According to Deep Dive into Digital Trends, 78% of Canadian smartphone owners use 9 mobile apps daily while 32% use 10 -19 of apps in one week. Many of these users have an average of 25 installed apps, with 10% having an excess of 60 applications on their devices.If you were to stop a random Canadian and ask about the apps on their device, you’ll discover five main android app categories, i.e. :

• Social Media apps, like Whatsapp, Facebook and Tweeter.
• Video Streaming apps, like YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime
• Music and Audio apps, like Spotify, SoundCloud and Google Play Music.
• Food and Dining apps, like SkipTheDishes, Tim Hortons and Uber Eats.
• Game apps, like Cube Surfer and Prison Empire.

While the apps mentioned above are popular, your android app need not belong to five Android app categories to succeed as a product. The reason being, Android is the most widely-used mobile operating system in the world with a global smartphone market share of 86%. Furthermore, 46% of all smartphones in Canada run on the Android operating system.

Why Choose to Develop an Android Mobile App

The fantastic thing about building an android app is that 46% translates to a user base of over 14.4 million Canadians. What does this figure actually mean?

Well.......you can attain 400,000 app subscriptions if only 1 in 10 Canadian android smartphone users like your app enough to download and install it on their device. Furthermore, users can install your app on multiple Android devices, including smartphones, tablets, smartTVs, and even smartwatches.

When you choose the Android open-source OS for your app, you instantly access the following useful features available on the platform.

Platform Independent App Development

You can use a computer running any mainstream operating system for all your android app development needs, i.e., Windows, Mac and Linux.

Multi-Device Compatibility

You can build your mobile app to run on any device utilizing the Android operating system, which include smartphones, tablets,

Quicker App Deployment

The easy availability of function-specific app templates allows you to quickly build and deploy your Android app, as compared to iOS, Windows and other platforms.Furthermore, a less stringent app review process ensures it takes less than 7 days for your app to go live on Google Play Store.

There's more!!

After deploying your first android app, Google Play will publish subsequent apps in less than 2 days after you submit them for review.

Easy integration with third party API

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, ensure seamless data exchange between your android app and the software/hardware infrastructure it needs for full functionality.

Some API-dependent functions that your app might offer users include:

• Video and Audio Streaming
• Automated Software Updates and Upgrades
• Content Download and Upload, i.e., photos, video, text and other material
• Precise GPS coordinates for geotagging and navigation
• Product/Service Recommendations and so much more
• Email, Text Messaging, Video calling and Video Conferencing

Multi-Store App Publishing

In addition to Google Play Store, you can also publish your app on several niche and brand-specific Android app stores, including:

• Samsung Galaxy Apps
• Amazon Appstore
• LG SmartWorld
• Sony Apps
• Aptoide
• GetJar
• AppBrain and many others

Scalability of App Capabilities

Android app hosting providers, like Google Play and AWS, allow you to enhance the performance capabilities of your Android app by increasing resource allocation on host servers. Increasing the number of virtual processing cores and RAM allocated to your android app improves the speed of the different functions it offers users.

Possible outcomes of scaling your app’s server resources include:

• Faster video and audio streaming
• Instant syncing of data between user devices and host servers
• Immediate results from Search Queries
• Speedy content download and upload
• Prompt output from cost estimators, e-wallets, e-carts and other processing intensive functions

Technologies to Boost App UX/IU

Android supports various technologies that you can utilize in your app to deliver an exceptional and unique user experience. The technologies, which include Internet of Things(IoT), Virtual Reality(VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence(AI), allow you to offer greater user customization on different app functions.

Cloud-Supported App Functions

If your native Android app offers graphic-intensive functions, such as VR or AG gameplay, users will likely need to own high-end devices to use your app. Why? Because only high-end smartphones come with enough processing power and RAM to support native graphic-intensive applications.

Luckily, hosting your app on the cloud ensures your app delivers optimal performance regardless of user device specs. Having convinced you that Android is the best platform for your app, it’s time to look at the Android app development cycle.

Steps in Developing a Mobile App for Android

Idea Conceptualization

To come up with a viable app idea, you need to fulfil three first-stage requirements

1. Identify a significant need that your app is meant to address
2. Identify people who are most likely to download and install your app, i.e., your target users
3. Do ample research on what similar, competing and related apps currently offer android users

fulfiling these three requirements ensures that you identify the right category for your app, the range of features the app will offer and the best ways to make your app unique.

Design

Once you have a good android app idea, the next step is defining the visual appeal of your app. To do so, you will have to address two appearance-related aspects of android app design

1. Branding & Identity

You need to come up with a beautiful and distinct logo that features the catchy name you’ve given to your app, i.e., the Brand Name.Note that the logo you come up with should follow an existing corporate identity, if you have one.

1. UX/UI design

UX is short for User Experience while UI refers to your application’s User Interface. To realize the right UX and UI design for your app, it is best that you seek professional UX/UI design services from a reputable company.

Front-End and Back-End Development

Front-end development refers to anything you do to enhance the UI and UX of your mobile application.

Most of your front-end tasks will cater to two needs:

• Implementing functionalities and interactive components on your app
• Integrating effects on your apps UI for enhanced user experience. Such effects include animations, topic-specific video playlists, dedicated audio feeds, and other multimedia.

You should seek expert guidance while performing front-end UI/UX tasks to ensure cohesion between the various UX/UI elements on your app.

Back-end tasks, on the other hand, help you to fulfil two core mandates:

• Setting up an app database that can contain user account details, a product/service inventory, photo/video/audio uploads, user documents and files, and more.
• Establishing the middleware that your app needs to perform various functions, e.g., navigate device storage, select and upload user multimedia files, track user requests, search for specific products/services etc

As with front-end tasks, you should also seek professional input while creating your app's back-end processes.

Testing

Testing the performance capabilities of your app involves complying with the checklist below:

• Ensure all front-end functionalities or your app work, e.g., you can navigate device storage, access the camera, microphone, GPS and Bluetooth modules, etc.
• Test data processing and logic functions, e.g., search for specific products/services in the app's database, use GPS coordinates to calculate travel time, etc.
• Ensure that your app UI displays correctly on different screen sizes and user devices.

The technical nature of app testing is yet another reason why you should hire a professional to guide you at this crucial stage.

Deployment

Deploying your app involves submitting your app for Google Play app review.

This app review process will take between 2 to 7days, after which Google will then publish your app on their store. Note that other app vendors might take more or less time to approve your app.

Post-Deployment

Once your app goes live on Google Play Store, you are then tasked with the day-to-day maintenance of the app.This mainly involves implementing routine software updates and upgrades on your app.

Such software enhancements allow you to address user complaints regarding performance, in addition to introducing new features on your app.

Learn from the experts when it comes to Android app development. Contact Brain Box Labs today.

How Brain Box Labs Can Help You

We have extensive experience in mobile app design and development and can, therefore, offer you expert guidance in several areas, including:

• Creating an exceptional UI/UX design for your mobile app.
• Realizing a custom mobile app solution that best caters to your specific business needs.
• Development of apps that perform optimally on different platforms and user devices.
• Digital marketing for your app to achieve high user subscription

Call Brain Box Labs Now

Call our competent customer service team on (647) 492-5576 or email us at [email protected].

You can even visit our Toronto office or simply fill out our online contact form.

Regardless of how you contact us, you are assured of expert service from the best firm in mobile app development

PRO TIP:

“Mobile app development is always evolving. Make sure you keep yourself updated with the latest trends when it comes to mobile app usage.”