The Future of Mobile App Design in 2019
The use of mobile app design continues to grow, but analysts point to a slowdown in general and greater use of messaging and social networking applications to the detriment of other types of applications. The data also indicates that few applications are used but it is true to them.
From the point of view of mobile app developers, whether individuals or companies, there have always been complaints about the commercial limitations of mobile applications, especially for Apple:
• The time it takes Google to approve an application is usually less than 24 hours. Apple usually takes four days. If a bug is discovered in an application, even if it is corrected immediately, it will take four days to reach the users.
• For an application to be approved, it must follow rules that tend to lean more towards the interests of Apple than of the developers. The confrontation between Apple and Spotify was famous last year.
• When you buy an app, you buy it forever and for the next updates. This is negative for many companies because it does not allow them to charge for the work of developing updates. There is a solution: publish a new application in the stores, but this implies abandoning the previous application and starting again because you start with the download counter at zero and without the users’ ratings.
• Stores do not allow free trial periods. Users are reluctant to pay for an application to find out if it really interests them. Google Play allows you to cancel the purchase (and returns the money) if it has not been more than two hours since the purchase, a clearly insufficient time to test many applications. Apple Store does not impose this time limitation, but top app developers complain that many users request the return of purchases, Apple grants it, but still use what they have bought, because Apple does not disclose to developers the identity of users to those who have been granted a refund.
Despite these drawbacks, it must be said that mobile applications by UX design company have advantages, are useful and are indicated in many cases. There are many companies whose business model is not resented by the conditions imposed by the stores, in-fact there are millions of apps, but there are also other companies that faced these conditions have preferred to develop a web application instead of a mobile application, but not It is always possible because mobile app design company allow agility and performance that are not available to web applications.
Progressive Web Apps
Without going into many technical details you could define the “Progressive Web Apps” as a way to develop web applications (reside on a website and used with a web browser) using technologies that allow them to offer functions of the mobile applications that we usually install on our phones and tablets. These are the characteristics of this type of web applications:
•Findable: unlike apps, they can be indexed by search engines and easily found by users. They also include an informative file that identifies them as an application and allows them to be recognized as such, not just as a website.
•Adaptable design: its presentation in the browser adapts to the orientation and dimensions of the screen.
•They work disconnected: despite being a website, they are designed to work without an internet connection. They may have saved information locally to present it later or save user information locally and synchronize it with a server when there is internet access.
•Secure: they use the HTTPS protocol to ensure that communications are encrypted and thus protect the information transmitted.
•Installable: ‘Progressive Web App’ application can be included in the home screen of a device just as mobile applications are added.
•Progressive: the web application by mobile app design company should work on all devices, in the same way as a normal website would, and should progressively take advantage of the features offered by the browser on which it is used.
So that everything said above is possible and that despite being a web application behaves as a mobile application uses a technology called “Service worker”. A mobile application by iPhone app developers can perform tasks even if we are not using it. For example, we can have the phone in a bag or in a pocket and we get a WhatsApp message. This is possible because that application still in operation even though we are not using it.
A website that we access with a browser responds to our requests, reacts to the actions we perform with a mouse or with a finger on the screen. If we do not use a website, the browser will be waiting. Therefore, in order for a website to send us notifications or collect updated information without our intervention, and thus function as a mobile application, he must be able to perform tasks on his own, and that is where the so-called “Service worker” comes into play.
Those who have done so are adding more features of this technology progressively. Firefox, Chrome and Opera have “Service worker”. Microsoft is currently developing it for its Edge browser. Safari, Apple’s browser, does not support “Service Worker” and has not notified plans to do so in the future.
Conclusion:
The advantages of mobile app development technology are enormous. The experience for users is similar to mobile applications, they work without internet connection, and they allow notifications or perform tasks in the background, being able to perform functions while they are unattended. For companies, it is also an advantage to use the same technology for any device, mobile or not. They do not have to carry out specific developments for a specific mobile platform because everything works on a browser. They can also publish their “Progressive Web App” applications wherever they want and update them at any time, without depending on the application stores.
