Why is app development not as simple as it seems

Does it seem like EVERYONE has an app these days? Surely its simple to simply create one, right?

I hear this all the time and this morning, I heard it again from a friend who had to remove their app from the Play Store because it failed and his customers were not happy.

As the saying goes: If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur!

Most people who think they need an app (which is debatable too) do a quick Google search and think that it is as simple as following a tutorial or two to launch their own app. In reality, app development is way more complicated than people initially realize with a myriad of elements that all need to come together in order for the app to be successful. 

So before you rush off an build an app with an online app builder, here are some of the issues/ elements you need to contend with:

App Development Questions to Ask

Before you start, make sure you understand the Play store and any custom firmware Android policies, ensuring they you don’t violate any of the terms. There is no point spending time and money building an app that will not be accepted into the Google Play Store!

Another question to ask yourself is about where the app will be released. Does it need localization to take into account local currencies/ date formats/ languages or will it just be on in one language in one location?

Testing your app is critical. This is typically done with release-ready APK and upload your APK to the beta or alpha channel. Only testing your app in an emulator is not recommended.

Let’s talk about monetization. Are you looking to monetize your app or offer it for free? Will it be ad-supported? How will payment take place? what about refunds and customer service?

These are just the basic questions before the work of coding the app begins.

But wait. There is more. When you code the app you need to take into account Analytics. Its at this point, that I advise people to look for a development firm that will simply walk you through each of these points until you get the final result you are looking for.

Mobile App Analytics

When choosing between the different firms on offer, one thing you need to do is look for a company that offers expert data analytics. This is the only way you are going to improve your app and get the results you really want.

The purpose of analytics is to get insights so that the app developers you employ can take the necessary actions to improve your app. But, what sort of things are you looking out for?

This will largely depend on your business and your target audience. Nevertheless, when you first launch the app, your main concern will be how many people are using it. This will give you a good idea regarding the success of your marketing campaign and just how visible your app is.

Once you are acquiring users and engaging with them in different ways, mobile app developers will focus on optimizing the experience through measuring and iterating. They will look for answers to questions such as: How do users behave based on different factors, for example, language or operating system? Where are users leaving the app?

This will help the developers to put a behavior flow diagram together, so they can see what a user’s typical behavior is like. The developer will then have a discussion with you regarding custom metrics that are specific to your business and the goals you want to achieve with your app.

So in summary:

Yes. You could technically build an entire app yourself, but as you can see, things get complicated really quickly. The last thing you need is to have an app with your brand on it that performs horribly and you are forced to refund people their money and remove it from the Play Store.

Find a professional company with lots of app development experience and let them guide you through this process.