Features are what makes a mobile app stand out, and these features instigate the traffic to a web application regardless of the application platform. Speaking of platform and mobile technologies, Android still leads with over 85% global market share, and Android apps are known for introducing unique features in apps. Android’s wide acclaim and demand made it indispensable for mobile application development companies to give more importance to integrating unique features in apps.

With the development centered on building an app with all the right features, the developers shouldn’t neglect up-to-date mobile app development trends. These trends keep changing offering new dimensions for developers to explore and interesting features for the users to experience. However, it should be noted that the features should be added in accordance with the business requirements.

Investing a lot of time, effort, and budget in unnecessary features that actually don’t offer much value to end-users is not a wise idea. They should include only those features that matter, and are vital for the app to serve its purpose.

In this blog, we will explore a few such important features that Android app developers should focus on.
 

User-friendly interface

 
For the app to stand out, it should be easy for end-users to understand and use. Many apps will have complex processes driving its functionalities. But all those complexity shouldn’t be exposed in its interface. The interface should be easy to figure out. The navigation should be simple as well. All features of the app should be easily accessible.

This is important because users form the first impression of a mobile app within the first couple of minutes of using the app. So enhanced user experience right from the get-go is important for the app to succeed.
 

Simple login and registration

 
Let’s be honest. No one likes to fill out a long form with lots of fields to register and avail a service. Most apps, particularly the on-demand ones, require users to create and register a personal profile so that they can collect important data.

If the form is just too long demanding the customers to spend some time typing in all the details, it’d just annoy them and give them second thoughts. It’s important to keep the login and registration process simple for the users.
 

Give room for feedback

 
User feedback, one of the most crucial elements of a mobile application, is a double-edged sword. It is a key factor that influences the fate of the app. The app developers should take measures to encourage users to send feedback on the app. If the feedback is poor, it may deter potential users from checking out the app. However, feedbacks also give developers insights to improve the app. Feedback is important for app performance analysis.
 

Impressive loading speed

 
One major reason why many apps fail to succeed in the market is because of their slow loading speed. The market is highly competitive, and will most likely have faster alternatives to slow apps. Users prefer apps that respond quickly. Developers should take special care to ensure that the app’s performance aspect is impressive with fast loading speeds and processing power.
 

Conclusion

 
Android leading on a global scale also indicates that android apps will have fierce competition. To stand out from the rest, an app should have features that its target audience would want and can easily figure out. This is why research goes into understanding the audience and the hottest mobile technologies. This way developers can determine what features can raise the value of their app while impressing end-users. To conclude, an app without simplified features is highly likely to run out of gas in the market rather quickly.

Java has long been a favorite when it comes to mobile application development. But now it seems that there’s a successor to Java, and a very good one at that.
 

Introducing Kotlin

 
Kotlin, a statically-typed object oriented programming language that runs on Java virtual machine is the brainchild of JetBrains, the people behind popular IDEs namely IntelliJ and ReSharper. It can be compiled to JavaScript source code or be used with LLVM infrastructure.

Despite incompatible syntax with Java, Kotlin still relies on Java code from the existing Java Class Library, and is interoperable with the same. Project Kotlin was first brought out in July 2011 by JetBrains as a new language for JVM with a faster compile time as quickly as Java. Unlike most other languages then, Kotlin came with many useful features.

The project was open sourced the following year, and v1.0 (the first official stable release) was released by 2016. Another feather in the cap for Kotlin was from Google itself. At Google I/O 2017, the tech giant announced first class support for the language on Android, thus making it the third language in the list following C++ and Java. Several major developers – Expedia, Pinterest, and Square etc. have now started using Kotlin for their Android production apps.
 

Features & Benefits

 
Less coding, faster development:The open source development platform makes development much faster for developers, with approximately 20% less coding compared to Java. The compile time is also faster and much more efficient.

• Short learning curve: The language is quite easy to pick up, even for beginners. Its intuitive syntax borrows traits from many languages including Scala and Apache Groovy. In addition to object-oriented programming, Kotlin also supports procedural programming using functions, which makes it quite interesting as well.
• Java interoperability: One of the biggest highlights of Kotlin is its exceptional interoperability with Java, supporting the use of Java frameworks and libraries. Kotlin v1.2, released quite recently this year, adds a new feature to the language which allows sharing code between JVM and JavaScript platforms. This also facilitates easier migration from Java to Kotlin for organizations.
• It’s open source: Kotlin is another open source alternative for the android development sector, licensed under Apache 2. For quick conversion from Java to Kotlin, there is a Java-to-Kotlin converter tool available. Its open source nature means the entire open source community will be contributing to making it better and its usage easier. The language is also free for use.
• Versatile and secure: The NullPointExceptions in Kotlin considerably reduces errors, while Kotlin’s compiler is designed to auto-cast coding errors. In addition to java code compatibility, it features extension functions which allows adding new functionalities to existing classes and more.

Conclusion

 
The coding and performance benefits of Kotlin alone can be expected to bring big changes in the development of mobile technologies. With Google’s backing, Kotlin seems to be on its way to becoming a staple for Android app developers. It’s also speculated that there’d be efforts to promote the language further. Kotlin is also expected to drive IntelliJ IDE sales and boost android development further in the coming years.

Considering the evidently huge advancements in technologies that businesses at present are associated with, it’s safe to assume that this is the right time to invest in some of them. Of all the technologies that could make things easier for a business, mobile technologies come first.

Effectively leveraging enterprise mobility solutions grants organizations with increased operational efficiency and flexibility. Enterprise mobility would be adopted on a wide scale when the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy goes mainstream. At present, many organizations have chosen to allow their employees to bring their own devices to work in conjunction with enterprise application across the organization’s cloud network.

If the enterprise mobile app isn’t good though or if it doesn’t align with the business goals the way it should, things will take a wrong turn for the organization in the long run. For a good enterprise app, a business would need to figure out a reliable enterprise mobile app development company.

Now that the importance of enterprise mobility has been conveyed, let’s take a look at 5 factors that can help businesses successfully implement enterprise mobility solutions.
 

Permission management

 
Managing permissions from the client side can be quite tricky. The client may not want you to access confidential information. This is why proper permission management is necessary. Enterprise mobility solutions can address this to an extent, providing users with access to only what they want to know, and only that which they are authenticated for.
 

Security issues

 
Security concerns are quite common for businesses who are about to receive a technological solution that is to be integrated into their business. From a business’ perspective, the solution should be integrated efficiently minimizing security risks and resolving associated issues. Essentially, the solution should address the security concerns of employees using the app.
 

Regular app udpates

 
An updated app sustains the competitive edge it initially granted the business. Even if it’s the employees of an organization, the users of an app expect occasional updates which tend to give them more confidence in the app’s functioning, resolve existing bugs, and add to the stability of the app. The business should have their IT team or the app developer regularly diagnose the app and enhance it with updates.
 

Make sure the employees are aware of the benefits

 
Depending on the size of the business, the business goals, and many other factors, the cost of an enterprise app would increase. A business wouldn’t want the investment to go underutilized. The employees should be educated on how the app can help them perform many functions on just a single platform without a lot of effort. They should know the benefits they get from using the app, and should be groomed to effectively utilize the application.
 

User acceptance testing

 
It’s an important factor but nothing a business should be concerned of generally, as long as the application developer is a reliable and reputed enterprise mobile application development partner for your business. A reliable developer would make sure the enterprise mobility solution is exactly what the business and its employees need.

The app should feature everything they expected from such a solution. A wiser approach would be to have the organization’s in-house IT team perform the user acceptance test on the solution before implementing it.
 

Conclusion

 
The key is in seeing things from the users’ perspective. At the end of the day, the enterprise should have acceptable ROI with the mobility solution. Unless the users understand what makes the application important or how it benefits them and the organization they work at, the application would have a short life.

The organization’s IT team should be monitoring the solution regularly to ensure that it’s aligned with business goals, and performing the functions it’s meant to. Keeping the aforementioned factors in mind can help enterprises leverage their mobility solutions the right way.

Mobile devices, or rather ‘smartphones’ to be specific, have become part of our lives in just a few years. The devices have only grown smarter over the years, providing a plethora of services that can make things easier for us. But what makes these devices this smart?

The broad range of apps that provide such services deserve that credit.

Despite having different operating systems, there is still a whopping number of applications for users to choose.

In fact, according to Statista’s reports as of March 2017, Android mobile users can choose from about 2.8 million apps while iOS users have a library of close to 2.2 million applications.

Because of how significant they are today, these apps should be developed with utmost care, compromising neither on security nor user experience. Any shortcomings in an app can annoy users to the point that it’d start impacting the businesses that own the app itself. To make sure that an app usable, bug-free, secure, and performance efficient, developers make use of a variety of frameworks, some of them open source.

Businesses providing open source development services have also been booming consistently for the past few years. Many developers now choose to use open source programming languages and frameworks for development.

That said, let’s take a look at the most popular open source frameworks used for mobile application development.
 

Framework 7

 
Primarily chosen for the development of iOS apps, Framework 7, as of now, also offers Android support making it a unique option when it comes to building iOS apps first and then developing an Android counterpart. Its main benefit is that it facilitates iOS app development with just JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.

Other main advantages include:

• Support for cross-platform hybrid app development
• XHR caching and preloading
• Custom DOM library

jQuery Mobile

 
A popular open source framework known for its large user base, jQuery Mobile is generally an ideal choice for simpler applications that run on Windows and BlackBerry platforms. Though it lacks advanced features, its ‘write once, run anywhere’ feature makes it unique compared to its rivals.

jQuery is lightweight and allows developers to make apps that run seamlessly across all mobile devices without compromising user experience.
 

Mobile Angular UI

 
Mobile Angular UI is a successful combination of Angular JS and Twitter’s Bootstrap, making it a mobile UI development framework. It features Bootstrap 3’s syntax which grants developers easier web-to-mobile portability though it isn’t dependent on Bootstrap. In fact, there is no dependency to jQuery either. Its libraries include the likes of fastclick.js and overthrow.js.
 

Sencha Touch

 
This framework has a dedicated developer following as it makes developing cross platform end-to-end mobile applications easier with HTML5 and JavaScript. The core of Sencha Touch is ExtJS, a popular JavaScript framework. Though it’s open source, a licensed version is also available with advanced features. Its main feature is that it allows developers to reuse various custom components.

Other important features include a drag-and-drop HTML5 visual application builder, and a good collection of widgets with a native look and feel for all the popular mobile platforms.
 

Conclusion

 
Open source is not always about the huge community supporting the products and services. The growth of open source software has been rapid and consistent for many years. It has made a name in the software development sector within a short time, and has started imprinting its mark on mobile app development as well. Evidently, these frameworks and their user bases testify to the same.

It has always been a challenge to run android applications natively in a Linux system. A lot of research has been going on to figure this out. Many open source experts were trying to come up with a feasible solution that allows Android apps to run on a Linux environment without issues. Fortunately, one of them has finally done it. The open source project termed ‘Anbox’ could be the next big thing not just in the open source software development sector but also in Android development.

Simon Fels, the brain behind the project, has been working on it independently since 2015 and released a pre-alpha version of the new platform a few months ago. According to Fels, the idea was to put Android into a LXC-based container, linking only the relevant parts to the host Linux OS while restricting accessibility to user data and hardware. The Anbox platform is now ready for a wider audience.
 

Anbox in a nutshell

 
Fels said that the platform essentially isolates the Android system from the host by taking Linux namespaces (user, network etc.). Anbox also provides Open GL ES support by taking code parts from Android emulator implementation. Using these code parts, the platform can arrange the command stream serially before sending to the host.

Fels also stated that the source code is wholly open source. Most features are licensed under the GPLv3 terms. However, a few are Apache 2.0 for compatibility. Fels added that the pre-alpha version may still experience crashes and instability issues, and the next phase will rectify and stabilize the release while adding new features that improve integration with the host OS.
 

Anbox and its promise

 
Earlier efforts, like Shashlik, to run Android apps on a Linux environment were not successful. But Anbox shows promise and potential, and may not fall short like its predecessors. The platform can attract more developers to the already large Android developer community, and can make it easier to create innovative apps as well, according to Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

Teich also added that the platform supports network access, input, audio, and display interfaces even in its early phase. However, the developers will still have to rely on current tools if they require access to accelerometers, radios, and cameras. Reportedly, Anbox runs smooth thanks to snaps and LXC containers.

The next version might have more interfaces implemented for the major classes of sensors, making Anbox an easy alternative for mobile application development.