Mobile devices have been around since the 1990s, but 2020 and 2021 were big years for them. And as customers have started using mobile devices more now, companies are incorporating mobile apps into their business strategies to increase their reach.

Customers prefer apps that constantly offer them exciting and new experiences and features to look forward to. Mobile app development trends change every year with advancing technology, and you must keep up with and incorporate them into your app irrespective of its type. In this article, we have listed some of the trends of this year:

Mobile Apps For Foldable Devices

Foldable devices have been in use for many years in the keypad version. They started growing in popularity a couple of years ago and made a comeback in the touchscreen version. Developers are now designing apps keeping these devices in mind. These devices can adjust the screen size of apps when folded and expanded.

E-Wallet Apps

E-wallet apps allow people to store money and make payments with just a single click. They eliminate the need for people to carry physical wallets full of cash and multiple cards, and spare them the long process of entering card details for each transaction. These apps gained prominence in India during demonetisation. They are seeing a further surge in usage now due to the social distancing norms put in place.

M-commerce

Any list of mobile app development trends will be incomplete without m-commerce/mobile commerce.

M-commerce involves using mobile devices to browse products and make payments. Popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest allow for products displayed in pictures to be tagged with clickable links to enable customers to purchase them.

Mobile banking is a part of m-commerce, which involves making payments for purchases through mobile devices using e-wallet apps or by entering credit/debit card details or scanning QR codes at physical stores.

Chatbots

Chatbots have been around since the 1990s, and have now become the new medium for customer service. From offering product recommendations and solving queries about products to tracking orders, chatbots assist customers throughout their purchasing journey. Chatbots are more commonly used on websites than apps, but that will change this year with the increasing usage of mobile devices.

Biometric Authentication

Passwords, PINs, and patterns are a passe. Besides, they can be hacked easily. Biometric recognition methods like iris, voice, and fingerprint recognition are being used now to improve data security. These techniques, which were earlier only used to unlock mobile devices, are now also being used to unlock and log in to apps.

Geolocation-Based Apps

Geolocation-based apps are used to offer personalised services to customers. These apps use the location of users to offer them weather updates, recommendations for products/services or sightseeing, etc. in those locations. Social media apps allow users to tag their current location, and fitness apps enable tracking activity using the geolocation feature.

Livestreaming Of Events

The internet has virtually brought the world closer, even more so during the pandemic. All our daily activities, from shopping to work and entertainment, are now shifted online. Virtual streaming has become an important part of lives and businesses. It has allowed people to be a part of events across the world in real time. With public places getting shut, live-streamed concerts are gaining popularity. Brands are using virtual streaming to make their customers a part of events like product launches.

Lite Apps

“Lite” versions of apps are designed for low-end devices. These devices are made for low-budget users and mostly have basic features along with a few advanced ones. Lite apps consume less device storage space and battery power and work faster than standard apps, and work with poor internet connectivity. This has made these apps popular with high-end device users as well. Many reputed brands like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Uber, and Skype have lite versions of their apps.

On-Demand Apps

On-demand apps have become a major part of life in the pandemic and the subsequently imposed lockdowns. There are various types of on-demand apps that offer food delivery, grocery delivery, home and beauty services, etc. There are more on-demand apps coming up that are offering similar services.

Instant Apps

Instant apps are similar to web apps. They don’t need to be searched, downloaded, and installed onto a device to be used, and don’t affect a device’s storage space. The difference between the two types of apps is that while web apps can be saved on devices like general apps and accessed like websites, instant apps are sections of general apps that can be accessed on their original versions through shared links.