Unveiling Tomorrow: Top 10 Unmissable Mobile App Development Trends Shaping 2023

Trend #1: Mobile Payment Apps

Starting with the exchange of goods or services and metal coins, continuing through paper money and credit cards, it has now become digital with more and more payments happening on your mobile.

According to a recent report, there were $6.1 billion worth of transactions from digital wallets in 2019. This is expected to reach $13.98 billion this year.

Digital payments today have evolved into what are called mobile wallet applications. loyalty cards on mobile devices making in-store transactions and payments convenient and faster.

Due to their accessibility, digital wallets have shown significant growth in the last 5 years. Even its users are expected to double in 2022.

In addition, the technology behind the mobile wallets is expected to adopt a loyalty program that allows users to receive special offers, discounts and bonus points through their mobile wallets every time they make a purchase. Likewise the use of biometric authentication will emerge in 2022.

Trend #2: Instant Apps

The next mobile application development trend is instant apps. As the name implies, the loading of program content is instantaneous and independent. That is, users do not need to download the program in full.

Instead, they can see some of the content on their screen, and the rest only loads when needed. In addition, instant apps have a smaller file size than regular ones and are therefore much faster. Due to the speed and low cost, they affect both ordinary applications and game applications.

Hollar, a mobile commerce app, was able to increase conversions by 20% by launching an instant app. 30% of their entire Android traffic comes from instant apps. If you develop apps for the Google Play Store in 2022, you should have an instant version too.

Compared to traditional apps, the trend of developing mobile apps with instant apps is more useful in the following categories:

No need to download the app

Faster loading times

Device memory is not used

Maintain website functionality

Can be shared via link

Main application design and functionality combined with the speed of web applications run instant applications, mobile applications of the future. In addition, instant apps are not only a mobile app development trend among users.

They are highly adopted by Android and iOS developers because they can target specific features and segments when users need them. Therefore, using instant apps increases conversion rate, session duration and user engagement.

Instant apps are of the same value as Progressive Web Apps (PWA). Both are innovations that use advanced features to provide a similar experience to native apps.

Some of its features are the ability to use offline, fast loading times and can be shared via a link. For example, PWAs lack integration with some smartphone functions such as Bluetooth, flashlight and access to contacts while instant apps do.

In addition, PWAs require development according to Google's criteria for web applications. Unlike instant apps, which can be built on pre-existing apps, they just need an upgrade.

Trend #3: On-Demand Apps

on-demand application

Users spend $57.6 billion annually using on-demand services. Good examples of on-demand apps are Uber and Airbnb. 

The user requests a product or service

This application proposes service providers

The provider checks the request and accepts it

Payment authorization

Providers provide services or products to users

Customer confirms delivery

Payment cut

This trend of mobile app development helps users to solve everyday problems.

Most businesses today are adopting on-demand apps to build customer engagement and brand reputation. 

Availability

Since smartphones and tablets are everywhere around us, users can get products or services easily with just a few clicks.

Different payment options

Most instant apps accept different types of payment cards as well as e-wallets such as PayPal.

Minimum effort

Users can store personal information such as credit card details and shipping addresses. 

Variation

Many apps differ in each category, meaning that users can find the option that suits them best.

Trend #4: Wearable Devices

Wearable technology is an electronic device designed to be worn on the body or included in clothing as an accessory. These devices can be controlled via different mobile apps or even remotely via an internet connection using IoT technology.

For example, smart jewelry, smartwatches, or display devices like Apple Glass are popular wearables going into 2022.

Every wearable device requires a defined platform to operate on. For example, an Android smartwatch requires WearOS while an Apple Watch syncs with WatchOS.

There are various applications that can be utilized by users. Once the app is downloaded, wearable technology allows us to take our device out of our pocket while at the same time.

Trend #5: Beacon Technology

Beacon is a wireless transmitter that uses Bluetooth low energy technology to send signals to other smart devices. Therefore, when the device enters the beacon zone, the associated application immediately catches the signal and provides notifications and guidance to the user.

It is highly used by different businesses and industries such as retailers, hotels and museums as it increases the interaction between customers and brands.

According to Statista, the flare technology market is increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 59.8%. The estimated market value will reach $56.6 billion by 2026. That is more than ten times higher than the $519.6 million value from 2016.

Currently, customers only rely on their smartphones, including product and brand research. As such, they emerge as the core of a business's marketing and communication strategy.

Through beacon technology, businesses can provide information about products, related purchasing activity, special offers and exclusive offers directly to their customers. In that way, store or website visits, purchases, customer engagement and experience improve intensively.

In addition, all benefit from beacon technology as it makes people's daily routines easier and more productive and helps cities operate efficiently. For example, beacons provide traffic navigation as information to drivers about accidents, congestion and offer alternative routes if

necessary.

Trend #6: Apps for Foldable Devices

Cell phones or cell phones have changed with messaging over the last decade. Touchscreen phones with one or no buttons have taken over the market. But over the past few years, foldable devices have started to make a comeback.

In 2023, many Foldable Devices have been released on the market, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Huawei Mate X, and the new Motorola Razr.

The Foldable Device can be folded to compress or expand the screen size based on user preference. For example, a user might make a call with their device closed, but watch a video on a larger screen with their device open.

From an app development perspective, resellers and content creators need to take these devices into account when building or updating apps.

The idea of ​​developing this Foldable Device is that the app should seamlessly adjust its appearance when the screen is folded or unfolded. Currently, foldable devices make up only a tiny fraction of the overall smartphone market share.

But this will change in the coming years. According to a 2019 study by USA Today, 17% of iPhone users and 19% of Android users are excited about buying a phone with a foldable design.

According to Statista, around 3.2 million foldable phones were shipped in 2019. This estimate is expected to reach 50 million units this year. For that growth to happen, 2023 will be a big year for foldable devices, meaning app developers will have to plan accordingly.

The development of Foldable Devices will certainly encourage the development of special applications aimed at Foldable Devices, because these devices also require certain applications that are different from devices in general.

Trend #7 Superior App Security

Everyone is vulnerable to cybercrime. From single content creators to large corporations worth billions of dollars, span with cyber crime. More than 60% of fraud originates from mobile devices. Of that number, 80% comes from mobile applications.

From an app development point of view, you shouldn't cut corners to secure your app. If you are an app developer, security should also be a top priority for your clients.

App users are well aware of security risks. So going forward, people will think twice about sharing passwords or providing sensitive information to third parties, such as app developers.

Developers will start implementing features such as signing in with Apple to mobile apps. Instead of forcing app users to fill out form fields with their name, email address, and password, they can simply create an account and sign in with their Apple ID. This account is protected with two-factor authentication, and Apple will not track the activity.

Trend #8 Artificial Intelligent

Artificial Intelligence (artificial intelligence) is an old technology, but it's back in trend lately. virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa are examples of Artificial Intelligent technology that exist today. Last year, Apple released Core ML 3. This latest version of the iOS machine learning framework was created to help developers embed AI technology into their apps.

Examples of AI features that can be implemented into mobile applications include:

Image recognition

1. Face detection
2. Text and image classification
3. Sentiment recognition and classification
4. Voice recognition
5. Predictive maintenance

Trend #9 Chatbots

Chatbots have been around for over a decade. Nowadays chatbots have developed and become much more advanced. Chatbots on websites are growing in popularity due to consumer demand. The use of chatbots has become a new standard of customer service.

But of the millions of apps available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, only a small percentage actually use chatbots.

Chatbots are driven by AI technology so that chatbots' responses become more human-like. This is also what drives the growth of AI technology. The global chatbot market is growing 24% annually.

It is expected that 25% of all customer service technology interactions are facilitated by virtual assistants by 2022. 

Trend #10 Mobile Commerce

Mobile Commerce is one of the trends that has been dominating in 2021, 2022 and will continue to grow in 2023. Today it has grown where everyone is leveraging mobile apps to increase revenue. Many people are currently taking advantage of mobile commerce, from large companies to even small resellers.

Mobile commerce functionality is the top feature for mobile app resellers to feature during client promotions. Every day many companies and other business fields launch applications to drive sales.

Every person and business that sells online is in competition with giants like Amazon. To keep up, you need to emulate what made the brand so successful; an app is at the top of that list.

By the end of 2023, more than 72.9% of total e-commerce sales will come from mobile devices. Apps play an important role in the success of mobile commerce today and in the future.

Thus the trend of mobile application development this year. Mobile app development will continue to change as technology evolves. If you build an app today using information from two or three years ago, you won't be able to stay competitive.