A website is a powerful asset, especially for business owners and entrepreneurs. It helps you showcase your brand and provide a cost-effective communication tool. A website gives your customers an opportunity to access your site from their laptops, desktops and handheld devices. However, there is a dramatic change in the pattern. Today, many customers are showing interest in viewing information from mobile phones and tablets, rather than desktops and laptops.  Smartphones are providing an incredible advantage for users and businesses.

To stay updated with increasing growth of mobile devices, companies moved to mobile responsive websites initially. These sites improved user experience by improving the user interface. Responsive websites are usually accessed by mobile users who do not take advantage of their smartphones. Some of the advantages include – push notifications, offline access, GPS, camera etc. To take advantage of these features, large businesses have invested in building native apps.

In a study, it was found that people spend nearly 9 times more in mobile apps than in a browser. More than 83% of marketers claim that mobile apps are an important part of their marketing strategy. More than 90% of people are likely to spend their time on mobile apps, while 10% people prefer websites. From this statistics, we can say that companies and business owners should shift their focus from websites to mobile apps.

Benefits of turning your website into a mobile app

Developing both the mobile app and responsive website can be a bit expensive. You might choose one of the two channels, depending on your business goals. Though both these channels have their own pros and cons, developing a mobile app for your business can help you get higher conversions.

A mobile app is a software product that has to be downloaded from App Store. It is closely related to hardware of your device such as – camera, microphone, accelerometer etc. It provides users with a better experience by giving them access to the camera, geolocation, photo library etc.

As mobile apps are growing at an astounding rate, turning your website into mobile app gives an added advantage. Here are some compelling reasons why you need to turn your website into a mobile app.

• Ease of access

Mobile apps can be accessed easily, as they always in the hands of your customers. As soon as your customer downloads the app, it is on their phone and reminds them of your business constantly. You are just one-click away for them to call you and set an appointment.

On the contrary, a website can’t be accessed as easily as mobile apps. Apps eliminate the need to remember or take time to enter the URL of your business.

• Increase user engagement

Mobile apps allow you to send messages in a timely manner to your customers. Whether it is in the form of coupons, special product offerings, promotions or any updates – you can inform your customers directly. It is no wonder who big brands love mobile apps.

Push notifications are the best features of mobile apps, as they are likely to get 18% more click-through-rate than mobile apps. You can include a link to your advertisement or add a shopping cart to the push notifications.

• Gain customer loyalty

It is a known fact that customers love discount coupons, deal and promotional offers. Mobile apps allow you to gain customer loyalty by giving them special offers and discounts. Apps make it easier for you to keep the customers engaged.

It is always a better option to maintain existing customers rather than making new customers. Companies can make this possible by having a mobile app, rather than a website.

• Future technology

There has been a great advancement in technology in recent years. Smartphones can be said as the present and future of technology, as a result of which more and more apps are likely to emerge into the market. Mobile apps are not an option, but mandatory for smartphone users.

From tracking your fitness goals to reading news, everything happens in smartphone apps. More than 70% of people across the globe are using smartphones and this figure is likely to increase soon.

• Personalized experience

Mobile apps offer a personalized experience which most of the users love about. All the confidential data and personal information are stored on the individual’s phone with login credentials and data settings. Mobile apps allow users to track and remember their interaction, allowing them to maximize their experience. This will eventually increase their interest in your brand.

A mobile app is quite different from the website, giving a new branding experience to the users. Companies can experiment with new branding styles for the app, which can be different from regular brand style.

• Mobile apps are fast

Mobile apps can load faster than websites. A well designed mobile app takes less time to perform actions than a website. Apps usually store data on the devices, which websites use web servers to store data. For this reason, data can be retrieved at a fast rate in mobile apps.

Apps can even save users time by storing their personal preferences and using them to take proactive actions on the behalf of users. Whenever you open up a website it first requests the host server to send any information. This is not the case with apps.

Conclusion

If you have to choose between investing in a mobile app or website, we would suggest you invest in the mobile app. Even though the website is mobile responsive, it is better to choose a mobile app over a responsive website. Though mobile responsive websites have a great advantage, they cannot replace a native app.

The reason behind this is that mobile responsive websites make the website look much better on small screen devices. Your website can adjust itself to the requirements of the screen. However, it is not an application and hence does not match the performance of a mobile app.

Websites and mobile apps share different UI and UX. It related to many factors like – interface, navigation, object placement and context. If you want to turn your website into a mobile app, you must adhere to the principles of mobile UX.

With affordable app development resources, there is no excuse to remain app-free. You should be ready for the next step, as a mobile app can increase your conversions to a great extent.

If your brand does not have a mobile app, it’s the right time to get started! Contact us today to get expert advice straight into your inbox.

Having the knowledge of how important a marketing campaign on the mobile market is for a brand is quite common these days. Many startups realize that without that part of the market, in today’s landscape, they are completely handicapped. Therefore a lot of them try to create marketing strategies to no avail and flop on this objective.

The reasons for this can be wide and far between, but the most obvious one is that they do not put enough work into the research of the mobile market. The technology surrounding smartphones (both on the hardware and software side of things) is rapidly changing with each passing year. This fact makes it understandable for most entrepreneurs to be out of the loop, especially if marketing isn’t their forte.

Opportunities for creating countless ways of use for your mobile presentation can guide your users in pretty much any marketing preference. Below I will mention some aspects of mobile website design that have to be taken into consideration when building your online presence.

Concise points

There is a multitude of reasons why it is important to keep your message short and clear. The first reason is that with each passing year the attention span of consumers shrinks. The reason for this is simply the volume of content and opportunities to choose from.

The second reason is the sheer convenience of looking at the message on a small screen. Tablets and mobiles don’t have the luxury of a desktop display so you must be careful with space allocation. Most users browse while having nothing better to do so you really have no space to beat around the bush.

Those two reasons are enough to say that it is completely fine to have your blog or some other marketing medium to the point and quickly readable. Another way to make your presentation more appealing is to break the chunks of text, if absolutely necessary, into smaller fragments and make them seem more readable.

Get on social media

Everyone has an account on a social media platform these days. The importance of having a social media presence in 2018 is more crucial than ever. However their market grew so much that it isn’t feasible for startups or emerging businesses to manage all the accounts from a logistical standpoint.

This puts you in a tough position. The platform of your choice should depend on who you want to have as your visitors. If you are looking for a full on mainstream approach – the instant recommendation is Facebook. If you are aiming for a specific demographic you should almost certainly chose some of the alternatives.

Twitter is great for concise branding and fan interaction. LinkedIn is amazing if professionals are your main clients. Content that is revolving around design or imagery is great for sites like Pinterest, Tumblr or Instagram. The statistics for each platform are a great tool to find out what will work best for you.

Bring in the content

The most important part of modern site design is the value you provide through your content. If your business is about forming some sort of a relationship beyond the “cash for service” routine most businesses have – great content is the road to success in that regard. SEO comes into play here as the approach to take when forming your output.

Creating top-notch SEO content can be quite challenging but manageable with the knowledge of the basic lays of the land. Google analytics can give you all the information regarding the keywords or titles that should be used. Good imagery and spelling are an obvious bonus. However, the most important part in 2018, due to a snowball of SEO content, will be to remain creative with content and really bring something of value.

A lot of businesses struggle with this. Finding writers interested in such niche topics is hard if not impossible. Luckily, professional website design companies specialize in providing such services for this part.

Be consistent

Whether it is design, color or font – you should always be recognizable and memorable. The best way to achieve this is to stick with the design initially presented to the market. Changing said factors frequently confuses users and prevents them to bond with the brand in question.

Additionally, it is great to have a consistent narrative when constructing a marketing language. Using slang, colloquialisms or other creative pathways (like speaking in the third person) are a great way to give a bit of uniqueness in such a saturated market. The only important thing, and I can’t stress this enough, is to stick with the shtick.

An important piece of the puzzle that is hugely related to success in digital marketing is to benchmark. Look at what your competitors are doing and find a business that has an online presence you find really appealing. The most important aspect is to find inspiration and have a strong reference point. Once the foundation is strong, creative work will transition in smoothly leading you to a great final product.

The digital marketing space is a science and an art. Its complexities and fine details are great in scope to be deconstructed into fine chunks only within one article. Hopefully, I’ve introduced you to some aspects of it and gave some information that will nudge you towards the way you want to go.

The post Startups cannot ignore mobile users if they want to be successful in 2018 appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

The blockchain is one of the most discussed technologies in the world today. Many people who know a little about blockchain can only relate it to bitcoin transactions. There have been discussions in the mobile app world about using blockchain technology to replace traditional databases like MySQL.

If you have a mobile app you would be wondering if the blockchain technology is right for your app. To take a right decision you need to understand the fundamentals of blockchain technology and also know the pros and cons associated with it.

What is blockchain technology?

The blockchain is a distributed database used as a public ledger to record bitcoin transactions. As the name suggests, it is a chain of blocks where each block of data has a timestamp and have a cryptographic link to the previous block. The blockchain can be seen as an incorruptible digital ledger that can be programmed to record anything of value and not just financial transactions. The information stored in a blockchain is shared and continuouslyreconciled. Since the blockchain is not stored at a single location, it is truly public and the records can be verified at any time. Because there is no centralized database, it cannot be targeted by hackers and cannot be corrupted easily.

It is not enough to have basic information of blockchain technology; you also need to understand its working in detail to decide whether it is suitable for your app. The majority of the use cases of blockchain technology tell about its working in relation to bitcoin. Even though your app works on the line of bitcoin, it can be a difficult task to determine the suitability of the blockchain technology for your app. Here are some benefits and drawback of blockchain distributed database.

Key benefits of blockchain technology for apps

There is no doubt blockchain is a disruptive technology that has the capability to change the way the mobile app works. Here are some of the benefits of blockchain technology for apps

Transparency– Since blockchain technology works like a public ledger, it would be difficult to make changes in the database without others knowing it. Also, any changes that need to be made can be successful only if the majority of the blockchain network agrees to it.

Security– since the blockchain technology is decentralized; there is no single point of failure. It would be difficult to for hackers to initiate DDoS attacks or any other forms of malicious attack which makes apps with blockchain technology more secure.

User empowerment– the blockchain app will give users more control over their information and transactions. It will greatly reduce the risk of identity theft and even make such attempts impossible.

Faster business transactions– the decentralized nature of blockchain technology helps in faster business transactions. Since the information is not controlled by any one individual there is no risk of duplicating transactions. Unlike traditional transactions, blockchain transactions are not dependent on any authority for validating transactions. The result is the transaction is completed in  few seconds.

Difficulties in building distributed apps

No framework available

While the blockchain technology has a lot of potential, it is not easy to build distributed apps. The blockchain technology is relatively new and the framework required to build distributed apps is non-existent. There are no stacks available to build apps with blockchain technology and the developers have to rely on custom tools, platform, and technology to build distributed apps which might not be easy.

Difficulties in Testing

Testing a mobile app for bugs on a single computer is hard enough. Imagine debugging a mobile app that runs on multiple computers at a time. To debug a distributed application, you would need testing software that can coordinate with other software. Add to it network problems and all seems like a distant dream that is easy to visualize and hard to realize. You need to also consider the “heisenbug” aspect which talks about how the bug changes its behavior on different computer systems. Testing and resolving bugs is a difficult task in non-distributed apps and it would even more difficult and annoying to test and resolve buggy distributed apps.

Other problems in using blockchain technology

Legal considerations

Despite huge popularity bitcoin and blockchain technology does not have a legal backing. In fact, many countries have either placed restrictions on such transactions or completely banned it. Any transaction that is backed by legal compliance has a value in our world and that does not hold true in the blockchain. Our financial systems heavily rely on banks and governments for support. Blockchain does not have legal backing, nor government support that makes majority of people wary of this technology.

Transaction inaccuracy

While the data in blockchain can be verified, it does not mean it would be accurate at all times.Bitcoin uses cryptographic keys to relate to other blocks in the chain and validate bitcoin transactions. There is less clarity on how other value transactions can be validated which leaves room for doubt and raises questions about the correctness of transactions. Since it is open and decentralized, whom should you approach for help to resolve transaction inaccuracy?

No clear technology advantage

Though blockchain technology is expected to provide a high level of robustness, the same thing cannot be said about its performance. Experts say blockchain will make business transaction faster but that is only a part of the story. There is one hidden side of blockchain that brings out the drawback. For example, writing to blockchain ledger is hard and slow. This is particularly done to avoid Sybil attacks. Also, the blockchain technology uses so many resources that you have to pay to people to do it. On the other hand, relational databases used today are fairly fast and hence there is no clear advantage offered by Blockchain technology.

Final thoughts

Though blockchain technology in mobile apps sounds innovative, the definition of blockchain is still vague. There are many hindrances in blockchain technology that need to be sorted out before it is accepted in the mainstream. If you look at the world of mobile apps, the technology and platforms used today are relevant to the business conditions and needs of the people. The relational databases have the capability to meets our needs for performance and security and it is not obsolete yet. Looking at the legal considerations and other roadblocks, it is very difficult to tell whether the blockchain technology will rise or perish in the future. As an app entrepreneur, it is too early to jump the bandwagon of blockchain technology and it would be wise decision to wait for the technology to evolve where it becomes more parallel to mobile app technology.

The post Is blockchain right for your app? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

The introduction of voice assistants has provided new ways to interact with your smartphone. The availability of voice recognition software has encouraged mobile app developer to create voice-activated apps on smartphone platforms like Android and iOS. There has been increasing demand from smartphone users for better interfaces, especially which does not require the user to use touchscreens for input. There is no doubt you will see many of your regular apps getting Voice First Technology to harness the power of voice recognition. But before that let’s understand more about voice-activated apps and the way they will change the future.

What is a voice-activated app?

Voice activated apps respond to your voice. They are more like the hands-free concept where the app is attentive to what you say or command. With voice-activated apps, you will be less required to use the touchscreen to access menus or type requests. You can just speak the command and the Voice First Technology will manage the search query.

How will voice-activated apps change the mobile landscape?

The voice first technology is making news in searches and shopping. As consumers start using voice first devices, they are more likely to use them more for searches. According to a market research by 2020, 5% of searches will be made in voice. To keep up with this trend leading brands will have to integrate voice recognition technology in their apps.

The voice recognition technology can be already seen in action in Google apps. For example, you can ask a question to the Google app and you will see a snippet box answering the question and bringing relevant search results. The answer box in Android smartphone is an example of how voice search will work in voice-activated apps. Voice first technology is expected to make voice-activated apps smarter where the user will not be required to look at the screen while giving commands. The voice recognition technology already works well with voice first devices like Alexa which does not have any screen. The smart speaker technology is available for many years and the time is right to revolutionize voice search by using smart speakers. It is not too hard to predict that users will be heavily dependent on voice commands to operate their mobile devices and solve their queries. In the near future, you will find yourself finishing the majority of the tasks on mobile using voice-based questions.

The power of speech will help overcome difficulties of typing on the small screen and everyone will be a high-speed typist. All you need to do is become competent to speak in normal speaking pace and have phrases ready that can be precisely transcribed by the voice first technology. And when you continually use the same text in different conversations, the mobile app with voice recognition technology integration will have enhanced capability of classifying voice commands and insert text blocks for you.

What APIs are available to integrate voice recognition technology in mobile apps?

Google Cloud Speech to Text API

Google offers Google Cloud Speech to Text API which is a powerful speech recognition technology for short and long audio. The API is powered by machine learning that converts audio to text by applying neural network models. The Google Cloud Speech to Text API can recognize 120 languages and variants that make it perfect for the global audience. Using this AP, developers can enable voice command and control in apps. The Google Speech API can process recorded audio and real-time audio streaming as well. Since the API is powered by machine learning algorithms, the speech to text accuracy improves with time. The Google Speech API is tailored to work with real-life speech and it can accurately transcribe nouns and other language elements like numbers and dates. The Google speech API can recognize around 10X more words than total number of words in Oxford dictionary.

Bing Speech API

Part of the Microsoft cognitive services, the Bing Speech API can convert audio into text and vice versa and also understand the intent of speech. The API can be directed to switch on the microphone and recognize the incoming audio in real-time. The Bing Speech API is used to build apps that can be voice triggered. Since the API also features text to speech, it allows developers to achieve natural responsiveness in their apps. It means the app will not only listen and act on your command but  also speak to you to deliver the result/findings.

Other Voice First Technology APIs

There are several other voice first technology APIs that can be integrated into mobile apps to achieve voice recognition and speech to text ability in mobile apps. Some of the APIs that are popular are Vocapia Speech to Text API, Speech Engine IFLYTEK CO., LTD, UWP Speech recognition, CMU Sphinx – Speech Recognition Toolkit, OpenEars (used in iOS platform), and Kaldi which is also used in iOS platform.

Challenges in Voice First Technology integration

Though integrating voice first technology in apps seems overwhelming, it is not without challenges. Here are some of the challenges faced by the app developers:

Real-time response behavior– Not all mobile devices are equally capable. The issue mainly lies in the ability and functions of the device and the network connection. Whenever you give a command to the app, it needs to connect to the server to convert voice into text and then receive some instructions/data from the server to perform an action. This response cycle is apart of the real-time response of the app. Network latency is a big challenge in such real-time response and the code source of the application needs to be optimized for its effective functioning and voice recognition.

Languages– the voice-activated APIs available today do not support all languages. Developers need to first identify which language support needs to be added which also depends on the geographical location where the target audience resides. Besides languages, developers also need to think about the speech conversion services available for the app.

Accent– this is similar to language problem and the way of speaking can present difficulties in voice/speech recognition accuracy. The accent differs with regions and it can be hard to accommodate every accent for the languages covered in the voice first technology.

Apps that listen when you speak- Some of the best Voice-Activated Apps

Not all apps listen when you speak and that is what makes voice-activated apps special. Besides the Google Assistant, Cortana, and Apple’s Siri, there are several other voice-activated apps that are designed to make your life bit easier.

PromptSmart

Available for iOS platform, the PromptSmart works like a smart teleprompter typing every word as you speak without an active Internet connection.This voice-activated app is popular with audiobook creator, YouTube personalities, small business video marketers, podcasters, and newscasters.The app has many useful features like scripts for formal deliveries of the speeches or key points along with a structure that can be kept as note cards.

RunGo

Available for both iOS and Android platforms, the RunGo app is your running companion.It allows you to map the run and then gives navigational guidelines as you run on the route. It also allows you to take calls and listen to music while you are running. It stores several pre-planned routes in offline mode for famous metropolitan cities like New York, London, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C, and San Francisco. Besides listening and talking to you, the RunGo app also keeps track of pace, distance covered, calories burned and records time of the activity.

Final thoughts

As the voice first technology improves, you will find more app developers gravitating towards this technology to develop apps with voice first technology. As the complexity of the voice-enabled technology increases, you will find mobile apps that allow users to order groceries, place a call or leave a message, make appointments or even remotely control homes through apps with VFT. Finally, you will have apps with an only voice-enabled interface that will enable the users to do the majority of the tasks hands-free.

The post Voice activated apps are already here powered by VFT or Voice First Technology: What are the challenges and solutions? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

The blockchain technology is one of the most talked and hyped technologies across all industry verticals. Many large companies are spending a huge amount on the research of blockchain technologies to integrate it into their products. However, not much information about blockchain technology is available in the public domain.One thing that people relate with blockchain technology is Bitcoin. However, the scope of blockchain technology is not limited to digital currency alone. Let’s delve deeper to know about blockchain technology and its suitability for different projects.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain technology is a great way to manage data. It competes with traditional databases that are used today. Since the inception of computer technology, we have been using relational databases that store information in updatable rows and columns. Decades of research has made relational databases a secure database with expanded functionalities. The only problem with relational databases is the task of storing and updating data is handled by few entities and you can’t be sure your data is not hacked or messed by the entities handling it. Since data is one of the most important elements of all business transactions, entrepreneurs need something more secure. This is where blockchain technology comes into the picture.

Unlike traditional databases, the blockchain architecture removes the need for trusted authority. Public blockchains like Ethereum or Bitcoin are managed by strangers (with their computers) to store, compute, and curate and secure a perpetually growing set of data without any central authority governing it. Since blockchains are replicated across a peer-to-peer network, it is difficult to corrupt or delete data stored in this way. This one feature is most attractive for businesses where they want to protect their data from corruption and any kind of censorship.

Key features of blockchain technology

Increased Capacity

Blockchain technology increases the capacity of the entire network. The reason behind this is there are a lot of computers working simultaneously to process and authenticate blockchain transactions. When a large number of computers are working together you have a larger amount of computing power at your disposal than when working with few devices.

Better Security

With blockchain technology, there is not even a single chance for a hacker to completely shut down the system. There have been events where even the most secure traditional databases have been hacked but bitcoin is not hacked to date. The reason behind this advanced security is the blockchain technology uses multiple nodes to complete and authenticate transaction and these nodes confirm the transaction. It is almost impossible to hack every node or computer participating in the blockchain transactions at the same time.

Decentralized system

Decentralized systems are slowly becoming the way of working where data is stored on the Internet for easy access but the owner has control over the data through a private key. Such a working model is useful in various industries like finance, real estate and other industries where the data in the form of databases or documents can be shared or transferred easily by the owner through the Web.

Authenticity

The authenticity of documents and data is an important factor in many cases. In blockchain, a hash is created for every data type and document created in the network. A hash works like a fingerprint that allows the unique algorithm to process data and enables its conversion into fixed length output. Hash is unique for every single transaction. Whenever a transaction is added in the distributed ledger, it contains the previous block’s hash and also has hash of current transaction that is used to build the new block.

Where is blockchain technology used currently?

Blockchain technology is being used in various fields of business. Some of them are

Speed up payroll

Blockchain technology is used to speed up and secure payroll transactions. It is particularly used by businesses that are involved in building blockchain businesses and have remote employees across the world. Transactions based on blockchain technology update faster than traditional banking transactions. Another benefit is companies can create their own digital currencies that can be used to give incentives to their employees.

Cloud storage

Blockchain technology is used to enhance the security of cloud storage systems. Cloud storage enables businesses to access files and documents from any place. Users who require more space than a company owns on a cloud storage can use the blockchain technology to rent a hard drive or a server for additional space. In this model, the distributed cloud storage solution uses a peer-to-peer decentralized cloud network setup where files are stored on nodes and transmitted in an encrypted format.

Simplified data sharing for health service providers

The health care industry generated big volumes of data on a daily basis. This information is stored on a different computer which makes their access difficult. The blockchain technology serves an easy way to store data (health records) in decentralized databases securely that can be easily accessed from any location.

International payments

The distributed ledger system is used to complete transactions in a lesser time than banks. Using blockchain technology international payments can be sent in a fraction of time and the whole process is safe and transparent.

What types of projects will benefit from the use of blockchain technology?

Here are some use cases that show which types of project can benefit from the use of blockchain technology.

a.) Projects with multiple entities where more than one entity is required to make changes in the database can use the distributed ledger system. In such a project, the blockchain technology removes the need of trust between entities as the transactions are transparent and easily accessible by any partner entity.

b.) Projects which need to exclude central management or intermediaries from the process can benefit from blockchain technology.

c.) Projects that involve processing of limited data can use the blockchain technology. The technology does not work efficiently with Big Data as yet.

d.) Projects that need a heavy and secure framework like distributed ledger system can benefit from the use of blockchain technology.

Will it make your project more effective?

If your project deals with some transactions of any kind or data, blockchain technology might help make your project more effective. The distributed ledger technology can provide you with efficient and safe ways to record and transfer data.The data created, stored and transferred will be transparent, protected from outages, and accessible at all times. Right now cloud technology is used to securely share date among employees. Though cloud systems employ high-grade security algorithms to keep your data safe, they are not completely flawless.

Blockchain technology can make cloud storage systems untouchable, immutable, more robust and secure and less prone to data loss, human errors, and hacking attacks. The use of distributed ledger technology will increase the security and safety of every record in terms of exchanged values between individuals who are part of your project. All transactions related to the project will be stored in a decentralized database which can be monitored for transparency and authenticity.

You will have a complete record of how much time is taken by employees to complete a specific task and document sharing will be more secure and easy. Blockchain technology is known to have a superior operational workflow that will help in risk reduction, time savings, and cost removals. By setting up a private blockchain network, the project manager will be able to communicate with all employees more easily and define scope, deadlines, budget, and deliverables which will be identified, monitored, verified, and validated as transactions.

Analysis of blockchain technology

The blockchain technology is useful to the business world in many ways. Since distributed applications run on a network of computers, you have a huge amount of computing power available that makes these applications blazingly fast. The distributed ledger system offers a higher level of availability than traditional databases that reside on few servers. In a distributed ledger system even if a part of the network fails, the ledger system works flawlessly without any performance problems. However, this benefit can be tricky and if some database fails to update correctly it will give rise to problems that can’t be easily solved in absence of a legal framework.

Also building and debugging distributed applications is quite difficult. Since the distributed application is expected to run in a computer with different hardware and software configurations, it can give rise to “mandelbugs” that behave differently on different systems and hence difficult to resolve.

Final word

Blockchain technology can be helpful in creating new and efficient business processes. But one fact that you must not ignore is distributed nature of blockchain transactions are hard to work with. The scope, definition, and functionality of blockchain technology and distributed ledger system are still at a nascent stage in comparison to traditional databases. There are several issues related to blockchain technology that needs attention and have to be sorted out before the blockchain technology becomes mainstream. If you are brave enough to face the challenges and find way out, you can integrate blockchain technology in applications and business processes. Now that you know the fundamentals of blockchain technology, you are free to decide whether blockchain technology fits your project needs.

The post Understanding Blockchain: Does your project need it? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Machine learning is a self-evolutionary interactive field that is designed to incorporate the functionalities of artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing through a series of algorithms. Machine Learning  is used to understand the relationship between big data and is aimed at obtaining a certain desired output. Machine Learning has revamped the way we interact with technology. Countless examples of everyday things like self-driving cars, self-tuned databases, automated surveillance systems, humanoids and smart assistant perfectly describe how machine learning is what makes modern machines smart the way they are today. The global machine learning as a service market was valued at $571 million in 2016 and is projected to reach at $5,537 million by 2023, according to a report published by Allied Market Research.

Types of Machine Learning

I. Supervised Learning

Supervised Learning is a form of machine learning that takes help of a large pool of examples. It is used in a number of modern public platforms for AI-based app development. To make the learning process work, a set of well-analyzed examples are loaded into the machine along with relevant information like geolocation data, dates, and specific characteristics of the object analysis. This is followed by generation of a number of templates on the basis of these examples and information.

II. Unsupervised Learning

In the case of unsupervised learning, the machine does not receive any specific input data and mostly fails to detect any certain pattern in the user’s request, independently. It does not receive any information from outside. The activity here is based solely on the experience of working with a particular user.

III. Reinforcement Learning

Machine learning with reinforcement includes the process of gaining the knowledge provided by the developer and through one’s own experience. These algorithms are difficult to implement.

How to Integrate Machine Learning Into A Mobile App?

With endless possibilities and benefits, Machine Learning has gained massive popularity among users today and rightly so.  A plethora of conveniences that allied themselves with Machine learning, make it popular amidst modern app developers. More often than not it becomes difficult for individual developers to develop the machine learning features from the scratch due to various challenges like in-depth mathematical concepts, fragmentation of frameworks and lack of debugging tools etc. To rescue developers from these hassles and streamline app development processes, tech giants like Google, IBM, Microsoft, and AWS are offering open-sourced AI/ML libraries and tools. Here are a few examples of resources a developer can use to build an app with machine learning:

A. TensorFlow

An open-source software library by Google, TensorFlow helps a developer in performing numerical computation using data flow graphs. Easy to use, TF empowers the app developers to execute computation to numerous CPUs/GPUs in all devices with a single API.

B. CoreML

A popular Machine Learning framework, CoreML enables an iOS app developer to integrate wide-range of machine learning models into their applications. It offers a high level of performance excellence and efficiency to an app product.

C. Microsoft Cognitive Services

Microsoft Cognitive Services toolkit is a developer’s asset. It helps build smart apps that can see, listen, understand, interpret, and speak using natural communication means like facial expressions, the medium of speech like words and gestures.

D. TCS Ignio

An ML-based self-learning platform designed to automate and optimize IT operations, Ignio is a developer’s favourite. It grasps the information from its surroundings, lowering down the chances of knowledge gaps across operation teams and technologies. It also resolves common errors on its own.

E. Api.ai

Created by the Google development team Api.ai uses contextual dependencies to create business solutions for iOS and Android personal assistants. The creators of Api.ai strengthened their algorithms with a powerful database.

F. Wit.ai

Additionally to all functions of Api.ai, Wit.ai features tools that convert speech into printed text. It is capable of analyzing context-sensitive data and, thus, generating the most accurate answers to requests.
G. Amazon Machine Learning services

With AMLS, developers can develop ML models using visualization tools and wizards. It spoils developers with a choice of APIs for obtaining predictions for mobile application without executing custom prediction generation code.

Application of Machine Learning in Various Fields

Machine learning is a multidisciplinary field and finds its implementation in technologies, science, and businesses.
E-commerce

Machine learning can revamp the field of e-commerce by opening up new opportunities for revenue generation and improved customer experience. Product search, promotions and product recommendations are some of the main areas in e-commerce apps that can use machine learning algorithms for an enhanced customer experience.  Machine learning algorithms  gather and analyze the customer behavioural data collected during the searching and purchase process, through a user’s search history, business target and semantic outcomes and work towards serving a customer better. Ebay and Amazon are two retail giants that are working with Machine learning to enhance the way they serve their customers. We at Promatics, help small e-commerce businesses apps ace machine learning as well

Fitness

Machine Learning is also revolutionizing the fitness industry. Modern machine learning retrieves personal details of the users and serves according to a person’s personal needs and physical conditions. With Machine learning, coaches create a workout routine for their clients as per their goal and body capability.

Healthcare

When it comes to healthcare, machine learning can streamline the process of manufacturing/discovery of a new drug along with making it cost effective. We can also differentiate between different kinds of genetic markers and genes and aid patients in providing personalized medication/treatment. Disease diagnosis, robotic hair transplantation, epidemic outbreak prognosis, and smart health electronic record are other areas which can benefit from machine learning.

Entertainment

Machine Learning has taken the entertainment industry by stride. Recommendations of content based on the personal interest of users, helping entertainment providers create content that’s in demand, curating home pages that increase user engagement, machine learning has driven advertising and marketing drives too.

Education

The wide applications of Machine Learning in various fields include education as well. It aids in understanding the concepts easily through real-time translation. Machine learning can help your device provide  bot personal tutor services. Chatbots provide the answer to students’ queries, assess assignments and mark them with scores/grades based on their performance. Machine learning can also provide a broader and far-sighted perspective by suggesting better learning techniques and material to the students based on data collected.

Finance

The superior machine learning algorithms can predict future trends, help with portfolio optimization and send recommendations right when the market is right. Finance centric businesses take help of machine learning to analyse customers’ previous transactions, social media activities or borrowing history to reach onto their credit rating. Machine learning has also made it possible for masses to access personalized financial customer services at lower cost, along with higher revenue scope and better compliances.

The Problems That Developers Face with Machine Learning

An insight into the possible issues and problems that the companies face can help you avoid the same mistakes and use machine learning in better ways.

1. Too Much Focus on Algorithms and Theories

As a developer, you are fortunate enough to have open-source app libraries to save you from utilising your time in developing algorithms from scratch. Just pick out pre-developed algorithms from these libraries and use them to enhance the UX your app in wonderful ways.

2. Trying to Master All of ML

If you are a business minded app developer, you don’t have to aspire to master all aspects of machine learning that is a vast study in itself. Just identify the issues which you will be solving and find the best model resources to help you solve those issues.
3. Letting Algorithms Become Obsolete When Data Grows
ML algorithms require much data when they are being trained. A model which is “accurate” for a data set may no longer be as accurate for a set of data changes.  A system that changes rapidly, has a less accurate rate for ML algorithm if past data no longer applies.

4. Making the Wrong Assumptions
ML has algorithms that run over fully automated systems. In the process, they have to deal with missing data points. The algorithm ends up using mean value as a replacement for the missing value. This application supplies reliable assumptions about data including the particular data missing. The best way to tackle with this issue is to make sure that this data is delivered on a substantial amount of assumptions.

5. Having Bad Data Convert to Bad Results
App developers need to understand that not all data is relevant and valuable. If data is not well interpreted, ML results also tend to fail a users expectations. Data scientists need to initiate tests using unforeseen variables during the development process. This acknowledges them about the chances of any possible outcome. Start and end your ML development project with high-quality data.

Conclusion

With Machine learning world has witnessed a new revolution in software development that offers superior and intuitive user experience. Machine Learning is a very vast concept and a fruitful investment for every modern business, as it allows you to implement completely new features into the app.  If you are a business app owner wanting to inculcate machine learning elements into your existing application, we are your one stop shop solution.

The post What are the best ways to Incorporate Machine Learning in Your Mobile App? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Mobile App Development is driven by a quest to make a user’s life easy, offer convenience. In the process, Mobile App Development businesses seek to make money by adding value. An app developed keeping user’s pain points in mind can be a thriving revenue stream for the business owner. In 2018, global downloads across iOS and Google Play surpassed 113 billion in 2018, a 10% increase from 2017. While global consumer spend has risen a whopping 20% year-on-year to over $76 billion, India has become the world’s fastest-growing market for mobile applications on both the Apple ioS and Google’s Android Play Store, with a sharp spike in revenue in the first quarter of 2018.

There are many categories of apps on app stores today. Profits of an app depend on its monetisation model a great deal. When categorised segment wise, some apps appear to be more revenue-bearing for businesses than others. If you are a business looking to bring in returns from app development you must steer clear of a low-income app segment and an inappropriate monetization model.

App Monetisation Models for Your App Business

I. Freemium Model

A freemium model is the one that offers a user with a choice of in-app purchases. The characteristic feature of this app monetisation model is a limited software version. This software allows a user to use the app for free to access the product quality, before asking them to purchase it. It resembles the free demo approach.

Adopting the freemium model gives a business considerable advantage over its competitors. Allowing the user to check out the app for free, instead of asking them to pay upfront is a winning strategy. It builds customer loyalty.

II. In-App Ads

If you do not want your app business to thrive on revenue from users, you can allow paid ads on your app’s user interface. Many owners work with developers to create app designs that display dynamic advertising content such that it complements the interface.
It is a common notion that UX quality degrades with ads. Even the most organically appearing ads can be irrelevant and create distractions for users. Sponsored messages also help with revenues but disappoint users. Unless you are confident about the quality and value of your content, skip opting for this revenue model.

III. Paid App Services

Certain apps offer services to users that come at a price. Apps that facilitate payment, shopping, banking, and other such functions require to be subscribed.

These paid services in an app can be offered along with a premium plan model.

Most Profitable App Categories

Years of working with app businesses have helped our team of developers at Promatics to know which are the most profitable app categories yet. Here are some insights on the topic:

Shopping Apps

We are steeped neck deep into consumerism. In 2020, over 329 million people in India are expected to buy goods and services online, up from 130.4 million in 2016, according to a report published on Statista. Shopping through mobile offers convenience to shoppers. Once a consumer develops a knack for shopping online, it is easier for an app based online business to monetize traffic. Consequently, it won’t be absolutely ridiculous to say that retail apps on the market are in for the win.

Talking about profitability in a shopping app, its best practice to create premium plans with smaller fees. Developers must prioritize search results positioning in app design. In the end, a profitable shopping app is the one where you get creative in selling your value to the user. There is more to shopping apps than a simple catalogue installation and payment gateway integration.  It is important to have a marketing partner in place to plan and execute strategies to help the app become a user’s favourite.

Gaming Apps

According to a Statista report, in September 2018, games apps were the most popular category, with a share of 24.86% of all apps downloaded from the apple app store. In July 2018, Candy Crush Saga alone earned $41.6 million. Numbers speak about the apparent lead of gaming apps when it comes to popularity among users. It has been an app niche that has seen constant evolution.

When it comes to monetisation, “free-to-play” is the norm. Even if you allow players to enjoy the game content free of charge, it is not necessary that you have paved way for in-app purchases.  The format of the game and app outlay must offer the user high engagement to earn desirable profits.

Entertainment

We live in an age when mobile entertainment is highly valued among individuals. According to March 2018 stats for google play store, the second most popular app category is entertainment with 7.43% of all active apps.  Especially as entertainment mobile apps offer prompt, seamless, portable and high-quality solutions to engage individuals, they are quite popular today. Entertainment app category comprises of apps that feature streaming, chatting, searching events, watching videos online and posting photos option among others. They hook the user to their content and features.

An ideal entertainment app comes with an interactive app interface, multiple sharing options and options for engagement. As customers are spoilt for choice with a variety of entertainment apps in the market, its best to have a proper monetization strategy in place from the beginning. Opt for the freemium model and make space for non-intrusive ads in your entertainment app.

Educational Apps

At the end of March 2018, education apps were the most popular category with 8.29% of all active apps on the Google play store. A promising category for great returns, education apps guarantee a prolific retention rate. These apps add unique value and thus have a user returning to them time and again.

While the free version must be a valuable resource to the user. This category of apps can be built to feature “additional” premium content. The users need not be forced to upgrade, instead, he needs to be shown the full value that a paid subscription can bring in.

Lifestyle Apps

Recipe sharing, fashion, fitness, health and many other subcategories fit in the category of lifestyle apps. These apps contribute phenomenally in assisting patrons to pursue their lifestyle goals. Massive adoption of mobile phones in daily routines has spiked up the popularity of these apps today.

All apps in this category have their distinct niche audience. Thus lifestyle app business owners need to configure their own outreach strategy and monetisation model. Most people use lifestyle apps to cater to important functions and hence do not welcome distractions like ads. The paid-only approach does not fare well unless your lifestyle app executes a really crucial function. However, you can integrate helpful features of great value in the premium plan. You can charge a fee for every transaction made. Additionally, you can monetize the data obtained from usage patterns.

Conclusion

A Statista report suggests that by 2020, mobile apps are forecast to generate around 189 billion U.S. dollars in revenues via app stores and in-app advertising. This translates into vivid profitable opportunities for developers and app-centric business owners.

At the end of the day, profitable app development is not about what category has the most number of downloads or promising stats. Strategic app development includes choosing a niche where you can innovate and offer user something that is not there in the market. It is best to keep your focus on creating value for the customer through the app and then figuring out the best monetisation model for it.  As a business owner, you need to choose the app niche that you have an understanding of.

Our team at Promatics has a versatile app development portfolio. We specialise in native, hybrid as well as web apps. Get in touch with your business app idea and let us help you execute it to perfection.

The post A look at most profitable app categories appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Introduction

More and more businesses are targeting customers through mobile devices today. The options range from building an engaging website, developing a native app or having a progressive web app. While websites are easy to use they lack outstanding experiences that most users seek. Native apps, however, excel at user experience but have adoption barriers and are selectively compatible with devices. There is also an extra need to download Native apps that lose the benefit of impulse behaviour when dealing with customers.

Combining the bright side of both websites and native apps are progressive web apps. According to a Mobile Marketer report, Online retailer Luxmart doubled its mobile conversion rate to 1.24% from 0.6% after introducing a progressive web app (PWA). These web apps do everything a native app does but without any need for downloading and installation. They run in a web browser, loading instantly even in areas of low connectivity. A distinct convenience of the web app is that it stays updated all the time with the help of its pre-caching feature. Web apps don’t thrive on user’s precious memory or data, that again makes them an absolute favourite.

A number of our business clients at Promatics aspire to offer the best user experience to their clients. We work with them to launch their native app on the web. We tackle challenges of creating web apps and making them work in harmony with existing native apps. Here we shed light on important insights from our experiences:

Why Expand From a Native App to a Web App?

As a business, you may doubt the need for a web counterpart of a native app. However, there are crucial reasons that vouch for the transformation of a native app to a web app:

• To increase outreach to the audience that the native app isn’t catering to.
• To capture other use cases better suited for user experience, with perks of enhanced screen real estate.
• To allow your user a choice of more channels to reach your app.

It is important to note that launching your native app on the web is not as simple as copying the existing app on to the web. A developer needs to work on new use cases and design aspect for the web version of a native app. Additionally, considerations like how the new web app will interact with the native app, changes in backend architecture and testing of the new web app against the many browsers, device, and operating system combinations that the user might use it with need planning.

Defining Use Cases for Web Apps

There will be times when your web and native use cases won’t match, and it is OKAY! Most businesses decide to launch their native app on the web to reach out to a new user base or offer conveniences of the bigger screen and lesser load times to its existing users. It is simple to conclude that the transition has ‘users’ at its heart.

The developers need to come up with a web app that replicates the design feels of the existing native app but suits the needs of a user accessing it through the web. A general user survey and testing can help you decide which features of your native app need to copy onto the web app. This information will further help you make important decisions about the cross-platform experience, and backend architecture etc.

Designing for Web Apps vs. Native Apps

When it comes to designing native apps and web apps, developers face different problems for each type of app. Not only web apps bring to the table more screen space, but the way a user accesses info on a web app also differs a great degree from native apps.

No matter how similar both apps look visually, there are many design specific concerns that need to be addressed when you are launching a native app on the web. For example, the extra screen space available on web app opens up opportunities to play with features, visual element addition, elaborate content and what not.

The second major difference in a web app and a native app is the need to ‘click’ on icons and not ‘tap.’ Many different types of taps, presses, swipes and pinches make up the native app user experience for a user. Things are radically different in web apps and are sorted with simple clicking.

Native apps promise a seamless, intuitive experience to users with prompt responses to their actions. Developers often face difficulty in recreating similar experiences in web apps as they have to deal with extra hardware, browsers and related elements.

Users face a web app screen for the longer duration of time than native apps. This creates a need for use of proper colours and font size to increase engagement time and avoid strain to eyes. An ideal case scenario would be to choose a custom font that works well for all platforms.

Transitioning App Users Seamlessly Across Platforms

To encourage simultaneous usage of both the native app and web app, a developer needs to make seamless transition his/her priority.  For a consistent user experience throughout platforms, make sure you match up visual language, element hierarchy, brand indicators and the order of placement of features on the app.

It is imperative to define the kind of experience you want your user to enjoy on each platform. What if a user accesses a web app through his/her mobile? Will he be asked to download the native app? Or will he be offered the app experience in all its glory on the web?

Additionally, mobile app developers need to think of ways to lure the existing native user into trying out your web app. Targeted in-app promotions like ad banners, push notifications and messages are an effective way to do this. Paid promotion strategies like social media, email and adverts are also a reliable way to reach out to potential users.

Web App Backend Architecture and Security

Expanding from a native app to a web app is tempting but comes with its own set of challenges for backend support. Even if you have thriving backend architecture for your native app, you will have to find solutions to the strain that this expansion would cause. As a developer, you will have to provide for storage of new records, encryption and security, tackle server load and take care of scaling your resources. Identifying and resolving any security vulnerabilities during development is a must do. Hosting a web app may also get expensive with a drastic increase in user base.

Some web app development best practices include:

a.) SSL certificates to make sure web traffic is secure.

b.) Keep user privileges as minimal as possible.

c.) Ensure redirects for deep links for the best user experience and enhanced security.

d.) Make financial transactions secure.

e.) Conduct server load testing and be ready for unexpected usage.

Conclusion

Transitioning from just a native app to a web app can bring vivid surprises for your business. However, this seemingly easy task requires massive planning on the development front. A developer considers all new use cases for a web app and designs differently for them. A business has to decide how it wants its users to interact with both apps. It is then a developers job to determine how to make that transition as seamless and intuitive as possible. Not only the compatibility concerns, but expansion into a web app also puts a strain on your backend architecture.

Even in the face of all these challenges, our team at Promatics has vouched how launching a native app on the web is a prolific way to reach out to new users, do more for your existing users and expand your business. These apps don’t need a separate code base and can easily function within the existing browser that a user is using. We can claim without bias that is the best quality cost-effective solution for businesses. The inherent flexibility of web apps makes them the preferred choice of businesses which to stay ahead of the curve in the mobile industry.

If you are an app business who wants to explore the world of the web, we are just a call away.

The post A quick guide to expand your native app on web appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

4G LTE, which is now available even in remote corners of the globe, has changed the way people consume data. It’s made watching movies, streaming high quality videos and games easy for anybody with a supported device. Much has been discussed about its successor 5G and a lot of questions still remain unanswered. However, what everyone does know is, 5G is going to be incredibly fast, creating new challenges for developers, telecom providers and everyone else involved.

Let us first take a look at the advantages of 5G before analyzing how it is going to influence mobile app development

a.) 5G is incredibly fast

While 4G has a speed of 20 Mbps on average, 5G could catapult data speed levels to anywhere between 10 Gbps and 50 Gbps. This means, 5G is nearly 65,000 times faster than 4G. Streaming delays and loading will become things of the past. Even when there is no internet connectivity, files can be downloaded in an instant for offline use.

b.) Data transfers will go through in the blink of an eye

With the exponential speed increase, we can expect file transfers and exchange of data to take place at speeds that are below the level of speed perception threshold. Implementing blockchain across locations will become much easier. In addition, cloud storage applications will begin to see more demand as well.

c.) Negligible latency

Latency refers to the time an application takes to react when a user makes a prompt. On lower speeds, applications take time to process what the user has prompted them to do. With negligible latency, applications will respond immediately regardless of how heavy they are. Gaming applications and AR/VR technology will benefit a lot from zero latency.

d.) Connection density to improve

4G is already problematic when it comes to connecting in crowded areas of large cities. For every 0.38 miles, only 2000 devices can connect to 4G. With 5G, everything is going to change for the better. In the same area, a million devices can connect to 5G, allowing technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) to be implemented more successfully.

e.) Consistent and reliable connectivity

One of the major hallmarks of 5G is that it enables telecom providers to ensure seamless connectivity in a uniform manner. Regardless of where the subscriber is located, they can take uninterrupted data connection for granted. This means, apps do not necessarily have to be able to work on slower networks anymore. Push notifications and updates reach users almost instantaneously all over the world.

What are the disadvantages that app developers should know?

While there are a number of advantages that come with the rollout of 5G networks, there are still many disadvantages that app developers should bear in mind.

1. Most countries do not have the infrastructure to implement 5G networks uniformly. Rural areas may not have technological support that the implementation of 5G network requires. As 5G infrastructure requires considerable investment, some governments may find it difficult to implement it immediately, leading to delays in uniform and uninterrupted connectivity that 5G promises.

2. 5G is a technology that is still in the process of development. This means, it is not quite perfect and research is being conducted continuously. Major changes to 5G technology are expected in the coming years, making app development a constant process of releasing updates and fixes.

3. Most devices today are not compatible with 5G. Apple is expected to unveil its 5G-compatible device this year as will other companies. However, not many people will be able to afford them right away. As everyone will not be using 5G devices instantly, developing applications specifically for 5G networks is moot.

4. There are many security and privacy concerns associated with 5G. Little is understood about the ramifications of subscriber supervision tools, which apparently is supported by 5G. This means, 5G may potentially expose user data to prying eyes in governments across the world. While this may help improve domestic security, minorities and oppressed groups may expose themselves to danger. This raises ethical questions to app developers.

5G’s influence on app development

5G promises uninterrupted, lightning-fast and reliable connectivity that will help app developers to create multimedia experiences that are out of this world. In addition, 5G will open up a whole new world of applications ranging from healthcare, telecommunications, and fully automated transport. These are the specific changes that developers need to keep an eye on:

• 5G will help developers bring 360-degree videos, AR/VR experiences and 4K streaming to their users via Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB).

• Ultra Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) will help ensure instant communication with applications. This means, developers can expect to work on technologies such as remote surgeries, real-time virtual gaming and semi-autonomous vehicles.

• Massive Machine Type Communication (MMTC) allows a number of devices to connect at the same time. This is part of the 5G infrastructure and is intended to help IoT devices connect better. Developers will likely see an increasing number of requests to integrate IoT during development.

Here are five important trends that developers will need to be mindful of, thanks to 5G roll out:

I.) Address privacy and security concerns

The massive transfer of data and astonishing speeds will necessitate app developers to take security loopholes more seriously. In addition, there may be a greater need to safeguard user data and protect users from possible instances of privacy infringement. Regulatory authorities are likely to notice the immense power that 5G gives to telecom providers and data handlers, leading to changes in existing data protection laws.

II.) Maintain multiple versions of applications

As mentioned previously, a large number of people will not immediately move to 5G. In fact, many people still use 3G devices and 4G devices are still considerably expensive for certain individuals. With this in mind, developers will need to release multiple versions of their app that function across devices and speeds. In addition, as 5G is an evolving technology, constant updates and bug fixes will need to be released as well.

III.) Deliberate on app monetization strategies

As 5G devices will be rooted in rich media experiences, AR/VR and IoT, developers will need to come up with novel app monetization strategies. Non-intrusive ad placement, interactive monetization and other strategies will need to be brainstormed. Ecommerce is likely going to change as well, as will applications in other industries such as healthcare, where remote consultations may become more common thanks to zero latency.

IV.) Invest in training and certifications

5G will require specialized skills in development and app developers will need to upgrade their skills constantly. It is not clear at the moment how things will pan out in the near future but developers will likely need to focus more on integrating IoT and AR/VR into existing applications. Certifications and training related to AR/VR and IoT will go a long way in adding substance to existing skill sets.

V.) Focus on emerging technologies

App development needs will change dramatically because of the speed that 5G enables. Online gaming and AR/VR based experiences will be in demand, and app developers will need to focus on these emerging technologies. In addition, artificial intelligence will influence app development in a big way. Financial transactions will depend on blockchain, and 5G speeds will make implementing these newer technologies easier.

Thanks to 5G, app developers are going to remain busy for a long time to come

As 5G will be rolled out soon, it is important for developers to be mindful of both its advantages and disadvantages. Along with exponential speed, 5G offers connection density, negligible latency and seamless connectivity. However, there are infrastructural and ethical challenges to 5G technology. Bearing these in mind, developers need to focus on gaining new skills related to AR/VR and IoT, while also considering security and privacy-related challenges that 5G poses. In addition, both android and iPhone app developers will need to learn about 5G and its evolution as it is a technology in progress and big changes are expected over the years.

The post As 5G networks start rolling out let’s find out how it changes mobile app development? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Most Android developers would concur that Java is ageing, clunky and difficult to create applications that are futuristic. Though Java is has major advantages when it comes to inter-operability, it poses security risks and slows down while handling large amounts of data. The way forward to developing Android applications lies in the adoption of Kotlin.

Kotlin was developed by Russian developers in 2011 and since then, has been improved upon by open source developers. It specifically solves problems that Java poses and is just as inter-operable as Java or even more. Since 2017, Google has pushed Kotlin as an official Android language and the search engine itself is making a paradigm shift towards Kotlin. This was cemented further at Google I/O 2019 when Google announced that Kotlin is now Android first. A comparison can be drawn between Swift, which quickly replaced Objective C as iOS platform’s default development language. Being open source, Kotlin comes equipped with the latest ideas from community developers.

Yet, you might want to know why Kotlin is the only way forward for developing Android applications. In this article, let us take a look at why there is no option but to adopt Kotlin as the go-to programming language for the Android ecosystem.

Innovative developers have already adopted Kotlin

Many insiders reveal that developers in general tend to be resistant to change. As Java has worked for Android devices all these years, they may feel there is no need to adopt a new language. Unfortunately, the Android ecosystem is far more complex today than it was a couple of years ago. Agile agencies have already adopted Kotlin as their primary development language in order to ensure that applications are compatible with Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Java simply cannot handle such large amounts of data, and developing complex applications for the next decade requires a language that is simple, effective and clutter-free. Kotlin isn’t an upstart and is a mature language whose IDE plugin is ruthlessly efficient. Before Version 1.0 was released, Kotlin went through many stages of testing and beta releases. While developers may hesitate to learn a new language, there are already agencies which specialize in Kotlin and have adopted it as their default Android development platform.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Java 6 is obsolete and does not have much future. While many developers continue to hang on to what they know best, a new breed of agencies shave begun to use Kotlin as their choice. They have reasons to do so.

I. Kotlin is easy to learn

One of the biggest challenges to making a change is the learning curve. Developers often stick to older ways because they find learning a new language time-consuming and difficult. This has important career and financial ramifications, and developers simply cannot afford to keep projects shelved while they acquire new skills. Thankfully, Kotlin is easy to learn and developers will find many similarities between Java and Kotlin. Most importantly, a supportive community that answers every question ensures that future updates and releases can all be understood quickly by developers. In short, one only needs to invest a short period of time to learn Kotlin and be prepared for the future.

II. Kotlin is amenable to changes

Java is a very old programming language that is heaving under the weight of consumer expectations and emerging technologies. Working with Java for complex projects that involve artificial intelligence Blockchain or Internet of Things can be time-consuming and impractical. Kotlin, on the other hand, is a modern language that has been developed for creating applications of tomorrow. It is going to remain relevant for a long time to come and will help businesses to develop applications that are futuristic. Most importantly, Kotlin is agile and is amenable to changes, If one wants to make major changes to an existing application, it is rather easy to do so.

III. Kotlin assures a high level of security

While Java is trusted and used by companies all over the world, Android applications are known to be the most prone to security lapses. In fact, interviews with iOS device users suggest they prefer buying Apple devices simply because they are perceived to be safer than Android ones. While such a perception may be biased and prejudiced, surveys reveal most hacking attempts and identity thefts take place on Android applications, which are usually written using Java. Kotlin eliminates this issue as it is very secure and offers an error-free development experience, with the end result being enhanced security levels and a high degree of protection from malicious activities.

IV. Working with Kotlin is fun

Developers often complain that Java is boring to use, and that it has a number of limitations. If they wish to create something innovative, they need to invest a lot of time and effort, which ironically kills any creativity that a developer may experience. For an application to be successful, the app development process is very crucial. If the developer does not enjoy the process, the resulting application maybe mediocre and may not be satisfying enough for users. It needs to be borne in mind that users do not spend a lot of time using an application if they don’t like it immediately. Kotlin, on the other hand, makes the development process easy and fun. Developers can actually enjoy the process of coding and building an application, which results in higher levels of productivity.

V. Complex projects can be finished quickly

Kotlin is an enterprise grade programming language that was specifically built with businesses in mind. When Kotlin was conceived, its writers foresaw business requirements in the future, and crated a language that could quickly finish complex projects. Whether you wish to create an ecommerce application or an ERP tool for your industrial floor, Kotlin can solve every enterprise requirement efficiently and quickly. Java is verbose and does not offer the brevity that Kotlin offers. Brevity results in fewer errors and faster completion of projects. Java simply cannot offer the ease of use and speed that Kotlin offers, especially when developing complex and futuristic applications meant to be used in the coming decade.

Kotlin adoption is a necessity for both developers and their clients

The only thing that is holding back developers and businesses from adopting Kotlin can be boiled down to resistance to change. We expect that this resistance will prove to be contrary to competitiveness and efficiency, and will hurt not only the businesses that still use Java applications, but also the business of agencies that continue to use Java well into 2020s. Kotlin offers a modern and flexible approach which is greatly needed for surviving market expectations and challenges posed by emerging technologies. Thankfully, it is easy to use and developers can learn Kotlin quickly. Adopting Kotlin is an investment in future that every Android app development company needs to make since Google now wants you to do that.

As for businesses and clients, they should choose vendors who are comfortable using Kotlin and not fall for false assurances that continue to promote Java as the only programming language suitable for Android app development.

The post Kotlin is the way forward for Android App Development as Google makes it the official programming language for Android Apps appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

We have all seen how mobile and software development trends have shaped our lifestyles in recent times, solves major lifestyle problems and changed the way we live our lives with conveniences. Better still, Mobile App Development landscape is evolving rapidly to provide its users with a better experience. The ongoing year 2018 is about to end and the new year will bring along introduction of cutting-edge approaches to mobile app development to ease a consumer’s vows.  The massive popularity of mobile applications offers an amazing opportunity for businesses to leverage it through business apps. As per Statista, “mobile apps by 2020 are anticipated to create more than 189 billion US dollars in revenues through in-application advertising and App Store”.

We at Promatics Technologies study the newest developments in the app world and invest in R&D of technology that can benefit businesses at large. Listed below are some top trends that are likely to rule 2019 in the world of mobile app development:

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Sluggish loading of a page can be frustrating for users and can show on your retention rate. In 2019, ‘page speed’ is likely to be the buzzword. Every marketer understands the crucial effect of page speed on paid advertising spend and your conversion rates. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an ultra-light standard for web pages that can be loaded in less than a second on a mobile device. Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) offer load times that are typically much quicker on a 3G connection—and are under a second on when it comes to mobile app usage. AMPs hold the promise of increasing the number of visitors and reducing the number of migration efforts for your app, thus higher CTR (click-through-rate).

On-Demand Apps and Services

The modern urban world relies invariably on on-demand services today. This is thanks to technology-centric businesses that have analysed consumer’s demands of immediate availability of goods and services. These apps make consumer’s lives more resourceful by offering conveniences like meal deliveries, car-washing, laundry pick-up and car rentals among many more. There is a constant rise in various consumer demands. This will present opportunities to create newer ways for giving users what they want in 2019, meaning new on-demand apps. Businesses need to work on UI/UX enhancements, mCommerce facilities, predictive analytics, and business bots to appease the users.

We at Promatics have an in-house team of app developers that can help you solve your on-demand app vows or help you get one for your business.

Location Based Services and Beacon Technology

Importance of location tracking in mobile apps is unparalleled today. Location tracking can help a business make their app content personalised, in-context thus promising an exceptional user experience. Beacons work in close association with mobile apps to trigger particular messages or actions like push notifications based on set rules when a user is in proximity to the beacon. Beacon technology is based on using beacons to send location-specific offers and information directly to mobile devices. Furthermore, motion sensing applications can protect users against anti-theft, power-saving, and offer security.

With rising adoption of smartphones and a booming retail sector, beacon technology market in India is likely to exhibit promising growth by 2019. According to the Beacon Technology Market research report by Global Market Insights, the market in India is estimated to reach over USD 25 million by 2019. Global beacons market is expected to grow $14.839 million by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 61.50%. 2019 would see the creation of more usable apps to work on beacons technology and make virtual guides and personalized information sharing smoother.

Cloud Apps

A mobile cloud application is a software program that is designed to be accessed over the Internet by many types of portable computing devices including cell phones, desktops and tabs. These apps use servers external to the mobile device, store data externally and can be accessed over the Internet with a browser. Benefits of developing cloud-based mobile apps include reduced operational as well as hosting cost, expandable storage space, high level of productivity, and excellent uninterrupted performance. The global cloud applications market is expected to grow from $30.43 billion in 2014 to $66.44 billion by 2019, at an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.9% from 2014 to 2019.

In 2019, developers will find themselves competing to make newer innovations in mobile-based cloud applications, reducing the cost of development along with the focus on security. The number of cloud solutions in the public and private sectors is likely to expand in 2019, with more organizations taking advantage of the ease and high-performance that the cloud guarantees. The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market is predicted to reach $72.4 billion worldwide by 2020, according to Gartner.

Artificial Intelligence

AI has worked magic with its algorithms into the way we interact with technology. It enables devices to replicate intricate functions like an actual human brain. AI develops an understanding of a user’s habits and behaviour pattern making UX easier. AI technology has seen massive popularity among businesses developing new products and services. Advanced analytics derived through AI can help businesses with valuable insights. The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide forecasts cognitive and AI spending will grow to $52.2 billion in 2021 and achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.2% over the 2016-2021 forecast period. Here already to revolutionize the way modern businesses churn out profits, AI is going to take 2019 by the storm.

a.) Intelligent automation with the help of AI would work wonders for production and supply chain management thus streamlining the sales process.

b.) Business recruits can delegate certain responsibilities to AI, leaving ample scope for them to focus their own attention to core issues instead. With the use of AI, businesses can maximize their asset utilization rates.

c.) AI can also help to increase innovation and generate new revenue streams to increase profitability.

AI and machine learning are being welcomed by organizations to build profitability and decrease operational expenses. It is important to note that AI is invariably grounded in mobile apps, so we can’t overlook the significance of mobile apps.

Wearables and Internet of Things (IoT)

Smart Things are essentially a mobile connected physical object that is embedded in software, sensors and electronics in the presence of network connectivity. We, as a generation, have learned the conveniences of using these smart things with our mobile phone through apps. The gamut of IoT is expanding each day. Be it vehicles, wearable gadgets, RFID sensors and software; we have something new to marvel at each passing day. The trend is likely to remain so in 2019. IoT objects can already collect as well as exchange data without any requirement of human interaction. IoT has made many functions automated. Graduating from basic functions, the IoT network is growing to make new advancements. Market analysts predict the number of connected devices in the manufacturing industry will double between 2017 and 2020. By 2019, 87% of healthcare organizations will have adopted IoT technology.

In 2019, we can expect to see advancements in cloud technology and low-power sensors. According to a report by cssinsights, wearables Market to Be Worth $25 Billion by 2019. App developers are going to revolutionize wearable devices, mostly smartwatches in 2019. There would be better, cost-efficient and readily available solutions for the end-users. More and more mobile app developers are working on fresh ideas on how to track and analyse a user’s health and well-being, improve the overall quality of life.

Instant Apps

Instant Applications share the same fundamental foundations with websites, providing users with enhanced ease of access. The distinctive feature of an instant app that makes is favourable over a regular android app is that they can be accessed from anywhere and do not need personal installation. Instant apps can be labelled as the faster, new-age alternative to traditional apps that consumes minimal space and can be used directly from OS’s app store. This also helps a user save space on the phone memory. Although in infancy, the concept of instant apps enhances functionality for users who need to save storage space and their time. In 2019, we can see businesses launching instant apps that load the content only which users want to engage with. In a quest to enhance user experience and shorten load times, instant apps are likely to be a welcome trend in 2019 eliminating the waiting time required in the installation altogether. For businesses looking to develop an app, we work towards creating an all-immersive users experience in the form of beautifully designed instant apps.

Augmented Reality and Virtual reality

Virtual reality is a simulated environment created with help of computer technology. On the other hand, Augmented reality is a technology that takes a user’s actual surroundings into account to provide tips, suggestions and insights to initiate engagement. AR is being used exceedingly by business apps to inform and guide their users into engagement activities. An article published on Newgwnapps.com claims that Augmented Reality is expected to acquire 1 billion users by 2020. In 2019, we are likely to see the coming together of AR and VR to create user experiences that surpass the limitations of a digital screen. For instance, social media stations like Instagram and Snapchat are already using AR technologies in the form of face filters to engage its users to take more and more pictures. More business will use these technologies in their branding and marketing campaigns to drive engagements and long-term customer retention. The use of VR in the field of healthcare for performing complex surgical procedures and operations is likely to see an upward swing in the following year.

Chatbots

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Chatbots are computer programs which conduct conversations in natural human language via auditory or textual methods. They attempt to understand the intent of the user and send across responses based on business rules and data of the organisation. If you have had a frustrating experience trying to explain things to a chatbot because of its poor speech reception, you are likely to be pleased in 2019. Progress with ML algorithms will improve natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition by leaps and bounds. With the improvement in user experience companies are exceedingly employing chatbots to solve their customer service vows and internal processes like training and summarization.

In 2019, we will see what crucial role chatbots play in changing the scenarios that revolve around how we provide services, sales processes and marketing arena. By 2021, more than 50% of enterprises will spend more per annum on bots and chatbot creation, says an article published on Gartner.

a.) Chatbots paired with ML would quickly process and report business data as and when needed and would help train business recruits.

b.) Chatbots ensure prompt responses, summarized answers to questions involving product and service lines, or technical support issues.

c.) Chatbots can help facilitate and simplify conversations between teams and provide relevant facts or statistics whenever relevant in the conversation.

d.) Pairing AI with chatbots is likely to give it an insight into important data. We can then expect chatbots to propose a business strategy for the future.

e.) Understanding human languages can make chatbots the perfect avenues for formulating marketing messages.

Mobile Payments

There has been a massive change in the way people shop. Flawless payment avenues are the need of the hour. Growing popularity of digital and virtual payment systems have lead to the adoption of m-commerce practices. As mobile experience becomes more integrated and secure, mobile payments are likely to become the most trusted form of shopping online.

According to a statista survey, mobile retail e-commerce sales in India are projected to reach 37.96 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. While the majority of Indian population stayed eluded from the benefits of e-commerce due to the cost of setting-up such channels, m-commerce has the capability to be inclusive due to the widespread use of the mobile phones in the country.  In 2018, Google Pay was launched with much pomp bringing together the conveniences of Amazon Pay and Google Wallet.

For a business to pass a consumer’s expectations with flying colors, it needs to provide them with a prolific app experience. Mobile payment gateway integration is an uncompromisable component of a seamless user experience.  The year 2019 is likely to see more companies entering the market and even small businesses embracing the conveniences that m-commerce brings along.

Conclusion

2019 will bring along an era of mobile apps that offer conveniences, personalized solutions and unparalleled experiences to users. If you are a business aspiring to make big in the mobile application industry, these trends make a noteworthy case for you to develop your strategy ahead. We are an app development company  working incessantly on simplifying the process of mobile app creation for businesses both big and small. Even if you have a mobile app in place for your business and are looking to avail the benefits of mobile payments, AI or ML to comply with upcoming trends, we are happy to help.

The post Top 10 Mobile App Development Trends to Watch in 2019 appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Feeling hungry? *click on the phone* and voila! Have your food delivered to your location. The advent of food delivery apps has escalated the convenience of food ordering by leaps and bounds, resulting in massive popularity and retention among masses. A positive trend has been observed in investment scenarios with a high valuation of food delivery apps. As a developer, you must gain insight into market dynamics, growth perspectives and consumer behaviour. As per the reports of Statista, revenue in the Online Food Delivery segment amounts to US$7,011m in 2018 for India.

The Popularity of Food Delivery Apps

The traditional model of food delivery allowed a customer to place an order for food with a local restaurant over the phone and get it delivered to his/her doorstep within the stipulated time.  With the rise in the use of digital technology, and massive adoption of app practices the popularity of food delivery through mobile apps and websites has soared.  Not only does this modern method of ordering food delivery offers enhanced ease of ordering food, but it is also transparent. Consumers can compare menus, give feedback and choose from multiple options of food vendors conveniently. Ordering food online also curbs any chances of missed orders due to busy phone lines or lack of resources to monitor the phone.

Mobile Food ordering apps come designed with avant-garde UI offering a convenient food ordering solution. Consumers get to choose their order type i.e delivery or take away, pinpoint the delivery location on a map, pay for the food online in a secure fashion in just a few clicks. Apps allow users to create their individual profile where they save their desired delivery addresses and payment information that saves time for subsequent orders. Users can also save their preferred items under ‘favourites’ for re-ordering. Reports suggest that global online on-demand food delivery market grow 32 per cent by 2021.  All these reasons have made restaurants incorporate mobile food ordering in their system.

We at Promatics India, have worked on various food and delivery related apps in the past. Our fair share of expertise about food delivery market gives us an edge when it comes to food delivery mobile app development. Here are some exciting future trends in food delivery apps:

#Trend I: Customisation & Personalisation Options for Restaurants

Focusing on the branding needs of the restaurant businesses, more and more food delivery apps are offering customisation features to the food vendors. The restaurant page on the app can be customised to match the theme of the restaurant. A customisable layout for each food business which portrays their identity on a food delivery app is desirable amidst massive competition and works well for promotion as well.

Grubhub, Uber Eats, Zomato are a few popular food delivery mobile apps that allows restaurant owners to tweak their profiles to maintain a distinct identity online.

#Trend II: Real Time Menu Updation Features

More an more food delivery apps today are allowing restaurants to update their menu real time. As soon as there is a change made in the menu of an outlet at the point of sale, the same changes automatically get reflected on the restaurant menu on the mobile app. This enhances the process of ordering, minimising any chances of goof-ups. This also saves the time of the restaurant staff at the point of sale.  The feature is distinctly beneficial wherein more than one person from the staff is handling the order.

Uber Eats and Swiggy are two food delivery mobile apps that offer real-time menu upgrade to their customers.

#Trend III: The Upsurge of Push Notifications

Food ordering mobile apps that come ingrained with an option for push notifications can improve customer engagement for food businesses. Push notifications make it easier for businesses to keep the customers updated about latest deals, offers, promotions and discounts. As an effective marketing tool push notification keep the customers informed new items, new product updates, and new combo, etc.

From Zomato to Swiggy and every other food delivery app used push notifications to benefit the businesses they are catering to. Most of the push notifications are time strategically to influence the ordering process of a consumer based on his past behaviour patterns of app usage.

#Trend IV: POS Integration Feature in Food Ordering App

In a quest to streamline the food ordering process and solve consumer grievances regarding goof-ups, POS integration has become a readily adopted trend in food ordering apps. With POS integration, all orders received get pushed to POS station of the selected vendor.  Once the order is received, the restaurant is at liberty to accept or reject the order placed. This omits chances of order mix-ups, order not received, etc. and offers enhanced simplification.

JustEat is a food ordering app that to shares order details with approved external partners and services using a custom integration endpoint tailored to their EPOS.

#Trend V: Subconscious Menus & Ordering with Glances

The latest technological development, that has eased the food ordering process is ordering through eye tracking. The subconscious menus come equipped with an eye-tracking system. After the system calibrates a user’s unique eye movements, users are shown various options to choose from. The built-in software determines which options the user has glanced at for longest span of time. The system then chalks out a list of all things the user had glanced at and waits for customer approval. Glancing at restart button begins the process all over again.

Taking the world of food ordering by the storm are Pizza Huts’ subconscious menus which track a customer’s eye movements and configure the type of pizza he wants to have. This works well for apps focusing on user retention.

#Trend VI: Using Big Data

Data analytics gives us insight into real-time information about traffic, temperature etc. Estimation of accurate delivery time is a possibility with big data. Big data also helps a business understand their customers better along with other important analysis like the impact of temperature on food, the impact of market trends on stock consumption etc. Thus it helps in formulating best practices to improve customer service etc. Food delivery apps put to use the data from various channels to evaluate the consumer sentiment.

An excellent example in the food delivery app space that has realized the importance of utilization of big data is Swiggy. The company has committed the $80 million raised in a Series E funding round to build its capabilities stronger in engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning and personalization. The company hopes to make a better prediction of demand, sort out the consumer preferences in an improved way, enhance delivery efficiencies and configure suitable geographical locations to expand its centers with the help of analytics.

Food delivery apps will surprise us consumers in many ways in 2019. If you are in this business you cannot just follow the leader but innovate as well. We at Promatics Technologies take pride in staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends that dominate app markets while serving various clients of national and international repute. If you are a food delivery app business trying to match the requirements of modern-day customers, we can be your one stop shop solution for all your app development needs.

The post What would 2019 hold for food delivery apps? Here are all the future trends appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Apple card is a credit card that is linked to Apple Pay platform. As Apple makes a grand entry into the credit card business with Apple card and we bring to you all exclusive insights that you need to know.

Appearance

The gorgeous credit card is made up of titanium entirely. It features laser etched inscription of the card holder’s name. There are no traces of any card number or an expiration date on the front of the card as in traditional credit cards. You won’t even find any CVV or signature on its back. So, there is no way any unauthorized individual can use the card for digital purchases. You can find your card number and CVV on the wallet app. The titanium Apple Card weighs 14.7 grams. All you would be able to see would be a traditional magstripe on the back, along with a built-in chip.

Basics

Apple Card is housed in the Wallet App. It is a private and secure solution for iPhone users and incurs no extra fees and low interest rates. Apple card works as any other normal credit card. Apple is currently collaborating with Goldman Sachs and MasterCard for the same.  The physical Apple Card has no support for contactless payments. A user would have to use their iPhone for Apple Pay payments. The company provides the card at no cost neither is there any fee associated with replacing it if you lose it.  The card also provides cash rewards.

Availability

As a part of its “preview rollout” in the US in early August, Apple made the card available to only a few privileged customers. However,  as of 20 August 2019, it was made available to all qualified users in the US. Availability of the Apple Card in other countries is yet to be announced.

Eligibility

For a US resident to get an Apple Card:

a.) The individual needs to be 18 years or older

b.) The individual needs to be a U.S. citizen or a lawful U.S. resident with a U.S. residential address (no P.O. Box)

How to Get the Apple Card?

Only iPhone users can be users of an Apple Card. Users need to turn on the two-factor authentication and must sign in to iCloud on their iPhone with their Apple ID. Apple card can be accessed by users who are using iOS 12.4, the updated version of the iPhone. However, card availability is a matter of credit approval as in the case of all other credit cards. Apple Cards come with a certain credit limit that varies from person to person. A user with a better credit score can achieve a higher credit limit. Approvals to the credit check are given by Goldman Sachs using TransUnion. For users who have a credit freeze applied, they will need to unfreeze their TransUnion credit. TransUnion gives users the option of temporarily releasing their credit report for a set number of days, which makes it simpler to unfreeze and then refreeze your credit. Additionally, lifting your credit freeze temporarily is free. Apple performs a soft credit pull when a user applies for Apple card. The user can therefore see Apple’s offer with credit limit and APR. A hard pull is conducted after the user hits the “accept” button.

Download the Wallet App on your iPhone.

1.) Tap the ‘+’ button to start the app.

2.) To register for the card, fill in details like date of birth, address, income and social security number. A chunk of information is integrated from your Apple ID and thus the onboarding becomes really quick and simple.

3.) Upon signing up, Apple Card is instantly available for use to its customers for digital purchases. The physical card is shipped to a customer by Apple soon after.

If you are an iPhone user who is on the developer build or public beta of iOS 13, there will be a need for you go downgrade back to iOS 12.4 to used the Apple Card.

How to Activate the Apple Card?

When you receive your physical Apple card in the mail, you can activate it quickly. If you use an iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, just hold your iPhone near the card envelope for an NFC scan. You can then tap the “Activate” button on your iPhone as it pops up. If you use an iPhone X and any other earlier version, you can open up the Apple Card. Then open the Wallet app and tap on the “Activate” button. Proceed to hold your iPhone device near the packaging in which the Apple Card came.

Use the Apple Card with or without Apple Pay?

Apple Card is so designed that it works well with all other credit and debit cards that are compatible with Apple Pay and are stored in the Wallet app. The Apple card can easily be stored as your default credit card and can be used to make purchases from Apple devices like Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

For customers who intend to make purchases outside of the Apple Pay ecosystem, a physical version of the Apple Card does the trick. The physical Apple card would work at all the location where Master Card works.

Interest Rates

The company has set the Apple Card APR between 12.99 percent and 23.99 percent, which is derived on the basis of a user’s credit score. Apple aims to make the Apple Card popular through widespread usage, thus the wide APR range. The tools built into the Wallet app encourage users to pay off their balances in a streamlined fashion to avoid interest fees.

Card Reward and Daily Cash

Apple Card users enjoy the benefits of a cash back based reward system i.e. daily cash upto 3%.  Users get a 1% cash back on all of their purchases. Purchases made with Apple Pay integration enjoy 2% cash back. Moreover, purchases made from Apple stores both physical and online enjoy 3% cash back. These purchases include the ones made from the App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple services. Users also reap the benefits of three percent back when they use the Apple Card with Apple Pay for Uber and Uber Eats purchases.

Another lucrative thing about the Apple cash backs is that you d o not have to wait for weeks before they reflect in you digital wallets. Apple pays out a user’s cashback bonuses on a daily basis. Just sign up for Apple Cash. Apple cash adds an Apple Pay Cash debit card to your Wallet that allows you to send and receive money from friends. You can then enjoy Daily Cash payouts on your Apple Cash card. If you out of using the Apple Cash feature you will enjoy the cashback on a monthly basis as a credit on your statement balance. Apple has not limited the amount of Daily Cash that a user can earn.

The Daily Cash that a user earns can be used to make Apple Pay purchases, transferred to friends and family or even to a bank account without any additional cost.  However, transferring the sum to a bank account may incur 1 to 3 days. If a user wishes to transfer the money instantly, that can be done with the Instant Transfer feature. This incurs one percent of the total money being sent to the bank account. The Instant Transfer fee is set to a minimum of $0.25 and max of $10. Such money transfers can be made through the Wallet app for the iPhone after a bank account has been linked to Apple Cash.

Even if a user returns a purchase that he or she made with Apple Card, they will be refunded the purchase price back. The Daily Cash that they received on making the purchase is charged back on the Apple Card.

Purchase Notifications

Whenever a user makes any purchase with the Apple Card, they get an instant notification right on their phone. Apple also provides built-in tools for flagging a fraudulent purchase.

PIN for International Purchases

Unlike most other credit cards in the market, the Wallet app does not provide a PIN which is necessary when making credit card purchases outside of the United States. There is absolutely no PIN support. Thus, Apple Card is unlikely to be accepted by certain international vendors.

Payments

When you use Apple Card to make payments, you can see multiple payment options along with the amount of interest that a user would be required to pay on different payment amounts, in real time. Apple aims to encourage users to pay a little extra every month so that they cut down on the interest amount they end up paying, The card also offers vivid flexibility to schedule payments in multiple formats like weekly, biweekly, and monthly rather than just monthly. Users can also make a one-time payment, if they intend to.

Privacy

When a credit or debit card is added to the Wallet App, Apple creates a unique card number on iPhone for it that is  stored in the Secure Element. Same is done in case of Apple Card. All payments done through Apple card are confirmed with Face ID or Touch ID along with a one-time unique dynamic security code. This unique security code system ensures that Apple interface does not recognizes which stores a customer shops at or how much he or she pays.

The post Apple Card starts rolling out: All you need to know appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

What is AWS?

Two brilliant Amazon engineers thought of using Amazon’s computing infrastructure as a platform for offering automated web services to their customer base. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest cloud computing platform that resulted from that thought revolution.

It takes pride in providing low-cost, scalable, and highly reliable infrastructure platform in the cloud format. Widespread locations make sure that the AWS system is robust, secure and suffers no impact of outages or other glitches.

Why AWS Became Popular?

Netflix, Slack, The Motley Fool, Unilever, Airbnb and dozens of other large corporations swear by AWS. There are reasons as to why AWS has graduated to become the preferred hosting partner of such giant corporations. Pioneering in the virtual server and cloud storage space, Amazon offers an additional 70 services to cater to all possible needs of a business. AWS products and services come categorized into four genres, namely:

A.) Compute n Storage

B.) Database

C.) Migration

D.) Networking & Content Delivery

Each of the four main categories further contains dozens of other features, each designed to perform specific purposes. Developers enjoy multiple programming interfaces and management tools all designed to boost the web hosting experience. AWS also offers application programming interfaces as well as third-party programs.

Another main reason for massive upsurge is the excellent marketing strategy run by Amazon, where they introduced the AWS Certified program. Certifications automatically translate into higher average salaries. This is what motivated professionals to sell AWS to their employers. The program tapped on IT professionals and converted them into a vast, global sales force for AWS.

MAIN Advantages OF AWS

1. Automated Multi-Region Backups

Automated Multi-Region Backups and EBS snapshots are two of the various backup options available on AWS. The platform is characterized by decentralized nature and global reach. Thus it is easy and affordable to use AWS to store critical information in multiple geographic locations. Businesses often run a risk where their production environments can be taken offline due to some disaster. Using AWS ensures backup data remains unhinged.

2. Streamlined Disaster Recovery

Businesses can land up in massive losses even from a small amount of downtime or data loss. Regardless of the capacity of a company to bear downtime/data loss, AWS comes with vivid tools that implement suitable disaster recovery plans.

3. Simple Automated Scheduling

AWS allows developers the distinct ability to start and stop various instances at predetermined times. Schedule services mean they do not run during off-hours or weekends, depending on the needs of the business.

4. Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

Business users can easily automate routine tasks and quickly scale capacity up or down as needed with AWS. Such flexibilities allow Amazon to offer a pay-as-you-go approach to its clients. As developers can stop and start instances as and when required, they pay for only what they use. Additionally, users can adjust storage/server levels up or down to avoid overspending on capacity and infrastructure. The fantastic web host offers clients hourly, monthly and yearly payment options too. The AWS Free Tier is a free service designed to let prospects have a hands-on experience with their cloud services before they purchase it.

5. Customization

AWS is famous for bringing along a high level of customization to serve the needs of individual businesses. Right from cost tracking and security to organization and automation, customizable AWS tags can be utilized in numerous ways.

6. Security

AWS offers world-class protection to its privileged clients. Due to the high standards that the company maintains, businesses can omit out the extended burden of securing their facilities. Multiple compliance programs in AWS infrastructure and an extensive security support network work beautifully, offering real-time insight on suspicious activity and potential vulnerabilities. The company employs numerous layers of physical and operational security to ensure the safety and integrity of the client’s data. Regular and timely edits provide infrastructural protection for businesses which choose AWS. Apart from security best practices that are a part of AWS infrastructure, security features deployment documentation is a great help for clients.

7. Third-Party APIs

AWS APIs allow businesses to manage their cloud-based infrastructure in multiple programming languages. Companies can smoothly perform tasks like launching a new instance or taking backups, using APIs. Third-party services can also be synched to utilize all of the time-and-cost-saving features AWS offers to its users.

8. Speed and Agility

Before the popularity of AWS, businesses had to wait for about a week before they could sue a server. With AWS, companies can meet the server needs in the blink of an eye. They can enlist their requirement on the platform and choose what fits them the best. This makes application deployment speedier. Specialized tools from AWS helps reduce the time businesses spend on a task such as Auto Scaling.

9. Excellent Customer Support

AWS attracts users with its superb customer service. Help is available 24/7 for AWS users. Their customer service challenges are filled with experts who help users with hosting problems that business may encounter.

Competition, Market Share & Future Outlook

Businesses enjoy expansion possibilities without committing enormous resources all thanks to AWS. The cloud platform brings along unlimited scalability, improved reliability, seamless service, and lower costs to offer to its clients. Touted as the leading cloud platform, Amazon Web Service (AWS) enjoys a significant market share as of 2019. Estimates indicate that the public cloud services market is projected to $331.2 billion marks by 2022. Within cloud services, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a pioneering segment which is estimated to touch $76.6 billion by 2022. As of 2019, AWS is the largest of the IaaS providers hovering over half of the total IaaS market share.

There is a distinct diversity in the AWS client base that includes corporate giants, start-ups and government agencies. Multiple data centres around the world help AWS is reaching more and more customers. It boasts of 69 Availability Zones within 22 geographic Regions around the world with massive expansion plans for the near future.

Conclusion

Adopting AWS lets a business innovate, experiment and iterate quickly. A secure cloud service, AWS can slash the cost of infrastructure that involves the cost of servers and maintenance. Businesses benefit from scaling up or down based on the demand they are met with. Such elasticity and cost-effectiveness help AWS partner businesses flourish. The cloud platform can also be used to allot resources through API calls, which omits the need for buying hardware, setting it up, and maintaining it. These distinct privileges offered to client businesses; have earned AWS distinct accolade in the world of cloud computing and have made it the preferred hosting provider worldwide.

The post Why AWS is the preferred choice for cloud services world over? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Customers change with time, and so do their needs. But, you must upgrade and transform the customer experience to keep customers glued with your brand.

Moreover, to make them loyal to your brand, you must acknowledge that the customers are different from each other. So, valuing the differences in the customers’ preferences, successful businesses personalize the customer experience! Here’s what the experts say about personalization.

“Personalization is the automatic tailoring of sites and messages to the individuals viewing them, so that we can feel that somewhere there’s a piece of software that loves us for who we are.”

– David Weinberger

Users want to see their favorite quotes and pictures, even on their coffee mugs and their clothes. Though it is important to offer personalized customer experience, it is a challenging job. So, to make it easy, the experts follow these tips to create a personalized customer experience.

1.    Collect User Data

Providing personalized user experience is a continuous, ongoing, and never-ending activity. But it begins with the collection of user data.

The most common way of collecting essential information for personalization is through the user profile. Many apps and websites collect a lot of information, but filling multi-page forms bores the customer. Also, customers are apprehensive of giving too many personal details. So, optimize the customer profile data by collecting the relevant information only.

Then we can’t ignore the most comprehensive source of customer data for profiling, i.e., big data. Big data and its analytics help understand customer preferences, purchase history, active times, etc.

The user data collected from various means has to be filtered and segmented. It can then be used for personalized geotargeting.

2.    Personalize Emails

Email marketing is in all marketers’ to-do list! But, some of them do it wrong, and they don’t get the desired RoI. This simple question will help you find out where they err! Do you like reading those templated marketing emails which are not relevant to you? Most of us report these emails as spam. But, we don’t want our customers to trash our emails or report them as spam.

The best email marketing companies know the trick of making the customer interested in their emails. And it’s simple; just give your customers a personalized customer experience. Right from the subject line to the content, the email must be specific to your user. It should mention his name and give him something that he was looking for.

Moreover, instead of sending so many useless emails every day, send only relevant emails over well-scheduled gaps.

3.    Messages & Notifications

All marketers know the importance of messages and push notifications. But, all these direct means of communication with the customer are effective only when done the right way!

Whatsapp messages or in-app notifications should start with the name of the customer. The content of these messages should not have everything that you want to include, but only those things that the customer wants to know about. So, it is important to keep the message concise and precise.

The best example of a personalized and customized message is a special offer sent to the customer when he is planning a purchase and spending too much time on his shopping cart. This offer could be seasonal or based on regional needs, but it reflects that you understand what the customer needs, and you are making it easy for him to avail that.

Use predictive analytics to decide when to send messages and notifications. For example, when the customer is fast navigating through different menus in your app, he is probably searching for something that you can help him find. At this point, a virtual assistant should ask him what he is looking for.

Push notifications instantly catch the user’s attention, and so, the user must find them valuable. If the notifications are annoying, the user will stop using the app or uninstall it.

4.    Searches

For great customer experience, there should be a highly effective search in your app or website. The effectiveness of the search means precisely that the user can find what he is looking for in the least possible steps. Else, the user will quit using the app and switch to the competitor’s app!

For the in-app search to be effective, the app should have easy navigation, accurate product descriptions, optimized product pages, detailed product specifications, relevant titles, high-quality product images, and videos, etc.

You can also use the user’s search history for personalization. For example, you can give offers based on the user’s past search history. And, make it further easy for you by giving him an option to wishlist a product or service, or mark it as favorite.

5.    Predictive Experience

The customer experience that you offer should be intuitive and predictive. AI and ML help you understand and predict customer behavior. And, based on this behavior, you can identify the patterns and predict what the customer wants, or is expecting you to give, or even what he will do next.

The best example is that if the customer is randomly clicking on different areas of your app, you can assume that he is looking for something that he is not able to find. And you should help him find that!

Apart from that, predictive analytics helps you to display relevant ads to the customer. It also aids in giving suggestions to the customer based on his past behavior.

E-commerce businesses can use predictive analysis to suggest the customer supplementary or substitute products by assessing the product range that he is interested in.

6.    Relevance & Timeliness

Relevance is a crucial component of personalized customer experience. Everything you offer to the customer should be relevant to him. That increases engagement and makes the customer interested in your communication.

The timing of your interaction with the customer is another important aspect of personalization. If you are sending the customer messages and emails when he is expected to be at work, or he is sleeping, your efforts will be futile. And, once the customer starts ignoring your communication, you will have to work very hard to get him back.

So, use customer behavior to predict the best active times of the customer. This will ensure that he engages with you and responds to your communication.

7.    Feedback

There are so many tips discussed here to help you deliver an excellent personalized customer experience. But, you must identify if you are missing out on any crucial areas that the customer is not happy with. These could be specific to your app, website, or marketing campaigns.

To deliver the personalized customer experience, you will have to assess the specifics for your business and your customers. And, the best way to know what the customer likes and what he wants you to improve is by seeking his feedback.

So, go ahead and ask your customers for feedback on your products, services, website, app, social media posts, etc. This is the only way you can get their inputs on what they want from you. And, this will help you personalize the experiences best according to the customers’ needs.

Wrapping Up!

This is the era of customization and personalization. Personalization is dynamic; it is a never-ending activity that must continuously adapt to user behavior.

With artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, it is not difficult to give engaging and personalized customer experience.

Are you looking for an app with a perfectly personalized customer experience? Contact us now!

The post 7 Tips to Create Personalized Customer Experience appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

As a society, we are experiencing phenomenal shifts in how we are using our mobile handsets even for small tasks, given the social distancing norms levied on us. Consequently, mobile app development is too transitioning since COVID-19 raised its ugly face. While we would love to assume that the pandemic is just a phase, the changes in the world of mobile app development are seemingly permanent.

It is common for young entrepreneurs to feel drained during the current stagnation period. Businesses doubt that it is the wrong time to pursue mobile app development in such a volatile global environment. Investing in building a mobile app may seem a rather frivolous move, but we show you what opportunities and challenges lie ahead in the field.

A TechCrunch report claims that first-time app downloads will be up 22% from 2019, reaching 140.3 billion in 2020. Promatics is ranked as an industry veteran in the mobile app development space. We want young businesses to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel of the economic slowdown. We know there is a very high demand for reliable mobile-apps that allow users to operate as normal in a fully-remote environment.

Let’s begin by diving in deep with into the steep spike in the mobile app usage during the advent and spread of coronavirus:

App Use Mania Brought About by COVID-19

The daily time spent on Android apps increased by 20% year-over-year in Q1 2020, according to an AppAnnie report. Treading the thin line between necessity and boredom, mobile apps became the new must-have on the list of users. Even the user spending in both iOS and Android apps grew by 15% and 5% respectively.

a.) Video Streaming Apps

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, users are spending approximately two-thirds of their time on video streaming apps. The total number of app installs of platforms like Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Roku rocketed up to a high of 33% from January to April 2020.

b.) Social Media Apps

Users count on social media apps to stay connected with their family and friends. Mobile apps like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are ruling the charts with combined installs increasing by 23% from January 2020.

c.) Mobile Gaming Apps

People were downloading games to beat the boredom during the lockdown. The global mobile game downloads shot up by 75% in the Q1 of 2020.

d.) Virtual Team Management Apps

Many workplaces are asking their employees to work from home, making it the new normal. Zoom saw a whopping 266% increase in the number of apps installs in the first three weeks of March whereas Skype experienced a 66% rise during the same time.

e.) Fitness & Health Apps

With going to gyms or nearby parks is no longer a safe option, people are opting for fitness and health apps. CureFit, Home Workout experienced a 104.53% increase in daily active users according to a report by Bobble AI.

f.) Education & Elearning Apps

Virtual classroom learning apps are the ultimate saviours for universities and students. BYJU’S which has seen a 200% increase in the number of new students using it.

This served as the ultimate trigger for app developers to develop new usage patterns in their apps that facilitate communications and other hands-free functionalities. Businesses that are foresighted enough to look through the pandemic and adapt to changes that it brought along can leverage vivid opportunities too.

Mobile App Development Challenges The Emerged During COVID-19

Designing mobile apps that match up the pandemic-friendly ideals wasn’t as easy as it sounds. App development companies need to find solutions to unique challenges that surfaced during this time, and it is only then that they can benefit from any opportunities brought along with it.

a.) Need for Contactless Apps for Monetary Transactions

Since coronavirus is a virus that spreads through touch, physical distancing is the need of the hour. Is easier to practice social distancing with apps that minimize human to human contact. Ecommerce apps are the perfect examples of such apps that are feasible online shopping options that ease the process of retailers as well as vows of the shoppers. Even contactless payment apps like Google and Apple Pay prevent the exchange of commercials that’s inherent to using paper money or plastic money.

b.) Need for Virtual Learning Apps to Aid Social Distancing

If learning is an ever-lasting process, coronavirus has been a significant roadblock for it. Users found that the quality of instruction in a virtual classroom deteriorated when it came to offline learning at educational institutes. There is an imminent need to improve the eLearning experience through reforming platforms. This means an increased implementation of Video Chat APIs in such apps.

c.) Need for Heatmapping Apps in Public Spaces

Usually, stores use heat mapping to find physical “hotspots”. Shoppers stop to view items or interact with the merchandise at a particular location. Heat mapping technology can also be used in other places where people tend to assemble like beaches, malls etc. The use of hi-tech camera systems or geolocation technology can help organizations understand the number of people present at a given location, at any particular time.

Coronavirus forced people to comply with physical distancing norms as a greater number of people in an area meant more significant risks. Mobile apps can be built to inform people about the actual number of individuals present at a given location in real-time. Such apps can help users make decisions whether they should visit a place at the given point of time or not.

 d.) Need for telemedicine apps to aid virtual healthcare

Patient care has become a nightmare given the social distancing guidelines. Although virtual consultations don’t match up the patient care quality of an in-person visit, telemedicine apps allow certain routines to be performed without any physical contact. For example, mental healthcare where therapy sessions through video or voice chats can be a practical reality.

Mobile App Development Trends Post Coronavirus Pandemic

The fast-evolving mobile app world has made way for various trends despite the prevalent pandemic. App businesses that follow these trends can optimize their ROIs.

Here are some popular mobile app trends that will transform the way businesses operate after COVID-19:

1.) Internet of Things

We are about to see a steep rise in the number of IoT smart apps on the market. Use of IoT involves a network of sensors collecting data from machines and people. This data is then transferred to a central repository for analysis and offers enhanced visibility to the management. Management can assess the effectiveness of policies and aid thoughtful decision making with IoT.

IoT smart apps facilitate easy interaction between devices for the ease of users. These apps are designed to have superior security features, reducing the chance of cybercrimes, thus assuring the protection of sensitive information and data to make mobile apps more reliable. Enterprise apps built with IoT technology empower employees with remote accessibility for operating and manufacturing facilities. Developers use standard IoT technologies like Amazon Alexa, August smart lock, Amazon Dash button, and others to stay abreast with changing times.

2.) On-Demand Apps

These apps serve as interactive platforms that enable instant access to services provided by businesses. On-demand apps help companies to expand their outreach. These mobile apps also help companies offer their best services or products to their customers. These apps serve as a medium through which brands establish themselves, grow their business, and invite better returns. On-demand mobile apps are built to be more spontaneous and interactive to facilitate instant impulsive purchases and automatic transactions.

On-demand apps boost the brand value, drive user engagement, and that is why to remain the most suitable mode for businesses to maintain their cash flow, even post COVID-19.

3.) Blockchain Technology Integration

A real future-proof mobile app would be well integrated with blockchain capabilities, mostly post corona. Blockchain app development ensures secure apps with easy, unmanipulated access to data.

Apps built with blockchain tech are highly scalable in terms of feature upgrades as well as load capacity. Blockchain induced transparency brings speed and agility to the process of mobile app development. Businesses use blockchain app development to maximize their outreach and visibility. These apps store records easily and make them accessible later on. Developers can ensure a localized user experience for mobile app users with blockchain integration.

4.) 5G Technologies

CCS Insights forecast predicts that 5G connections will reach 1 billion worldwide in mid-2023. Before COVID, there was a lot of buzz about 5G technology but without any substantial developments. Given that 5G isn’t just an upgrade from 4G but an entirely new network infrastructure, it can revamp the way mobile networks function. However, COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the 5G network towards fruition with the need to reduce stress on systems and rising demand for bandwidth. With more people demanding fast-paced data sharing and increased connectivity, there is significant traction in the rollout of 5G technology.

5.) Voice Technology

If coronavirus spreads with physical touch, using mobile apps through a touch interface can propel the spread in the wrong direction. With the fear of spreading germs on the rise, the use of voice technology reduces the number of times one touches any surface, including mobile devices.

Mobile app users can use their devices to execute tasks like asking general questions, streaming music, and getting updates on sports, traffic, and weather, among other things. Integrating voice tech into your mobile apps means setting it up for mass adoption in the future.

6.) Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

Pandemic has caused a steep spike in the number of people using VR headsets for activities like playing video games, exploring virtual travel destinations and enjoying online entertainment during home isolation. The use of social VR platforms such as Rec Room, AltspaceVR, Bigscreen, and VRChat to facilitate human interactions is another popular use case of the technology.

Conclusion

Like other global crises, COVID-19 will also accelerate trends that were already underway before the pandemic. As businesses begin to focus on recovery, investing in digital betterment of their products is the best way to ascertain long term success. For example, leveraging the latest mobile technologies for mobile app development is one way to be foresighted. Businesses that stay updated with emerging technologies position themselves as industry leaders. Investing in mobile app development from a business perspective can help mitigate the business risk associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

We, at Promatics Technologies, value the vision and motivation of our clients. We are a team of experienced mobile app developers who know that industry can only grow when new entrants are appreciated and encouraged. As a mobile app development company, we pursue a holistic approach to help our clients with ideation and conceptualization of their mobile apps.

The post The Changing Landscape of Mobile Apps in a COVID-19 World: Opportunities, Challenges, and Outlook appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

We start with two buzzwords of today; Artificial intelligence AI and user experience UX.

a.) Artificial intelligence is the ability of a machine to operate intelligently, similar to how a human brain works.

b.) User experience ultimately translates into how a particular person responds to and feels about a certain interface, service, or facility.

While the two may seem at times at two opposite ends of a pole, they actually go hand in hand with each other.

The primary purpose or the answer to why AI exists is because it would be able to mimic human behavior and resultantly perform tasks that require human intellect and decision-making power. User experience serves as the perfect place of application of this modern technology where artificially intelligent systems can perform tasks and work to ultimately improve the end users’ interaction with a certain app, website, or chatbot.

What is an AI-driven user experience?

An AI-driven user experience means the engineering and step-by-step construction of a user experience that is based on data about the potential/existing users and is thoroughly analyzed using artificially intelligent systems to produce results. These results effectively end up providing greater value to the user in a more time-efficient and cost-effective manner.

How is AI-driven UX time-efficient?

Consider that AI software is used to monitor the activities of individual users on your app. A specific user opens your weather app to see tomorrow’s forecast before going to sleep at around 11 pm every day and the entire week’s forecast every Sunday night at around 12pm. Now an AI-based user experience can trigger the layout in the app to directly show the weekly forecast every Sunday and an hourly forecast every other night.

Consequently, now the user does not have to change his view settings daily to see what he desires. Thus, saving his time and energy.

How is AI-driven UX cost-effective?

For instance, you have an online store that has a daily traffic of 500,000 visitors. Out of these 500,000 visitors, 70,000 visitors ask questions about the delivery or the quality of a certain product. You have employed 1000 customer support workers to answer these queries. Each one of these has their own systems and occupy an area of 90 square meters in your office. You are bearing the labor costs of your workers, service costs of their equipment, and rent expenses of the office space that they use.

Instead, you implement an AI-driven chatbot that answers a customer’s query intelligently within 3 seconds of their question and when things are beyond their limits, the customer is redirected to a human customer support worker. Now you need fewer workers, less equipment and less office space. Most of it has been substituted with a computer in an 8 square meter room. Eventually, you end up saving valuable money that you can invest in other activities of your business.

Building blocks of AI-driven UX

The term ‘Ai-driven’ means that the user experience implemented has been concocted by using artificial intelligence not just as a tool but as an ideology. This ideology puts the user and his needs at the center and revolves around it by analyzing the data generated from this pivot.

Following are the stages of development of a UX and each of them employs AI in a unique manner and helps you present the best adapted-to-the-user interface.

I.) Design and development stage

II.) Testing stage

III.) Presentation to user stage

Let’s breakdown the above three stages and see what AI has to offer as a part of each:

• I.) Design and development

Design is always an important stage of any app or website. It can make it buttery smooth for the user to navigate through the screen or it can be the deciding point of whether the user continues with his activity or leaves the platform right away.

The UI and UX both work together in coordination with each other to bring the ultimate output. Now the UX is all about the users’ feelings and needs and the design or user interface is about blocks, the content they enclose, and the colors they are shaded in.

What if the two come together by means of AI software that can work both the bits out and do the designing and development just like how it is directed by the designer? That is possible and is in fact a reality.

AutoDraw is an AI-powered software that converts your untidily scribbled images into a perfect shape that is pleasing to the eye and might as well fit into the design that you are looking for.

That’s one way of how AI can improve the design and development stage. In the above instance, we totally ignored that the design has in fact to be coded as well. This code will run behind the screen when a user uses your app.

Exactly what teleport is doing in this video. Observe how the person simply draws onto the board and it is automatically converted into lines of code that you can easily use in your app.

• II.) Testing stage

The testing stage is very important in the life cycle of any software. It allows the company to keep up-to-date with the latest trends and keep an eye on the potential problems that may arise in a specific scenario.

Now, this testing can include A/B testing as well where you are testing a specific trait and alternate two possible scenarios to get the user’s response.

This entire process can be made more efficient with AI. AI can help to shuffle design features to create new possibilities that can be of great use to the user.

There can be two aspects to it:

• The AI simply redesigns the interface and does the laborious work for you and then you can implement it to get the user’s response.
• The AI can train the user’s behavior by learning from the available data and can provide feedback on how the user may approach it.

In short, you can use AI either on the tester’s side or the tested side. While all of it may not be possible today, there are practically uncountable possibilities of implementing the concepts. This will ultimately contribute to a more improved user experience.

• III.) Presenting-to-the-user stage

Human beings have a very characteristic trait of being unique. More than 7 billion humans walk on the earth and roam space today and while they may share traits and behaviors, each one of them still remains unique in their physical and behavioral qualities.

It is unjustified to believe that you can make one set of rules in your app/website’s UX and they are going to be perfect for every user out there. In this situation, you need a dynamic UX that can adapt to the user in no time and your user gets the customized experience.

This is precisely the manner in which cookies and recent searches can be put to use. When a user visits a website, this data can be transferred to the AI engine behind the platform. The AI performs analysis on the data and returns a customized webpage especially designed for the user. While the concept is implemented in form of ads that a user sees on the internet every now and then, it can be taken to the next level by using the same data and pulling effective information about the user out of his internet presence.

Google’s ideology behind the Clips

Google created the Google Clips that takes AI to the mobile device and helps to capture the perfect shots out of your precious moments without you needing to do literally anything.

Clips have been trained to capture a video clip under certain circumstances and then extract the perfect moment from the clip.

Following are the key points of Clips:

i.) It has been designed to address the user’s needs. Photography has often been regarded as a hindrance for a person to live in the moment. If you have a special moment in front of you, you would want to save it on your phone as a remembrance. You take out your phone, open the camera and try to take the perfect shot.

What just happened is that you took the picture but you forgot to live yourself at the moment. Clips address this dilemma of whether or not to take the picture.

ii.) Clips have a very open policy regarding the privacy of the user. Everything stays on the user’s device unless he/she allows it to be transferred elsewhere. This is particularly important to bust the myths that exist around AI and has led to an entire school of thought that considers AI as a menace and is not ready to accept it as part of their lives.

AI is at its very early stages and your user should know both; that it cannot harm him and his privacy is not intruded, as well as the fact that AI is there to assist him.

More on Google Clips here.

Implementations of Intelligent UX

We have learned till now that an AI-driven user experience is one that has the ability to respond to the user in an intelligent manner and not just zeros-ones or yes-no.

• Chatbots

Many of us have at least once regarded on any random site as some mechanical crap that has preset responses and will respond correctly only if we ask the appropriate question and not what we want to know about.

The good news is that today’s chatbots have evolved to be more responsive and will offer to actually answer what you are looking for. These are strongly related to natural language recognition and learn from how humans interact with each other in their everyday life.

These are especially helpful at points where your user is confused about making a decision and the chatbot can hop in to address his confusions.

• Digital Marketing

Facebook and Google ads are perhaps some of the most enhanced forms of AI today that we experience daily in every feed we scroll, whenever we open Facebook or search on Google.

Digital marketing has been practically revolutionized by these AI engines that once again focus on the experience of every user that uses social media. While it may be the perception that these tech giants are just marketing companies and all they want to do is flush ads down your mind.

The reality is quite the opposite indeed. Facebook and Google both analyze an ad on the basis of whether it is worthy to be shown to a particular user. It includes his need for the product, social proof of the product in form of post likes and engagements, and even an average user’s viewing experience. These metrics combine together to decide on the worth of each and every ad listed on Facebook.

Ultimately, Facebook Ads is trying to strike the precise balance between the needs of the business running the ad and the Facebook user viewing the ad. The same goes for Google AdWords as well.

In the nutshell….

We see the trend of UX assisting AI to accelerate in 2021 and beyond. Artificial intelligence and user experience are deeply rooted in one common objective, to make every product of the best use to the user. As AI progresses to become a strong enough technology, the user experience will further increase because machines will learn about the man and how he works and will work to bring the best utility to him.

The post Building UX for an AI application? You need to read this appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Think about it, you have a bizarre picture that you painted on your laptop using paint and looks something like this:

No way. Who would buy such a thing? Let alone that there is no point in this mess that I just created 5 minutes ago, this thing cannot be sold. It is not even printed on paper. They have no form; you do not have a possession over them and what is stopping me from having it on my computer by simple downloading it, even if it gets sold and someone else owns it.

Well, this is where your understanding about such art is about to undergo a catastrophe because this is actually possible and is happening as we talk (read/write, obviously).

In fact, a digital painting by Beeple got sold for nearly 70 million dollars. He is the third most valuable alive artist today and he sells images.

How?

So, first things first, how is this even possible. I mean everything on the internet is open-source and things like ethics of ownership respect or privacy are just some terms unknown to the digital world.

This happening of a miracle was made possible as a result of blockchain. Yes, the very technology that all cryptocurrencies use. The digital assets that are traded are referred to as ‘non-fungible tokens’ or simply NFTs.

What are NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are assets that can not be replaced by any similar asset. Non-fungible primarily means unique. This implies that if I own an NFT, only I own that particular non-fungible.

This might help you understand things a little better. I own 1500 bitcoins (I wish, but let’s just assume for a moment). These bitcoins have my digital initials recorded in their transaction history. Now if I decide to exchange 50 of my coins with a friend, I eventually end up with the 1500 bitcoins, no more no less. All of these will worth the same and no matter how many similar transactions I make, they just remain the same.

NFTs are different in this part. They are unique. If I own 1500 NFTs, each one of these fifteen hundred are different from one another. If I exchange 50 of them with a friend, I end up having 50 different NFTs from what I previously had.

Is NFT a new crypto?

Certainly not.
To help you understand, let’s take the example of 50 limited edition Bugatti Chirons. Each of them will be an asset that you can use and drive around town. On the contrary, if you have 5 million dollars, it is just the money that you have. You own it, thousands of others own it, nothing unique about it.

In short, cryptocurrencies are digital money and non-fungible tokens are digital assets that you can own.

How did it all start?

While there a few older mentions of NFTs, non-fungible tokens distinctly began after the launch of Crypto Punks and Crypto Kitties

Crypto Punks were 24×24 images of male and female misfits, obviously ‘punky’ looking. A total of 10,000 of them were sold.

Same is the case for Crypto kitties. People purchase digital pets online. Each of these kittens had unique patterns and designs specific to that one particular piece. In fact, one of them even costs around $390,000 or 600 ETH.

And there we have it as for today. Anything and everything is being sold as an NFT, from tweets to the most expensive digital piece of art ever sold for 69.34 million dollars.

Characteristics of NFTs

NFTs being part of the crypto world, inherit many of their traits from the crypto world, particularly Ethereum. Ethereum was the first to introduce NFTs so why not. While others can also implement their own NFTs, it is a feature primarily limited to Ethereum these days.

1. Security

All non-fungible tokens are secure, perhaps even more secure than the portrait of Mona Lisa. Like the Ethereum coins, you have them in your wallet which is already secure. Since it follows the ERC-721 standard, the information is permanently stored and can not be changed or else destroyed and so is the NFT itself.

2. One-whole

Non-fungible tokens are like literal things in the real world. There is no use of having a car in which you own the steering and the seats. The guy next block owns the engine and someone somewhere is the midlands owns the chassis.

Same is the case with NFTs, you own them in whole and can not rip a painting into bits like a coin. Though I am still not sure, if there will be days when we are trading parts of a painting, as if we ripped apart the Mona Lisa to sell it in some 1000 separate bits.

Anything can happen.

3. Scarcity

The uniqueness and scarcity of NFTs is undoubtedly their most important feature which is the actual cause of deriving its value.

You purchase a game skin for $100. Only 100 of these skins were sold and now they are gone. Just like a limited edition of La Ferrari, it is a unique digital good. You might be able to sell it for well over $1,000.
This will depend upon the demand and supply, simply economics you see.

Artists have been keeping the number of similar tokens to very limited, to the extent of exclusive. This helps to raise the worth of the piece and eventually, they end up getting paid more for their work.

Are NFTs any good?

NFTs are a very cool thing if you think about it from a technological advancement perspective. Humans have moved from scribbling things in caves to creating a virtual image in a virtual world but how does this actually make any difference and is it of any benefit; let’s look into it a bit further.

1. As an Artist

In the past 100 years, everything changed from how me move to how we eat, drink and work every day. We invented cars, microwave ovens, mobile phones and even vacuum cleaners. Things changed drastically but the art remained the same.

It continued to be drawings on a canvas with liquid paints generally and continued to be concrete. Although graphic designing had been around for a long time, there was no actual way of selling it as a piece of art.

This was before NFTs were a thing. Now with NFTs, artists can create and sell digital artwork without dealing with the hassles of copies and duplicates. There are thousands of artists who are now selling their work as a ‘non-fungible token’ because of these benefits:

a.) NFTs are built around blockchain. Using the Ethereum ERC-721 standard, the artist and the owner can be tracked very precisely. So, unless the artist created more than one copies of the piece, there is no other of getting your hands on it.

b.) NFTs have resolved the problem for the artists who sold their pieces for nothing and then all of a sudden, their work got famous and there was no way to get the benefit because they had already forfeited their rights for dimes.

With NFTs, a certain percentage of the amount goes to the artist every time his masterpiece changes hands. In this way, they are able to reap the fruits of their work in the long term.

2. As a Collector

If you are someone who truly wants to appreciate the artwork in the modern-day, NFTs provide you a great opportunity to do so while still staying digital. Obviously, you would not want to go all old-school and spend thousands of dollars just to see an art show.

You are smart and you do it online and you own digital artwork. NFTs are the way ahead in this regard where you can build your own digital world, an online museum of your own in Decentral Land. You can even earn from it by placing a ticket on the museum-like they have a La Louvre in Paris.

3. As an Investor

All investors are looking for feasible opportunities and NFTs are surely one good opportunity to consider. Digital art has just begun and an investor can benefit from the opportunity.

There have been instances when people bought art from $1 and got an offer of $50,000 with a week. That is the kind of profits an investor is looking for and NFTs sure is a promising area in this regard.

Similarly, you can do it in games. There are many games that offer game assets like swords and skins that you can buy and later on, trade them for their market worth. Games like Decentral Land allow you to trade assets and you surely can get a decent return on your investment.

4. As a Player

I am one of those people who think that in-app purchases in games like skins and weapons are useless when you can do the same with the ones you unlock as you progress in the game. Plus, when you spend the money, there is no way to get it back but not now when you can trade skins and weapons as NFTs.

(Maybe, I should consider buying the cool gun that just dropped in last night)

What are the risks that you face?

NFTs are still a relatively new idea that has begun to make its way into the headlines with the recent trades of Tweets and a $70-million painting. Still, it is a novel idea and there are risks associated with it till it makes its way into mainstream trading.

1. Demand

The price for any commodity depends upon what someone is willing to pay for the product and how many people want to buy it. Trading of digital commodities is a new idea and there are two problems associated with it:

i.) You may not find enough buyers for your NFT.

ii.) The buyers you find are not willing to pay enough.

Both of these aspects somewhat reduce your chances of making a profit of your possession.

2. Acceptability

While there may be a lot of people who love to improve and learn new ways of living, there might be schools of thought who would not appreciate the idea and create hindrances in its successful development.

3. Laws and Regulations

This aspect of NFTs should be considered very keenly because it is built very closely with blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. While governments around the world have finally begun to acknowledge their existence and importance, there are still countries where they are legally banned.

NFTs also might have to face such sanctions before it is appropriately recognized.

4. Uncertainty

The uncertainty of the crypto market is also an important aspect to consider here. Bitcoin as the first cryptocurrency is the primary trendsetter and all others including Ethereum, Dogecoin, and many others follow suit.
Similar can be the case for NFTs. Additionally, there have been instances of digital thefts in the past when people’s wallets were emptied. Though digital security on these wallets has improved lately, there still are threats and it will be important as to how NFTs wallets cater to those risks.

In short, NFTs are a novel idea even in the digital world. Many of us were astounded by the idea of a $70-million-dollar digital painting when we first heard about it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and see what this new unit in the digital world has to offer us.

The post The Dummies Guide to NFTs or Non Fungible Tokens appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Are you one of those people who are working in a bulky organization with managerial layers and hierarchies and yet you find yourself individually as well as collectively as part of the organization that you are in some sort of a decision-desert?  You are confused about what to go ahead with and what to leave behind, it could literally cost you millions of dollars.

If you are not one of these people but still face the same dilemma, you have an idea but you have no idea how it will end up, once again you are no different from the mate we talked about above.

Both of you face the same problem, you do not want to and can not rely on your intuition and your own ideas about the product you are working on. It is the users who make the product successful. Hence, their contribution towards products is of utmost importance. You need a quick, agile and responsive method that works like an ATM machine, you put your card in and your money gets out in a matter of seconds.

What should you do?

Lucky for you, Google Ventures came up with this marvelous idea to test their potential startups for investment and did away with all the risk of losing money and wasting resources. The process is called ‘Design Sprint’ and you must learn it if you are involved at any stage of the product development process.

What exactly is Design Sprint?

You can call a design sprint a fast-paced method of evaluation of ideas and implementations of a product to validate it, learn from it, or simply reject it, and all this without the precious time and valuable resources.

When we say ‘fast-paced’, how fast are we exactly referring to? Well, we are talking about thinking, designing, implementing, and testing an idea in a total of 5 days, just one working week. In the end, you will be holding a decision of what to go ahead with and what to leave behind.

It seems surreal when you think about all the lengthy discussions and meetings that departments have for months, highly qualified professionals all trying to win each other and they are unable to decide. It is only natural to question the credibility of this approach but stick along till we unravel the little bits of the process ahead.

How do you execute a design sprint?

Now that you know what design sprints actually mean and how much more efficient can your decision-making process be using design sprints, let me take you through the entire process of completing a design sprint and successfully concluding with a well-supported decision.

Till now, you must have understood that a design sprint takes 5 days or 1 business week to complete. Each day has been dedicated to certain nature of tasks that the team will be performing and at the end of 5 days, you will have not a probabilistic but an absolute idea about what to do and what not to do.

Building your team

The sprint aims at developing a product in 4 days that will be trial tested by your existing or potential customers on the 5^th day. You would want to develop a practical product that your organization can provide, at a price that your customers can afford and with features that solve an existing problem or increase the customer’s convenience.

For instance, you want to develop a game and launch it on the App Store. You bring 5 graphic designers into the room and execute your design sprint. On day 5, you will have perfectly designed graphics for your game that your customers would want to see in the future. On day 6, you gave those graphics to the developing team and it turned out that such a game would need the most high-end computing machines. Later that day, the marketing team told you that audience for such a game is very limited and thus, you would not be able to sell it for long.

What was the flaw in this situation? Did the design sprint fail or is it just not suitable for your type of work?

None of the above. In pursuit of developing a game with the best-in-class graphics, you forgot to consider that the game should be playable on all possible devices and that you need to sell it to make use of the idea. Basic decision-making, right?

Actually, it might not be as simple as you think. You see, in any organization, small or large, a number of departments are collaborating with each other on daily basis and successfully execute a task. Every one of these departments looks into their relevant aspect of the product. Resultantly, you get a product that is feasible in the market and interesting for your customers as well.

Involve all representatives from all departments

It is important that you take representatives from all departments in your organization. These can be the heads of these departments, from lower hierarchies, or even people irrespective of their hierarchies; it does not matter.

What does matter is that each one of them should bring their part of the plan and their sets of unique ideas to the table so that when you complete the exercise, you have a product or an idea that is practical to sell and just needs to be fine-tuned to develop it into an actual marketable product.

The Actual Process

The 5-day design sprint exercise aims to magically transform your decision-making process completes in 5 different stages:

i.) Understand the problem

ii.) Generate ideas to solve it

iii.) Decide on the ideas

iv.) Build a prototype

v.) Customer trials

Step 1: Understanding the problem

Welcome to the design sprint! Gather all the people that you have selected in one room and tell them why they are here, why do they need to develop a product.

This perhaps is the most vital step of all. Your team needs to be aware of the actual situation. Half of the problem is solved itself when you have a proper in-depth understanding of the issue, at what point it occurs, and what inconvenience it causes. It is vital to the overall success of the project that each member of the team is on the same page from day 1. The goal for this step is to create a shared knowledge about the problem that needs to be worked on.

It is advisable to bring every member of the team together and let the ideas flow in a way that all of the team’s knowledge about the problem is somewhat unpacked. This session can also use the help of “Lightning Talks” which is the process where knowledge experts use 10-15 minutes to share their specific knowledge about the problem in question. Members of the senior management should also deliver precise presentations about the problem as part of the lightning talks.

As a result of the understand session, the team should be on the same page about the problem itself, the overall process lying ahead, and the goals that the team has to work to achieve.

Step 2: Generate ideas to solve it

Assuming that everyone is on the same page about the problem in question and the goals that are to be achieved, it is best to split the team up and get them to start coming up with the solutions.

Sketching is an integral part of Day 2 as it is a quick and efficient method to rapidly jot down ideas and make changes to them if necessary. Moreover, every member of the team can contribute their ideas by sketching as you don’t know any technical wireframing knowledge to do so. It is at this point that the team might want to break up a large problem into small-sized manageable chunks that the individual members can efficiently work on.

Before you go into the third day of the sprint, it is an advisable step to reduce the total number of ideas down to a few that you think the team can work on going forward. Having a clear vision of the ideas and the results you want to gain from those ideas is an integral part of step 2.

Step 3: Decide on the ideas

As you might expect, the third day or the third step in the process is all about making a decision, but it is not quite as straightforward as that. Firstly, the team has to decide which idea or ideas they have to work on going forward, and which ideas they need to drop because of their lack of feasibility.

The decision should be taken keeping in view a number of factors that are to be considered for the short and long-term success of the project. It is best to review each idea individually and look at the conflicts it generates vis a vis factor-like budget, users, technology capacity, and business drivers, etc.

At the end of the decision day, the team has a final idea or a list of best ideas that they want to take forward into prototyping.

Step 4: Build a prototype

On Prototype day, the objective is pretty straightforward. You need to create a prototype in a single day that your users can test on the final day. As this is a pretty big task due to time constraints, it is important to leverage the whole team on this day and take advantage of everyone’s expertise in order to get the best results.

The first step should be to build a storyboard of some sort that would reflect the user experience in a simplistic way. It is important that you use tools that you are already familiar with, and do not attempt to learn something new on this day. All the members of the team should be involved in some way or the other, in order to alleviate some of the burdens from the engineers creating the prototype.

Step 5: Customer Trials

As the name indicates, this is the day of the trials where your idea will be validated. The key to the validation of your idea is to bring in a group of customers or end-users to test the prototype that you created the day prior. It is critical to the success of the project that the entire team gets to observe the whole interaction of the customers with their prototype.

There are a number of ways this particular step can be conducted. The team can make use of cognitive walkthroughs or brief usability tests to gauge the overall response of the users towards their prototype. It is also possible to bring in experts and management stakeholders to provide a unique perspective on the trials.

It is crucial that everyone on the team make notes and record whatever they feel that they have judged from the trials. At the end of day 5, the team should get together and review these notes to decide what aspects of the project need improvements or changes.

Conclusion

And that concludes how you will complete your design sprint. The design sprint approach is especially relevant when you are trying to do something new but do not have enough data about whether or how to do it.

This idea of design sprints has risen from startups and helps you to decide in the most agile manner. Best of luck!

The post How to Conduct a Perfect Design Sprint? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.

Web Applications

Web applications can be regarded as a piece of a program that a user can access through his browser. During the past few decades, especially after the technological revolution, web applications became easier to access leading to more user interactions. A web application runs primarily on a web server that is hosted and maintained by the owner of the application. All the users interacting with the server act as a client and they communicate with the server by sending and receiving requests and information. This two-layered architecture is regarded as the “Client-Server” method.

What are PWAs

In the late 2000s after the mobile market started growing, all the big companies started developing their websites and applications to launch on the mobile OS. This led to the growth of the Google App store and Apple’s App Store. Over time, the majority of the business started shifting towards mobile because of better accessibility, which paved the path towards the development of Progressive Web Applications.

Progressive Web Applications are a shortcut of websites that you can keep on a mobile home screen and they give the usability and feel of a natively developed mobile application. The PWAs act just like a mobile application except that they are developed on Html, CSS and interact directly with a web server.

Progressive Web Applications bridge the gap between mobile applications and web applications and are a combination of both.

a.) Progressive Web Applications utilize the same code written for websites for functioning. It means a single code can lead to multiple outputs like a website and a PWA.

b.) PWAs work on fast APIs for effective communication of data and information. They are easy to install and use in most cases.

PWAs have gained huge popularity over the last couple of years and many big brands have launched their PWAs and have largely benefited from it. The three main characteristics of any Progressive Web Application are:

i.) Reliability

ii.) Fast

iii.) Engaging

Why are PWAs Getting Popular?

In today’s stacked market where brands are trying to exploit every possible resource to gain more customer engagement, PWAs offer a full package to not only attract customer’s attention but also improve the brand’s image. PWAs are getting famous among all the big brands because of the solid foundation and multiple advantages PWAs provide for the growth of a company. Brands look for better traffic on both website and mobile applications and PWAs do the same. The main benefits of using PWA are discussed below.

1. Easy to Use

Progressive Web Applications are built just according to the needs of the user. A customer needs a ready to be used application that can be downloaded and installed easily. PWAs skip all the hassle of going to the play store, checking requirements, and installing the application. Rather, PWAs can be installed with just a single click and they are immediately ready to be used. This saves the time of the customer and resultantly improves engagement in the application.

2. Easy Updates

All the people working in mobile application development know the struggles and hardships of pushing an update to an application. Since PWAs are not connected to any foundation like the play store, they are very easy to update. In fact, the web servers respond with the updated information to any request hence making it real-time updating of application. This ensures 99.99% uptime of the PWAs making them more reliable compared to native mobile applications.

3. Faster Functioning

Typical native applications work on a three-tier setup whereas Progressive Web Applications work on two-tier architecture. PWAs offer much faster functioning and lesser loading time than mobile applications. This leads to minimal packet loss with almost zero bounces in loading a page. It makes an application not only fast but also smooth which makes it overall better than other applications.

4. Take Less Space

Mobile phones have limited storage and native mobile applications generally take larger space since they have more integrated plugins and frameworks in them. On the contrary, Progressive Web Applications take lesser space in mobile’s storage. They work in a similar way to deferred components where the data not to be used all time is accessed only after a request from the user. Due to lesser space occupation, they work smoother and faster with a better response time.

5. Minimal Requirements

Progressive Web Applications are just a single click away from functioning. They do not have a set of requirements essential for downloading like mobile applications in app stores. They often work on all android versions and have no minimum requirements of storage, RAM etc. This is a very beneficial factor for people trying to access PWAs from lower specification mobile sets. It increases the traffic and engagements on and Progressive Mobile Application manifold.

6. Offline Mode

This is a unique feature that comes with all Progressive Mobile Applications. Offline mode enables the user to surf through the application even when there is no active internet connection available. It works on the head of cached data that loads the components of any Progressive Web Application. This increases the interactions of single PWA exponentially. In some of the advanced PWAs, your choices and changes made to PWA in offline mode are reflected after the internet connection is established.

7. Platform Independent

Platform Independence depicts that Progressive Web Applications can be used on all mobile sets. Because they are not built on the dependencies and frameworks of mobile applications, they usually are deployable on all mobile phones.

8. Security Feature

Security is a top-notch distinguishing feature of all Progressive Web Applications. All the requests generated and received are secured through the “HTTPS” security panel. This leads to minimal data breaches and data leakage. Native mobile applications also have good security but the fact that data is processed through third-party frameworks and plug-ins, the data is not relatively secure which leads to packet losses or even leakage of packets making the entire data flow faulty.

9. Other Notable Features

There are many other bright aspects of Progressive Web Applications which give them the feel of almost a native mobile application. Most of the PWAs have a feature of push notification to highlight any new content or news. PWAs also have an icon that represents them like any other mobile application. PWAs are built in a fashion to give the experience of a native application. Their page loading, data representation, opening, and closing of an app, data caching is similar to mobile applications hence making them alike.

How are Big Brands Adopting PWAs

In recent times, everything is going digital. There is an online war between brands to establish superiority over others by providing better online services. Progressive Web Applications make a huge difference in the campaign of any brand. They are more customer-friendly in a lot of aspects and gain you a huge edge over other brands in terms of engagements and marketing. Brands use Progressive Web Applications for their growth in certain ways which are described below.

Increasing Customer Interactions

Getting more leads and engagements on your page or application helps you in securing a better page rank and revenue. Progressive Web Applications help you in getting tons of traffic on your web server that helps in improving the outlook of any brand and keeps it ahead of competitors. This automatically makes your brand more searchable and the interactions increase exponentially. This factor contributes a lot to the long-term growth of any brand.

Almost a native application

In today’s time, mobile applications are a better way for the progress of any brand. Progressive Web Applications look almost like any native mobile application and give you a real-time experience of mobile applications. This escapes any brand from the hassle of building a mobile application from scratch.

Effective Use of Resources

Any brand or start-up works on limited resources and can’t always go all out on expending resources on the development. Progressive Web Applications solve the issue by giving an alternative to a mobile application. It saves brands from investing money and time in the development of a mobile application. Furthermore, there is no need for maintenance of the application since it is controlled through the website. A single code can be used both as a website and mobile application saves a lot of money, time, and labor.

Saves Customer’s Time

With a lot of options in the market, an application must be inch-perfect and flawless. When an application takes time to load or is poorly built, the customer instantly looks for other options and leaves the page. Progressive Web Applications are faster and smoother to give customers the best experience without wasting their time. Brands capitalize on this fact and make PWAs as efficient and effective as possible. A comfortable environment is provided to the users for the best experience and indeed gaining their trust and satisfaction.

Reaching Wider Audience

Scalability is the ultimate goal of any brand or start-up. Progressive Web Applications are the foundation on which the growth of a business can be mounted. PWAs automatically work with SEO to help create more engagements and leads for the business. It is less effort, more reward in the case of PWAs for the progress of a brand.

What Brands are Leveraging PWAs

Examples of a few of the most common Progressive Web Applications are discussed below

Starbucks

Starbucks is a popular brand for ordering food, especially coffee. They launched their PWA which was highly efficient and user-friendly. Starbucks PWA allowed surfing through menus, customization of orders, putting the order in cart – with and without an active internet connection. All the changes are stored in the cache and once the connection is restored, the changes appear in PWA. Their app consumes 99% lesser space as compared to native counter-part whereas is about twice the faster.

Uber

Uber is a leading company for booking rides for your trip. Recently, they built their PWA keeping in view the users with low-end devices and poor internet connection. The use and feel of the PWA are quite similar to a native application. However, it works perfectly fine for 2G and 3G networks and devices with low RAM. This PWA alone gives uber a huge advantage over other competitors by facilitating low-device customers. The PWA mainly works on an active internet connection. Its size of 50Kb is even much lesser than Uber-lite which is 12MB.

MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip is a commonly popular application primarily in South Asia used to manage your tour and transportation. It has an overwhelming amount of around 8 million users per month mainly from mobile devices. It launched its PWA and the results show a big spark. The engagements on the web page tripled while the loading time was reduced by around 40%. It significantly lowered the bounce rate and traffic on the page went exponential. This PWA worked hugely in favor of MakeMyTrip and barely cost them any amount.

Spotify

Spotify is our favorite platform to listen to all types of songs even with property rights at a minimal cost. The company went on to make its PWA after a rift with Apple’s commission and the PWA gained them big success over time. The PWA has a unique and blending UI that changes progressively with time and the working is a lot faster. The PWA of Spotify is easily accessible and indeed is a win-win situation for both Spotify and its users.

BMW

The leading car brand, BMW is the number one favorite of all car lovers. BMW always keeps up with technological advancements and improvises accordingly. Their new PWA is just fantastic. With high-resolution images and videos and large data, the PWA still loads four times faster than its website. They have massively gained an audience with their PWA as the report claims around 50% increase in clicks on mobile PWA and a 50% increase in their audience.

Pinterest

The social media platform, Pinterest has all sorts of things all over it. The PWA of Pinterest was formed on the poor performance of its mobile application. The development of PWA proved as a charm for Pinterest as their engagements went up by 60% and time spent on the application also increased massively. It led to an overall 44% increase in revenue. The load time and the response time of the application also got better as more and more audiences got attracted to the PWA.

In Short…

Progressive web applications have done wonders for companies in all industries and are surely an opportunity for you as well. At such a minimal cost, the results are marvelous and surely worth a shot.

The post Progressive Web Applications Are Everywhere: What’s Fuelling its Rise? appeared first on The Promatics Blog.