With over 2 billion smartphone owners worldwide, the custom mobile app industry is not about to slow down its rapid growth. It is estimated the average person uses their phone over 250 times every day calling, texting, social media, making payments, and so much more. Smart devices are a ubiquitous part of modern life today and as technology evolves, these apps will evolve to provide even greater utility in daily life.

In this article, we highlight the most important trends in custom mobile app development in 2024. A custom mobile app is built to solve specific user or business problems. Itcould either be revenue-generating, cost-saving, or simply meant to smooth out business operations.

If your business intends to build a custom mobile application in 2024, here are important technological trends to consider.

Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning

Virtual assistants such as Siri and Goole Assistant were perhaps the first interactions that artificial intelligence at a mainstream level via mobile devices. However, there is so much more that AI and machine learning can accomplish to improve app features. Today, recognition powered by machine learning algorithms is used in multiple fields including e-commerce, social media, and even government. An e-commerce company can prompt users to scan objects and use that information to recommend other things the customer could purchase.

Face detection can be used to improve app security while text and image classification can be used in digitization of records and faster data collection at the client level. All these features though come with genuine concerns over privacy guarantees. Businesses must be careful to ensure compliance with new and existing data protection laws in the jurisdictions they plan to operate in.

Mobile Commerce

Over 30% of all online purchases in the USA are now happening on mobile devices. Apps can no longer be ignored as avenues for businesses to expand revenue. Businesses in 2024 must find ways to have their apps cut through the noise. The more people use their apps, the greater the likelihood of purchase. Features such as push notifications are important in order to nudge customers to return to their pending carts or notify them of flash sales and exclusive deals.

A custom mobile app is also great for personalizing the items displayed based on previous purchases and browsing history. This has a major impact on customer experience and revenue per user.

Businesses must also take into account what having a brand or company-specific app does for customer loyalty. If a fashion brand has customers making purchases through a custom app, such customers are more likely to spend more on the app where they are not exposed to ads or offers from competitor brands.

The Popularity of Wearables

After the success of smartphones, wearables have perhaps the other piece of hardware that has been widely adopted by hundreds of millions of users. People use their smartwatches and fitness bands to track sleeping patterns, daily steps taken, workout intensity, heart rate and more. However, the full capacity of smartwatches is yet to be fully utilized.

Developers in 2024 must ask questions on whether they want their app to be available on wearable devices and how best to make it possible. This will require the app to be responsive enough for multiple wearable screen sizes. The wearable version of the app must also be lightweight because of the limited processing capacity of these devices. The energy consumption needs of the app should be efficient enough to justify their use. All these needs translate to a tough balancing act for developers. However, the upside is that the app will be a part of daily life as users move seamlessly from using it on a wearable device to their smartphone and perhaps even on a PC.

5G Technology

5G internet is about one hundred times faster than 4G LTE in terms of download speeds. Currently, over 1 billion people already have access to 5G internet. Once fully spread out globally, 5G internet speeds will have far-reaching implications on what content app users can access from their mobile devices. It will be possible for users for instance to watch 4K video or play video games without any lag whatsoever. Experts also point out that 5G technology is more energy efficient thus promising increased battery life for mobile devices.

5G technology will improve the performance of location tracking features that are relied on by ride-sharing apps, maps, social media, and many other businesses that recommend content for their users based on current location.

Mobile Wallets and Mobile Payments

The total value of transactions processed through mobile wallets is increasing at a rapid speed. In 2023, it was estimated that the figure would be over $13 billion. Users understand that mobile wallets are a much more secure way to compete with digital payments because they do not need to disclose credit card information with multiple parties or keep entering their PIN. Mobile wallet solutions are also in keeping with behavioral trends today where young people are born into a world where every other service they need is available on-demand on their phones.

Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, Alipay, and MasterCard are among the tech and fintech giants with significant market share in this space. Developers of custom mobile apps have to be aware of this shift in payment processing and integrate these solutions into their apps. They must give users as much choice and flexibility as possible to smooth out the checkout process.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented and Virtual Reality will have a massive impact on e-commerce, education, healthcare, and many industries in the coming year. Consider fashion companies being able to show how an outfit would look on a customer. IKEA was one of the first companies to adopt AR on its app where users can take images of their room and see how a piece of furniture would look when placed there. Google Maps has a live view feature that can help users navigate unfamiliar places more easily by pointing them in the right direction. Instagram and Snapchat filters are all great examples of h

All these examples are a hint for developers to consider how AR and VR could add value to their app offering.

Rising Importance of App Security

Mobile applications are not immune to malware attacks especially when they hold valuable user information. With new data privacy coming up across the world, the price to pay for improper data protection is significant. A data breach also poses a major reputational risk for businesses and could lead to irreversible loss of revenue. App developers must consider alternative such as Apple ID sign ins as an alternative to providing forms for users to sign up for an account.

Developers in 2024 must implement initiative-taking security measures and automate responses to attacks. Code obfuscation and runtime protection are important to make it harder to breach apps. Developer teams must also remain aware of emerging threats and the best solutions to shield their apps from new attacks.

Internet of Things

The internet of things is a network of devices connected to the internet and have the ability to collect data. This data is what presents great opportunities for businesses but also concerns too.

First, data from IoT devices can be analyzed to provide valuable insights in almost any sector. Manufacturing plants can monitor the health of their equipment and logistics companies can monitor the state of goods in transport. Fitness apps can use data from wearables to provide insights and recommendations to users. Such information can be so valuable that people are willing to pay subscription fees.

Most IoT data is processed through cloud computing meaning that apps installed on mobile devices are light and fast. Most IoT sensors are also cheap to produce and install wherever they are needed. Little maintenance is required for most IoT sensors. This evidence means that the internet of things will continue to expand beyond the estimated 15 billion devices existing today,

The world is only just scratching the surface when it comes to exploiting the value of data from IoT devices. There are new opportunities for innovations in agriculture, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing.

Chatbots on Custom Mobile Apps

Developers building customer-facing apps in 2024 must consider the value that chatbots can offer the clients. Chatbots use natural language processing technology to converse intelligently with customers. This helps improve service availability for businesses and significantly reduce the cost of running customer care centers.

Chatbots today can answer frequently asked questions and also help automate customer service requests by booking matters to be resolved by an actual person. Chatbots could augment the product or service recommendation for customers thus improving the shopping experience on app. They can also guide customers through step-by-step processes such as signing up or filing an insurance claim. Any business seeking to improve their customer experience on mobile app channels should consider including a chatbot in the app.

Apps for Foldable Phones

Foldable phones are gradually gaining a significant share of total phones shipped each year. According to TrendForce, about 16 million units were sold worldwide in 2023. While this is less than 2% of all units sold, it is a 20% YoY increase from 2022. As such, this trend is set to continue, and developers must make apps responsive for use on foldable devices. There may also be possibilities to build new features that are best enjoyed on foldable phones. For instance, foldable devices provide more real estate to enjoy multimedia content.

Cloud Computing

Developers in 2024 must take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing in making apps lighter, faster, and more secure. By carrying out complex calculations on the cloud, developers can incorporate features that require large amounts of processing power into their apps. It doesn’t make the apps too bulky or slow for end users. In addition, cloud computing can make an app more scalable. Computing resources are automatically apportioned based on the number of users interacting with an app at any given time.

By integrating cloud computing in the app development process, development teams can reduce app development time significantly. Cloud computing platforms provide important elements of the development process such as testing frameworks and repositories for reusable code. This not only saves time but results in more robust applications.

On-Demand Apps

On-demand apps help users access a specific service whenever they need it. Ride hailing and food delivery apps can be classified as on-demand apps that have become part of everyday life today. In 2024,there will be more on-demand apps being launched to fill needs in sectors such as house cleaning, pet care, home cleaning, mechanical services and more. Other sectors include petcare, hair styling, barber services, and fitness coaching, If you are open to building solutions in any of these spaces, there is definitely demand for them.

Instant Apps

Google launched instant apps a few years ago as a way to help developers improve the discoverability of their apps. By creating an instant app experience, developers allow potential users to try out one or a few features of the app before deciding whether to instal it. This reduces the friction in decision-making for people on whether to install an app or not. In fact, an instant app feature can increase the conversation of impressions into downloads by as much as 20% on Google Play.

NS804

If your company is considering building a custom mobile app, you should consider working with us at NS804. NS804 is a world-class custom mobile app development company with a broad pool of talent. They keep up with the latest developments in the app development space. We have delivered tens of projects for clients across multiple industries. We are well placed to advice on how the latest developments in mobile app development could help your app drive greater revenue generation.

To engage with our team, reach out to us through our website. A member of our team will be in touch with you.

What Are The Latest Custom Mobile App Trends