them in insecure locations. Instead, use secure storage mechanisms and ensure API keys are rotated to minimize the risk of unauthorized access.

Regular code reviews and audits: importance of peer reviews and automated tools

Regular code reviews and code audits are crucial requirements for ensuring high security standards throughout the app’s lifecycle development. Peer reviews involve other developers examining the code to identify flaws, bugs, and incompliance with security standards. This collaborative approach ensures identification of issues that individual developers might miss. Besides manual reviews, automated tools may help to scan the code for vulnerabilities. It may also help enforce coding standards and checking for common security issues. Tools like static application security testing SAST and dynamic application security testing DAST automate the identification of security flaws.

Authentication and Authorization

Implementing biometric authentication: using face ID and touch ID

Biometric authentication leverages unique physiological features of humans. These features include: facial expressions for the face ID and fingerprints for the touch ID. Physiological features are used to provide a highly secure and convenient way of authentication. Implementing these features in iOS provides a safer app experience as it ensures that only authorized personnel of these apps can access specific information or features. For instance, Apple’s Local Authentication framework simplifies the integration of biometric authentication in apps. This allows developers to easily prompt their target users for either face ID or touch ID when using the app.

OAuth and OpenID Connect: secure authentication protocols

OAuth and OpenID are industry-standard protocols for secure authentication and authorization. The former provides a protocol for delegated access. It allows app users to grant third-party apps access to only a limited access to their resources without accessing crucial and sensitive information. On the other hand, Open ID Connect which is built on top of OAuth 2.0 adds a layer of protection which is an identity layer. This allows the app to verify the identity of the user by looking at their basic profile information. Implementing these protocols ensures that authentication processes are secure and robust, thus reducing the risk of credential theft and unauthorized access.

Role-based access control: managing user permissions effectively

Role-based access control (RBAC) is a popular mechanism of managing user permissions effectively in an app. With RBAC, access rights are granted based on the roles assigned to individual users. This ensures that users have only information and access rights for their roles. This role-based access control minimizes the risk of unauthorized access to protected or sensitive information. Implementing RBAC means effectively defining roles and permissions and enforcing them throughout the app’s security policy. For instance, in an e-commerce app, users may include: vendors, administrators, and users with roles and permissions granted according to each person’s needs. By effectively managing user permissions, developers can ensure that the principle of least privilege is enforced. This helps enhance overall security.

Data Encryption

End-to-end encryption: protecting data during transmission

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a crucial step of protecting data during transmission as it’s moving from the sender to the recipient. This encryption ensures that only the communicating persons can read the messages being transmitted. In the context of iOS, implementing end-to-end encryption means that information moving from the app to the backend servers is fully encrypted. This is done so that even if it’s intercepted, unauthorized users cannot decode the message. This is usually achieved through robust encryption protocols such as Transport Layer Security. By enforcing E2EE developers can ensure that sensitive information like personal names and financial transactions are protected against intrusion or third-party unauthorized access.

Encrypting sensitive data: best practices for data at rest

Encrypting data is a crucial step of protecting and safeguarding information stored inside a device. This includes: user data, application information, and any other piece of information or data that shouldn’t be accessed by unauthorized users. Best methods of protecting data at rest involve using robust encryption protocols such as Advanced Encryption Standard AES and using the built-in encryption features of IOS. Apple provides robust encryption protocols. These protocols include: data protection APIs that help developers specify different levels of data protection standards based on the sensitivity of data. This means that even if the device is stolen or lost, it doesn’t release sensitive information without correct authentication credentials.

Using iOS crypto libraries: using commoncrypto and security framework

iOS provides robust and scalable crypto libraries such as commoncrypto and security frameworks. These frameworks help developers with encryption, decryption, and common cryptographic operations within their applications. For instance, commoncrypto contains a wide range of cryptographic functions, including hash functions, symmetric key encryption, and HMAC (hash-based message authentication code). On the other hand, the security framework extends these capabilities by providing high-level functionalities for certifications, secure storage, and managing keys. By using these encryptions, developers can leverage different encryption schemes that are tailored to their app’s functionality.

Secure Data Storage

Keychain for sensitive data: storing data and tokens securely

The iOS keychain is a secure storage service provided by Apple. It is designed to store small quantities of sensitive information such as tokens, passwords, and cryptographic keys. It’s highly advisable to use the iOS keychain to store sensitive information as it’s considered highly robust and well-secure. Its robust security features include: automatic management of permission-based controls and hardware-backed encryption. Data stored on the chain is only accessible through a key stored in the app. This key ensures that even if the device is compromised, the data remains safe and secure. The keychain further entails sharing credentials across multiple apps developed by the same team. This enhances seamless collaborations and teamwork.

Core data and SQLite encryption: encrypting databases within the app

For applications that require storing large amounts of data, SQLite and Core data are the mostly used databases in the iOS ecosystem. However, storing data in these applications without encryption can potentially expose your data to unauthorized access if your device is compromised. To mitigate this risk, developers should encrypt their Core data and SQLite databases. One approach of doing this is by using SQLCipher which provides transparent encryption for SQLite databases. By encrypting database files, developers can ensure that even if the hardware is compromised or the physical devices accessed without permission, the data remains secure. This encryption must be coupled with secure key management practices like storing IOS keys in the iOS keychain.

NSFileProtection: protecting files stored by the app

The NSFileProtection is a feature provided by Apple that allows developers to specify different levels of security for files stored in their apps. By applying appropriate NSFileProtection attributes, developers can decide when files can be accessed depending on the phone’s lock state. The most secure option is the ‘NSFileProtectionComplete’ which ensures that all files are inaccessible when the device is locked. This means that even if the device is lost or stolen, the stored files cannot be accessed without the correct authentication credentials. The user will have to authorize their files to be accessed. Using NSFileProtection ensures that all files are protected such as cached data, configuration files, and user documents.

Network Security

App Transport Security ATS compliance: ensuring all connections are secure

App Transport Security is a feature introduced by Apple to enforce secure connections when information is transmitted from the app to backend servers. The ATS requires that all apps use HTTPS instead of HTTP to ensure that all data is encrypted during transmission. This form of end-to-end encryption prevents eavesdropping, interceptions, tampering, and any forms of interception. To fully comply with ATS, developers must ensure their servers are compatible with or support TLS 1.2. ATS compliance is mandatory for apps distributed throughout the App Store, making it a crucial aspect of network security.

Certificate pinning: prevent man-in-the-middle attacks

Certificate pinning is a security technique that prevents man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks by associating a specific server’s certificate with the app. This means that the app only recognizes and trusts the server’s certificate. Any attempts to intercept or spoof the communication with a forged certificate will result in detection and blockage. Implementing certificate pinning involves embedding the server’s public certificate within the app and comparing it to the server’s certificate during each connection. If the certificates do not match, the connection is disconnected. It’s important to note that while certificate pinning adds a lot of advantages and benefits, it needs careful management. This is so especially during certificate renewal to avoid unnecessary network disruption or interruptions.

Secure socket layer and transport layer security: importance of updating security protocols

Secure socket layer (SSL) and its successor transport layer security (TLS) protocol are security protocols designed to protect data transmitted over large networks. Leveraging advanced versions of these protocols is crucial for protecting against known vulnerabilities and ensuring robust encryption. TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 are the latest standards. They offer better security features than the older versions SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0. Developers must configure their servers to use the latest protocols, TLS 2.0 or TLS 3.0 and disable outdated versions. This upgrading or reconfiguring ensures the app’s data transmissmission are protected by strong encryption algorithms. It also ensures resilience against modern attack vectors.

NS804 – Bringing Mobile App Security in iOS Apps

NS804 is a leader in custom mobile apps, specializing in both Android and iOS applications. With ever-changing preferences surrounding mobile app security, NS804 understands that designing a secure app is key to succeeding in the current business landscape. Whether you’re a healthcare organization, an educational institution, an e-commerce platform, or a fintech firm, security supersedes every other priority or feature your app possesses. This is why we believe in designing secure mobile apps that safeguard against sensitive information like personally-identifying information and protected health information.

Android App Security Best Practices (2024 Guide)

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Security breaches on mobile devices cost trillions of dollars, causing businesses to suffer trillions in losses today. A single security breach can lead to the death of a company owing to loss of trust and legal repercussions. Android developers today must implement the highest possible levels of security measures to protect their apps from existing and evolving threats.

Regulators in many jurisdictions worldwide are implementing stricter standards in data protection. A reputation for high-security standards can give a company an edge over its competitors. Therefore, there is an incentive to implement world-class security measures. This post highlights the best practices in Android app security implementation.

HTTPS Network Connections

A lot of security breaches happen when data is in transit. Important details such as login credentials and financial information, are targeted at this point. By using a HTTPS protocol for network connections, a developer is assured of encryption of all data passing between the app and the server.  If there are any hard-coded links in your app, they should all be updated to rely on the HTTPS protocol. This way, you can build trust in your app among the customer community. It is also crucial to have an SSL certificate for the application.

Secure Authentications

Today there are numerous options developers can choose to strengthen the authentication process on their app. The first option is to implement two-factor authentication where a user first enters their password, which triggers the app to send a code sent as a text message or an email. The user is requiring entering the code before gaining access to the app. Biometric authentication could also help to increase the security of an app while also smoothing out the user access process because it is faster than two-factor authentication.

Android Application Sandbox

The Android Application Sandbox environment allows containerization of apps to they do not interact or share resources. Each app has a unique ID with specific privileges and limited interaction with the operating system. The environment also allows for auditing of every app’s activity  for detection of suspicious activity.

When building an app, developers must ensure the app data is not available to the ‘world’. In situations where an app needs to share data with another app, the use of a content provider would be a better implementation. Developers should follow existing guidelines for sharing different file types within the Android sandbox environment.

Carrying Out Proper Testing

Before an app is published, the development team should conduct rigorous testing both manually and with the use of automated tests. Automated tests can be done to help assess the overall vulnerability of the app and the recommended fixes. Penetration testing can be done by an ethical hacker to test how well an app can withstand threats such as social engineering. Experienced development teams are well placed to pre-empt the nature of threats an app can based on the nature of information it will access normal use.

Least Privilege

In cases where an app requires access to sensitive information or other features on user devices, the app should request access to only what is necessary. The least privilege approach minimizes the risk of information leakage. It is also best practice to activate runtime permissions, whereby an app expressly requests a user to grant access via a pop window on the screen.  Developers should be keen to explain clearly why the app requires such permissions. UI writers can help write the right copy to avoid over complicating the app for users.

Safe Code Practices

The choice of an untrusted API can easily compromise the integrity of an application. Developers must use trustworthy APIs in their projects.

Another best practice is to validate user input because they are a regular source of malware attacks. Input validation involves checking the format, length, and type of input data coming from users to ensure it matches what is expected. Sanitizing user input is equally as important as validating it.

Implementing role-based access helps to limit access to sensitive data on an app based on user roles. The creation of roles and privileges has to be well-thought-out during the design phase of app creation.

Third-Party Libraries

While third-party libraries are great for faster and easier functionality implementation, they should be used with caution. Developers should rely on libraries with good documentation and a strong user community where issues around security vulnerabilities are likely to be well discussed. A thorough security analysis of all libraries a developer intends to use is a good best practice.

Code Obfuscation

Code obfuscation is done for several reasons in software development. In many cases, it happens to protect intellectual property in cases where a third party may try to rewrite the code and recreate a software program. Developers will use an encryption tool so that the code becomes unreadable. In simpler cases, the team may simply replace any metadata that contains sensitive information and replace variable names with random ones while maintaining the functionality of the code.

One of the most popularized incidents of data breach happened in 2016 whereby the personal details of 600,000 Uber drivers were exposed. This happened after developers uploaded code on GitHub containing credentials to access cloud hosting accounts on AWS.  This goes to show the importance of obfuscation and why overlooking it could result in massive reputational damage even for a large company.

Creators of malware also tend to use obfuscation to make their programs hard to decrypt.

Regular Updates

Frequent app updates are important to secure an app from evolving security threats. Developers have a role to remain in touch with developments in-app security and how best to keep out threats. One of the best ways to ensure users keep updating their apps is to send push notifications to prompt. Adding new features regularly also makes users excited about downloading updated versions of an app. The best practice is to ensure that the app is using all the latest and most secure versions of its dependencies.

Constant monitoring and logging of activity on the server side helps to detect incidents or anomalies in user activity. App developers must respond promptly to such threats.

Understanding Android App Security-Related Laws

Any development team in 2024 must strive to understand the data protection and user privacy laws in their jurisdictions. The EU’s GDPR set a high bar for compliance which many other countries follow. So far, both Meta and TikTok have received hundreds of millions of dollars of fines for various contraventions of privacy laws in Ireland where GDPR is applicable. Serious offenses can result in penalties of up to 20 million euros or 4% of company revenue, whichever is higher.

Fortunately, there are concerted efforts, especially by cloud service providers to help development teams and businesses comply with these laws.

Still, businesses are expected to have a clear privacy policy available for users. A privacy policy will normally explain how businesses use the data they collect from users and how well they handle it.

Diligent Error Handling

Improper messaging in case of an error, while an app is in use, can lead to inadvertent disclosure of sensitive system information. Such information can be used for malicious intent. Messages shown to users should be written with this in mind. It is also a best practice to log all errors for further analysis and resolution.  In fact, for major applications, there should be a dedicated team to ensure all incidents are well analyzed. It is not enough to fix the error. The team has to assess the impact of every incident.

Proper Session Handling

Poor session handling can lead to potential session hijacks on applications. This is why banking apps or payment wallets require users to sign in again after a brief period of inactivity. Developers should use session timeout effectively on their apps. Having to sign in many times can be disruptive for users but it is imperative for any apps that carry valuable user information that is an easy target for hackers.

Secure Data Backup

Most apps today are hosted on the cloud, thus limiting the size of apps on devices. This is a great practice because it makes storage cheaper and safer. Developers should choose the correct data-redundancy option depending on the value of their data. In the case of an attack or other unforeseen events, the organization can always recover data. In situations where data synchronization between app and cloud data does not happen in real time, backups should be scheduled to happen as often as reasonably possible.

Secure Development Training

Continuous training is necessary for developers to build safe Android apps. Software development teams need access to learning materials covering emerging app security trends.  There is a need to focus on app security testing, debugging, and even disaster management. Team members should appreciate the true cost of data breaches to an organization and to end users when personal information is in the wrong hands.

A data breach at Marriott International Inc. in 2018 was estimated to have cost the company over $200 million. Over 500 million hotel guests had their personal information exposed. The model used to estimate the cost considered costs of notifying the guests, credit monitoring, replacement of cards, forensic work, and credit monitoring.  Credit monitoring involves looking out for evidence of fraudulent credit activity following a breach. The model used in Marriot’s case did not take into account potential fines for contravening GDPR and other privacy laws.

Training should happen regularly in software development teams because of the speed with which new threats keep emerging. Fortunately, a lot of training resources are available for self-paced learning.

Choosing an Android App Development Partner

As seen, there are numerous best practices developers must adhere to when building Android applications. These recommendations have emerged over time as technology evolves and attackers find new ways to target applications.

The use of cloud storage today, for instance, is preferred over local data storage because the latter is an easier target for attacks. Installing external devices to expand device storage capacity and copying app data there creates clear security concerns. The external storage device can be easily lost or stolen and accessed by a third party. As such, app data today should ideally never be stored on an external storage device such as a memory card.

Man-in-the-middle attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the transport layer of most apps. Proper encryption of information through the choice of correct network protocols is vital for data protection. Rigorous penetration testing and other forms of testing are quite important for ease of mind regarding an app’s security robustness.

By working with the right app development partner, you can build and implement a proper security strategy for your Android application. App security ought to start during the design phase and should not come as an afterthought. Our team understands this and implements best practices such as user input validation and sanitization throughout the app. The choice of libraries, APIs, and all app dependencies is well thought out before the code is written.

With tens of years of experience in our team, we have witnessed the evolution of Android application security threats. Through it all, we have successfully delivered multiple secure applications to clients in the most data-sensitive fields. We would love to hear from you too. Reach out to us for partnership on your next mobile application project.

What You Need To Know About Alternative iOS App Stores

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If there’s one thing that Apple has done exceptionally well — it’s to lock down its ecosystem — especially the App Store. Unlike how things work on Android, there are no alternative iOS app stores that come close to what’s available on Android. Apple has taken this hard-nosed approach to ensure a consistent and secure experience for App Store users.

While we can’t necessarily blame Apple for taking this approach, it does seem a little shortsighted. On the positive end of the spectrum, the App Store does offer a more secure, privacy-focused, and quality-driven environment than anything on Android. But on the negative side, this does limit where users can download their apps and what they can and cannot do with their devices.

One of the perks of being an Android user is the sheer freedom to download apps from several digital storefronts. It’s also easy to sideload apps, allowing developers to share Android apps via their websites or email. In many ways, the Android experience isn’t much different from that of a Windows PC, where users can access apps from various sources.

But this level of freedom also presents some risks, like the transmission of malware, viruses, and botnet miners. The latter targets a user’s digital wallet to steal cryptocurrency, which is becoming a more common scenario.

Undoubtedly, all this sounds extremely scary, and some will side with Apple’s approach of locking everything down. So, does this mean we won’t see any alternative iOS app stores pop up anytime soon? No, because alternatives are on their way. Below, we’ll delve deeper into this matter and outline several ways you can access apps outside the App Store.

Why Are Alternative iOS App Stores Necessary?

We only need to look at how Android users benefit from having alternatives to Google Play to understand the appeal. While Google Play does a stellar job of vetting developers and their apps, users often feel limited. That may sound strange, considering there were over 2.43 million apps on Google Play at the end of 2023, according to Statista.

But it’s not that Google Play has a quantity problem. As massive as it is, it just can’t fulfill the needs of all its users. There are app niches that only alternative stores seem to handle well.

For example, those who seek free and open-source apps built from libraries that don’t track users prefer to download their Android apps from F-Droid. What this store does so well is provide its users with full access to the source code of their apps from a repository. F-Droid compiles the apps from the publicly available code. However, you can build these apps alone, provided you sign the APK files with your key.

The entire process is very similar to how the source code of apps is verified and later compiled on Linux systems. It seems complicated and additional work for the user, but it exemplifies the open nature of F-Droid and the Android ecosystem.

An alternative gaming digital storefront where it’s easy to grab free and experimental indie games is itch.io. It’s a multiplatform site offering Android and iOS downloads, but only with a link to the App Store for the latter. Android titles are available as standalone APKs or via Google Play.

Many Android gaming sites in Asia offer NSFW gaming experiences. Due to the risqué nature of some of these titles, it’s unlikely that Google Play will ever offer them for download.

What Alternative iOS App Stores Existed During The Early Days Of The Platform?

The early days of iOS saw the debut of several unofficial alternative iOS app stores. On February 28, 2008, Jay Ryan Freeman, aka saurik — released Cydia for jailbroken iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad range of devices. While Cydia isn’t necessarily an app store in the true sense of the term, it does have digital distribution functionality.

Cydia is an advanced package manager that allows users to browse and download apps from a repository. These apps aren’t available on the App Store and are mostly free, with a few for sale.

While a Cydia Store that accepted payments via Amazon payments and PayPal became a reality, the developer reportedly terminated the store after experiencing issues with PayPal’s token authorization. On December 16, 2018, the Cydia Store ceased to operate, and the last stable version of Cydia made it to market on June 24, 2020.  

A more accessible alternative to Cydia is AppEven. Several advantages AppEven has over Cydia are that it’s easier to use and install, no Apple ID is necessary, and jailbreaking is not required. Furthermore, AppEven was known to run on iOS 9 through 13, but now it runs on all iOS versions.

It’s possible to download modified and paid apps for free from AppEven. Unsurprisingly, Apple doesn’t endorse alternative iOS app stores like AppEven and likely never will. Apple continuously revokes the certification of AppEven and the apps available through it, so it’s not possible to enjoy the smooth functioning of these apps without workarounds.

How Flash Gave iOS Users More Avenues To Discover Great Content? 

Another avenue for iOS users to access apps — particularly games — outside the App Store was via the many Flash game portals. Sites like Armor Games, Kongregate, and Newgrounds hosted some of the most creative Flash games by small developers.

But what was so special about Flash? Flash, a platform owned by Adobe, made it easy for indie developers to realize their game ideas and other creative endeavors. The accessibility of Flash was due to its programming language, ActionScript, an easy-to-learn interpreted language that ran within the Adobe Flash Player.

Released as a web plug-in, the Adobe Flash Player allowed users to enjoy games and other multimedia content in the browser. Undeniably, it was one of the most versatile cross-platform technologies available. It was also one of the few technologies that lived up to the write once, run anywhere (WORA) paradigm.

Thus, Flash games could run on a desktop PC, an Android smartphone, and any iOS device, provided there was a browser with the Adobe Flash Player plug-in. But not everyone was happy with this, especially not the late Steve Jobs. 

Why Steve Jobs’s Open Letter Killed Flash?

On April 29, 2010, the Apple co-founder and CEO made several scathing remarks about Flash in an open letter. Steve Jobs lamented the poor battery performance, security issues, and redundant nature of Flash in light of modern alternatives. Of course, given Steve Jobs’s prominent position in the tech industry, everyone took notice. After the open letter, there was a slow-going shift away from Flash. 

On January 12, 2021, Adobe began blocking all Flash content from running in the Flash Player and requested that users remove it from their systems. It’s sad to see the sunsetting of a technology that helped game developers and creatives build their careers. But Flash still lives on thanks to the Ruffle emulator, which runs natively on modern platforms and features a high degree of ActionScript compatibility. 

Nevertheless, the open letter by Steve Jobs changed the trajectory of Flash forever. Apple users soon lost several avenues to discover and enjoy content outside the App Store. Many Flash developers soon shifted to HTML5 and WebGL game development, but some of the magic and camaraderie of the Flash community was gone. 

Why Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) Caused Backlash?

Until now, the chances of legitimate alternative iOS app stores hitting the market were dire — and that’s putting things lightly. Apple had no plans to allow these stores on its platforms due to security and privacy concerns. But things will soon change due to pressure from advocacy groups, developers, and the European Commission.

Apple already faced scrutiny because of its policies on PWAs. Many developers and businesses that want to bypass the App Store will create and distribute PWAs. Developers build these using web-based technologies and languages like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Once built, the PWA is distributed on web servers and accessed via HTTPS.

That means any developer or business can distribute PWAs directly on their websites. The user will access the website with a desktop or a mobile browser. And with only a few clicks or taps, the user will download and install the PWA on their device. The process is so frictionless that it’s usually faster to download and install a PWA than an app from the App Store.

Furthermore, PWAs appear on the Home Screen with functionality like persistent authentication and notifications. It’s also common for PWAs to use fewer resources than native apps, which is advantageous for developers or businesses that want to distribute simple page-based apps.

Apple restricted PWAs from appearing on the Home Screen during the second beta release of iOS 17.4. However, there was some backlash from the Open Web Advocacy group and the European Commission, causing Apple to ease its stance on PWAs. Apple will now allow PWAs to appear on the Home Screen, provided developers use WebKit and adopt best practices as those for iOS native apps.

When Will Alternative iOS App Stores Be Available?

On March 6, 2024, the European Union (EU) implemented the Digital Markets Act (DMA), requiring Apple to let users install third-party stores and browsers. But this regulation only applies in EU countries and from iOS 17.4 onwards. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost to EU users who wish to use PWAs, as Apple will remove support for these in the region.

The introduction of alternative iOS app stores that closely mimic the stores on Android appears slim. Since Android runs on devices from different manufacturers, it’s common practice for each manufacturer to have an official app store. For example, Samsung has the Galaxy Store, Huawei has the AppGallery, and Xiaomi has the GetApps store.

Another big player in the Android space is Amazon, which has branded Android-compatible devices like the Fire range of tablets and TV sticks. Amazon serves users with apps and games via the Amazon Appstore, which runs on Android, Fire OS, and Windows 11 devices.

In a nutshell, many leading alternative Android app stores are so big and mature that anything similar will not appear for iOS. But iOS users can expect smaller app stores similar to APKMirror, APKPure, and Aptoide. There are also many game-specific Android stores and HTML5 game portals that may pursue the iOS EU market.

Will Third-Party iOS App Stores Appear In North America?

Apple has not revealed any plans for alternative iOS stores for the North American market. And it’s doubtful that Apple will change its position on this matter as it did with the EU.

But is this a hopeless situation for North American iOS users who crave alternative stores? Not necessarily, as rumors abound that Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite, may push forward with an alternative store. While it’s purely speculative now, Epic Games is one of the few companies willing to land a hard blow on Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem.

It’s no secret that Epic Games filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple back in 2020. The game developer accused Apple of taking anti-competitive and unlawful steps against users by necessitating them to use the App Store exclusively. Epic Games also claims that the App Store charges a 30% commission on all in-app purchases, and why Epic Games attempted to make Fortnite available outside the App Store.

Unfortunately, this move caused Apple to block Fortnite on the App Store. But users can play an older version of Fortnite natively or the current version via cloud gaming channels. Epic Games recently announced they will bring their game store and Fortnite to the EU for iOS devices. While there’s no news of an American store for iOS, some tech insiders and enthusiasts claim that it will appear in the foreseeable future. 

In Conclusion

Alternative iOS app stores are on their way, at least in the EU. While this is a positive first step, it would be great to see a similar move in North America and other territories. 

However, we understand Apple’s concerns about protecting user data and privacy and providing a consistent user experience across the board. A locked-down ecosystem isn’t necessarily a negative if users and developers see the value. Contact NS804 today to learn how we can help you build high-quality iOS apps that run natively!

What Android Developers Need To Know About Google Play Submissions (2024 Guide)

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Google Play Store is the original and biggest store for Android apps. As of 2024, there are over 3.3 million apps listed on Google Play Store. The store organizes apps into categories to help users find apps more easily. There are features such as charts indicating the highest rated and most downloaded apps in each category. It is a rich marketplace with stiff competition for visibility. Google also has policies that developers must abide by and every app must pass a review process before listing.

In this article, we explain all that developers must know about the Google Play Submission process in 2024.

Creating a Developer Account

Publishing an app on the Google Play Store requires a developer account. A standard account only lets you download apps and other forms of content on Google Play Store. A developer account has more features including publishing apps and receiving statistical data on such an app. A Google Developer account costs a single one-time fee of $25. The account owner has to provide their name and address for verification.

A developer account lets a developer into Google’s cloud environment for app building. From here, a developer can access services and tools such as Google AI Studio, TensorFlow, Keras, Firebase, and Google Play. The Play Store is not only meant for app listing but it also has tools to help app owners create engaging experiences for users and maximize app revenue.

Google Play’s Developer Policy Center

Google Play has explicit policies that developer account owners must comply with to remain part of the community. First, Google Play classifies certain apps as ‘restricted content’ and has policies on each. For financial services, for instance, any app that provides financial services must comply with local laws wherever the app is offered.  The goal is to protect users from potential financial risks.

Google Play also has a policy on the appropriate use of other people’s intellectual property. Impersonation is also prohibited, including where an app is presented in a way that might mislead target audiences.

It is important to read all of the policies including that on the appropriateness of content that targets children.

Following App Development Practices

The success of an app is highly dependent on app quality, even before its submission for listing on the Google Play Store. Developers must pay close attention to the performance and speed of their apps. By hosting app servers on the cloud, developers can reduce an app’s dependency on the device’s processing power as well as minimize battery drain. Other best practices include thoughtful UX writing for easier and more intuitive navigation. With the use of consistent design elements (icons, color schemes, and typography), developers can achieve a great-looking app.

Carrying out proper tests before submitting an app not only saves time but also minimizes the chances of going to market with a bad product. An app that is ready for the market should be responsive when users are interacting with it. In addition, remember that an average user has over 30 different apps installed on their device. A single app’s drain on resources such as CPU, battery, and memory must be reasonable. Developers must track such metrics against world-class benchmarks.

App Packaging

An Android Package file (APK) is the file format used to distribute Android mobile apps. Developers prepare this file by compiling their code as well as images and other assets necessary to run the app. All these must be digitally signed for authenticity.  Normally, a production release APK should be signed by a certified authority.

Google Play requires developers to version each APK they upload to distinguish it from previous releases. A useful feature is that developers can submit incremental updates containing only changes to the app. This means that end users need not download a large file. Updates, therefore, take a shorter.

Your Google Play Product Page

The Google Product Page is the page users see when they click on your app from search results or from a list in a category chart. The page contains information users need to decide whether to install an app or not. During the submission process, you are required to provide the following information that will feature on this page.

App Name

The name of the app can only have a maximum of characters. Developers have the option to use different names to localize the app in different markets and languages.

Short Description

This is a summary that tells users what your app does and its unique selling point. One best practice is to avoid having a call-to-action at the end, inviting users to install the app. If useful, you should localize the description too.

Screenshots

These are images of your app’s different pages. Google Play allows developers to submit screenshots of the app on different device types. Developers can upload up to 8 different screenshots for each device type.

Icon

An icon is meant to be a memorable image that communicates what your apo is about. A high-fidelity image is recommended as the icon is used in different locations in the Google Play Store.

Preview Video

A preview video is meant to capture the essence of your app’s user experience. It communicates what still images cannot. The video is hosted on YouTube and developers only submit a YouTube URL in the preview video field.

Pricing

Google Play provides pricing templates to help developers simplify the distribution of paid apps. However, developers can opt to create their own pricing structures with the option to localize or use universal pricing. Google Play takes a service fee for paid downloads and in-app purchases too.

The App Review Process

When publishing an app for the first time or when pushing an update, developers should expect that a review could take up to a week before approval. There are quite a few tests that an app must pass.

An automated checks process looks out for malware and compliance with Google Play technical requirements. The app should be compatible with different user devices and Android versions. If the app passes this step, there will be further checks on the app’s content, functionality, and overall user experience. Human reviewers carry out this process to ensure that prohibited content and low-quality apps do not get featured in the Store. Normally, developers fill a rating questionnaire as guidance on the age appropriateness of the app’s content. This must be verified.

There are cases where the developers may be asked for further information to aid the review process.

Other reasons for rejection include cases where an app plagiarizes content from another app. The automated checks run by Google Play are meant to prevent spamming, which is the publishing of an app multiple times. Instead, the store is designed to prioritize value for users seeking solutions.

If an app Is rejected, developers receive a detailed explanation of the reasons. There is an option to appeal the rejection through the Develop Console. The support team considers all additional information provided and there are cases where this leads to approval after an initial rejection.

App Store Optimization

App store optimization is the practice of understanding factors that affect your app’s visibility and taking the right actions to maximize such visibility. For any app category, there are thousands of apps seeking user attention. Only through a combination of high quality and app store optimization will the chances of getting a critical number of downloads increase.

Keywords are the primary method to improve visibility. An app’s description must feature relevant keywords users are likely to use in their search. In addition, if there are other marketing efforts taking place away from the Play Store, such as on blog posts and social media, that content has to be optimized for the right keywords.

As mentioned earlier, high-quality screenshots and app icons will affect the first-time impressions of potential users.

Encouraging happy customers to leave reviews is extremely important. People rely heavily on what real users think of apps before deciding whether to engage or not.  Positive reviews are worth much more than an inorganic marketing budget.

App Analytics

The Google Play Developer Console provides a rich pool of analytics tools for developers to understand how their app is performing. Some of the most basic metrics include total installs, active users, revenue generated, and reviews. Users can quickly understand their churn and retention rates from the number of uninstallations.

Another category of insights revolves around user engagement with an app. Besides the number of active users, developers can see the average length of user sessions, the number of times users log in in a day, and how long it takes before a user returns to the app. This information is used to infer user satisfaction and to make improvements over time.

Crash reporting.

Google Play provides crash reporting tools to help developers understand the nature of errors that users encounter and other information to help troubleshoot and improve the overall availability and stability of the app.

Ratings

App users can also benefit from Google Play’s breakdown of user ratings and reviews. It is not enough to see the average ratings of an app. Developers can benefit from seeing how average ratings are evolving. Besides this, there are tools to analyze user sentiment, which can help understand users’ reactions to feature changes and pinpoint areas for potential improvement.

Geography and Demographics

Developers receive a detailed report on how their app is performing across different regions and age groups. Other useful ways to break down the data are device type, language, and Android version. All this helps determine the nature of content to feature on the app. For instance, if an app is attracting a global audience, the content should be relatable to a worldwide audience.

Carrying Out Successful App Launches

Once an app receives the green light for publishing, it is essential to have a well-coordinated launch process. A pre-launch marketing campaign helps to build anticipation for the app. Social media, newsletters, and influencer campaigns are just some of the ways to gain attention and build up to the launch date. A lot of apps also tend to have a website from where users are redirected to app stores to download the app.

It is possible to do a beta launch of the app to a limited audience who get to test and review the app. This helps gather feedback used to improve the app before it is available in more markets. Such segmentation can be done through geography or by sending an invite link through newsletters.

Once the app is live, you can get it featured in magazines, blogs, influencer channels, and newsletters. Where appropriate, events that gather user communities could also be used to create a buzz around the app. App owners also have the chance to use promotional pricing to help boost downloads immediately after an app launches or during significant moments of the year, such as Black Friday.

App Maintenance and Updates

Developers should have a policy regarding app maintenance and updates. It is very likely that once an app launches, users will have suggestions to make on how the app can serve their needs better.  In addition, any bugs realized should be fixed within a short window before they become a reason for uninstalling the app.

Updates should be based on user comments as well as a product roadmap. The development team should also look out for evolving security threats and push necessary fixes to address them.

Finding the Right Development Team

For app promoters, finding the right team to build your app from scratch until its launch on the Google Play Store can be quite a challenge. The right team should possess the right skills and experience in handling mobile app projects from start to launch. Failure to keep up with Google Play technical standards and community guidelines can cause projects to stall at the launch stage.

At NS804, we endeavour to deliver world-class business applications. Regardless of the stage at which we meet you, our team will walk with you until the app is ready for market. To engage with us, reach out through our website here.

App Store Submissions For iOS Developers (2024 Guide)

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The App Store is undoubtedly one of the most successful digital storefronts ever conceived. And that’s proven by a barrage of App Store submissions, ultimately leading to approximately 36 billion iOS mobile downloads in 2024. Interestingly, Google Play’s 129 billion mobile app downloads overwhelmingly surpass the App Store’s download figures. But that’s due to the higher number of Android devices in circulation. 

Even with this notable difference, no appreneur, business leader, or developer should ignore the iOS marketplace. Consumers in the US and Western European territories prefer iPhones over all the Android alternatives. The brand recognition, better security, and premium quality of iPhones have won over these consumers over the long haul. 

Furthermore, App Store users spend more on apps via in-app purchases, premium app purchases, and subscriptions. Whether we like it or not, iOS users are significantly more valuable to appreneurs and businesses than their Android-using counterparts. Unfortunately, this has led to a degree of elitism within Apple’s user base, but it’s best to ignore this sentiment and focus on what it takes to succeed in the App Store. 

Creating a marketable and high-quality iOS app should always take precedence. It’s usually your second step after planning your app or your third step if you’ve already built a prototype or minimum viable product (MVP). 

But what do you do once you’ve completed your app — do you hand it over to Apple and call it a day? No, App Store submissions are a more complicated affair requiring about as much professionalism, foresight, and dedication as your app development procedures. You can’t cut corners if you want to enjoy a smooth submission process in 2024, so we’ve compiled this handy guide to help you succeed with your iOS app launches.

Why Are App Store Submissions So Important? 

Apple built its reputation by delivering a computing experience that often exceeds anything similar by rivals. The computing giant’s world-beating product design and no-nonsense approach to quality leave many competitors far behind or trying to emulate the Apple formula. In most cases, these competitors fail since Apple has amassed the resources and top talent to remain in the lead.

But Apple hasn’t set the bar high only for itself and the industry; it has set the bar high for you as well. If you want to partake in the Apple ecosystem — especially the highly lauded App Store — bring your A-game to make it worthwhile. While the App Store was once a place for newbie developers to launch their careers or try out all sorts of quirky app ideas, this is no longer the case. 

Like many popular digital storefronts, the App Store has no shortage of apps of varying quality. As is the trend with most app releases, the higher-quality apps do better while their low-effort counterparts languish behind.

Inevitably, the more successful apps bring home more revenue, which also benefits Apple since it charges a 30% commission on in-app purchases and subscriptions. However, Apple offers other rates for small businesses and the European Union (EU). In either case, Apple earns more from its chart-topping apps like Roblox, TikTok, and Uber. 

Not every iOS app will set the App Store charts on fire, and Apple doesn’t necessarily expect this from developers. But it does expect them to meet their significantly stringent app review guidelines. The App Store is much more curated than rival storefronts, so iOS developers must meet a certain quality threshold when making App Store submissions. 

Why It’s A Prerequisite To Join The Apple Developer Program? 

Apple wants you to deliver your best work, so they’ve created the Apple Developer Program to help you with all the ins and outs of the development process. Enrolling in this program is mandatory if you want to develop for Apple’s platforms and release your apps on the App Store. There’s an annual fee involved that will set you back US$99. Apple also offers a program for enterprises for a fee of US$299 per annum.

Do note that enrolling in this program is legally binding, and Apple expects the following from you:

  • Apple ID with two-factor authentication activated.
  • Full legal name and address, and you must be of legal age.
  • Provide a D-U-N-S Number if you enroll as an organization.
  • Your organization must be a legal entity and have a publicly visible website under a domain name registered with your company.  

What Are The Benefits Of The Apple Developer Program?   

Apart from allowing you to make App Store submissions, membership will grant you access to the following tools: 

  • The latest operating system (OS) betas and software development kits (SDKs): iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS.
  • Apple’s proprietary integrated development environment (IDE): Xcode. 
  • Additional tools to facilitate quicker and easier development: CreateML, Reality Composer, and Xcode Cloud.

The Apple Developer Program also includes the following services for better app integration and a more meaningful user experience (UX): 

  • AirPlay: Allows users to stream across all their Apple devices. 
  • CloudKit: Access Apple’s iCloud service to store all your app’s data.
  • Core ML: Easily implement the latest machine learning (ML) models into your iOS app.
  • DeviceCheck: This helps keep the services running on your app and devices safe from bad actors. 
  • Face ID and Touch ID: Allows users to access your app with safety and usability in mind.
  • Handoff: Allows users to work uninterrupted when moving from one Apple device to another. 
  • HealthKit: This feature regularly provides users with the most up-to-date fitness data on their iPhone and Apple Watch devices. 
  • HomeKit and Matter: Users can control all connected devices in their homes. 
  • In-App Purchase and Subscriptions: By implementing the StoreKit framework, it’s possible to unlock additional app features and content when users pay. 
  • Push Notifications: Inform users of the latest content updates and events to retain or increase engagement. 
  • Sign in with Apple: Make app and website access simpler for users by allowing them to sign in with their Apple IDs. 
  • System Extensions and DriverKit: Enhance app functionality and security with Apple’s wide range of extensions. 
  • WeatherKit: This handy framework lets users access up-to-date information to help them stay safe during rapidly changing and adverse weather conditions. 

What To Check Before Making App Store Submissions?

To ensure that all your App Store submissions proceed smoothly, be sure to follow the points in this checklist: 

  • Rigorously and regularly test your app for any bugs and crashes.
  • Provide accurate and comprehensive app information and metadata before submitting. 
  • Keep your contact details current so the App Review team can contact you when necessary. 
  • Ensure that the App Review team has full access to your app, so provide a demo account if it relies on having an account to access features. 
  • All your app’s backend services must be live when under review.
  • Provide additional documentation to detail all your app’s more advanced or cryptic features. 
  • Regularly refer to Apple’s development, design, and brand and marketing guidelines to ensure your app complies with all these. 
  • If you’re a European developer, review the guidelines and notarization for iOS apps in the EU. 

Which Safety Rules Does The App Store Enforce?

The App Store places user safety and satisfaction front and center. Thus, objectionable content of any kind isn’t welcome. To avoid failed App Store submissions, be sure to comply with the following rules: 

  • Don’t add discriminatory, distasteful, or offensive content to your app. Be mindful of any content that aims to harm, humiliate, or defame users of any specific race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic group. 
  • Avoid content that aims to shock and disgust users. 
  • Cut out any realistic or overly violent scenes from your iOS app or mobile game. 
  • Pornographic imagery of any sort is unacceptable, and so are any so-called hookup apps that lead to exploitation, human trafficking, and prostitution. 
  • Provocative and falsified religious messaging is not allowed. 
  • No depictions of illegal behavior, drug usage, or dangerous use of weapons must appear in your iOS app or mobile game. 
  • Never submit an app with false features or information or attempt to trick or defraud users. If your app tries to prank users via calls or the SMS/MMS messaging features, then the App Review team will reject it. 
  • Don’t submit an app to profit from human suffering due to wars, terrorism, and pandemics. 
  • If your app relies on user-generated content (USG), make it easy to filter and block abusive users and objectionable content. Be sure to publish your contact details so users can notify you of any related issues.
  • If you’re creating a children’s app, you may submit it for the Kids Category under specific conditions. Your app must not entice children to make purchases or have any external links. 
  • As an iOS developer, you must protect user data and disclose which third parties you partner with that collect user data.

Why Performance Matters During App Store Submissions?

The App Review team first looks at the overall completeness of your iOS app. So, you must submit a fully functional app that includes all metadata, even during the pre-order phase. If you submit a demo, ensure that it fully showcases the functionality of the finished product. Never submit an app with placeholder content, text, and non-existent app and company website links. 

The overall performance of your iOS app is another aspect that the App Review team will scrutinize. To ensure you submit a relatively polished and bug-free app, you must beta test regularly before releasing it officially on the App Store. Use Apple’s excellent TestFlight SDK for beta testing, and ensure that you submit these builds to TestFlight App Review.

Keep in mind that you’re not permitted to offer any form of compensation to beta testers. Also, you may not release your iOS app to the public during the TestFlight process. 

A big part of App Store submissions includes the correct and accurate completion of app metadata. Never leave this task to the last minute, as there’s plenty of metadata you must carefully evaluate and complete. You must include an app description, privacy information, screenshots, and previews accurately showcasing your app’s core features.

Every time you update your app, you must include new metadata that reflects these changes. Never misrepresent your app and its features in any way, as you risk being banned from the Apple Developer Program if you’re deemed untrustworthy.

Be sure to test your app on several iOS devices to determine whether it runs well on a wide range of Apple hardware. Moreover, ensure that your app runs smoothly on the latest version of the OS (currently iOS and iPadOS 17). 

Which Factors Will Impact Approval Of An iOS App? 

The App Review team will expect your iOS app to fulfill the following criteria:

  • Smooth functionality: Your iOS app must perform flawlessly and work as detailed by the notes and documentation you provide. 
  • Overall usability: Ensure that your iOS app complies with the Human Interface Guidelines set by Apple. The App Review team wants to see a well-designed user interface (UI) with consistency on every page of your app. 
  • App accessibility: Make your iOS app usable for those with disabilities. 
  • Easy navigation: Use recognizable UI elements for the buttons, tabs, and gesture controls of your app. New and longtime iOS users should feel right at home when running your app for the first time. 
  • Satisfactory performance: Your iOS app must load quickly and be responsive at all times, regardless if it’s running on newer or older devices. Ensure that your app keeps battery drainage and memory usage to a minimum to avoid rejection by the App Review team. 
  • Tight security: Ensure that your iOS app complies with Apple’s guidelines regarding app permissions, data encryption, and privacy. 
  • Legal compliance: Your iOS app must comply with all relevant regulations, copyright, and trademark laws in your region. In some cases, laws applicable in other territories may impact your app, so seek legal advice if necessary. 

In Conclusion

If you closely follow the pointers we’ve provided, your App Store submissions should go smoothly in 2024 and beyond. Expect to hear back from the App Review team in about 48 hours after you submit your app. On the off chance of a rejection, the App Review team will provide feedback and guidance on what you need to fix before submitting again. 

But you can make life easier for yourself by partnering with a reputable mobile app studio. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you create iOS apps that will please the reviewers and your users! 

How to Create a Custom Mobile App in 2024

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In 2024, the field of mobile app development continues to undergo rapid revolution driven partly by technological revolution and changing user expectations. The surge in smartphone usage coupled with emerging forms of technology continues to offer businesses new ways to engage and connect with their target audiences. Custom mobile apps have emerged as indispensable solutions for businesses seeking to maintain a competitive edge.

Unlike off-the-shelf business solutions, custom mobile apps are carefully aligned with the business needs. Most importantly, they align seamlessly with both short and long-term business goals and help enhance operational efficiency. Most importantly, custom mobile apps not only streamline key business processes, they offer a unique user experience, helping businesses build meaningful relationships with their clientele.

Steps for Creating a Custom Mobile App

1. Understanding the Concept of Mobile App

A custom mobile app refers to a software solution specifically designed to meet the needs of a business. Custom mobile apps are designed to address the target audience of a specific business, unlike off-the-shelf apps that are designed to meet generic needs. In short, they are designed to solve specific business needs, and align seamlessly with a business’s long-term mission or vision. Thus, this form of customization for custom mobile apps extends beyond its functionalities, design, user experience, and integration with existing systems.

The need for a custom mobile app solution has become increasingly apparent in today’s competitive marketplace landscape. That’s because businesses want to compete for customers, optimize operations, and ultimately differentiate themselves from the competition.

Key Benefits of a Custom Mobile App Solution

Some of the key benefits of having a custom mobile app solution include:

  • Tailored functionalities

Custom mobile app solutions are built from the ground up to cater to the specific needs and workflows of a business. This means that these apps are equipped with features and functionalities that directly support the company’s objectives. Custom mobile apps help support the specific needs of a business. Whether it’s enhancing customer interactions, streamlining internal processes, or facilitating custom processes.

  • Enhanced user experience

Custom mobile apps offer a personalized and intuitive user interface designed to resonate with the target audience. By understanding behavioral patterns, user preferences, and user pain points, businesses can create visually appealing, user-friendly, and highly engaging apps. This leads to increased user retention and user satisfaction.

  • Integration and scalability

Custom mobile apps can easily be integrated with existing third-party systems, servers, and databases. This ensures consistency in data privacy and operational efficiency. In addition, custom mobile apps are scalable. They allow businesses to evolve and adapt without being constrained by the limitations of pre-packaged solutions.

  • Brand identity and recognition

A custom mobile app serves as a powerful branding tool, reflecting the company’s values, identity, and aesthetics. Consistent branding elements such as colors, logs, and messaging help reinforce the brand identity. This helps build brand recognition and brand loyalty among users. In addition, they also help foster a strong brand connection.

  • Competitive advantage

By leveraging a custom mobile app solution, businesses can differentiate themselves in the market. This helps to position themselves as industry leaders with innovative solutions tailored to specific customer needs. Furthermore, this differentiation helps attract new customers, retain the existing ones, and drive business growth, especially in a competitive market.

2. Preparing for development

Before delving into the development of a custom mobile app solution, thorough planning and preparations are necessary. This phase involves several crucial steps that form the foundation for a successful mobile app journey.

Conducting market research

The first step of conducting any market research is identifying your target audience. Doing research helps you understand the gender, preferences, demographics, and pain points of your target audience. This comprehensive understanding is crucial for designing an app that resonates with your target audience.

Secondly, it’s important to conduct competitor analysis by researching your competitor’s apps. Doing competitor analysis helps you understand any differentiating features, and market gaps, and identify any areas of differentiation that help position your app strategically in the market.

Thirdly, it’s important to carefully monitor market trends to keep abreast of important technological trends, user expectations, and technological advancements. Furthermore, monitoring market trends allows for informed decision-making and innovation within the app.

Defining app objectives and goals

It is crucial to define your app objectives and goals by clearly articulating the purpose of your app. Whether it’s increasing sales, improving customer service, retention, or providing value to new users. Additionally, set goals and key performance indicators that align with your business objectives and revenue generation.

Creating a wireframe or prototype

The first step is to visualize the app layout by developing a wireframe to visualize the app’s user experience, user interface, and overall layout. This particular step helps in conceptualizing the app’s functionality and navigation. The second step of this process is the iterative design process. Again, it’s crucial to engage with stakeholders and designers to create an iterative design that refines the app’s functionality based on feedback. Finally, define key functional specifications, including data flows, features, interactions, and user journeys.

3. Choosing the Development Approach

Choosing the right development approach is an important decision to make as it shapes the functionality, user experience, and performance of an app. For example, in 2024, businesses have several options to consider each with its strengths and weaknesses.

Evaluation of development approaches:

  • Native apps: Native apps are built specifically for a single platform, such as Android or IOS by using platform-specific programming languages such as Java, CSS, Kotlin, Swift, or Objective-C. Most importantly, these apps offer high performance, faster integration with the device features, and seamless access to the app’s features and functionalities.
  • Hybrid apps: Hybrid apps are designed using web technologies such as HTML, Java, and CSS. After design, they’re wrapped in a native container for deployment across multiple platforms. In addition, these apps combine the advantages of native apps like access to platform features with cross-platform development, allowing faster development process and cost-effectiveness.
  • Progressive web apps: Progressive web apps (PWAs) are web-based applications that offer app-like features, including offline access, responsive design, and push notifications. Thus, they can be accessed through web browsers and can be installed on a user’s device. These apps offer a seamless experience across various platforms and many devices. 

Selection of Appropriate Development Frameworks

  • Native development: For native app development, frameworks like Flutter (Dart), React Native (JavaScript), and Xamarin (C#) can be used to build cross-platform apps that maintain native performance and user experience.
  • Hybrid development. Frameworks such as Apache Cordova, Iconic, and others provided by renowned platforms such as Flutter and React Native can be used to develop hybrid apps. That’s because these frameworks leverage cross-platform compatibility and web technologies.
  • Progressive web apps: Frameworks like Angular, Vue.js. or frameworks that support PWA features such as responsive design and service workers for offline functionality can all be deployed to develop progressive web apps.

The choice of development framework depends on many factors, including cost, project requirements, timelines, target audience, and long-term maintenance considerations.

4. Designing the User Experience and User Interface

In mobile app development, the user experience and user interface play a pivotal role in shaping the app’s success. That’s because designing an engaging and intuitive user experience not only enhances user satisfaction. It also contributes to higher user adoption.

Importance of User-centric Design

  • Enhanced user experience: User-centric design focuses on understanding user’s needs, preferences, and behaviors to create experiences that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable.
  • Higher user engagement: By prioritizing user feedback and user needs, businesses can build apps that resonate with users. This leads to increased user engagement, loyalty, and positive word of mouth.
  • Improved conversion rates: A well-designed user interface can streamline the user’s journey, reduce friction points, and encourage designed actions like making a purchase or signing up. Thus, it results to improved business outcomes and conversions.

Collaboration between Designers and Developers

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaboration between UI/UX designers and developers is important for ensuring seamless integration of design elements and features.
  • Design System and Style Guide: Establishing a design system and style guide helps maintain consistency in visual aesthetics, UI elements, color schemes, typography, and interaction patterns throughout the app.
  • Iterative Design Process: Adopting an iterative design process allows for refinement, continuous feedback, and seamless testing of design prototypes. This helps to ensure alignment with user expectations and project goals.

Implementing Accessibility Features and Mobile Responsiveness

  • Accessibility: Integrating Accessibility features such as alternative text for images, screen readers, keyword navigation, and color contrast options. This helps to ensure compliance with accessibility standards such as the WCAG.
  • Mobile responsiveness: Designing responsive interfaces and layouts that adapt seamlessly to different screen orientations and screen sizes enhances usability and provides a consistent experience across different platforms.

By emphasizing user-centric design principles, businesses can create apps that evolve based on changing market needs. Businesses can create custom mobile apps that stand out in a competitive market landscape. This can be achieved by encouraging collaborations among designers and developers and implementing accessibility features and mobile responsiveness.

5. Development Phase

The development phase is the heart of creating a custom mobile app. It’s where the conceptualized design and functionality are transformed into a fully-fledged digital product. This phase involves coding, testing, and iterating to ensure a user-friendly and high-quality app.

Coding the app

  • Translating design into code: Developers translate the functional specifications, UX/UI design and wireframes into code. They do this by using frameworks and programming languages relevant to the chosen development approach (native, hybrid, or web-based).
  • Backend development: Backend developers work on database integration, server-side logic, APIs, and other backend functionalities required for the data storage, and the app’s functionalities.

Testing each module

  • Bugs and defects: Quality assurance (QA) engineers test all app’s functionalities to identify bugs, errors, and defects. This is done to ensure smooth and error-free functionality.
  • Usability testing: Usability testing involves evaluating navigation flow, user interface, interactions, and overall functionality to identify areas of improvement and optimization.
  • Performance testing: Performance testing assesses the app’s speed, stability, and responsiveness. It also evaluates the app’s performance under various conditions such as different network speeds and different device types to ensure optimal performance for end users.

Iterative development process

  • Feedback collection: This step involves establishing continuous feedback loops from beta testers, stakeholders, and users to gather insights into the app’s performance, identify pain points, and gather feature improvement feedback.
  • Agile methodology: Adopting an agile development approach allows iterative cycles of improvement, testing, and feedback incorporation, allowing for adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness to changing requirements.
  • Making adjustments: Based on the collected feedback and test results, developers make the necessary adjustments, improvements, and optimizations to improve the app’s usability, functionality, and performance.

The development is characterized by robust collaborations among developers, QA engineers, testers, and designers, ensuring that the app meets its basic functional requirements and user expectations.

6. Integrating Essential Features

Integrating essential features in a custom-built mobile app is crucial for providing a comprehensive solution that meets the users’ needs and aligns with the business objectives. These features not only enhance user engagement but also contribute to the app’s success and overall competitiveness in the market.

Here are essential features to consider:

  • Multi-factor authentication: Also called two-factor authentication, secure user authentication mechanisms require users to log into their primary account and verify their authenticity on a different device. This means a code can be sent to your phone when you’re trying to log in to your computer. This double layer of security ensures user data is protected against unauthorized access.
  • Push notifications: Allowing push notifications allows for real-time communication and real-time notifications, delivering personalized alerts, updates, and promotional messages to enhance re-engagement and user retention.
  • In-app purchases: Integrating in-app purchases such as digital goods, subscription plans, and premium content enhances monetization opportunities and enhances the app’s overall revenue generation capabilities.
  • Location-based services: Using GPS and geo-location features to offer location-based services like directions, maps, and location-aware content tailored to users’ geographic location can enhance user retention and improve adoption rates.
  • Social sharing and integration: Allowing social sharing integration allows users to share content, achievements, updates, and experiences on other social media platforms, increasing user engagement and app visibility.

Businesses can deliver robust, feature-rich, and future-proof custom mobile app solutions that meet user expectations and drive engagement. However, they can do this by integrating these essential features in their apps.

7. Deployment and App Store Optimization (ASO)

Once a custom mobile app has been developed, tested, and finalized, the next crucial step is deployment into popular app stores. These stores may include: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and other relevant app marketplaces. Additionally, optimizing the app’s visibility and downloads is crucial for the app’s overall success.

App store optimization techniques for app visibility and user engagement include:

  • Keyword optimization: Conduct keyword research and optimize app metadata with relevant phrases and keywords that align with user search queries and app category trends.
  • App icons and screenshots: Design visually appealing icons and high-quality screenshots that showcase the app’s features, functionalities, and capture user attention and encourage downloads.
  • App ratings and reviews: Encourage positive app ratings and app reviews from satisfied users by providing a seamless user experience, addressing user feedback, and incentivizing feedback submission through in-app rewards.
  • App localization: Localize app content, metadata, and meta description to target specific regions, languages, and cultural preferences. This will help improve the app’s discoverability and appeal to global audiences.
  • App updates and maintenance: Regularly update the app with new features, conduct bug fixes, performance optimization, and user-requested enhancements. Do this to maintain relevance, user engagement, and improve positive ratings.

A business can optimize its custom-built mobile app for success by implementing app store optimization techniques for improved visibility and user experience.

NS804 – Powering Your Journey Towards a Custom Mobile App

At the forefront of this transformative journey stands NS804, a leader in custom mobile app solutions. NS804 empowers businesses of different sizes and industries to harness the full power of mobile app technology. This is achieved through its proven track record of delivering innovative and highly scalable mobile apps. NS804 combines technical expertise with a client-centric focus to drive app success. Whether it’s designing cutting-edge user interfaces, integrating new features, or optimizing performance.

Contact NS804 today for custom mobile app solutions.