Updated: May 15, 2023 
Smartphones contribute to 51% of digital business services across the globe. About 66% of internet users use their mobile phones daily, making it one of the most sought activities of an active individual.
These are a few statistics published by Forbes. The numbers clearly portray digital robustness and an inevitable transition shifting the world online. It is no secret that smartphones have become miniature computers.
Accessing services with a seamless and hassle-free experience makes the best out of an idea. Logistics, FinTech, Pharmaceutical, Transport, etc. have all followed the entertainment industry.
They have adopted mobile utility applications. Global digitization takes services on easy-to-use interfaces, and it boosts and disrupts the demand and supply for services engaged in the app development process.
The subject of an app development process is a tricky yet fascinating concept. The stages of app development involve curating a network of interlinked software. They amalgamate data-driven activities by deploying APIs to get tasks done with a few clicks.
Let us take a detailed walkthrough of the mobile app development process.
How Mobile Apps Fuel Growth in the Digital Era
How do you play a part in leveraging the digital atmosphere for your solutions? We know the answer is mobile applications. Find a problem, and put its solution on a smartphone application.
Global markets have an array of unconnected dots. Efficient applications are the keys to joining these dots. The most accurate example for decoding the shared economy is Uber.
Uber solved the transit problem with an influential mobile application accessible to all. They observed a situation that prevailed and addressed it with a handy solution, an app.
Uber made it possible for the end-user to book a ride across time zones and geographical remoteness. The Uber application literally reversed the process of getting a vehicle after stepping on the road.
The first step in the mobile app development process is to find a problem that your smartphone application will resolve. Narrowing it down to a one-tap solution will design a pathway for the subsequent milestones.
The interface of your application relies on the persona of the solution the user will derive utility from.
Research says more than one-fourth of internet users prefer seeking services from an application rather than a website. Therefore, here is the start of your app development steps.
Discuss Research and Estimates
Understand the idea behind your application. Before initiating the development, there are specific research targets to meet.
Certain questions revolve around the product, users, estimates, bandwidth, scaling, integrations, automation, permissions, executions, etc.
A significant amount of time and effort needs to be engaged in primary and secondary research.
Budget estimation is indeed an additional and vital subject to address before starting an app development process. Ensure to tick the checkboxes of functionality, reliability, and utility.
Choose the Right Platforms for Mobile App Development
The most prominent players in the field are Android by Google and iOS by Apple Inc. An application can indeed be built on the native platform.
However, it can also be developed and run on various multiple platforms. Every forum has a software development kit relevant to its platform.
iOS is dedicated to Apple’s devices, whereas Android is operated and designed on many OEMs along with Google. There are four alternatives to approach your mobile app development.
1. Native Mobile Applications
The platform owners’ tools and software, such as Apple’s and Google’s, are used to create native applications. Additionally, there are platforms like Swift, Java, and Kotlin.
These instruments directly utilize the platform’s database through their relevant software tools. Additionally, push notifications are an exceptional feature of native development.
Native applications also display the best runtime on the platforms of subjective preference.
Native application’s accessibility reaches hardware elements like GPS, microphone, camera, etc., enabling a developer to design an application with the best possible utility.
2. Cross-Platform Native Mobile Applications
A cross-platform mobile application enables a single code base to develop on multiple platforms.
Also, since the code does not have native writing, it needs to be compiled and bridged. Cross-platform development leverages native development as it assigns the user experience across all platforms, eliminating the effort to sustain different independent platforms.
Here, certain cross-platform development frameworks are based on programming languages. For instance, JavaScript works with Cordova, Appcelerator, React Native, Flutter, and alike.
This is a viable option to slash expensive costs on multiple platforms. However, here there is a lack of native libraries that create dependency on third-party utilization.
3. Hybrid Mobile Applications
Using a shared codebase, the hybrid mobile app development process also accords mobile application development by catering to web development tools.
Hybrid applications derive minimum support for native devices. Here, powerful and newest technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are deployed.
These are eventually compiled as smartphone applications for the respective platforms.
A distinct feature of the hybrid application says they are unlike cross-platform applications as their operation is harnessing web containers that use browser runtime.
Also, Read | Native vs Hybrid Apps; Which is best
4. Progressive Web Applications
A progressive web application requires seamless connectivity. The reason for this is its accessibility, which passes only through the device’s browser.
These applications are coded in HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and such languages. These applications operate through URLs that do not require any PlayStore or AppStore installations.
Moreover, a progressive web application loses interaction even with a minor glitch in the connectivity. The visualization of these apps is a home screen icon, which is essentially a browser link.
The most effective technologies that cater to PWA development are Polymer, Webpack Module Bundler, Magento PWA Studio, ScandiPWA, PWA Builder, ionic, Angular, React PWA Library, VueJS, and LightHouse.
Also, Read | Progressive web app vs Native apps
How to Set Up Wireframes
A blueprint that defines the layout of your design and wireframes is a crucial step in the process of developing apps. Wireframes differ and are subjective among developers.
The blueprint revolves around the client’s needs and mandates as well. For a start, while reading the leaflet on how to make mobile apps, one can approach the wireframe by pinpointing your user base.
Later on, understand the spatial distribution on the holistic frame of your application on different pages.
Start with a low-fidelity pattern to establish the skeleton of your design, conduct surveys, and research consumer sights. Rectify that your prints are bug-free and usable. Based on the feedback, alter the layout sections.
Eventually, you can progress to medium and high-fidelity wireframes to finalize your designs.
your prints are bug-free and usable. Based on the feedback, alter the layout sections. Eventually, you can progress to medium and high-fidelity wireframes to finalize your designs.
To move ahead, simplify your process with design sprints. Sprints are proven practical modules that cater to dilemma resolutions. A method of unanimous brainstorming unfolds and simplifies choices.
At certain tests, a wireframe may look advanced on Android and demand supplementary hooks. Here, design sprints clear the air on the end choices.
A design wireframe also aids timely task management with well-defined milestones that a designer looks forward to achieving in the process of developing apps.
Curate UI-UX
An application with a sturdy appearance and advanced performance is always the one with the largest market cap. Here is the part where UI and UX come into play.
The highest utility derived from an application is its efficient usability. User experience has the potential to access a customer’s various touchpoints that stimulate their emotional and intelligent responses.
User experiences are inclusive of the performance of your application and human-computer interaction (HCI). How to make mobile apps is a burning question for every aspiring tech head today.
Understanding UX offers more explicit opportunities for a dynamic upshift in the demand of usefulness, desires, usability, credibility, findability, accessibility, and value that a user envisions for a mobile application.
User interface design is what the surface may look like where UX was rather than the navigation to resolve a problem.
User interface designers commonly employ the principles of structure, simplicity, visibility, feedback, tolerance, reuse, and many more.
These factors create highly interactive and intuitive applications. Here is how UI – UX holds a noteworthy module in the book titled How to make mobile apps.
Mobile App Development Process
Everything boils down to development. An app development process has the most crucial three highlights.
These are Mobile Backend Technologies, Application Programming Interface (APIs), and Frontend Development.
These three attributes combine to deliver the final product that is subsequently used by the consumer.
Front-end Development
The interface that the users will interact with is the front end. Specific applications need an application programming interface and back ends as well. On the contrary, many utilize just the local databases.
It is critical to create a responsive front-end user interface. Local data storage is required in many circumstances, even when the application is needed to run without access to the internet.
Another critical element to know while reading up on how to make mobile apps says the platforms differ in tech offerings during development. iOS apps use Objective-C, Flutter, React Native, or Swift programming.
At the same time, Android apps are developed on Java, Kotlin, and alike. Each programming language has its range of attributes with your preferred substrate.
Exploit and engage with those that make the best use of your desired requisites.
Application Programming Interface (API)
API integration is created to enable communication with the app and backend infrastructure.
It’s vital to ensure software communication with specific protocols and tools to decode how to make mobile apps.
An application programming interface is also applied to develop a graphical user interface.
ResetAPI makes one of the most convenient choices in the stages of app development. It does have a con with tediousness in creating requests through networks.
Nevertheless, RestAPI instantly communicates with remote cloud data servers. Additionally, Rest functions in coordination with HTTP protocols to manage data. Here, a developer must ensure they understand the data juggles and actions of HTTP URLs.
It’s simple to create an API. Nonetheless, assume there’s a change in the individual who operates the process.
In that case, there will be a need for concise API process documentation that can assist you in understanding the API’s history and its present state. Such a process simplifies future upgrades.
Mobile Backend Technologies
Backend impulses on storing data in a cloud server, employing coding to induce reasoning to the interaction, and constructing architecture that allows users to navigate through the data instantly.
End users never interact with the backend systems. The application backend makes the data processing arm of the app development process.
With efficient coding, logins, sign-ups, passwords, and cloud operations have become more lucid.
Warrant on the middleware that connects the front-end seamlessly as necessary, where tools like can be used to work and break down the backend software stack.
The backend technologies, such as Node.js, PHP with Laravel, Go, Python, Ruby on Rails, and Microsoft.Net, harness the support of network-connected mobile operations.
Testing is Important
Here we discuss the tail end of the stages of app development.
Testing is the game where you put your ship in the water and check if it floats. Testing is not only a factor that enables bug rectification but also enhances efficiency.
Also, Read | Difference Between Manual Testing and Automated Testing
For the preparatory stage, documentation testing is initiated. It’s followed by functional testing, including business functionality, target audience, and distribution channels.
Furthermore, there is usability testing. Usability is followed by the user interface, compatibility testing, performance testing, security testing, and certification testing.
An embracive testing component builds your mobile application robust enough to meet industry standards. It meets legal, professional, and usable requirements.
Testing brings an eternal task of follow-ups and maintenance. When it’s dealing with tech, surprises are inevitable. Consistent maintenance ensures a steady user base.
Eliminating bugs and introducing upgrades and updates magnify user experience by reducing uninstalls. One of the best ways to maintain your application is to take frequent breaks.
Notify the users about the maintenance time slab that falls at an hour of minimum usage. Be regular and up-to-date. These tasks can include rechecking licenses, codes, deliverables, runtime, etc., which make an integral part of developing apps.
A mobile application is the best solution for each and every online service that is available in the market.
One-tap services are the expectations that create a different branch of demand every day. The only product closest to every user is their mobile phone, where your business needs a place.
Whether gaming, digital marketing, or web development, reach out to the best platforms to create the most on-point deliverables with the maximum efficiency possible.
Relying on dependable service providers will nurture your commodities with exceptional transparency to deliver the most admirable quality.
Find a solution and put it in the digital space if you have an idea!
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