Top Mobile App Development Trends to Prioritize in 2022
The decade of the ’20s ensued a new era of digital transformation, with an accelerated deployment of digital platforms like mobile applications and websites across industries. A lot of that started as an attempt to survive the COVID pandemic. Mobile and web app development was how businesses were transitioning into the digital space to meet the needs of the customers.
Since then, the act of app development has become something more permanent than just a survival strategy. As per global stats:
- More than 89 percent of one time on mobile is spent on applications.
- Last year alone 196 billion apps were downloaded on Google Play Store.
- In 2021, 42 billion apps were downloaded on Apple App Store.
- The same year saw market revenue generation of $693 billion from the global mobile app industry.
- By 2023, the global market revenue for mobile apps is projected to surpass $935 billion.
Keeping these stats in mind, let’s do a quick review of the latest mobile app trends that is super relevant for the year 2022.
Mobile App Trends to Rule 2022
The following app trends have been listed keeping the new age technologies in mind; ones that will define the tech world in the years to come.
1) 5G : The market is bracing itself for the impact of 5G, which is expected to propel the next Industrial revolution. But let’s talk about its impact on mobile and web app development, and why it is one of the trending factors in the same this year. Let’s start with the technology’s mind-blowing features;
- Lightning speed and super-fast interconnectivity.
- Latency of less than one millisecond.
- 1000x bandwidth per unit area.
- Up to 10Gbps data rate.
- Up to 90% less use of network energy.
- 100% coverage.
It’s quite an upgrade from its predecessor the 4G network. Considering these super upgrades, there will be a convergence of app development with IoT, AI, AR, VR, etc. Geolocation will become more precise along with minimal consumption of battery power. Hence the spectrum of the app development would have to accommodate these modifications as well.
According to Statista, by 2024, 5G subscriptions will surpass 1900 million. 20% of the global populace would be using 5G network by 2025. By the same year, it will hold a 20% market share of the global mobile telecom industry. These are enough reasons to surround your app development innovations and activities around 5G, right?!
2) Artificial Intelligence: Techies are already calling it the Age of the AI, even though we are at a nascent stage of dabbling with Machine Learning. Why it is important and has been included within app development trends? It is because it can not only optimize the performance of the apps post-deployment but can also reduce the human errors by the developers that often go unnoticed.
Many apps in the market have started incorporating AI elements in the form of personalized experiences and chatbots. The healthcare industry is riding high on AI usage to optimize administrative work, especially now that telemedicine has become an accepted practice. There are more such AI advancements across multiple industries, which bring us to the fact that ML and AI, would be of the key mobile app development trends of 2022 and beyond.
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3) Mixed Reality: AR+VR or as they say mixed reality grew in prominence as a mitigation strategy against social distancing norms. It led the industry market size to surpass $12 billion in 2020. Ecommerce platforms have started introducing AR/VR features to improve customer service.
For instance, customers could virtually try their eyewear before buying the same. Real estate companies have been leveraging the same to allow virtual house and commercial space tours for potential clients. In the last two years, many entertainment companies have successfully executed live online concerts incorporating mixed reality features to beam artists on a single stage from multiple places to enhance the shows.
AR and VR are been used extensively used in the engineering and manufacturing sectors to supplement labor across production lines. Ones that have successfully implemented the technology have reported a reduction of operational costs along with increased productivity. Hence both from the industry and consumer perspective the demand for apps backed by AR/VR technology would increase in the coming days.
4) Blockchain: It’s hard to not get enchanted by the allure of Blockchain, an immutable, traceable, and transparent technology that upholds user safety and privacy above everything. The significance of this new age technology keeps increasing every day, especially considering the concerns over data security.
Cryptocurrency might be the first-ever successful application of the technology, but Blockchain is so much more than that. You can track anything with absolute transparency using blockchain and streamline supply chain management. In recent times, blockchain is being used to track the clinical trials of the COVID vaccine and its distribution to prevent any discrepancy.
But how is it relevant for app development? Well, the question is how it is not? Starting from financial services and healthcare to cybersecurity and public services, not to mention the facilitation of smart contracts, the scalability of blockchain technology is limitless. Considering the day is not far when most app will have the backing of this immutable technology, which has managed to rake global spending of $4.1 billion so far.
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5) Edge Computing: Edge computing is the next evolutionary stage of cloud computing. It merges the cloud into the user’s device while the computation part is either taken care of locally or near the source of the data. It’s the next big thing poised to take the world by storm, partnering with 5G.
Together it would improve data transmission and streamline the adoption of 5G for industries and the masses as well. As per a market study, edge computing market share will surpass $2.8 billion by 2027, making it one of the key technologies to prioritize when designing and developing an app.
6) Cross-Platform Apps: The cross-platform framework is an absolute necessity for the act of app development considering that there is so much diversity in the specs and operating systems of mobile phones. So, the need to build an app that works across multiple frameworks has been the need of the hour for quite some time now.
Building a cross-platform application spares a developer both the time and the effort of coding separately for each variety of OS’. A cross-platform framework can operate smoothly on multiple operating systems. It has benefits as well such as;
- UI consistency
- Reusability of the source code
- Minimize the marketing expense
- Reduce bug issues
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7) Low-Code App Development: Low-code app development is how an enterprise can minimize its app development and deployment time. A low-code or no-code app framework/platform can enable businesses to deploy apps with zero coding experience. Such platforms can streamline the act of app building; both mobile and web app development. By simple drag-and-drop, you can create a highly intuitive app. Don’t be alarmed! It would not be the end of traditional app development, rather an alternative for businesses to seamlessly launch an app if they prefer so.
8) Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP is an open-source project facilitated by Twitter and Google that enables faster loading of the pages. By reducing the loading time for pages, the developer can cut back on unnecessary coding, which depletes the data usage. By backing AMP Google is overtly pushing its mobile-first raking policy.
It means that to build mobile-responsive platforms one would have to focus on incorporating AMP development solutions, in the coming days. Experts predict that with the increase in demand for streaming apps and web apps, some developers would prefer making use of the AMP protocol to deploy high-quality responsive applications. A quick view at some stats to help you understand the relevance of AMP in the coming days;
- In 2020, more than 25 million domains incorporated AMP.
- AMP is most prevalent in platforms related to the entertainment industry.
- Most US websites are prioritizing AMP these days.
9) Progressive Web Apps: Progressive apps are a cross between websites and applications. Why developers should focus on progressive apps?
- It can be developed and deployed faster compared to usual mobile apps.
- They have an extended usage since they are websites with app features and functionalities.
- Unlike native apps, these apps can work offline.
- Their loading time is lesser than normal apps.
- Since these open on a browser, they take up zero space on the device.
- Progressive apps are easy to access and are highly adaptable.
- It does not require frequent updates.
The importance of progressive apps increased during the COVID phase because many eCommerce companies reported that their engagement and sales increased after launching a progressive app. PWAs are known to increase the conversion rate compared to native apps. There’s your answer, why the progressive app is important for app development in 2022.
10) On-Demand Apps: From food to transport, people want everything delivered fast and at their doorstep. This tendency growing rapidly, and in the coming days, on-demand apps would become more prevalent, especially businesses dealing in groceries, food, logistics, transport, travel, accommodations, etc. The market reports tell the same story.
At present more than 22 million consumers are spending $57.5 billion on on-demand apps. Experts are predicting that the advent of edge-computing and 5G will further increase the demand for on-demand services, so make a note of it.
Wrapping up: that’s all for this post! Make sure to keep these tech trends in mind when taking up your future app development projects.
