What are some of the must-have mobile app features that distinguish a good app from a great one? Continue reading for more!
The rapid development of technology has had a tremendous impact on mobile app development, making apps a significant and influential instrument in today’s living. However, technology isn’t the only thing that is impacting the way apps are evolving. In today’s rapid, busy, and increasingly digital environment, what’s common between successful products and services is that they are more and more customer-centric. And this is absolutely true for apps as well.
Today, developing a great mobile app that stands out from your competitors requires an extremely good understanding of customer behavior. What do your users really desire from an app? What are their needs, and how can you provide the best user experience? Of course, the answer to these questions will highly depend on the technology of the app (progressive, native or hybrid), as well as the type (gaming app, shopping app, news app, etc.)
However, there are mobile app features that are an absolute must-have for almost every app that wants to improve customer experience, and really want to connect with their audience in a way that boosts growth and drives more revenue.
Today, we will take a look at some of them so that you can make a revision and consider implementing those features that you might be missing. Or, if you don’t have an app, this is the perfect moment to make a checklist on the features that you want to add to it.
So, without further ado, let’s dive right into the must-have mobile app features for any app:
1. Social sharing
Today, talking about the “power of social media” is no longer a cliché phrase that companies throw around to draw attention. Social media is truly more powerful than ever – according to Statista, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, and this number is estimated to grow to 4.41 billion just 4 years from now.
But this is not the only statistic that shows how engaged people are with social media. According to Oberlo, people spend an average of 3 hours per day on social networks and messaging, and 54% of them use social media to research products that they might end up purchasing.
All of this means that your app must have social media networking capabilities. Incorporating social sharing will not only simplify the signing in process by retrieving information from the particular social channel, but will also allow your audience to remain engaged with your app for longer. Keep in mind that users love to share their favourite things on social media – and this could be your app, your products, or an awesome discount that you are offering.
For this reason, with a no-code Drag & Drop app builder such as Beezer, you can easily integrate social media accounts to enhance your mobile app features.
2. User feedback
Next on our list of must-have mobile app features, and one that is particularly customer-centric, is the ability to allow users to express themselves and share their app experience. Giving them the option to provide instant feedback is not only a great way to eliminate calls to the tech support department, but it’s also a golden mine for improving your app over time by providing the exact features and functionalities that users need.
Many companies don’t like to receive negative opinions and don’t want to face them, but in reality, you should be grateful for any constructive feedback that you may get from your app users. Most people will simply uninstall your app without saying a word on what they didn’t like – for this reason, it is absolutely essential that you give them a tool to express themselves. And you should appreciate those that actually take the time to say something that you can use to improve.
3. Intuitive Navigation
Next on our list of mobile app features that any app should have, whether it is native, hybrid or progressive, is intuitive navigation. According to a comprehensive study conducted by eMarketer, over 14% of smartphone users have uninstalled or deleted their app because they find it unintuitive and really difficult to use.
Keep in mind that you are developing an app in order to make users’ lives easier in one way or another. Whether you are providing a product that they need, valuable news on their favourite teams, or great content on a topic they love, the way you deliver these functionalities should be easy to find, use, and navigate around. After all, you want to make people’s use of your app easier, not harder. An app that is impossible to navigate, and information is hidden or scattered all around the place, will simply frustrate users and make them leave.
The basic features and content of your app should be easily accessible, and they should load as quickly as possible. One way progressive web apps help with this is by using progressive enhancement technology, which loads the basic content of the app regardless of the users’ browser, Internet connectivity or bandwidth. Once the basic content is loaded, PWAs will then deliver the enhanced version for those users who have a faster Internet connection, additional browser features, and greater bandwidth.
Loading an app with too many features or content in your first version can be not only costly, but also detrimental to your app’s performance. Overstuffing your app with too many features that take forever to load will make your app less responsive and more data heavy, causing users to abandon it as a result.
4. Search option
Our list of must-have mobile app features continues with something that many companies still underestimate, and that is providing search options to make it easier for users to browse through your content.
For this reason, it is highly recommended that you add a dedicated search function to your app with the purpose of allowing users to locate content through relevant keywords and search phrases. This way, you will make their experience better, and it will make your content more easily accessible – which is exactly what we discussed in our previous point.
5. Push Notifications
Implementing push notifications within your app is definitely one of the most powerful mobile features for communicating with your audience in a more personalized and direct way.
Push notifications are clickable pop up messages that show up on the users’ device screen, and they are a great way to:
- Improve customer engagement;
- Increase conversion rates;
- Reach a high quality audience;
- Track KPIs.
You can use them to send personalized messages, offer enticing promotions and discounts, let users know about a new and exciting update, or simply wish them happy holidays. As opposed to other communication channels, push notifications allow you to engage with your audience in a less intrusive way. Because they are aimed solely at the user, you can provide them with content and updates that interest them.
Of course, many companies may misuse push notifications – if they don’t pay attention to timing, frequency or the content of their push notification, they can actually end up being intrusive if not used correctly. To leverage this powerful tool efficiently, we highly recommend that you read our previous article Top 9 Push Notification Best Practices for Better Results.
6. Advanced Analytics
Implementing advanced analytics into your app is a great way to understand user behaviour by tracking and measuring their activity within your app. This way, you can see what are the features that customers use the most, what pages and sections they visit, and how long they stay on your app.
You can also use app analytics to keep track of your app user evolution, the number of active devices, as well as your retention, conversion, and churn rates. Additionally, you can also measure the impact of your app updates and changes – was the update successful and were users happy with it? Did something go wrong?
For example, if you made an important update and users started seeing less pages or spending less time on your app overall, you may find out that the update had a negative impact on navigation or loading times. Paying attention to all these metrics and how they are related to one another is key for understanding user satisfaction and improving your app in the long run.
For this reason, companies that build their app with Beezer’s no code Drag and Drop builder have a powerful app analytics tool that they can use to improve their ongoing performance and have a better understanding of their audience.
7. QR or Barcode scanner
Next on our list of must have mobile app features is a QR or barcode scanner integration. This feature has become particularly important amidst the global coronavirus pandemic, especially in the hospitality sector where people should avoid touching commonly used and shared objects such as the physical menus at bars and restaurants.
For this reason, including a QR code integration so that people can easily scan your restaurant’s menu through your app is a key feature that will give people more ways to access your information. It will also save them time and improve the conversion rates of your app.
8. Device Adaptation and Compatibility
Undoubtedly, one of the most important mobile app features that companies should pay attention before developing their app to is the ability to provide different versions for different mobile devices.
If you are thinking of native mobile apps, you will most probably need to develop a separate app to be able to serve both the iOS and the Android app market, as they have different requirements. However, this is not an issue for progressive web apps – a single app can be used for all app stores, operating systems and browsers without having to pay for separate development.
This means that your progressive web app development would be significantly less costly compared to native mobile app development.
9. The ability to work offline
Our list of essential mobile app features continues with the ability of your app to work offline. Many users may want to access your content or certain functionalities even if they don’t have an Internet connection, so providing as much app usability as possible will be key for keeping them engaged and spending longer time on your app.
Progressive web apps, for example, automatically have the capability of operating even if there isn’t a network connection. Detailed information and the main features of the app will be stored via built-in service workers cache, providing this access whether there is connectivity or not.
Because all this data is automatically saved when the user access their app online, this means that they can always go back to it in offline mode. This feature is especially helpful for retailers who want their potential customers to continue browsing product catalogues even if they are not connected. And for this reason, it is undoubtedly one of the most important mobile app features for all businesses of considering mobile app development.
10. In-app sharing
Last on the list of mobile app features, but definitely not the least important, is the ability to provide in-app sharing for users. In today’s increasingly social world, people love sharing the content or products they love with their friends and family.
For this reason, and in combination with the social integration that we discussed previously, you should definitely consider both mobile app features to your app if you don’t have them yet. If you build your app with Beezer, users will be able to share content with their network via SMS, email or social media by using a single URL.
And since Beezer apps work across all devices and operating system types, they can be shared across previously incompatible devices.
Are you ready to build your own app and easily incorporate the must-have mobile app features that we just talked about? If you haven’t started yet, we highly recommend that you try Beezer’s Drag and Drop no code builder. Try it 30 days for free, and have your app in less than a few hours
