Tag Archive for: Apps for Business

Lead Generation In 2023: Why App Development Is Mission-Critical

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The overall success of your business-to-business (B2B) endeavors rely heavily on lead generation. But you may have noticed that generating valuable leads is incredibly challenging nowadays. Over a decade ago, you only needed a reasonably presentable website and some social media presence to grow your leads.

But in 2023, a website and social media aren’t enough for lead generation. And the reason this has happened is due to the way the Google Search Algorithm functions, which is complex but impacts whether or not potential clients will find your website. 

Furthermore, social media platforms have become walled gardens that severely limit the amount of traffic leaving these platforms. Instead, they strive to keep users engaged for long durations, causing them to be less interested in visiting websites unless there’s a compelling reason to do so.

But where does that leave your B2B efforts in light of all these developments? Well, you could launch advertising campaigns for the sole purpose of generating leads. Yet this is expensive, with plenty of trial and error involved to achieve optimal results. And while we’d never dissuade you from running ad campaigns if these can help your business — we also want you to consider other options!

Consider that mobile apps still engage users and drive innovation in 2023. A good example is TikTok, which has radically transformed how users consume and interact with video content. It’s had such a huge impact that it forced YouTube to introduce short-form video content via Shorts to remain relevant. That’s a testament to how powerful and mission-critical app development has become, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION WITH AN APP DEVELOPMENT EXPERT TO GET A CUSTOMIZED QUOTE!

Mobile App Development Shows You Mean Business

Not every business invests in a mobile app, which will place you in that rarified space of leading brands with their own custom apps. Not only will it increase the prestige of your business, but also its trustworthiness.

And if you’ve created an app with an excellent user interface (UI) & user experience (UX), a well-integrated chatbot to respond to inquiries, and watertight security — lead generation will become significantly easier. Besides, it’s more convenient, personalized, and safer for users to interact with your business via your mobile app than through your website.

Qualify Your Leads

One of the most crucial things about developing and releasing a mobile app is that users will ultimately download it. And while that may seem obvious, it’s one of the most powerful aspects of having a mobile app. Once prospective leads download your app, you’re in a position to take things further.

After all, what’s the point of lead generation if you don’t qualify those leads? You can request their contact information or even for them to create a profile. To reward them for completing these actions, you can give them access to exclusive content or features. Thus, you’ll likely impress them and drive them faster down the lead funnel.

USE OUR APP COST CALCULATOR TO ESTIMATE THE COST TO BUILD YOUR APP!

Automate The Lead Generation Process

It’s likely you’re on a tight budget and must limit the number of staff to interact with prospective leads. And considering that the global economy faces a recession in 2023, it’s wise to streamline business operations. Fortunately, mobile apps are ideal for automating the lead generation process.

A well-implemented app can consistently keep prospective leads interested in your products and services. The app can offer suggestions and special offers based on a lead’s preferences, purchase history (if any), and app usage. It can also send reminders when necessary and commence with the follow-up process. The latter is crucial as leads often turn cold when businesses fail to follow up.

The Bottom Line

Mobile app development facilitates the lead generation process but also supercharges it like no other methodology. And given how it enhances the status of a business, streamlines its business processes, and automates lead generation — it simply can’t be ignored in 2023. Contact NS804 to learn how we can help you build apps that will grow your leads exponentially!

6 Ways An App Can Improve Your Business Lead Count

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Improving your business lead count should be a top priority. And that’s because you’re likely operating in a competitive environment where only effective organizations survive and thrive. However, it’s never been easier to pump up that business lead count with today’s mobile app technologies.

About a decade ago, you’d rely on your website, blog, social media presence, and marketing outreach to generate leads. While you’ll still need to use these channels, a mobile app can help boost your lead count immensely. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise due to the wide proliferation of mobile devices. Inevitably, most of your clients likely engage with your organization via their smartphones and tablets. 

And this presents a golden opportunity for you to strengthen your relationship with existing clients while also reaching new clients. A quality mobile app designed and coded by a reputable studio, such as NS804, can take your lead count to the next level. But if you’re sitting on the fence, here are several reasons why an app can improve your business lead count.

1. Tap Into A Larger Market

As of January 2023, there are 6.92 billion smartphone users, which make up 86.41% of the global population. When the majority of the world uses smartphones, you must optimize your business for mobile. Failing to do so will be detrimental to your business, as your competitors probably already have front-facing mobile components implemented. 

When these competitors have established a direct relationship with clients via their mobile apps — it’s game over! Clients will remain loyal to these competitors since they’ll enjoy the convenience of having their needs met via a mobile app. They don’t have to waste precious time calling in or visiting an organization’s premises if they make inquiries or have services rendered. 

More importantly, your competitors can keep on generating new leads with their mobile apps. Existing customers will often recommend these apps to their friends and families if they’re satisfied with the user experience (UX). But your competitors can also spread awareness of their app via advertisements, leaflets, flyers, and other marketing materials. All they need to do is place a scannable QR code on these marketing materials, which has a download link to their apps.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION WITH AN APP DEVELOPMENT EXPERT TO GET A CUSTOMIZED QUOTE!

2. Optimize Your Email Campaigns For Mobile

Another way a mobile app can help you is with your email campaigns. First-time users that download your app may need to provide an email address and set up 2-step verification. So, they’ll receive subsequent communications via email, which you should optimize for mobile devices.

However, email is an effective tool for generating and improving your business lead count. You can start by creating several email templates that work well on mobile devices. Then, proceed with A/B testing to optimize these templates and your messaging further. 

Running a lengthy email campaign can be time-consuming, so use an automation email marketing tool. You may use an existing platform or create your own, which integrates with your mobile app for maximum efficiency. Also, ensure that you’ve set up a backend database to store user emails, responses, feedback, and other related information.

3. User Geo-Location Presents Further Business Lead Opportunities

Utilize the built-in GPS of your users’ smartphones to determine the locations of most of your clients. With this information, you can run promotions in your most lucrative markets and do outreach programs in markets where you’re relatively unknown.

But keep in mind that geo-location strategies work best with existing users. For example, a restaurant may use its order-taking app to secure orders. But also use the same app to run promotions via in-app messages when customers are nearby the restaurant. Undoubtedly, this strategy will boost sales but won’t likely lead to additional business leads.

4. Attract B2B Clients Via Sponsored InMail

You’ll find many potential business clients on LinkedIn. And one of the best ways to reach these clients is via sponsored InMail messages. But this feature is only available for premium users, and 50 credits of InMail currently costs $79.99 per month. Yet it could be worthwhile, especially if you’re able to attract quality prospects. 

And the good news is that you can further increase your business lead counts on LinkedIn with the Communication APIs. These APIs include the Invitation API and Messages API, which you may integrate into your app. The side benefit is that your app will become a social hub for clients that use LinkedIn on a regular basis. And potentially bring new clients to your business that you would’ve never been able to reach before.

5. Build A Business Lead And Tracking App

If your company and sales representatives work out in the field, you should consider building a mobile business lead and tracking app. While there are several established platforms available such as Apptivo, Salesforce, and Zoho, you may prefer a tailor-built solution instead. 

The primary advantage is that you can take a mobile-first or mobile-only approach. And even though there’ll be an upfront cost for developing this app, you won’t need to pay an ongoing subscription or deal with changing end-user license agreement (EULA) issues of turnkey solutions.

But why would you want a business lead tracking app when a spreadsheet would suffice? For a small business that’s only just started establishing itself, a spreadsheet may do in the short term. However, for any organization that needs to integrate other components, such as its customer support systems, e-commerce, and email, it’s an absolute necessity.

Ultimately, you’ll need to consider your organization’s growth rate and the complexity of your business processes before developing such an app. And while there’s nothing wrong with using a turnkey solution as a startup, a custom-built and robust solution should always be a long-term goal.

USE OUR APP COST CALCULATOR TO ESTIMATE THE COST TO BUILD YOUR APP!

6. Automate And Monitor Your Business Leads

Make your email campaigns and outreach programs as engaging as possible. You want to impress your prospects early on and keep them interested all the way down the sales funnel. However, you may have generated plenty of leads, so you’ll need to automate the process.

Take the tracking app that we mentioned earlier. One way to improve it is by including the capability of processing a large number of prospects rapidly. And ensure that it keeps log event data, including when a sales representative attains a business lead, the date and time, the value of the lead, and any sales related to this lead. 

Then, implement analytics that keep track of all aspects of your business lead endeavors. These analytics should reveal how successful your efforts have been, the quality of your leads, and insights into all your sales activities. Moreover, you should be able to drill down on the data to a granular level. And compile a detailed report with a single click, which management can access at any time. 

And if you already have a customer relationship manager (CRM), you should allow for easy interoperability with your business lead tracking app. This will make customer acquisition and retaining those customers a more efficient process.

In Conclusion

Mobile apps offer the perfect vehicle for increasing your business lead counts significantly. Not only do they make the process of attaining leads more efficient, but it’s also easier to track results and take the appropriate actions far more quickly. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you develop a business lead app that will boost your business! 

Mobile App Development Denver, Colorado

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Have you ever searched online for ‘mobile app development Denver‘ studios? If that’s the case, you’ve likely come across NS804. And you’ve wondered if this studio can fulfill your app development needs. According to The Manifest, we’re one of the most reviewed app development companies. Furthermore, we’re a growing company with offices in Richmond, Charlotte, and Denver.

And in Denver, we offer clients several mobile app development services to help them achieve their goals. These services include native Android & iOS app development, user interface (UI) & user experience (UX) design, and building minimum viable products (MVPs). But we do a lot more that can reinvigorate and revolutionize your business processes. 

Let’s take a deeper look at why NS804 may be the answer to your mobile app development Denver queries.

1. Enhancing Existing Apps

As a savvy appreneur or business leader, you’ve likely released one or more apps already. But have you enhanced these, and by that, we mean a proper mobile app upgrade and not simply releasing rudimentary updates? If the answer is no, you should upgrade your apps, especially if you haven’t done so for one or more smartphone generations. 

And that’s because your apps are not taking advantage of the latest smartphone and operating system (OS) features. Moreover, they likely have security holes that could expose your users’ privacy and data. While you can patch some of these holes with regular updates, sometimes it’s necessary to migrate your app to the latest OS for enhanced security.

Also, your apps may have an outdated codebase written in an older language. For example, your Android apps could have been written in Java or your iOS apps in Objective-C. But both Google and Apple have introduced modern languages, such as Kotlin and Swift.

So why not rewrite your apps to take advantage of the easier readability, maintainability, and features of these newer languages? If this sounds too complex, the skilled developers at NS804 can rewrite your apps for you! 

2. Streamline All Your Business Processes

All your clients, staff, and vendors use mobile devices and various computer systems. So, integrate these with your existing systems and business processes for maximum efficiency. And there are significant benefits that your enterprise will derive by implementing these integrations.

You’ll be in a position to monitor all client interactions with your enterprise in real-time. And accurately assess staff productivity and gain a bird’s eye view of the entire supply chain. With this information, you’ll tweak and improve every facet of your business without disruptions.

3. Develop The Right Kind Of Apps For Your Target Market

Perhaps you’re a restaurateur that needs an app for food deliveries. Or you’re involved in the field of education and require an easy-to-use app for young scholars. Then, you should work with a studio, such as NS804, that understands your target market and what types of apps best serve this market. 

And if you have a unique app idea that you want to bring to fruition, we can help mitigate the costs and risks by building an MVP. Furthermore, we can assist in marketing, promoting, and scaling your app once your MVP gains traction. 

Mobile App Development Denver Gets Real

It’s always a smart move to partner with an experienced and trusted studio for your app development needs. And that’s because mobile app development is challenging, especially if you need a quality app that will streamline your business processes or help you meet the demands of your target market. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create amazing apps, whether you’re based in Denver or in any other city in North America.

What Can Your App Metrics Tell You About Your Customers?

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App metrics will help you succeed as an appreneur or even as an enterprise releasing one or more apps. After all, it’s never a good idea to push out an app without monitoring its key performance indicators (KPIs). And that’s because you’ll be missing out on crucial information that impacts your app in its entirety.

Just think for a minute that you’ve spent a lot of time and money on a food ordering app. Many users download it, but you receive very few orders. Having failed to add mobile app metrics, you’re left bewildered as to why this occurs. To top it off, you’re left guessing about what needs to improve, apart from a few negative user reviews.

The hard truth is that you should never have to guess what’s wrong with your app. Instead, you should know how it performs during its entire lifecycle. And app metrics will also help you learn more about your customers, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

Learn More About Customer Device Specs

You should add metrics that monitor your app’s performance and user experience (UX) from the get-go. But why is this so important when your app runs fine on your test devices? Your test devices only offer a limited view due to the massive variety of devices available, especially in the Android space. It’s a technical impossibility to test your app on the thousands of different Android smartphones, tablets, and TVs that your users may own.

However, your mobile app metrics will let you know how your application performs after the user installs it. You’ll gain access to valuable data, such as the user’s device operating system (OS), screen resolution, load times, and crash reports. Moreover, you’ll have a granular view of this data to allow you to pinpoint issues and fix them. Occasionally, you may detect these issues before most of your users do.

Mobile App Metrics Reveal Customer Engagement KPIs

Is your app engaging users, or are they uninstalling it in droves? Believe it or not, that’s one of the most important questions you should be asking. But it’s also one that you should be getting answers for immediately. And that’s because engagement rates directly impact your app’s revenue, so never leave this to chance.

Your customer engagement KPIs should reveal the following: average number of screens per visit, session length, stickiness ratio, retention rate, and churn rate. Furthermore, you should have detailed data on daily, weekly, and monthly engagement per active user. 

Monitor Customer Spending Habits

Your app’s supposed to make you money, so you need to know if your customers are actually making purchases. Also, integrate the necessary application programming interfaces (APIs) to facilitate and monitor all payment methods. Nowadays, users like to make payments using Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal — and several other payment services.

But what customer revenue metrics should you monitor? You’ll need to look at the following: average revenue per user (ARPU), number of purchases, time to first purchase, customer lifetime value (CLV), conversion rate, and cost per install (CPI).

In Conclusion

Mobile app metrics, when properly implemented, reveal much about your customers. And the data you collect and analyze will help you to pinpoint issues that impact your app negatively. Thus, allowing you to make fixes and roll out updates that actually make sense. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you integrate app metrics to unlock the true potential of your applications!

Education Apps and Your Business: The 4 Signs It’s Time to Consider One

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Education apps are an exciting avenue that more businesses should explore. And by business entities, we mean all types, from small home-based businesses to large international enterprises.

But what are education apps, and how do they benefit businesses? In short, they function primarily as powerful learning tools. They help to fill in knowledge gaps that business leaders, entrepreneurs, employees, and even clients — in specific cases — may have. And in more extreme cases, these apps may cover an entire staff training program of an enterprise.

More importantly, given the interactive nature of education apps, they offer a more engaging learning path. Quite understandable considering that wading through thick employee training and development books or watching cheesy training videos may put off most people. Furthermore, education apps can become considerably fun with well-implemented gamification features, making learners look forward to upcoming sessions.

Now you may be wondering if these apps are right for your business. Short answer: you likely do if you require a cost-effective and effective way to train staff. And you most certainly do if your staff works remotely and across various time zones. However, there are several more reasons you should consider developing one or more education apps for your business — read on!

1. Education Apps Enhance Existing Training Materials

If you’ve been in business for some time, you likely have a sizable amount of training materials already available at your disposal. And your staff has likely become accustomed to learning from your existing training modules and their respective formats. These formats could include books, documents, or even audio and video lectures and presentations, to name a few.

So developing an education app might make you think that you now have to replace the above. But that wouldn’t be wise, especially if you’ve already spent a lot of time and money on these. And that’s especially true if your staff enjoys learning from these training materials, and they do so effectively.

However, it’s worth developing an education app to serve as the central repository for all your training materials. And you can start by converting all your training books and documents into a Portable Document Format (PDF) or a proprietary format. Then, you may store these digital documents on your servers, and your app will retrieve these when the user requests them.

Furthermore, you’ll have complete control of the dissemination of these files. For example, only your sales staff will have access to sales-orientated training materials, and your technical staff won’t have authorization. You may also decide to limit the time staff will view these files or keep track of how long it takes for each staff member to absorb new or existing learning materials.

You can also digitize all your analog-based audio and video presentations and upload them to your repository. But if you’re worried that these contain company secrets that could leak out to competitors, you can secure them. Apply a Digital Rights Management (DRM) lock to all your content, considerably limiting what an unscrupulous employee can do.

2. Run Live Training Sessions

Perhaps your business specializes in a highly technical field that changes regularly. A good example would be a custom PC building company, which deals with an ever-evolving range of computer parts that regularly hit the marketplace. But the latest computer parts often require additional know-how to install correctly without damaging any components.

High-end cooling components, graphics cards, motherboards, and power supply units (PSUs) can be finicky and expensive to replace if damaged. And things get more complicated every time AMD and Nvidia release their latest graphics cards or when manufacturers have to update their motherboards to stay compatible with the latest central processing units (CPUs).

An experienced technician may have little trouble putting a system together, but inexperienced staff will likely struggle. Ideally, you want these staff members to level up their skills to be as competent as your expert technician. And you want them to gain knowledge of the latest installation methodologies every time a manufacturer releases a new component.

But how do you keep all your staff up to speed? And what happens if you have staff that comes into your workshop and some that work off-site?

You can solve both issues with an app that helps you run live training sessions. Your expert technician can live stream himself working on a new PC build while explaining each step of the process. The other staff members will follow the stream and use the app’s built-in chat function if they have any questions.

And this gives the expert technician the opportunity to explain things further and interact with the other staff members. Furthermore, the other staff may be working on their own builds concurrently and now have the ability to receive help directly from the expert technician even when not in the same building.

3. Engage And Teach Your Clients

Believe it or not, you can engage and teach your clients with the right type of education app. Moreover, you can further build brand loyalty. But how do you do this with an education app, and is it even possible?

Well, you should evaluate whether or not your product or service offering requires teaching. If you’re running a dropshipping business, there isn’t much need for an education app that will interest your clients in any conceivable way. But if you own a popular restaurant with meals prepared by a renowned chef, there’s plenty of potential for such an app.

Your clients may want to know how your chef prepares that tasty dish of pesto pasta. And quite possibly, many other items on the menu. So, you can fulfill that wish by creating an app where clients can access cooking videos and even live training sessions. They can follow your chef’s pre-recorded or live-streamed videos and prepare these meals from their homes.

Now, you may think that it’s unwise to share the recipes of your restaurant’s choice dishes. After all, you don’t want to reveal secret recipes or have clients stop visiting your establishment. But you don’t need to give away your most valuable recipes. A small sampling of menu items or slightly altered recipes should please most clients. And you may decide to put these behind a paywall or allow access via a subscription fee if the training sessions prove popular.

4. AR & VR Are The Perfect Education Technologies

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) work incredibly well as educational tools. That’s due to their ability to simulate real-world environments, objects, and scenarios. Furthermore, they offer a more convincing and immersive experience than any other technology.

Thus, if you need to train staff and put them in realistic or stressful situations, VR will do the trick. A VR application can have your staff repairing gas lines, operating heavy machinery, or undergoing mine training. In all these scenarios, staff won’t experience any physical risk, even though the training sessions closely emulate real-world dangers and possible outcomes.

And an AR app can help staff gain greater insight and awareness when training in a real-world environment. A staff member may need to change engine parts on an actual car. But may have difficulty remembering the names of all car parts and where each part fits. The AR app will overlay the relevant information inside the AR/VR goggles, AR glasses, or on the smartphone screen while still providing a clear view of the engine.

The Bottom Line

Businesses constantly evolve, so they need to train staff on an ongoing basis. Fortunately, education apps make this possible, as it’s more cost-effective and easier to create training programs in digital form than the more traditional methods. And mobile apps are the perfect vehicle for disseminating and accessing training content. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you develop phenomenal education apps for your business today!

4 Ways Service-Based Contractors Can Benefit from a Mobile App

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In industrialized economies, service-based contractors grease the wheels in the market segments in which they compete. They allow enterprises, large and small, to outsource vital business processes to function more smoothly and cost-effectively. And that’s great, but how do contractors reduce their costs while increasing efficiency?

A way to change gears and turbo charge any service-based business is with a mobile app. And why that’s the case is because a mobile app helps automate various crucial tasks. Thus, reducing or cutting out staffing overheads almost entirely. Furthermore, a mobile app never sleeps and provides service around the clock.

And if you’re a contractor, all this may sound very enticing. But a mobile app doesn’t only help automate things, as it’s also capable of so much more. Below, we’ll go into greater detail about what mobile apps can do for service-based contractors.

1. Reporting Tools For Contractors Working Out In The Field

Let’s consider for a minute that you run a data center maintenance service in your area. And you have several technicians that drive out to these data centers, many of which are out of town. Now, you want all these technicians to keep you informed and report on all the maintenance work done at these sites. Preferably, you’ll want to have all reports submitted as quickly as possible to inform the client of any issues that will impact business.

But how do you do this without having your technicians come to the office or engage in costly phone calls?

Well, the most efficient way is by implementing powerful reporting tools in a mobile app, which may run on a tablet or smartphone. And this app may also include a checklist, which technicians need to check off to show that they’re working within established maintenance protocols. Furthermore, technicians can conduct security audits and report any breaches and discrepancies.

Once they input this information, the app will immediately send it to your servers and update the client’s maintenance report in real-time. In case of a breach, you can respond immediately by sending out a cyber security specialist and notifying your client. The quicker you respond, the higher your chances of dealing with a security breach and keeping your client’s data safe.

2. Enhance Collaboration With A Project Management App

It matters not if you’re running a data center maintenance or a packing service, as you’ll be dealing with customer demands, deadlines, and staff management issues. So, you’ll need tools that make collaboration a breeze, regardless of whether your staff comes to the office, works remotely or both.

A well-designed custom project management app will empower you and your staff to make the right moves. It should have an easy-to-understand user interface (UI) that your non-tech-savvy employees can navigate easily. But user-friendliness isn’t what this app is all about, as it will also need several vital features.

It should have a task tracker that can handle multiple projects, even thousands, if necessary. Moreover, it should accurately track and record the following: assigned staff, client information, due dates, project status, task descriptions, and task priorities. To better organize tasks, use a Kanban board combined with advanced filtering features to sort through multiple projects quickly.

And it’s necessary to implement a timer that accurately tracks the duration of all tasks. You may record this information and make it available in a timesheet. It will also help you determine the completion of projects, bill clients, and pay staff. Furthermore, you can integrate multiple payment processing platforms such as PayPal and Stripe for all digital transactions.

So, you can effectively turn your project management app into a central hub for handling the most crucial business processes. And when you grow your service-based business and need additional features, you have options. You can either add these to your project management app or develop another app that integrates with your existing systems.

3. AI Chatbots Apps Make Contractors Available 24/7

Clients hate it when they can’t reach their contractors on the phone or have to wait for an email response. They expect to speak to a company representative immediately to help them with any issues they may encounter. But as we all know, that’s not always possible, especially if the contractor is small in size without enough staff on hand. Or can’t afford to hire a call center to handle all incoming calls.

However, neither is a good excuse as to why contractors of any size can’t respond to their clients. Not only is this unprofessional, but it will also cause clients to reconsider working with contractors that don’t seem helpful.

So how do we solve this problem and provide clients with a 24/7 response channel? Well, a mobile app can act as a viable communications channel. And if we implement AI chatbots within the app’s messaging service, clients can have their queries answered by these chatbots immediately. In fact, AI-powered chatbots will seem so convincing that many clients won’t even realize that they’re not conversing with actual humans.

Furthermore, the beauty of chatbots is that they’re incredibly versatile. You can make them conversational so that they can be more engaging. Alternatively, they can operate as virtual assistants and be very informative to help clients with deeply technical issues.

And from a development standpoint, all the major technology companies have a chatbot or virtual assistant platform. Apple has Siri, Google has Dialogflow, and Microsoft has Azure Bot Service.

4. AR & VR For Interactive Training Sessions

Perhaps your company offers online and offline training services to clients. But you want to stand out by providing them an interactive and meaningful experience they won’t get anywhere else. And the best way to do this is with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) mobile apps.

You’ll opt for an AR app if your training sessions require interaction and representation of the real world. For example, you may be training a client’s employees to detect and repair gas leaks on actual gas pipes. The AR app will aid them in correctly identifying the fittings, piping, and tubing as they pass the smartphone camera over these. And on the smartphone display, a description of the part with a visualization of the tooling and repair methodology will pop up.

But you may opt for a VR app if you need to simulate various dangerous scenarios related to gas leaks. Perhaps, you need these employees to fix gas pipes located in areas with highly combustible materials nearby. But you don’t want to put these employees in harm’s way, so it’s preferable for them to receive training in a virtual environment that’s completely safe.

The VR app will show a realistic 3D representation of the test environment with the pipe fittings. And each employee will wear a VR headset made exclusively for smartphones, such as the Samsung Gear VR. Then, the app will use a smartphone’s accelerometer to track head movements and the VR device’s controller to execute actions. For most employees, the experience won’t seem much different from playing a game from a first-person perspective.

The Bottom Line

Service-based contractors have become indispensable in modern economies. They help businesses of all sizes achieve their goals by providing services that are beyond the capabilities and scope of these businesses. And with the right kind of mobile apps, contractors can meet and surpass the expectations of even their most demanding clients.

Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create outstanding mobile apps for your service-based contract business!

4 Things You Can Learn About Your Clients From Their App Use

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Every savvy appreneur should monitor app use to gauge whether an application meets your desired goals and expectations. And that’s easy to do due to the many excellent analytics and monitoring tools available today. Of course, users and various governing bodies, such as the EU, have expressed concern about how companies handle user data and privacy.

As someone that releases or plans to release apps, it’s your job to ensure that you comply with all regulations applicable to the target territory. But the good news is that you don’t need to harvest an extraordinary amount of data to gain a clear picture of app use. After all, you primarily care about your app’s performance and whether users easily complete tasks available to them. 

You don’t want to know users’ home addresses or pet names unless that’s necessary for the functionality of your app. But even for such cases, you’ll need to gain user consent via a mobile opt-in option. Ultimately, you want to operate under an ethical and legal framework that fosters trust with all your users.

We also understand that it’s not always clear what you must look for when monitoring app use. So, we’ve compiled this handy list to help you laser focus on the key indicators that will reveal more about your clients and users.

1. Does Your App Use Data Reveal A Distracted User Base?

Unfortunately, in our information-rich world, attention spans have declined significantly. Digital and social media have played a significant role in reducing attention spans, and so has a constantly online way of life.

But what does this mean for your upcoming app project? Your app should have an easy-to-understand and easy-to-navigate user interface (UI). And keep it simple by making it easy for users to complete tasks quickly. Once you launch your app and monitor app usage, you should achieve favorable results by keeping users engaged.

If that’s not happening, you may have added features and UI elements that cause confusion or distraction. Users will often leave an app and even delete it altogether if they don’t understand how to use it or are not presented with the most crucial information as early as possible.

You’ll also want to know whether your app’s response times lag longer than usual. Therefore, you should monitor all response and system feedback times. If these exceed 50ms for response times and 400ms for web-based system feedback, you need to patch up your app immediately, as most users won’t put up with any application that seems slow and clunky or hinders productivity.

2. Where Are Your Clients Spending Most Of Their Time? 

It’s essential to track the time users spend on your app. And not only that, but you should also track how much time they spend on each page of your app.

For example, you may have created a food delivery app that promises users a one-click checkout experience. Now, users are excited about the prospect of quickly and conveniently ordering their food, so they flock to your app. But then, you notice that few users are completing orders timeously, and many abandon products in their virtual carts.

So you decide to check your analytics to determine what’s causing the bottleneck. You start by analyzing how much time users spend on the homepage of your app and right through to the checkout page. And the data reveals that users quickly find the products they want. Also, they don’t experience any noticeable problems when adding products to their carts. 

Everything seems good so far, but then you get to the data regarding your checkout page. Surprisingly, users spend three times longer on the checkout page than on the rest of your app. And this is not good because it negates the whole purpose of your app, which is to provide a hassle-free checkout.

However, you still don’t have enough information, so you decide to drill down to a more granular view of your data. And doing so reveals information that you didn’t expect, which shows that users spend an excessive amount of time filling in their payment information. Thus, you decide to improve the payment form and enhance its format by refreshing its credit card and other payment method icons.

3. Are Your Users Cheating And Ruining The Experience For Everyone?

If you’re a mobile game developer or creating a competitive and interactive app, you should care whether users cheat. Yes, you heard correctly; users will act in bad faith and cheat in mobile games. And that’s especially true for games that offer money prizes, gems, and in-app purchases. Furthermore, Android games are particularly vulnerable to cheating and game modification apps, such as Creehack, Game Killer, and SB Game Hacker APK, to name a few.

And while it’s common practice to hack and modify PC games, we should bear in mind that the PC is a fairly open platform. On top of that, some PC game developers encourage mods and even provide their own modification tools. And the reason they do this is that it helps extend the longevity of their games, as users will create and share additional content that’s mostly free. 

But even on the PC, hacking a game for the purpose of cheating is unacceptable, causing developers and publishers to ban users that attempt such an action. Therefore, mobile game developers should never take cheaters lightly, as they can cause monetary loss and reputational damage.

You should implement a pattern detection system that analyzes users’ device memory and storage for any cheat apps. Also, some popular cheat apps attach their debugger to a process, so make sure that you’re scanning for these. And if you’re creating a multiplayer game using the Unity engine, then use Guardsquare’s DexGuard and iXGuard to harden the security of your Android and iOS games.

4. Do Your Users Face Too Many Choices? 

The best apps often have a simple UI and are designed to serve a singular purpose. Therefore, you never want to create an app that tries to do too many things. Or it does one thing well but presents users with a plethora of features and options.

Ideally, your app should focus on a singular purpose and its features pared down to the bare minimum. And that’s because users struggle to navigate apps that offer them too many options. They may feel anxious when facing too many options, many of which may be unnecessary or be too complex. 

Furthermore, when users face too many choices, they’re forced to spend more time thinking before coming to a decision. But if they have less choice, users feel less burdened to engage in a complex decision-making process. And navigating the app feels like a more fluid and natural experience, especially if they can complete the most crucial tasks in a short amount of time.

And if users use your app to complete a complex task, then break it down into several smaller and manageable tasks. Always offer an enjoyable and straightforward user experience, as many users may not have the required technical skills.

The Bottom Line 

As we’ve seen, app use can reveal much about your clients, provided you’re using the correct monitoring and detection systems. And this information provides you with greater insight into what you’re doing right or wrong with your apps. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you create phenomenal apps that will amaze even the most demanding users!

What The Metaverse Means For Developers

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If you regularly follow tech media outlets, you’ve likely heard of the metaverse. But even if you haven’t, recent announcements by the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, turned heads. He launched an ambitious initiative that will transform the social media giant into an all-encompassing metaverse company. Now that’s big news that no developer can ignore!

But will the metaverse live up to expectations, or is it only hype? While we don’t have a crystal ball to predict its future, many big players want to make the metaverse a part of our lives. We’ve seen how the internet, smartphones, and cryptocurrencies gained support early on and now enjoy wide adoption. Thus, the metaverse may enjoy a similar fate and open up many exciting opportunities for developers.

What Exactly Is The Metaverse?

If you’ve played an immersive 3D game or tried out virtual reality (VR), you’ve experienced something akin to the metaverse. A better example is Second Life, an online virtual world dating back to 2003. It combined gameplay aspects from massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and social space for users to interact with each other. 

Yet what made Second Life so compelling is how users could craft clothes and other goods for their 3D avatars and sell these to others. Many savvy content creators took advantage of this and started selling their virtual goods within Second Life’s marketplace. Thus, giving birth to an early model of a digital economy that functioned independently from exterior influences. 

And you could also say that Second Life is the granddaddy of the modern metaverse. But there are a few differences, as the metaverse doesn’t rely on an MMORPG as its core component and doesn’t have the limited appeal of Second Life. After all, not everyone is a gamer, and many users would prefer to trade virtual goods or provide other services instead.

What Can Users Do In The Metaverse? 

We’ve already established the metaverse is like a giant virtual sandbox that allows for many forms of user interaction. And a key reason why Facebook is moving in this direction is that it’s a natural evolutionary process for the company. It already engages over 2.9 billion active users that interact with each other and conduct business directly on Facebook.

So every social media outlet and any business that engages with these outlets will give users the necessary tools to interact within the metaverse. In a way, they will democratize the creation process of virtual goods and services for the masses. 

Architects can create and sell virtual real estate, while artists and designers can turn their creations into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and sell them at auctions. Furthermore, advertisers and fashion brands can use the floor space and shops within the metaverse’s virtual malls. And due to the easy integration of blockchain technologies, expect crypto transactions to become commonplace.

What Opportunities Should Developers Pursue? 

Developers should focus on blockchain technology and crypto APIs. These must work flawlessly with any virtual stores found in the metaverse. And make it easy for users to conduct transactions via any device, whether a smartphone or virtual headset.

But there are also many opportunities for creating the tools that will empower users. Easy-to-use 3D modeling apps, NFT minting tools, and secure crypto exchanges will be essential. On top of that, create apps that allow users to trade virtual goods, hire virtual laborers, and host virtual events.

In Conclusion

The metaverse is still in its infancy but promises big things thanks to the support coming from Epic Games, Facebook, and Microsoft. And it may very well become the next big thing that opens doors for creative and savvy developers. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create stunning apps for smartphones and the metaverse.

Free Mobile App Development Tools

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The app development space is growing at an exponential pace, thanks in part to a growing number of phone ownership and rising internet penetration. Today, the app development market is one of the largest globally with an average release of 5092 apps on the Google App Store and 6140 apps on the Google Play Store.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things IoT are some of the technologies that are being incorporated in most apps. A virtual assistant is one such improvement in mobile applications. Looking closely, you realize that WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram apps are topping the chart of leading apps with the most downloads. Amazon Prime and Netflix lead the entertainment app market, and Candy Crush is at the apex of the gaming app development market.

It’s with no doubt that mobile applications have schematically modified human life. Quick navigation and exceptional UI through mobile applications have become a trademark. The projected number of mobile phone users is expected to cross the 7 billion mark by 2025. This growth will automatically bring a shift in app downloads. So, in this context, it becomes important and valuable to understand the best app development solutions prevailing in the market, with the current and future app development trends.

In this post, we delve into the top free mobile app development tools.

  1. PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a popular mobile app development application that allows you to create a hybrid of software. With PhoneGap, the user or developer doesn’t necessarily need to know mobile programming languages. Instead, they can kick-start with languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for app creation. PhoneGap allows you to create apps that will work on multiple platforms with a single codebase to reach the largest audience.

Features

  • Allows you to view and manage any changes in the app using PhoneGap
  • Easily integrates with various library integrations for easy app development
  • Operates on multiple platforms: iPhone, Windows, and Android

Pros

  • Rapid code testing and faster code deployment
  • A single codebase for multiple platforms

Cons

  • It lacks a user interface widget
  1. Outsystems

Outsystems is a comprehensive full-stack app development platform. By using connected, high-productivity, and AI-supported tools, developers can create and deploy a wide range of applications – from consumer applications to mission-critical business applications – faster, better, and for the future.

Features

  • It has a remarkable acceleration because no code or minimum code is required.
  • Easy integrations with other platforms
  • Easy to learn as it contains free training and learning material for everyone

Pros

  • The responsiveness of the member community allows for faster and efficient learning experiences
  • All members are open to sharing ideas, and these ideas are taken into consideration in further improving the platform

Cons

  • More explanation needed for some tools or widgets
  • No synchronization between consumer and producer modules, so users have to manage dependency frequently.
  • Better training material or documentation in forging components
  1. Flutter

Flutter is an open-source app development software that is best suited for hybrid apps. It’s one of the newest members in the mobile development market, and it’s written in C, C++, and Skia Graphics Engine. Flutter is a Google UI toolkit that allows users to create applications for web, mobile, and desktop from a single codebase. In addition, you don’t have to restart your application when testing your project. The application offers the Hot Reload functionality which makes the entire development exercise optimized and stress-free.

Features

  • Offers fully customizable widgets to render faster development of native apps
  • Incorporates critical platform differences like scrolling, navigation, fonts, and icons
  • Creates plugins using channels that can easily be used by every developer

Pros

  • Builds native apps in just minutes
  • Expressive and flexible user interface

Cons

  • Contains not-so-rich library collections
  1. Ionic

Ionic is one of the best free, open-source mobile applications for developing hybrid apps. It allows developers and users to build apps for various platforms including web, iOS, and Android using a single codebase. What’s more, Ionic offers intuitive UI components, thus accelerating the app development process. This app can be deployed almost everywhere. Ionic boasts of over 120 predefined elements, native device features, and a large community of members.

Features

  • Written in JavaScript, this application is covered by the MIT license
  • Includes mobile components, interactive paradigms, typography, and an extensive base theme
  • Allows Cordova based app building

Pros

  • Ease of learning and contains popular technologies
  • Wide range of library integrations

Cons

  • There’s no hot reloading capability
  1. Buddy

Buddy is an open-source mobile app development application that allows for seamless, change-set-based code deployment. Thanks to a plethora of dedicated, pre-configured services and actions, app automation has never been easier than now. Therefore, if you’re looking for a tool that will build, sign, test, and publish your android or web app effortlessly and in a single click, then Buddy is the ideal choice.

Features

  • Intuitive and clean UX/UI
  • Over 100 actions
  • A wide integration including Azure, Google, Amazon Web Services, and WordPress integrations.

Pros

  • It contains dedicated android actions: Ionic, Reacts Native, and Flutter
  • It supports all popular languages and task managers
  1. Kobiton

Kobiton mobile app development software makes the continuous testing, IOS, and mobile app development exercise a reality. This app also prevents bugs before pushing codes to test, thus perfecting your website or mobile app with functional, performance, and visual test automation. It also helps developers to resolve issues before the production release, and rapidly deploy tests with seamless CD/CI integrations.

Features

  • Allows you to test on real devices in the cloud
  • Cloudify all your local devices for remote access
  • It integrates with Jenkins, CircleCI, Travis CI, and so on.

Pros

  • Scriptless or scripted automated functional, performance, and visual testing
  • Commercial scalability with unlimited user policy
  • Access to real devices in your integrated development environment for rapid debugging.
  1. Xamarin

Xamarin is an open-source mobile app development application founded by Microsoft in 2011. It’s a set of tools that enable developers to build apps for various OS like Windows, Android, and IOS, all in one programming language. One of the reasons that Xamarin is quite reputable is because it uses the C# programming language. Besides using the Xamarin Test Cloud, you can automatically test applications on around 200 real mobile devices.

Features

  • Easy integration with modern back-end services, native APIs, and components
  • Enables you to build stunning cross-platform user interfaces
  • Extends a real-time testing module to monitor and catch app errors when they occur

Pros

  • Full technical support by Microsoft
  • Flexible with .NET and C#

Cons

  • Not build for game development
  1. Buildfire

Another best in this category of best open-source mobile app development software is Buildfire. Buildfire offers a robust set of tools to build applications for web, android, or IOS. This software is well-known for its high-end custom app development capabilities, as well as its easy, intuitive DIY platform. In addition, Buildfire supports more than 10,000 applications and it’s flexible enough to scale as your enterprise grows. Users and developers cannot ignore the simple and functional drag-and-drop user interface, as it makes it easier to build the app faster.

Features

  • Offers an interactive and intuitive app builder where no coding is needed.
  • Allows users to build custom functionality with their developer SDK
  • Can be integrated with any third-party API or pre-built integrations

Pros

  • Has an excellent social networking feature
  • Includes advanced development features

Cons

  • Does not have a reliable customer support service

NS804 – Your Partner in Mobile App Development

Every app development software has its uniqueness and demerits. To understand a software better and to pick the one that perfectly fits your needs, consider the following elements:

  • Privacy and security.
  • Reseller options
  • Push notifications
  • Customer discounts and loyalty programs
  • Instant messaging
  • Geo-targeting
  • Social media integration
  • Third-party integration
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Admin control
  • Customer service

Now that you know the best open-source app development software, it is time to kick-start your app development journey. We always encourage you to contact or consult the experts anytime you’re stuck in your app development exercise. You can also contact NS804 for questions concerning mobile app development.

Professional iOS App Design Templates: Don’t Let Them Tempt You

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It’s easy to get hold of professional iOS app design templates online. Also, these templates tend to be affordable, which only makes them more tempting. But we’ll advise against taking this route since it’s all too easy to make mistakes when developing mobile apps. Here’s a quick rundown of why iOS design templates aren’t necessarily a good solution.

1. Professional iOS App Design Templates Offer Little Customization

You’ve briefed your team on how the user interface (UI) should look on your latest project. And since you’re in a hurry, a team member suggests using professional iOS app design templates to save time. Thus, you allow them to go ahead, hoping that this will help get your app out the door quickly. 

As the project progresses, you reach a point where it’s necessary to make changes to the UI. But you soon find that these templates are difficult to customize to suit your needs. Your UI doesn’t look cohesive and doesn’t fit the design language of your brand. That’s why it’s better to create custom iOS design templates to avoid such a scenario. 

2. iOS Design Templates Make Your App Cookie Cutter

The visual elements of your apps shouldn’t only look professional; they need to stand out. Many iOS design templates tend to look generic, which will give your app a cookie-cutter appearance. Moreover, plenty of low-effort apps in the App Store use such templates that only exacerbate the problem.

3. A Mobile App Design Template Might Not Offer Any Support

It’s easy to be tempted by the low upfront costs of a mobile app design template. And it might seem like a sound investment when starting a project. As any seasoned developer already knows, there comes a time when you need support. If you require making any changes to these templates, you’ll need to track down the designer. But they may no longer be around or not willing to fulfill your requests for changes.

It’s vital to view all app development endeavors seriously. Therefore, consider working with professional developers that can provide the support you need. If you’re willing to spend more on a tailor-made design template, this will result in a professional app that’s bound for success. Contact us today to learn how NS804 can create a custom solution that exemplifies your brand. 

Tag Archive for: Apps for Business