So you’ve launched your app! That’s great! But how much thought have you put into the future of your app?
Ongoing app maintenance isn’t something that we often think too much about, but just like any other type of software, mobile apps require regular maintenance over the course of their lifetime. Without routine updates and maintenance, you risk disappointing your users with a less-than-impressive app. And at the same time, unmaintained apps also risk exposing their users to serious cybersecurity risks, especially if they’re designed to allow their users to make in-app purchases.
In the following article, we’re going to be taking a look at the importance of ongoing app maintenance, as well as leaving you with a few tips and tricks to help you ensure a better future for your app.
In today’s constantly evolving digital landscape, it’s not enough to simply launch an app and set it free onto the marketplace. The fact is things on the internet change at such a rapid pace. One day, you might have the most downloaded app on the market. And the next day, everybody has already completely forgotten about you because something new came out.
Fortunately, ongoing app maintenance can ensure a much brighter, more successful future for your app. But, why?
To Deliver A Better User Experience
As a brand or business, you don’t want people simply using your app. You want them to be in love with your app and use it as often as possible.
In today’s digital world, building a trusting, long-term relationship with your users is vital to your app’s success. And to develop these healthy relationships, you’re going to need to provide your users with an experience that they won’t be able to forget.
Over time, as you continue to build and maintain your app, you’ll also gain invaluable insight into what your users like and dislike about your app.
This type of information about your users’ experience will help you stay up-to-date with ever-changing consumer preferences, problems, and behavioral habits.
By using this invaluable customer information, you’ll be able to fine-tune your app and offer the best user experience imaginable. In turn, this helps build a deeper level of trust and loyalty with your prospects.
Always, keep in mind that happy users typically stick around longer, engage with your brand more frequently, and leave more positive reviews about your app. So make sure you’re offering the best user experience possible and you’ll already be well on your way to owning a successful app.
To Decrease Uninstalls
According to Localytics, across virtually all industries, approximately 71% of apps are uninstalled within the first 90 days. This statistic alone illustrates the fact that today, it’s become harder than ever to retain mobile app users.
Furthermore, there’s no faster way to get your users to click on “Uninstall” than by offering them an app that’s chock full of annoying bugs and errors. And this is exactly what happens when you launch an app but don’t perform any regular maintenance updates to it.
At the same time, if your app ceases to provide your users with value, they’re not going to see much reason in keeping it installed on their devices. Therefore, continuous app maintenance is the best way to keep your app running at optimal conditions throughout its entire lifespan.
You’ll be able to find, respond to and fix bugs quicker, should they arise. And since your active users are, essentially, your most important asset, retaining them should always be your number one priority.
Quick Tip : You can reach out to the company who created your app to help with the maintenance/upgrade on a monthly/ yearly basis or you can simply hire freelance developers to help with the maintenance of your app. If you want to learn about how to find top freelancers here’s an interesting blog post from Hiremotely “How To Hire Top Freelance Software Developer in 2020”
Keeping Up With Your Competitors
If you take a look at today’s global app market, there are literally millions of apps, all competing against one another to be installed on smartphones and devices.
Unfortunately, most people, including your current and prospective users, don’t have the time to install and use all of them. Instead, we often download one or two apps that serve the same purpose and once we decide on the ones we like best, we keep them and delete the rest.
Therefore, to ensure that your brand stands out from the competition, it’s vital that you constantly update and improve your app. The second you stop maintaining your app, your users are going to start looking for better options and you’ll end up being left in the metaphorical dust.
In other words, continuous app maintenance ensures that you stay ahead of your competition in the longer-term.
Tips For Ongoing App Maintenance
Now that you understand the importance of ongoing app maintenance, we’re going to take a look at a few tips for maintaining your app in the best way possible.
Improve Your User Interface
Knowing and understanding your users’ habits, as well as the ever-changing styles and trends in your industry, are quintessential parts of your app’s overall success.
That’s why it’s important to ensure that your user interface (UI) is updated at all times, to ensure it meets your users’ specific wants and needs.
As your users spend more time on your app, they’ll become more mature, just like your app itself (thanks to your ongoing maintenance efforts). Therefore, your user interface needs to evolve and mature as well, especially if you want to offer the best possible user experience.
Lastly, having an up-to-date UI also ensures that your app will be as trendy and relevant as possible. Making it more likely that people will enjoy using your app.
Ensure App Support On The Latest Devices
As I’m sure you already know, technology never stays the same for long. In fact, as soon as you buy a piece of technology, it’s almost obsolete by the time you walk out of the store.
So for a second, I want you to think about how many new mobile devices are being designed, released, and purchase every single day.
By not maintaining performing routine app maintenance, you’ll risk having your app become incompatible with newer devices or operating systems. And inevitably, this will eventually lead to less people being able to download and use your app.
As technology continues to progress, your users will find newer, better app solutions, and you and your brand will be left behind in your competitor’s dust.
It’s also important to incorporate the latest hardware features as well. This includes enabling support for device features such as facial recognition and push notifications, which all contribute to better user experience.
Maintaining Successful Apps in 2020
According to inboundmarketer.co in 2020, it’s not enough to simply create and launch an app. Your app also needs to be maintained in order to be successful. But why is routine maintenance so important to an app’s success? The simple answer is that without ongoing maintenance, your app will simply not perform well.
The people who download it won’t enjoy using it as much and they’ll look for other apps that are properly maintained. Your app will be prone to bugs and errors and will become outdated. Eventually, nobody will be downloading it and all your app-building efforts will have been for nothing.
With that said, app maintenance isn’t just about ensuring your app’s functionality, it’s also about to long-term success of your app.
