What to Include in Mobile App User Testing Processes

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Mobile apps have grown by leaps and bounds, providing limitless possibilities and affording capabilities like communication, productivity, entertainment – and beyond. With millions of apps in AppStore and PlayStore, developers face fierce competition to design apps that stand out, provide unique solutions to customers, and build evergreen applications that answer both the current problems and future challenges.

This is exactly where mobile app user testing comes into play.

Why User Testing?

In the highly competitive market of mobile apps, user testing is the linchpin in mobile app development that separates apps that succeed and those that fail. User testing helps developers determine how well an app resonates with the target audience, providing an operating benchmark for improving the features and creating superior apps. The mobile app user testing is the differentiating factor between an app’s conception and its overall usability.

The central purpose of user testing is to ensure that an app functions as intended and provides an intuitive user experience.

Here’s precisely why user testing is crucial:

  • User-centered design. Mobile app testing helps you understand and map your user needs in your development. In essence, testing identifies your users’ pain points, behavior, preferences, and options – and integrates these needs into the app.
  • Bug detection. While extensive pre-launch testing is crucial for identifying underlying errors in code, it’s nearly impossible to detect every usability issue without real-life testing. User testing uncovers these problems before they reach your target audience.
  • Improved retention. An intuitive, error-free, and user-friendly app is likely to attract more users, which leads to a competitive advantage in the app’s adoption and use. Apps that attract and retain users perform better in a dynamic competitive market than apps without retention rates.
  • Enhanced ratings. When your app is optimized for best use, it’s likely to feature better and more positively, increasing its likelihood of adoption and use. Conversely, negative reviews from poor customer experiences can affect your app’s success.
  • Cost-efficiency. Fixing your app’s underlying issues pre-launch is more cost-effective and less time-consuming than fixing the issues during the development stage. User testing helps to identify real usability issues before they reach the market, resulting in more cost savings in fixing errors and bugs.

So, whether you’re developing an Android app or an iOS app, mobile app user testing is a critical process of overall development. User testing is the linchpin of successful mobile app development.

So, in the next section of this article, we will discuss some factors, elements, or things to include in your mobile app user testing processes, providing you with correct, accurate, and relevant information to know when conducting user testing.

1. Prepare for user testing

Before embarking on the user testing journey, it’s crucial to lay a solid foundation for the process, ensuring you have the right tools, the right infrastructure, and processes. The first step of this process is to define your goals, laying a foundation for what you seek to achieve after the process. While these goals and objectives differ depending on the different stages of the mobile app development, they should generally capture the following goals:

  • Usability assessment. This step determines the app’s ease of use and overall user-friendliness.
  • Functionality testing. To ensure all features and functionalities work as intended in harmony.
  • Performance evaluation. To assess how the app performs under different situations and circumstances.
  • User satisfaction. This testing gauges user feedback and satisfaction with the app’s functionality and usability.

Articulating these points upfront allows you to create a roadmap that guides your testing efforts and ensures you gather the relevant information to make the right decisions.

2. Set up the testing environment

Setting up the testing environment is a crucial step to ensure you achieve the best results. A well-prepared environment ensures you can assess how your app performs in different situations and ensure that it mimics real-life scenarios.

Here’s how to achieve the right testing environment:

  • Device diversity. Endpoint and mobile devices come in different shapes, sizes, and operating systems. So, choose a representative sample covering the most commonly used devices by your target audience.
  • Operating systems. Consider the different varieties of operating systems and testing on both new and old operating systems as users may have different challenges or constraints accessing newer versions.
  • Emulators and simulators. While mobile phones, tablets, and laptops are essential, use emulators and simulators to expand your testing coverage without acquiring every device.

It’s also crucial to ensure you have the right tools and technologies for the testing process. Here are some of the testing tools you can use for this process.

  • Testing tools. When it comes to testing tools, it’s advisable to invest in automated testing tools such as Espresso, Appium, and XCUITest. In addition, performance testing tools such as Firebase Performance Monitoring and Apache JMeter can help evaluate your app’s responsiveness and speed.
  • Remote testing services. You should consider remote testing services if your audience spans multiple geographic regions. These services provide you with remote access to global testers who can assess your app’s performance on their devices and operating environments.
  • Bug tracking and reporting. Implement a robust bug-tracking system that allows testers to detect and report issues immediately. Popular bug-tracking tools include Trello, Bugzilla, and Jira. Efficient bug tracking can help increase an app’s usability, performance, and responsiveness.

Having the right tools and technologies and selecting the best technologies and software allows you to establish the conditions needed to conduct meaningful and thorough mobile app user testing.

3. Conduct user testing

The process of conducting user tests is at the heart of mobile app development. This process involves giving real users your app to test its functionality, usability, responsiveness, and security.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how to conduct user tests:

  • Usability testing. This process involves exploring how responsive and navigable your app is. It helps you identify navigation issues, responsiveness problems, and where users may face glitches. This type of testing ensures your app is easy to use and aligns with your users’ expectations.
  • Functionality testing. Functionality testing assesses how your app functions. It helps detect errors, bugs, and hitches that may prevent consumers or users from browsing seamlessly. Functionality testing ensures key aspects of your app operate as required.
  • Other testing types. Depending on your app’s scope and complexity, you may need to conduct other tests such as security tests, performance, and localization testing. Each test plays a fundamental role in ensuring your app functions as intended.

As you test your app, it’s crucial that you establish test detectors to guide you through the testing process. Guide testers include the following three elements;

First, provide testers with defined test scenarios that comprehensively cover your app’s functionality. The scenarios provided should align with real-life use cases or match the objectives set during the planning phase.

The second step of your testing is to communicate instructions clearly and concisely and explain the tasks testers should perform and the objectives they should attain. Avoid questions or biasing suggestions that may influence the tester’s behavior.

The third step is documentation. It’s vital to ensure the testers have relevant documentation such as boarding guides and manuals, which allows them to understand the app’s features and functionalities.

4. Gather user feedback

Once user testing is complete, the next step is to gather structured and unstructured feedback and observations from your testers. This section of the article discusses the steps that you should follow to draw better insights from collected feedback.

The first step is to analyze, organize, and categorize the responses by reviewing all the feedback given by the testers. Collect feedback and recommendations collected during the process, recording notes, comments, and recordings of user interactions.

Secondly, categorize the comments, notes, and responses into groups based on common issues and themes. This form of categorization helps identify patterns and prioritize relevant areas of improvement.

The final step is analyzing and categorizing both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data include: response rates, success rates, and task completion rates and qualitative data include observations and user comments. Analyzing these two subsets of data provides an end-to-end understanding of user feedback, allowing you to know what areas to improve.

After gathering user feedback, it’s advisable to prioritize and document identified issues and bugs, which allows you to map usability problems. You can prioritize and document issues based on issue severity, create a detailed report with a priority list of issues; and finally assign a priority ranking to each issue, identifying how much of a priority each usability issue is in the whole process.

5. iterative testing and improvements

Iterative testing is the secret ingredient for successful mobile app creation. This section of the article discusses iterative testing, the process of developing an app, the importance of addressing issues promptly, and how to make improvements based on user feedback.

  • Continuous process. In testing your mobile app, it’s crucial to understand the iterative nature of mobile apps. Therefore, mobile app testing isn’t a one-step process; it has to be cynical, evolving with the emerging needs of users and consumers.
  • Feedback. Each testing cycle introduces a new set of feedback for the proceeding steps or stages of the testing. This feedback loop ensures that the app evolves and adapts to the ever-changing user needs, preferences, and values.
  • Agile methodology. Most developers use agile methodology by incorporating user testing as a fundamental step of the development process. Agile methodology promotes feedback, collaboration, and flexibility, accommodating different user feedback in the design process.

Iterative user testing and improvements help address issues promptly, helping you deal with user expectations. When developing your app, you will realize that users have many expectations about an app’s performance and responsiveness. Failing to address these issues promptly may lead to negative reviews and frustrations that impede your app’s adoption and market reputation.

Another reason to incorporate feedback and continuous improvement through the agile methodology is because of the competitive landscape. The tech industry is a highly competitive marketplace. Addressing issues can be a significant differentiator. Apps that address user feedback and incorporate feedback tend to retain new and existing users, providing the developer with a competitive edge.

Lastly, addressing issues is part and parcel of quality assurance. Timely response or simply responsiveness can go a long way in setting you apart in quality assurance, ensuring your apps and products meet the requisite benchmarks. By resolving bugs and usability issues promptly, you reduce the risk of app abandonment.

6. Security and data privacy testing

The increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks and the growing prevalence of cyber incidents continue to compromise users’ data and the integrity of user information. As mobile apps become more interconnected with our everyday-use devices – laptops, wearables, tablets, and other endpoints, so is the need to protect these endpoints from potential abuse or intentional compromise.

As part of your mobile app user testing process, emphasize the importance of security and data privacy testing. We cannot over-stress the significance of protecting the integrity of consumer private information.

  • User trust. Users trust apps that are secure and protected. Loss of trust can lead to severe consequences including; reputational damage, loss of users, and lawsuits.
  • Legal compliance. Breach of trust can lead to legal liabilities, leading to hefty fines and penalties. Complying with established laws like the GDPR and HIPAA guidelines is crucial to ensure your app remains relevant.
  • Financial implications. Loss, breach, and potential breach of consumer private data may have far-reaching financial consequences, including loss of revenues, brand damage, and legal fines.

Security and data privacy testing ensure that developers provide and leverage the best-in-class security systems, including encryption, patching, and detection tools to create robust and highly secured applications.

NS804 – Your Trusted Provider of Mobile App Solutions

NS804 is a trusted provider of custom-built mobile app solutions for businesses of different sizes and shapes. Whether you’re a manufacturing shop floor, a retailer, an e-commerce store, or a hospitality facility, we can help you reclaim your digital victory with custom-built mobile apps that give you that digital presence.

NS804 secures the future of its applications with reliable and secure applications that meet the highest security and testing requirements. We work collaboratively with talented and competent teams of developers, security experts, quality assurance, and engineers to ensure we provide secure and trusted mobile app products.

Contact NS804 today for mobile app development solutions.

Fintech App Development: 9 Must-Have Features

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Fintech app development has become increasingly popular over the past decade. After all, many startups and development teams are working on innovative fintech apps, especially in the mobile space. It’s a rapidly growing global industry estimated at a whopping $110 billion in 2020 and will likely hit $700 billion by 2030.

But why the interest in fintech worldwide? There’s not a single reason for the meteoric rise of fintech, but several developments have helped to transform this industry. The proliferation of e-commerce entities with the mass adoption of smartphones has led to the widespread use of secure payment processors. These payment platforms and other solution providers have forged ahead with various cashless digital payments and mobile wallets. 

Furthermore, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, data analytics, and favorable government regulations have helped grease the wheels of the fintech industry. And the traditional banking sector isn’t sitting on the sidelines either, with many notable financial institutions investing heavily in mobile banking apps.

The banking sector must also replace and upgrade aging systems designed for an era when customers had to visit bank branches or automated teller machines (ATMs) to complete most financial transactions. Also, many banks are reducing their physical footprint and offering more financial services directly on their banking apps. These apps have become so compelling because they provide an A-to-Z approach for customers to manage their finances.

And that’s why fintech app development is so crucial. It empowers users when they have access to essential features. Now, let’s delve deeper into what must-have features today’s fintech apps should include!  

 

What Should You Know About Fintech App Development?

Fintech app development is a multi-disciplinary process that often requires expertise in several key areas: 

  • Mobile app development
  • Back-end development
  • Software engineering
  • User experience (UX) design
  • User interface (UI) design
  • Application and network security
  • Cloud computing
  • Financial software systems
  • Payment processing APIs
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Machine learning
  • Blockchain

Since fintech apps handle large amounts of financial transactions and sensitive user data, security must come first. Therefore, every competent fintech app development studio must have one or more security experts available on the team. These security experts must deal with all present and future vulnerabilities that may occur within the app, the network layer, the back-end server, and the payment processing APIs. 

As for the latter, it’s unlikely that the studio’s security experts can seal off all security holes in third-party APIs. But they should keep tabs on all known and new vulnerabilities and ensure they provide enough security features and defenses within the app to counter these. However, when dealing with open-source APIs with permissive licenses, they can rewrite parts of the compromised APIs or contribute additional code that will harden security.

What Is A Fintech Application?

As a broad description, a fintech app may include any application that simplifies and automates financial services. The majority of fintech apps are almost always the products of the fintech industry, which is in itself a broad term. In the fintech industry, it’s not uncommon for app developers, venture capitalists, and financial institutions to collaborate closely on products, such as banking apps, digital wallets, and money lending apps.

Several technologies that make up a fintech app may include AI, IoT, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and data analytics. In some countries, cryptocurrencies remain in a grey zone legally. Thus, fintech app development studios must comply with regulations in these countries and apply certain restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions. But most mainstream users will use fintech apps to manage their finances instead of trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.

Generally, fintech apps fit into the following four segments: Business-to-Business (B2B) within the banking industry, B2B bank clients, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) within the small business sector, and wholly consumer based. If you want to develop a fintech mobile app, you’ll need to focus on one of these segments before forging ahead. And that’s because trying to create an app that serves multiple business models seldom works when starting out.

Consider how PayPal began as a digital wallet for electronic payments back in 1999. And soon after this startup launched its initial public offering (IPO), it was rapidly snapped up by eBay — subsequently becoming the preferred payment option for users on the famous auction site. Over the past two decades, PayPal has grown by adapting to the needs of its users. Today, the company effectively runs a two-sided business model in handling financial transactions for merchants and consumers. 

 

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What Are The Most Popular Types Of Fintech Apps? 

One of the neat things about fintech app development is that appreneurs and developers can flex their creative muscles. That’s because there are already many types of fintech applications in the marketplace, and the list of categories will only grow in the foreseeable future. But if you’re new to fintech and wondering what type of app you should develop, then consider the following: 

  • Mobile banking app: You’re probably already using one or more banking apps right now. And you’re likely benefiting from the ease and convenience of handling many financial transactions through these. A side benefit of mobile banking apps is that they provide an indispensable service to formerly unbanked individuals, particularly in developing countries.
  • Investment app: People that don’t have access to large sums of money or a broker will use investment apps to generate some wealth. Several of the best investment apps provide tutorials and simulated stock markets to train new users.
  • Insurance app: Most people will experience at least one major mishap during their lifetimes. It may involve a car accident, a health issue, or lost luggage during travel. But even if insured, these are all stressful scenarios that cause people to hastily look for their insurance policies, wondering if they’re fully covered. Fortunately, today’s mobile insurance apps make it easy for customers to review their policies, make claims, and receive quotes.
  • Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending app: Financial institutions may not always provide loans at favorable interest rates or to individuals with a bad credit score. That’s where loan apps conveniently fill a gap in the market by bringing P2P lending to the masses. But to mitigate risk, these P2P platforms seldom loan out large amounts like the big financial institutions.  

Is Developing A Fintech Application Easy? 

No, fintech app development ranks as one of the more challenging categories in software engineering. Don’t be fooled by the plethora of fintech apps in the marketplace and the many freelance developers making bold claims about quick turnarounds on fintech projects. While the abundance of projects in this domain may make it seem easy, much can go awry by overlooking certain scenarios. 

The hard reality is that not all fintech products offer robust security or comply with mandatory financial regulations. Furthermore, freelancers don’t have the best reputation for tightening up app security or closely following the rules and guidelines set by regulatory bodies worldwide.

Since fintech apps deal with money, no developer should play fast and loose, especially with the law. Any security breaches that result in monetary losses may lead to jail time for the responsible parties, including the publisher or developer, for not following the necessary protocols. So, never place your trust in a freelance developer or a studio that doesn’t have a track record for quality apps and following best practices. Instead, partner with a multi-award-winning and reputable mobile app developer like NS804, which has already released over 100 applications.

Which Steps Must Every Fintech App Development Studio Follow?

We’ve already stressed how important it’s to closely follow best practices, government regulations, and security protocols. But what does that actually mean when developing a fintech application? Before adding innovative new features to your app, you should first ensure that your app adheres to several fundamentals. Be sure to include the following steps in your development process:

  • Legal requirements: Even during your early planning stage, you must know what shape your legal compliance framework will take. Moreover, you must comply with various privacy laws for different territories, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the European Union (EU) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Consult a trusted legal advisor during every phase of your fintech app development process to ensure compliance with all regulations, regardless of how obscure or complex these may seem.
  • App security: Security will play a central role every step of the way during your fintech app development process. Toughen security with mandatory biometrics, one-time password (OTP), and two-factor authentication features. Ensure that your team rolls out updates immediately to patch up any security vulnerabilities that may occur.
  • API administration: Your fintech app must communicate with other apps and portals for smooth functionality. Thus, you’ll use APIs to connect these disparate applications. But you must ensure these APIs comply with the most stringent security protocols since this will impact your app’s risk factor.
  • User support functionality: Sooner or later, users will experience issues with your app. Create an intuitive user journey to smoothen the onboarding process. Include built-in training tutorials to help users learn how to use your app and an AI-powered chatbot to respond quickly to their questions.

Before Implementing The Latest Must-Have Features

Fintech apps have evolved considerably over the past decade. Even the most rudimentary applications come with impressive features meant to engage users. While that may seem like a smart move, it’s never a good idea to flood a fintech app with unnecessary features. Instead, it’s better to offer basic functionality that does actually meet users’ needs. You can always add additional features when you roll out updates and when you scale. 

Before commencing on expensive and risky projects, we always advise our clients to build a minimum viable product (MVP). An MVP is ideal for fintech app development because the focus is strictly on basic functionality. Moreover, it’s the perfect vehicle to test an app idea by bringing it to the market cheaply and quickly. 

If users resonate with the MVP, that’s a good sign that it has the potential to become successful as a full-fledged app. And by monitoring and analyzing user data and feedback, it becomes easier to pinpoint the additional features users want. Below, we’ll discuss in detail the various must-have features you should consider for your upcoming fintech project.

 

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1. Gamification

Until now, gamification was more of a nice-to-have feature instead of a must-have feature. But user expectations have changed due to the interactive experiences they’ve had with gaming. There’s hardly a user that doesn’t become incentivized by leveling up their character, achieving a high score on the leaderboard, or unlocking an additional skill on the skill tree. 

Gamification includes all these game-like activities and many more. And these have found their way into all kinds of apps, from productivity to fintech apps. But the real draw of gamification is that it helps to increase engagement by offering users a more fun and rewarding experience. For example, an investment app could award cool-looking badges when users meet specific investment milestones. 

2. Push notifications

Push notifications are not new and are standard in just about every category of mobile app. But it’s not only a matter of having push notifications but how you’ll use them to engage users. The core principles of fintech app development require that you provide users with security and keep them informed of any app changes at all times. 

Consider how users will want their banking apps to remind them of outgoing and incoming payments. And remind them about upcoming bills and alert them of any unusual logins or activity on their accounts. Push notifications are the quickest, easiest, and most reliable way to alert users. Emails and SMS messages sometimes go undelivered, and users may not always check these timeously or regularly. This may put them in a situation where they can’t respond to a potential security risk in time.

3. User Profiles

It’s crucial to let users customize your fintech app to make it more personal and accessible. Users love using apps that feel comfortable and will continue using those that seem designed specifically for them. 

You can do this with user profiles, which will contain each user’s individual preferences. Of course, you may also provide presets so that users can get up and running with a predefined UI, font style, and theme that they’ll find appealing. But customization doesn’t only need to affect the appearance of the app but also how it functions. Users may set their budget and spending preferences and save these in their user profiles. 

4. Blockchain

While not every fintech app benefits from a blockchain implementation, it’s worth considering if your app meets certain criteria. If your app must handle cryptocurrency transactions, you’ll inevitably use a blockchain. But it’s also necessary if your users demand a transparent and secure system to record all transactions without a central entity, such as a large financial institution.  

Where blockchain technology truly comes into its own is with any P2P network. So, if you’re creating a P2P lending application, your users will want to have the surety that there’s a record of all transactions on a distributed database. This way, lenders and borrowers will trust all transactions on your P2P lending app. And if there’s ever any discrepancy, the database will always reveal what happened with any funds after a transaction query.

5. Smart contracts

If you move ahead with a blockchain implementation, you should also consider smart contracts. The best way to think of smart contracts is that of smaller programs that run on the blockchain and automate tasks based on an agreement. And in their more advanced form, they may work with a central securities depository (CSD) to handle fungible assets like stocks, options, and bonds. Also, note that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) operate as smart contracts or under such a paradigm. 

Therefore, if you’re developing a platform to trade NFTs, smart contracts will become central to your fintech app development process. You’ll also need to integrate various digital wallets, crypto exchanges, and NFT marketplaces with your app.

6. Chatbots

We’ve already discussed why you should implement user support functionality in your fintech app. And we even mentioned the need for an AI-powered chatbot that will respond to user queries. Obviously, these kinds of chatbots are not new and are not only meant for fintech apps. But they’re essential to fulfill customer support roles, especially if you don’t have the budget and staff to provide support 24/7. 

Users will want to know how to set up and manage their accounts, get answers to technical issues, and learn more about new and specific features. And while they can find out this information by perusing your app’s docs or support forums, it’s better not to inconvenience them. Ideally, you want to keep users glued to your app and not look elsewhere, even your website, for information. 

An AI-powered chatbot can answer most user questions in seconds and in their native language. Users will feel more confident using your app, even its more advanced features, knowing that help is only a screen tap away.

7. Big Data Analytics

Financial applications live or die based on how well they handle large amounts of data. For example, the more data a banking app has about a customer’s spending habits, assets, and credit rating, the better it can assess risk for a requested loan. When an app feeds from the bank’s Big Data pipeline combined with analytics, it will know if the customer is trustworthy and may also detect potential fraud or malicious intent.  

Once everything is clear, the app can push through the loan request to the loan approval agent and notify the customer. And once the agent approves the loan, the customer will receive the fund in their account. This quick and frictionless way of applying for a loan without needing to call or visit a bank branch is only possible due to Big Data analytics. 

8. Machine Learning

It’s hard to think of fintech app development without becoming proficient at implementing machine learning. And that’s because there’s hardly a fintech application that doesn’t have a ML component in one form or another. Moreover, there are many ways that ML algorithms can aid various functions, even within a single fintech app. 

These algorithms can enhance an app’s fraud detection capabilities, predict market risks, and implement trading strategies. Bots powered by ML algorithms can also advise users on trades, upcoming investment trends, and market opportunities. However, it’s important to note that the quality and accuracy of the data these algorithms use will determine overall efficacy.

9. Multiple Digital Payment Options

No fintech app can function correctly without having at least one digital payment option. But users expect multiple digital payment options, so design your app for such a scenario. While it’s perfectly okay for your MVP or initial versions of your app to have one payment option, you’ll need to diversify payment options as your app matures. 

But what payment options should your fintech app have initially? Offer wire transfer, debit, and credit card payments from the get-go. Then, closely follow with PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Play, and Samsung Pay. 

However, some digital payment processors prohibit risky speculative trading and investment products from accessing their services. Ensure that your fintech app complies with the terms of service (ToS) of any payment processor you plan on integrating. You may also add cryptocurrency payment options if your app’s meant for the crypto market.

In Conclusion

Fintech app development has come a long way yet still offers many opportunities for forward-looking appreneurs, developers, and financial institutions. Users have become accustomed to handling all their finances on their mobile devices. They seldom visit a physical location or call an agent to do their banking, submit an insurance claim, or invest in stocks. Furthermore, fintech apps make most transactions easy, convenient, and quick. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you build your next fintech app for a growing and promising market! 

How Do Free Apps Make Money

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The mobile app market is highly lucrative. In 2021, the mobile app market was estimated to be worth $187.58 billion and is projected to reach $207.53 billion by 2022. According to PRNewswire, the mobile app market witnessed year-over-year growth of 20.45% in 2021 – a clear indication of its potential as an industry.

So, the mobile app market is a productive and high-income sector worth considering. Today, more than ever, people are turning to mobile apps for almost everything – shopping, communicating, gaming, social interactions, chatting, and even trading.

But how do these apps make money given that 97% of Google Android apps were downloaded for free in July 2022? How do free apps make money if most people download these apps for free?

Freemium vs. Free Trial Apps

The free app market is broadly segmented into freemium apps and free trial apps. Freemium apps allow users to access an assorted list of features for free, but the free trial apps let users interact and access the full functionality of all apps for a limited period.

According to reports, freemium apps have an app conversion rate of 30% while free trial apps may attract up to 50% conversion rates. Either way, these apps end up making handsome incomes for their developers and even founders.

So, here’s how publishers monetize free apps.

1. Paid ads

Interestingly, paid ads are among the leading income-generation strategies today. The same is true for most things, including mobile apps. Free mobile apps leverage paid ads in the following ways:

  • CPM – The app developer is paid a certain amount of money for app impressions
  • CPC – Revenue is generated based on the number of clicks achieved in an ad
  • CPV – Revenue is determined by the number of views per app user
  • CPA – This revenue is gained when users directly install the app on their devices or when they purchase products or services directly using links attached or embedded in the app.

So, it’s advisable to subscribe to some paid ads if you’re not charging your app users. However, always remember that when you take the advertising route, you don’t downplay the user experience with excessive ads.

Excessive ads may greatly impair the user experience, thus being counterproductive to your app monetization strategy.

2. Subscriptions

Subscription is the most cost-effective and straightforward way of monetizing an app. Think of any free app, do you pay to access additional features or do you access all features for a limited period? Either way, you end up wanting to pay for a subscription.

An obvious and straightforward approach by app publishers is to give the apps free of charge and then charge subscriptions for users to continue using the service. That means you only get to access the app’s full functionality after you’ve secured a paid subscription.

Tinder, Disney, Pandora, Netflix, Hulu, Twitch, ESPN, and HBO Max are some of the most popular paid app subscriptions globally.

3. Direct selling

Selling merchandise is a proven way of monetizing your app. Most app publishers build or design free versions to sell products such as clothing, apparel, toys, and accessories.

Most of these products are sold through email marketing or sold directly using the app. So, if you’re considering an innovative way to push your new clothing or toy brand, look no further, a free app can be a hidden ingredient to a potent cocktail.

Contact NS804 for inquiries on app costs and app development solutions.

Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence In Apps

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It’s hardly possible to have a conversation about tech nowadays without mentioning machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). In a way, tech companies and the media have been responsible for pushing AI & ML into the mainstream consciousness for at least a decade. And one could say that they have been overwhelmingly successful in achieving this goal.

But why should developers care about machine learning and artificial intelligence? After all, we’ve done fine with apps and games that had no or only limited implementations of AI for several decades. So what gives — why the sudden interest in AI & ML? And how could rudimentary apps benefit from AI & ML — wouldn’t this drive up development costs and utilize additional compute power? 

Let’s give you the short answer first? No, most simple apps won’t need an AI or ML implementation. While your to-do list app or ‘Frogger’ clone will benefit from an AI implementation, you’ll likely roll out a basic logic system or finite state machine (FSM). And if necessary, you could integrate AI agents into your FSM if you’re building a more complex game, simulation, or AR/VR app. 

But as a general rule, you’ll want to rely on simpler systems for most of your apps. However, if you’re creating something like a photo editing app that autocorrects imagery, you’ll want to tap into the power AI & ML brings to the table. Below, we go into greater detail about what this means for your app development endeavors!

What Is Machine Learning?

Before we begin, we need to explain what machine learning is and how it differs from artificial intelligence. Machine learning attempts to emulate the way humans learn. And similarly to humans, learning is an iterative process where accuracy improves gradually. 

But how would ML help improve an app? Consider a game where enemies and non-player characters (NPCs) need to respond like real humans. Or self-driving vehicles that need to respond to varying traffic conditions in real-time. 

A solution based only on AI would rely heavily on pre-determined behaviors, which isn’t ideal. We’d effectively have a situation where some enemy characters respond the same when trying to dodge the player’s bullets. And self-driving vehicles would run into problems when encountering any non-predefined obstacles.   

Ideally, we’d want the AI to mimic human behavior as closely as possible. That means we don’t only want pattern recognition but also the ability to distinguish the slightest nuances in those patterns. Something humans are very good at doing, as our brains can analyze all surrounding visible objects accurately and rapidly. We can quickly determine the distance, color, shape, size, and texture of one object when compared to another.

However, computer systems are only good at rudimentary pattern recognition. At least, that was the case until the introduction of machine learning. And that’s why it’s making inroads in the fields of data science, customer service, and even stock trading.

How Does Machine Learning Work?

Machine learning relies on the following processes to work effectively:

  • The first phase consists of the decision-making process that ingests input data. This data could either be labeled or unlabeled, and the ML algorithm will compute an estimation of the patterns detected in the data. 
  • Then, an error function will compare and evaluate any predictive models and assess their accuracy. 
  • Once done, the model optimization process will kick off. These predictive models will undergo weight adjustments to fit with existing data sets. These data sets come from the training sets, which contain the most accurate example of what the ML algorithm should achieve. Furthermore, the algorithm will repeat this process and update the weights automatically until it reaches the desired accuracy threshold.

What Types Of Apps Benefit From Machine Learning? 

As we mentioned earlier, machine learning isn’t necessary for most apps. But given that more users and businesses require features that automate specific processes, AI & ML implementations have become indispensable. And that’s certainly true for the following kinds of apps:

  • Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR): Most mobile devices come with apps that recognize human speech, such as Google Assistant and Siri. And the most common uses include voice search and speech-to-text functionality. But even third-party apps can benefit from natural language processing (NLP) to deliver optimal speech recognition.
  • Chatbots & virtual assistants: There’s a greater need for chatbots in customer service. And that’s because they can serve customers around the clock and in multiple zones concurrently. Moreover, they’re a low-cost solution to employing human agents. 
  • Imaging technologies: AI & ML implementations work great for applications that use or manipulate images. Many modern applications need to collect and analyze data from digital photos, videos, and visual inputs. Furthermore, they can enhance these photos and videos with limited or no input from the user. 
  • Recommendation engines: Many e-commerce and mobile apps feature recommendation engines to help users make the right choices. AI algorithms and past behavior data help the app place the most adequate information in front of the user.
  • Crypto & stock trading: More investors and day traders utilize their mobile phones to trade cryptocurrencies and other financial instruments. But AI-powered platforms allow users to engage in high-frequency trading while on the go.

Implementing Artificial Intelligence In Mobile Games 

It’s not necessary to implement machine learning in mobile games. And the reason for this is that older mobile devices don’t have CPUs and GPUs powerful enough to handle intense ML workloads. And that’s not taking into account the GPU processing budget for the graphics and additional overhead the underlying game engine brings forth. 

But it’s still possible to implement AI algorithms that make NPCs and enemy characters convincing enough. And since most mobile games tend to be simpler experiences than PC and console games, it’s unnecessary to implement complex AI algorithms that may cause high CPU usage. 

And the good news is that it’s a relatively simple process to implement algorithms such as A* pathfinding, Alpha Beta search, Minimax, and Monte Carlo tree search, without stressing the CPU. These work remarkably well in action, arcade, puzzle, strategy, and mobile board games. 

If you’re developing a role-playing game (RPG), you’ll rely heavily on a custom-made database to store character and enemy variables. And to manipulate any of these variables, you’ll rely mostly on formulas. You’ll find that these formulas resemble those found in Excel spreadsheets.

However, you’ll need to implement AI for your NPCs and battle scenes. But how complex your AI will end up largely depends on the realism of NPC behavior and the intricacy of your battle systems. And if you’re planning on adding epic boss fights, implementing convincing AI will prove challenging. Your team members will need to put their engineering caps on to deal with convoluted behavior trees.

In Conclusion

Machine learning and artificial intelligence help make apps a lot smarter. And these apps often feel like they have human-like intelligence, even though it’s a bunch of cleverly-crafted algorithms running in the background. 

As mobile app development matures, AI & ML implementations will be standard practice. And that’s because tools and frameworks are getting better, and system-on-a-chip (SoC) vendors are implementing neural processing for ML applications. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you develop apps powered by advanced AI & ML.