Updating An App: How, When, and Why

Hardly anything in life is complete. Even when asking famous artists or storytellers, most often they feel work is never complete. Rather, they’ll say something like, “it’s as finished as it’ll ever be.” That’s because eventually; they need to release the work. The same is sort of true with an application. However, the difference is that while applications are also never truly complete; they have the benefit of live-updates. As an important part of the process, developers need to learn how to update an app.

Like with anything, there are a few tricks to the trade. Understanding that the user experience is as at the core of your goal as an app designer will help you make strong design decisions in app development. There are many reasons to run an app update, however, it’s integral to realize that running app updates too frequently pose just as large of a problem as not updating your app enough. There is a sweet-spot for app developers to rolling out app updates on a schedule that’s regular enough to keep things current, without being too constant to deter users.

Update An App With Purpose

There needs to be a clear purpose behind your app updates. This will benefit your user base and elevate user experience if there’s a clear reasoning for updating the app. This is important too, because there are other updates that your team may want to make. However, they can then fold those into that same more vital app update.

Using strategically timed updates will make it easier to control the growth of the application, ensuring that each additional layer is fully functional along the way. Having this ability for redundancy and bug-fixing is vital. It allows your team to build a comprehensive app with a minimal amount of errors.

Some of the main reasons that developers will update an app are for major additions to functionality, major improvements on graphics or designs, or fixes to major bugs or errors that occur. There’s a whole library of other reasons that developers will update an app. Again, however, it’s wise to fold these more minor updates into a more significant update. This is for the users benefit, and ensures that your team is approaching the update process strategically rather than haphazardly.

Feedback

Finally it’s vital to garner feedback after developers update an app. This is for the sake of the application, the development team, the producers, and really everyone involved as a stakeholder. Understanding how users react to your updates is an integral aspect of taking the right developmental steps in the future. It also acts as a way to learn about any bugs that may have been missed, or caused by the updates.

It’s important to update an app regularly, but not constantly. Finding this balance can take a little  practice, but then again, practice has always made perfect. For more information on mobile app development or how to update your applications successfully, visit NS804 today.