Why Today’s Companies Need the Right App Developers to Scale

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With everyone owning smartphone devices, mobile apps have become increasingly crucial in navigating the online space. Most consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are experiencing the internet using mobile devices, making mobile apps significant in navigating the internet.

So, even though many of us can still experience the internet using our computers and laptops, mobile apps provide leverage in navigating the online space and reinforcing relationships between brands and their target markets.

Truth be told, you’re likely to interact more with your favorite brand using mobile phones than any other device. That’s because mobile devices or smartphones are portable, accessible, and cheaper to maintain than any other endpoint device.

That’s precisely why most enterprises are migrating to smartphone-oriented marketing and advertising. Today, more than ever, companies urgently seek mobile apps to strengthen and reinforce their online presence.

And this is precisely why your company needs the right mobile app developers to scale. Other reasons you need the right mobile app developer to scale are discussed below.

1. Customer Loyalty

Enterprises or brands that operate in highly competitive marketplaces need an extra advantage to scale. Enterprises in highly saturated marketplaces must inject extra effort to scale and cultivate customer loyalty.

Mobile apps offer this advantage: they help increase repeat business by improving referral rates. With a mobile app, it’s possible to cultivate customer loyalty in discrete ways. You can send referrals, you can initiate a subscription-based model whereby promotions and offers are sent to customers in real time.

Further, mobile apps offer convenient two-way communication between SMEs and their target customers. With mobile apps, it’s possible to receive customer feedback in real-time and send information or responses using the apps. This communication advantage makes mobile apps classic alternatives to traditional business-to-customer communications.

2. Revenue Windows

Traditionally, the avenues for revenues were offices and physical stores. With time, revenue windows transitioned to websites and online stores whereby businesses could scan product and service information online. However, today, accessing customers doesn’t mean door-to-door access. Rather, it means availing product and service details in a predefined workflow using a mobile app.

Mobile apps offer an incredible, yet convenient medium to access customers, whether online or offline. There are mobile apps that can function with an internet connection, and others can send notifications about promotions, product offers, and referrals offline.

So, enterprises seeking additional revenue windows are nowadays leveraging mobile apps. And that’s why you need the right mobile app developers to scale.

3. Consumer Insight

Today, getting to know your customers’ shopping habits, sketching their preference personas, and obtaining feedback is a passive task. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and has overhead costs for companies.

So, obtaining customer feedback is either disregarded or considered an explicit task by companies and brands. Luckily, with the right mobile app developers, you can collect, collate, and even leverage this big data to make informed business decisions.

The right mobile app developers enable you to design tools that will collect big data, including customer shopping habits, referral rates, personas, expectations, and pricing options. And anytime, tailor this data to suit your business needs and market expectations.

4. Customer Service

Today, more than ever, companies are using mobile apps to tailor positive customer experiences. Mobile apps enable companies to obtain meaningful data to improve customer communication and address customer disgruntlement.

With a mobile app, you can access customers’ shopping habits, build rapport, and even tailor your business practices according to customers’ expectations. Mobile apps provide a medium for reinforcing your customer service simply because you can rely on these apps to boost conversion rates and positively impact your customer relationships.

5. Brand Positioning

Today, when you launch a new product or business, you want your target customers to follow it by hearing its name and associated product line. This expectation was the same for enterprises that launched before the advent of technology.

It’s the wish of every company to build a positive brand experience seamlessly. Mobile apps satisfy this simple expectation. Companies seeking to strengthen their brand positioning are seeking new, innovative ways of doing so.

Mobile apps provide increased visibility. Everyone with a smartphone can go to the app store or play store and download your app. Previously, this was not possible. As a company, you had to pay marketing and advertising agencies thousands and sometimes millions to get this much-desired visibility.

Traditionally, companies relied on different types of referrals to gain visibility: word-of-mouth referrals, email referrals, and social media referrals. Online reviews also stood as a classic way to refer clients. Today, you can reinforce your brand positioning by simply building a responsive mobile app that answers your customers’ most pressing needs – cost, quality, price, or even convenience.

6. Convenient Shopping

A mobile app allows customers to shop and place all their products in an online cart. The right mobile app developers can help you develop an app that will answer your customers’ online shopping needs and questions.

The convenience of comparing different products in a one-stop shop, making purchases, and tracking the delivery of the purchased product is an unmatched shopping capability. Luckily, mobile apps provide this convenience.

The right mobile app developers will integrate all your product details and avail a provision for credit card billing, dispatching, and tracking the dispatched products. The right mobile app provides the convenience and accessibility needed to shop for products and services anywhere in the world.

And as a company, scaling means allowing your customers to shop wherever and whenever they want. Whether vacationing outside town, working in their offices, or just sitting at home, a mobile app can actualize all their shopping needs.

Your target customers can access their products and services in the comfort of their homes or office just with a click of a button.

7. Loyalty Programs

If you believe in the saying, ‘once a customer, always a customer,’ you’re better off with a mobile app for your company. Companies that trust in return business invest in tools and solutions that guarantee return business.

So, mobile apps provide better, more improved capabilities for return business. Retaining your target customers and giving them a reason to return is the key to creating brand loyalty and customer loyalty.

Therefore, a mobile app that facilitates and manages customer and business loyalty will help you scale beyond expectations. And enterprises that are willing to invest in a one-time solution can unlock countless possibilities.

How to Find the Right Mobile App Developer?

Finding the right mobile app developer is not an easy task. So, here’s a brief guide to identifying and seizing the right developer for the job.

  • Interest. Find a developer interested in your company and your brand, not just in mobile development. You must identify a company and a developer willing to sit down with you and map a development strategy that resonates with your business goals and expectations.
  • Portfolio. Find a developer who has credibility and reliability in their respective industry. To do this, evaluate their portfolio and identify whether they’ve worked on similar projects previously. In addition, have a look at customer testimonials and see what brands and companies say about them.
  • Design-orientedness. It’s advisable that you make the design your priority. When selecting the right mobile app developer, ensure they are app design and deployment experts. Usually, it’s important that you ask for a minimum viable product MVP which is a reflection of the actual product. Most trusted and reliable developers will offer an MVP to ascertain their ability to accomplish the job and meet the client’s expectations.
  • Relationship-centred. Remember that mobile app development is not a one-stop project. The app will need to be designed, deployed, and monitored. Your app will often need marketing and advertising to ensure it reaches the target audience. So, when selecting the right mobile app developer, choose someone you can build a relationship with.

The communication process is also a critical factor to consider when selecting your developer. Ensure that your mobile app developer has constant and reliable communication channels, including phone numbers, website chats, and email communication.

NS804 – Maestros in Mobile App Development

NS804 has cultivated a strong brand in mobile app development. NS804 provides superior mobile app development solutions tailored to your individual needs and requirements.

Contact NS804 to scale your company with a superior mobile app.

How the Right Mobile App Development Can Improve Productivity

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Mobile apps have emerged as innovative solutions in enterprise management. Organizational leaders view mobile apps as classic solutions for solving long-standing, traditional management problems.

The right mobile app can save you costs in personnel management, simplify business process development, and streamline organizational operations. In addition, mobile apps can help you keep in touch with your customers and reinforce your brand positioning.

However, of all the advantages achieved by innovative mobile app solutions, productivity is the most critical. Organizations are now tapping into mobile apps to bolster their organizational efficiency and productivity.

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So, how can the right mobile app development improve your productivity? Below we discuss some ways mobile apps are helping bolster organizational effectiveness and productivity.

1. Deadlines

Mobile app solutions provide alerts and notifications, helping you keep track of deadline-centric projects. Embedding alerts and notifications in your mobile apps will help employees keep deadlines and stick to set schedules.

Mobile apps will notify all your shop floor employees of due projects, thus keeping track of project milestones. In projects that require tracking such as construction, real estate, and manufacturing, having the right mobile apps will foster productivity by notifying and alerting employees on upcoming deadlines.

2. Monitoring

Monitoring your employees is critical in ensuring efficiency and overall workplace productivity. When not monitored, employees can fail to meet set expectations, leading to a loss of client trust and reduced productivity.

The right mobile app development guarantees better employee monitoring. Managers nowadays are adopting productivity suites like Windows 11, Slack, Teams, and Google Docs to keep track of their employees’ work.

Productivity apps enable employers and managers to monitor their employees. Constant monitoring ensures that managers focus on individual employees and can keep track of teams.

3. Security

Productivity can be impaired without the right security protocols. Lack of security measures and guidelines leads to potential threats that affect completed works. In addition, security loopholes affect mission-critical data, leading to delays in project deliverables.

Mobile apps are embedded with the right security infrastructure, allowing you to monitor and track important information and mission-critical data. In addition, mobile apps keep consumers safe and secure by guaranteeing data integrity and improving business process outcomes.

4. Visibility

Research shows app users spend an average of three hours on their mobile phones daily. That means that gaining the visibility of your potential clients is a critical aspect of being productive. So, mobile apps provide enterprises with the potential to capture and retain existing customers.

In addition, mobile apps enable organizational leaders to gain visibility on work progress. Projects, schedules, and management sheets need to be constantly fast-tracked. The right mobile app is a source of enterprise visibility, enabling you to take control of all your due projects – anytime and anywhere.

Gaining visibility of your enterprise operations is critical to being and remaining productive.

5. Personalization

Did you know that personalization is the next frontier of productivity? Well, mobile apps allow you to engage with your suppliers, managers, customers, and other stakeholders one-on-one.

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This narrowed interaction provides better management and fast-tracking of your business supplies and overall operations. Being in control means personalizing your mobile app so you can communicate and interact with your business stakeholders more closely. Mobile apps allow businesses to be more agile and flexible by personalizing customer interactions.

6. Branding

Reinforcing your brand enables you to take control of your marketing and seize new markets. Organizations view mobile apps as classic opportunities to foster their brands in new market segments.

The fact that young consumers, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are adopting mobile apps at a rapid rate means that businesses can be more productive when they target emerging consumer niches.

That means organizations will spend less time and less money targeting emerging markets; and thus optimize their marketing spending. In addition, building your brand by targeting an emerging group of consumers allows you to save money while creating value.

7. Communication

A critical part of remaining productive is improving your internal and external communication. For instance, the emergence of new communication apps such as Slack, Google Chat, and Microsoft Teams helps managers to reinforce internal communications with their workforces.

In addition, these apps provide senior managerial leaders with the ability to fast-track schedules. The right mobile app development can help reinforce your internal communication, especially when monitoring progress and fast-tracking deadlines.

Communication is undoubtedly the secret ingredient of efficiency and productivity in any project lifecycle process.

8. Scheduling

Organizations and enterprises that work on fast-turnaround projects need efficient scheduling to meet project deliverables. For instance, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sub-contract electrical manufacturing contractors to keep track of part components.

So, to sustain component demand from OEMs, electrical sub-contractors rely on strict schedules. Scheduling apps like Skedulo streamline the efficiency and productivity of teams and individual workers, helping organizations meet project deliverables promptly.

The right mobile app development can help you achieve optimal productivity levels solely by helping you build and maintain strict schedules. In addition, the right mobile app development can save you from the problem of missed deadlines and failed work.

9. Portability

Wireless devices enable employees to move around and work remotely without carrying bulky documents and paperwork. Organizations embracing new technologies such as big data, virtualization, and cloud are slowly enhancing operational efficiency.

The right mobile app development can help you to be more agile; because data can be transferred and processes automated. In addition, workflows can be delegated to the right parties and fast-tracked with ease.

The right mobile app development provides capabilities in remote working, helping your organization to be more efficient, transparent, and obviously, more productive than your competitors who rely on manual processes and paperwork.

10. Availability

Improved worker availability improves overall workplace productivity because employees are connected every time, regardless of where they’re. The right mobile app development can uphold your organizational data and make it available anytime when needed.

Ensuring data and employee availability guarantees better workflow. In addition, creating an accessible computing environment for all your employees ensures that deadlines can be met and projects tracked in real time. Faster tracking and accessibility of enterprise-critical resources guarantee improved productivity.

11. Performance

Did you know that the right mobile app development can help you track employee performance? Mobile tracking guarantees better team management because performance lets you know whom to keep and whom to let go.

The right mobile development can help you track key metrics – response time, maintenance, and costs. In addition, you know what specifically to improve and what to cut down.

Mobile apps rely exclusively on big data, making improved decisions based on real-time, actionable data. Performance measurement is important for organizations looking forward to tracking workforce performance. And organizations cannot accurately track performance without the right tools and technologies.

The right mobile app development can improve your workplace productivity in the following ways:

  • Customer relationship management
  • Inventory control and management
  • Vehicle and shipment tracking
  • Competitive positioning

The right mobile app development unlocks limitless opportunities for productivity, allowing your workplace to remain prepared even during unprecedented emergencies.

NS804 – A Potent Cocktail of Workplace Efficiency and Productivity

NS804 provides superior apps that help employer organizations schedule and track projects. NS804 works with a pool of software developers and engineers to deliver classic mobile app development solutions.

Organizations that seek to improve workplace efficiency and overall productivity can rely on tested-and-proven app development solutions. At NS804, we believe that gaining an edge in a highly competitive and saturated marketplace demands leveraging the right tools, including mobile app solutions.

Contact NS804 for innovative mobile app solutions needed to bolster your productivity.

5 Problems You Can Solve with the Right Mobile App Development Strategy

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Mobile app strategy refers to deploying the right mobile app to deal with overarching business challenges. Organizations of all sizes and sophistication look at mobile apps as the next frontier of enterprise innovation. So, mobile apps are being adopted to reach a wider market, achieve customer satisfaction and retention, and of course, respond to competition.

You can solve several enterprise challenges and needs with the right mobile app development strategy. Below we look at some of the most pressing challenges you can solve with the right mobile app strategy.

1. Data collection and data analysis

Did you know that consumers are today using mobile apps to shop? Well, the young generation of consumers has quickly adopted mobile app shopping as an easy and convenient model of accessing goods and services from e-commerce stores.

So, with the right mobile app development strategy, you can zero down into this emerging segment of tech-savvy consumers. A mobile app development strategy will help you collect critical data like shopping habits, shopping patterns, likes, and interests in new product categories.

Innovative companies know that the right mobile app will help you collect incredible data sets that you can use to make informed business decisions.

2. Customer service

Customer service is a critical component of your overall business strategy. With the right customer service, you can attract and retain customers with little cost. The right mobile app strategy can help you collect consumer feedback – complaints, disgruntlement, feedback, and recommendations.

This information is critically underpinning in making the right decisions about the quality and scope of your customer service. So, with the right mobile app strategy, it’s possible to identify the most pressing customer needs and make informed decisions from this data.

 

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3. Better internal communication

Did you know that mobile apps provide not just the opportunity to boost customer service, but equally reinforce your internal communication? Mobile apps allow you to communicate directly with your customers and your workforce.

Your customer service team can directly keep in touch with customers solely through direct messages. Innovative organizations understand that the employee monitoring process is quite critical but equally complex and time-consuming.

Thus, innovative organizations are adopting mobile apps to streamline and empower internal communication. The right mobile app development strategy can help you keep in touch with your employees on the most crucial business issues – marketing, customer service, complaints, innovation, research, and development.

4. Remote working

The ability to work remotely is not a capability you can derive from just any digital resource. Investing in the right mobile app strategy helps you to create a remote workforce – because tasks and processes can be initiated and closed solely through mobile apps.

As the world moves digital with new technologies such as virtualization, it’s critical that you embrace this shift. A mobile app development strategy that recognizes the need for remote working is all you need to adopt a remote lifestyle, not just for you, but also for your workers.

5. Customer engagement

Digital enterprises understand that the secret to digital success is customer engagement. A mobile app can build unmatched capacity for customer engagement. Leverage mobile apps to constantly engage with your customers through posts, new promotions, and advertising campaigns – smoothly and seamlessly.

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

NS804 – Reinforcing Your Digital Strategy and Transformation

NS804 enables enterprises to adopt a paradigm shift in digital transformation. NS804 provides superior mobile app solutions that are tailored to individual business needs.

Contact NS804 for mobile app development solutions – android, IOS apps, and hybrid apps alike.

Questions About Android App Development? 9 Answers You Need To See

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Every appreneur or forward-looking business leader wants to know about Android app development. And that’s because Android dominates the mobile OS market, at a whopping 71% as of November 2022. With such a massive market share, it makes good business sense to push your apps onto this vibrant platform. 

And while Android plays a significant role in the mobile market, it’s also a platform that many don’t properly understand. That’s because it’s a platform that will run with Google Play Services or without if a user wants to DeGoogle their phone. In some markets, such as Russia and China, Google services are no longer an option without a VPN. 

Furthermore, Android doesn’t only run on mobile devices but also computers, game consoles, IoT devices, TVs, vehicle entertainment systems, and wearables. And since it supports such a wide range of devices, Android comes in various flavors, not dissimilar to the Linux ecosystem. While this is great and a testament to the versatility of Android, it also complicates things. 

The hard truth is that Android isn’t locked down like Apple’s iOS platform. So, there’s no simple one-size-fits-all approach here. Not that’s necessarily always the case with iOS, but it’s far less open-ended than Android. 

And given Android’s open-ended nature, this presents many challenges and opportunities. Ultimately, this will cause some to ask many crucial questions about Android app development, which we’ll answer in more detail below.

1. When Did Android Debut?

Android 1.0 launched on September 23, 2008, and was made available on the T-mobile G1/HTC Dream phone. Surprisingly, it was feature-rich at such an early stage. It featured Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a browser, a camera, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and several other applications and features.

2. Is It Similar To Linux?

Android isn’t only similar to Linux but sports a repurposed version of the Linux kernel combined with other open-source components. Google releases Long Term Support (LTS) versions of these kernels under the Android Common Kernels (ACKs) name. 

But that doesn’t mean Android apps will run on Linux and vice versa. Users will need a tool such as Anbox, which will set up a container on Linux to run Android apps. And while it’s possible to run certain Linux apps made with Java on Android, it’s a messy process that often requires cross-compilation. Understandably, this isn’t a practical solution for most Android users. 

Furthermore, not all Linux app developers will use Java but another programming language instead. So their apps will only run on an Android device via a Linux emulator, but there are no guarantees that they’ll run smoothly, fast enough, or at all. The optimal solution is for these developers to port their apps to Android and take advantage of its touchscreen functionality.

3. Is It Better Than iOS?

No. Only fanboys, platform holders, and some tech publications and journalists play favorites. As an appreneur or business leader, you only need to care about the potential of each platform. In this regard, Android offers a massive user base and a mature ecosystem that has already outpaced iOS. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore iOS, either.

4. What Tools Will I Need For Android App Development?

You will require a recent Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS computer capable of running the latest version of Android Studio. You will also need at least one test device — preferably running the latest version of the Android OS. While it’s possible to test your app using the Android Emulator (part of the Android SDK), you’ll still want to run it on an actual device.

Furthermore, you should download and install the Android SDK, Android NDK, and Java SE Development Kit (JDK). You can download Android SDK & NDK directly from Google’s Android developer portal and the JDK from Oracle. Read through the documentation thoroughly to configure all of these SDKs properly. 

While it’s possible to use other IDEs, Google recommends and officially supports Android Studio. And if you’re planning on developing native Android apps, then it’s best to stick to Android Studio in the long term. Consider using other IDEs, such as Visual Studio, if you’re developing cross-platform apps or mobile games.

5. Which Programming Languages Should I Use?

For native Android app development, choose either Kotlin or Java. But it’s preferable to go with Kotlin since Google officially supports and recommends it for modern app development. However, if you’re a cross-platform developer, you may want to go with C/C++, C#, Dart, JavaScript, or Python.

6. Which Engine Should I Use For Mobile Game Development? 

We recommend Unity since it’s the most popular, versatile, and well-supported engine for mobile game development. Also, it’s a good option for 2D & 3D game development, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) experiences. But if you require a more heavy-duty engine for creating games with high-fidelity visuals, then you’ll need to go with Unreal Engine.

Either way, you’ll likely use Visual Studio as your IDE or each engine’s visual scripting component. If you want to use Android Studio for game development, you’ll need a game framework instead. One of the best frameworks for native Android game development is libGDX.

7. Will I Need Any Additional Tools For Game Development?

If you’re developing an intensive 3D game, you’ll probably put plenty of stress on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Thus, you’ll need a way to analyze draw calls and monitor your game’s performance frame-by-frame. Luckily, most mobile GPU manufacturers and even ARM offer graphics analyzers and profilers for these purposes.

While it’s possible to ship a mobile game without using these profilers, you risk shipping it with undetected graphical issues. And given that your game needs to run equally well on devices that support different graphics libraries, such as OpenGL ES, OpenCL, EGL, and Vulkan, it’s wise to profile your app before release.

8. Should I Only Focus On Google Play Store?

The beauty of the Android platform is that you have plenty of options besides the Google Play Store. If you’re willing to acquaint yourself with the requirements and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of other stores, you’ll find many more avenues to reach new audiences. 

After the Google Play Store, you should consider the Amazon Appstore, which runs on Fire OS devices and even on Windows 11. And don’t forget that large smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei have their own app stores, and both have sizable audiences.

9. How Do I Get The Most Out Of My Android App?

One of the best things about Android app development is the free tooling that’s available. And one of the best free tools is none other than Google Analytics for Firebase. The Firebase SDK will give you access to a reporting suite that allows you to monitor up to 500 pre-defined events. Moreover, its analytics reports will give you a clear picture of your app’s performance, your marketing endeavors, and user behavior.

In Conclusion

Android app development is worthwhile even though it’s complex and sometimes plagued with difficulties. But it has become easier thanks to the introduction of Kotlin and an ever-improving Android Studio and tooling. Contact NS804 if you have any more questions about Android app development and how we can help you create outstanding apps. 

Android Developers Richmond, VA

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The Android operating system has over 70% market share worldwide, making it a dominant force in the thriving mobile app market. Google continues to come up with exciting, feature-rich applications, driving entrepreneurs to desire a piece of the Google pie.

Today, more than ever, entrepreneurs are looking for enhanced security and scalability, and Android apps seem to be meeting this demand. Today, Android apps are the new frontier, driving sales for enterprises seeking unique and innovative solutions.

And if you’re running a business in Richmond, Virginia, you need a custom-built Android app to help you target and retain Android users. So, what do you benefit from when you contract or hire Android app developers in Richmond, Virginia?

Well, let’s take a look:

1. Higher Returns on Investment (ROI)

The Android Software Development Kit is open-source software readily available to developers. In addition, Android app development is cost-effective and budget-friendly to enterprises operating with a cost-structure model in mind.

The Android app development has four stages:

  • App design
  • App development
  • App testing
  • App deployment

In addition, the entire development cycle is cost-effective, making it easier for enterprises to attract a good return on investment. So, if you’re looking for an affordable, cost-effective mobile app development solution, you’re in the right place. Android mobile app development delivers on its promise.

2. Substitute for Bring Your Own Device

Bring Your Own Device, commonly abbreviated as BYOD, is an evolving trend in most enterprises. Most organizations are not encouraging their employees and co-workers to bring their own devices to enhance collaboration and communication in the workplace, regardless of distance.

So, with Android app developers Richmond, VA, you are guaranteed to promote collaboration across your Richmond team of workers. Android mobile app development allows your employees to collaborate on shared projects without losing touch on crucial matters.

3. Easy Customization

Did you know Android is a versatile and easy-to-customize platform with enhanced flexibility and agility? What you get with Android mobile app development is an innovative app with varied customization options. As a robust operating system, Android can integrate both simple and complex modifications, enhancing your business functionality across the board.

4. Security and Marketing

Since its inception, Google has launched many varied business-friendly features. Today, Android stands firm against its counterpart Apple, especially regarding usability and security. It’s hard for malware and other third-party viruses to locate Android’s data structures, making the OS a safe and secure enterprise application.

In addition, the Android operating system allows an automated system to send instant notifications to the end-users, keeping them updated on important issues. In addition, you can easily monetize your Android app, thanks to its already existing prevalence and reputation.

In a way, Android mobile app development gives you shared benefits – security and promotional capabilities.

NS804 – Maestro of Android Mobile App Development

NS804 serves enterprises across Richmond, Virginia, allowing these brands and businesses to take advantage of an already existing, superior application – Android. So, if you live in Richmond and you’re looking for trusted and secure Android app development solutions, look no further.

NS804 is your trusted Android Developer in Richmond, allowing you to design, develop, test, and successfully deploy your Android App.

Contact NS804 for time-to-value Android app development solutions.

4 Ways to Leverage Push Notifications

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The average smartphone user engages with over 27 apps in a year. The competition for user attention is obviously high and push notifications can help boost engagement with users. Push notifications have a click-through rate as high as 80% meaning they are more than an effective way to bring users back to the app.

To make the best use of these notifications, here are some strategic ways to deploy push notifications.

1. Abandoned Cart Reminders

More than 75% of online shoppers abandon their carts before completing intended transactions. Most of these abandonments represent a sale that is lost forever. You can use notifications to nudge customers to revisit the app and complete the purchase.

2. Back In Stock Notifications

What happens when a customer searches for an item, but it is out of stock? One option would be to prompt the customer to opt into an alert so that they receive a notification once the item is back-in-stock. An alert might prompt customers to think about the item again when they had perhaps forgotten about it.

3. Shipping Updates

When it takes several days for products to hit customers’ doors, it might be a good idea to keep them in the loop about the progress of their order. Send a notification each time the order progresses to the next step. It keeps clients patient and it eliminates the need for customers to keep calling to ask about the progress of their order.

4. Price Changes Push Notifications

When a customer fails to purchase an item due to its current price, you can use push notifications to alert them about a price drop in that item. You could also notify them of any promos you might be running on your app.

It’s important to note that push notifications can also be used even when you do not have an app. Notifications can be sent as an advertisement from a browser in the user’s device. To learn more on push notifications and app development, reach out to NS804. We are an app development company with hundreds of applications shipped worldwide.

 

How to Find Your Lost Phone?

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Smartphones have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Today, billions of people across the world use their phones for much more than basic tasks such as making phone calls and texting. We use smartphones for navigation, reading books, booking cab rides, monitoring our daily exercise and health, and even monitoring our children’s education and whereabouts.

These devices hold memories and secrets that we probably don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. That is why when you can’t locate your phone in the usual places you get an unsettling feeling of fear, dread, and panic. Not just because of the personal information and memories but also because of the cost of smartphones.

Fortunately, there are some in-built tools to help track your lost or missing android smartphone or iPhone. Additionally, there are third-party applications that you can download to track your phone.

Let’s look at some ways to find your missing phone.

1. Use Google’s Find My Device to Find Your Android Phone

The Find my Device feature is an in-built tool for all android smart devices. With this feature, you can find your lost android phone, lock it or erase it. The Find My Device feature is automatically turned on if you have added a Google Account to your android phone.

To track, lock or erase your lost phone using Find My Device your phone has to be on, connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi, and have location turned on. And definitely, Find My Device must be turned on to make sure that your phone is visible on Google Play.

To find your lost phone go to android.com/find. This is the website run by Google Services from which you can find and lock your lost phone. Sign in with the Google account that is linked to your phone. And in case your phone has multiple profiles, be sure to use the primary google account to sign in to this website.

You don’t have a computer to sign in to the browser? Don’t worry. You can still use this feature from another android device. Go to Google PlayStore and download the Find My Device application and log in with the google account linked to your phone.

Once you sign in with the right account, Google starts to locate your phone. The app will pinpoint where the phone is on the map or where it was last located if it is switched off. There is a menu on the left of the app or site from which you can choose the action you want to take.

Here are the options available:

  • Play a Sound

The phone rings for 5 minutes. This can be helpful if you have misplaced your phone in your home or a secure place.

  • Secure Device

When you select ‘secure device’, your phone is locked with your pin or you can create one if you don’t have one already. Google also gives you the option of a message that can be displayed on the lock screen in case someone wants to return your phone.

  • Erase Device

This option deletes all the data from your phone and Find My Device is turned off. That means that you won’t be able to track your phone if you select ‘erase device’. It is recommended to leave this option for last.

2. Find your Missing iPhone using Find My 

Just like Google, Apple has a service for tracking lost devices known as Find My. To find your missing iPhone you will need to enable the Find My iPhone, Find My Network and Send Last Location on your iPhone. There are two ways to locate your missing iPhone:

Use ‘Find My’ App to find your iPhone:

To use the Find My application to locate you must have access to another iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The new device should have the application installed. Here’s how you locate your phone using the Find My app:

  • Open the Find My app
  • Click on the Devices tab
  • Select the iPhone you want to find
  • Check the map to see the last known location of your iPhone
  • Select Play Sound to call your phone or Directions to get directions to the place where your phone was located

If you cannot locate your device, turn on notifications to get notified when your phone is located by any other device in your Find My Network. You can also choose to mark your iPhone as lost if you can’t find it. Activating Mark as Lost locks your device and suspends all your cards in the Apple Wallet so that no one else has access to them.

3. Use a Web Browser to Find your iPhone

You can also find your missing iPhone by using a web browser to login into iCloud.com. Once you go to this website, sign in with your Apple ID and password. When logged in, select Find iPhone the All devices. From the list select the device you want to find. You can then choose to Play Sound or Lost mode.

Play sound will help to locate your phone if it is nearby. The lost mode locks your phone. It also allows you to enter your phone number and a message to be displayed on your screen in case someone finds your phone.

There is also an option to Erase iPhone. If you select Erase iPhone all the data is permanently deleted from your device. As a result, you won’t be able to keep tracking your phone in the Find My Network. However, if your phone is running on iOS 15 or later versions you can still find it in Find My Network.

4. Samsung Galaxy’s Built-in Tracking Service

In addition to android’s Find My Phone feature, Samsung smartphones have a tracking feature known as Find My Mobile. With this service, you can locate, lock and erase a Samsung phone. You can access this service at findmymobile.samsung.com.

To be able to track your phone using Find My Mobile, you have to activate this feature in the settings and other optional settings such as Remote Unlock and Send Last Location. 

To track your missing phone login into Find My Mobile using your Samsung account on any browser. From there you can select the device you want to find. If the device’s location is turned on and it is connected to a mobile network or Wi-Fi, then you can get the location of the lost phone on a map. You can also lock your phone and even remotely back up your phone in case you don’t recover it.

5. Tracking Your Phone using its Serial Number

Every phone has a unique number known as International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), or Electronic Serial Number (ESN) depending on the model. If you know the serial number of your lost phone you can track it from third-party companies and tracking agencies.

It is also important to know this number so that you can report it to the police in case you don’t find your phone. That way if it falls into wrong hands and ends up in some criminal activity you will not get into trouble.

6. Contact your Carrier

You can contact your carrier or service provider and ask them if they can locate your phone and help you track it down. If they cannot track it for you and you are sure you cannot find it, you can ask them to suspend your phone service to prevent someone else from using it.

I hope that you don’t lose your phone and undergo the turmoil of tracking. However, if it happens, hopefully, these tips will help you to get it back.

At NS804, we help you design excellent mobile applications – whether it’s a mobile phone tracking app or a business app, we can always help you bridge any gap.

Contact NS804 to access mobile app development solutions.

Mobile Apps & Customer Surveys: Tips for Creating Yours

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The success of a mobile app is heavily dependent on the ability of the owners to respond quickly and effectively to users’ feedback. Hundreds of hours of the development phase will not mean much if a bug is not fixed quickly enough. Setting up mobile surveys within your mobile app makes is user-centric. It allows for the continuous collection of information on user experience which yields several key benefits.

Guiding App Development

Mobile app survey tools have become quite sophisticated to allow for targeted survey administration. Today, you can set up survey questions to appear only on particular sections of the app or to pop-up only to particular users. The feedback received helps to understand whether features are working as intended. This approach helps the developer to decide whether to build on those features or abandon them altogether.

Product Roadmap

Mobile app surveys are a great way to ask users what they would like to see next on the app. Knowing the most requested features takes the guesswork out of a product’s roadmap and improves the ROI of the development spend. It also keeps your users emotionally invested in the future of the app as they seek to get more utility from it.

Handling Negative Reviews

Getting negative feedback within the app is far much better than bad reviews on app stores or other external platforms. Issuing surveys allows users to express what they feel is not working. It allows the development team to fix these issues before users decide to uninstall the app.

Tips/Best practices

When designing and deploying mobile app surveys, it’s important to ensure that the survey does not ruin the user experience itself. It’s important that you do not administer surveys too often that they annoy users. Every few weeks might be considered as frequent enough. The surveys should also not pop up when customers are in the middle of something important. For most apps, the norm would be to survey users after they log in or just before they exit the app.

Another best practice is to ensure the app is completed within the app to avoid redirecting them to another website or application altogether. Asking people to visit another page to complete a survey is also likely to lead to a very low number of respondents as people are not willing to exert a lot of effort.

Finally, when thinking about questions to include in a survey, it’s good to use a mix of both closed and open-ended questions. The survey, however, ought to be short enough so that it does not feel like an inconvenience to users.

Types Of Questions

It is possible to classify your mobile app survey questions into several broad categories to ensure that you do not ignore certain themes. The first category would be questions on whether the app is meeting users’ demands. The next category is open-ended questions on problems users face while using the app. The other category would be on the product roadmap and improvements users would like to see.

You can come up with more categories based on the niche of your app.

If your business is seeking an app development partner, NS804 is your best bet. We are a world-class mobile app development company with hundreds of apps shipped to both small and large businesses. Schedule a call with us here. 

 

Troubleshooting Play Store Downloading

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Android is one of the most popular operating systems with over a billion users spanning over 100 countries. In 2021, Google Play users downloaded 111.3 billion apps from 78 billion in 2018. Play Store, Google’s leading app marketplace, continues to enjoy a significant reputation among mobile app users, especially owing to its ability to offer free and paid apps.

So, if you’re a play store user and are stuck when downloading an app or your Google Play Services keeps stopping, here’s a basic troubleshooting guide.

1. When you can’t open the Play Store on your phone

If your app can’t load or crashes when it opens, check whether you have a strong network connection. You can also check your storage space and whether there are any Android system updates.

2. Troubleshoot problems with only one app

In most cases, you’ll be dealing with one app at a time. So, when faced with an app bug or problem, uninstall and reinstall the app. Firstly, check whether the app is available for your device, then install it. A simple uninstalling and reinstalling will do the magic.

3. Force close the Google Play

Sometimes force closing the Google Play Store app is all you need to get an app up and running. You can force close your Google Play App by swiping away on the multitasking app switcher. You can also do this through the settings.

  • Open app settings app
  • Go to apps
  • See all apps
  • Tap on Google Play Store
  • Hit Force Stop
  • Okay

Force closing the Google Play App is an effective troubleshooting technique if your Google Play Services keep stopping.

4. Turn on Airplane Mode

Turning the airplane mode on and off can get an Android app up and running. This is not a complicated process and it’s safe. So, next time your Google Play Services keep stopping, try turning on airplane mode.

5. Restart your router

You’ve fixed a Wi-Fi issue once or twice by simply restarting your router. While it may not make sense, give it a try and you may fix an app issue if your Google Play Services keep stopping. Restarting your router gives your phone a refreshed internet connection, allowing all apps to download and operate seamlessly.

6. Restart your phone

Something as simple as rebooting your phone may do magic. Restarting your phone may solve some serious smartphone problems and may only take a minute or two. So, next time you’re facing a serious app issue when play store downloading, try rebooting your phone and installing and reinstalling the app. This trick will automatically fix the problem.

NS804 – Fixing Play Store Downloading Problems

NS804 provides custom mobile app development solutions for both Android and IOS. We strongly believe that one of the most common problems with apps is poor design and poor implementation. That’s why NS804 is interested in individual developers, aspiring app owners, and businesses to deliver trusted app solutions.

So, if you own an app and you’re experiencing a problem, look no further. At NS804, we provide custom mobile app fixes, allowing your app to answer your customers’ most pressing challenges.

Contact NS804 for time-to-value Android mobile app development solutions.

Budgeting for an App? 6 Costs to Consider

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There is really no single answer to the question of how much it costs to build an app. Most mobile app experts will give a long and structured answer to help you estimate what app that you have in mind will cost to build and deploy. Depending on the intended purpose, an app will have varying integrations with third-party apps. It will also use different built-in features in the hardware device it will be installed. These include GPS navigation and Augmented Reality.

Detailed preparation is required in order to ensure you set aside enough funds to oversee the development project to completion. Many development projects stall because the owners hadn’t factored in all costs involved in the project. App development is a capital expenditure akin to commissioning a new plant in a factory.

Here are 10 costs to consider when budgeting for an app.

1. Business Analysis

The first step in any app development project is establishing a business case for the app to be built. The business might even hire a business analyst to conduct a market analysis before embarking on the actual building. In fact, if there is already a budget for the app, 10% should ideally go into the analysis phase.

If there are existing competitors in the app, the proposed app must have a unique selling point to ensure that it can gain and grow its share of the market. Part of the preliminary work includes preparing the documentation for the project. All the requirements of the app must be put down succinctly before being handed over to the development team.

Another reason to carry out an analysis is to establish whether you can achieve everything in the project scope within the budget and time constraints. If not so, it may be necessary to scale the project down to make it achievable.

2. Prototyping

Once the requirements of the app have been established, the next cost item is prototyping. Here, the development team prepares mock-ups of how the app’s UI will look like. The goal is to ensure that the final app’s visual design is perfect and that the app is consistent in terms of colors, fonts, placement of buttons, navigation menus, and other factors that influence user experience.

Normally, the preparation of prototypes can take up 10-15% of an app’s budget.

3. The Development Phase

The bulk of your app development costs will go to paying the team to write the code to bring your app to life. The development team is likely to have a front-end engineer or a UI/UX designer, a backend engineer, a mobile developer, and a quality assurance engineer. Building an app requires experts in several fields to collaborate on the project. The cost of hiring each of these experts is north of $100 an hour.

In order to get the best value for money, it is best to work with a development team that adopts an agile delivery/development methodology. They should be able to provide weekly updates on the progress of the project. There must be deadlines in place for the achievement of major project milestones.

4. Features that Drive Costs

The length and cost of the development phase will heavily depend on the features intended in the app. Today, it is standard for mobile apps for instance to include screen optimization for different devices. Support for tablets, in particular, adds complexity and drives up development costs.

It also matters the number of platforms for which the app is being built. Normally, mass-market apps will need to include an Android as well as an iOS version.

Modern apps also require push notifications as an added feature to add to the amount of interaction users have with the app. It’s also quite common for apps to now allow users to create accounts and sign in using their social profiles. This is meant to add to the speed of signing into the app but it also adds a layer of security. If all these added features need to be present in the app, they will undoubtedly result in tens of additional development hours being billed.

5. App Marketing

An often overlooked but important part of the app development and deployment process is marketing. Having a marketing strategy and setting aside a budget for it is crucial in ensuring the target audience of the app is made aware of its existence and where to access it. The landing page can also be used to collect emails of interested users before the formal launch. These emails can be used in retargeting and user retention campaigns.

It’s best practice to have a landing page from where people can be redirected to various stores for download.  The landing page might also have a blog section where the company shares useful content to users. The blog content can also be shared across the different social media platforms that the company uses.

Your app must also be properly optimized for the stores where it will be available. This includes having proper description of what it does as well as high-quality images of what the various UI-screens look like. You must categorize the app accurately for users to be able to find it organically.

6. App Maintenance Costs

The success of an app greatly depends on the ability of the owners to respond swiftly to bugs as well as user feedback after the launch. The norm today is to go through many iterations of the app throughout the year, each with incremental changes. This way, customers feel that the app is constantly improving while the learning curve for new features of interfaces is not too steep.

Normally, app maintenance costs will amount to about 15-20% of the initial development budget. Besides bug fixing, part of the maintenance budget goes to paying of commercial licenses for technologies used in the app. Apps also require paying for hosting services.

Another common hack is to work with a development partner who can handle design, development, and maintenance. Negotiating for all these services with one partner is likely to be much more cheaper than working with multiple firms.

Ideas on How to Reduce Your App Development Budget

Limited resources means businesses will often have to make compromises or shrewd decisions on how to approach the app development process.

One such shrewd move is to use cross-platform development technologies instead of native ones. This means that the development team can simultaneously build Android and iOS version of the app. This will not only cut the development time but also costs.

Another move would be to strip down the app so that the first version to be released only contains fundamental features. This is called a minimum viable product (MVP). The MVP approach ensures that the bulk of the budget goes to building the features that provide the most utility to the intended users of the app.

If your business is looking for an app development partner, reach out to NS804. We are a world-class mobile app development company. Our team will help your business develop specifications for the MVP, carry out the development and also help with the launch and marketing strategy. Book a consultation call here.