Mobile app trends 2023

Mobile app trends to keep an eye on in 2023

1. AR/VR technology

AR/VR technology has continued to evolve in recent years and is having a strong impact on entertainment media, e-commerce and many other sectors. Customers enjoy the immersive experiences that AR/VR technology can offer, such as trying on clothes online, viewing a table in an online store through their smartphone in their own living room or experiencing various attractions through virtual reality. It is therefore only natural that these technologies are increasingly being used in mobile apps.

2. Artificial intelligence

Analytics tools have been around for a long time, but advances in artificial intelligence and big data analysis have dramatically changed the way in which collected data can be used. With personalization becoming an increasingly important part of digital products, the use of analytics data for recommendations within an app has taken on a central role. Popular apps such as Spotify make extensive use of such recommendation algorithms to provide an outstanding user experience, which is a key reason for many customers to choose a service.

3. Beacon technology

When it comes to artificial intelligence and big data analysis, there are numerous ways to collect important data from customers. However, Bluetooth beacons can be a particularly valuable source of data here. The technology itself was introduced back in 2013, but today its possibilities are more diverse than ever. Basically, a Bluetooth beacon simply constantly sends low-energy Bluetooth signals that can be received by nearby devices. However, these signals can easily be used to collect data on customer behavior or, for example, to send notifications or trigger other functions of an app as soon as a customer walks past a specific beacon.

4. Cyber security

Although security in itself cannot really be considered a trend, it is undeniable that with daily reports of cybercrime, awareness of the risks of cyber attacks is steadily increasing. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to focus on developing secure applications that your customers can trust. A survey by Statista found that almost 45% of iOS and Android users would stop using a mobile app and recommend their friends to do the same if they believed an app was not secure. Testing apps during development is crucial to discovering vulnerabilities before release, as customers will no longer trust a brand or company if there are signs that their data has been compromised. One approach to improving the security of an app is to use biometric data to log into the app - i.e. fingerprint or facial recognition.

5. Kotlin replaces Java

For the longest time, Java was was the Programming language for Android development. With Kotlin, developers have an alternative - similar to Swift and Objective-C for iOS.

Learning Kotlin is also easy for many mobile developers due to its similarity to Java, C# and Swift. Kotlin and Java can be used side by side in a project, so migrating from one to the other should be smooth. With many "quality of life" improvements that avoid common mistakes when using Java, the humorous nickname "Java on steroids" seems to fit well. This is why Kotlin is now also being used in other areas of programming - for example in the classic backend with a REST interface.

Although Kotlin has long been the better choice for many and even Google is already making loud recommendations in favor of Kotlin, many projects are still being developed with Java. In the meantime, however, around 60% of all Android developers have already switched to Kotlin. With its growing popularity among developers and successful use in many commercial projects, 2023 may be the year when Kotlin finally replaces Java.

6. Cross platform technology

For those who don't know exactly what "cross-platform" means, let me give you a brief introduction. Cross-platform development basically means that an application can be developed once (with a single code base) and deployed to several different platforms such as Android and iOS.

This saves an enormous amount of resources that would have to be spent on implementing the same logic multiple times for different platforms. This is also the main reason why so many companies rely on cross-platform technologies.

The idea of cross-platform development has been around for many years and has been growing in popularity ever since. Big tech companies saw their opportunity and invested in the development of such cross-platform technologies - the current key players are probably Facebook with React Native and Google with Flutter and Dart.

But for a few years now, a new big player has been working on their answer to the cross-platform debate. Jetbrains, a developer of popular development tools, has developed "Kotlin Multiplatform" - a cross-platform technology that takes a different approach to its competitors. While others layer overdifferent platforms to unify them all, Jetbrains has created a layer between the different platforms. By allowing developers to freely share Kotlin code between Android and iOS applications, they also eliminate the need to rewrite a large portion of an application for each platform, while retaining the freedom to utilize all platform-specific features and benefits.

A very apt comparison to this:

"Kotlin Multiplatform puts a new tool in the developer's hand to solve the problem, while others swap out the whole toolbox."

Big companies like Netflix or Cash App have already put their trust in Jetbrains and their Kotlin Multiplatform technology and used it to build their mobile apps.

So, in short, Kotlin Multiplatform offers other important benefits besides saving time and effort by using cross-platform technology in general:

• Seamless integration into existing projects

• Native performance

• Access to all device functions without overhead

7. Mobile commerce

The term "mobile commerce" describes online stores that take place on mobile apps that are permanently installed on customers' smartphones instead of on websites in the browser. With people spending more and more time in apps and in-app payments on the rise, it seems much more reasonable for many users to download an app to store in a store than it was a few years ago.

Due to the COVID pandemic, which has forced many people to shop online, many customers now have some kind of mobile wallet set up on their phone and are used to buying online. Native apps can contribute to a better shopping experience through better performance and the ease of in-app payments. Easy access to your store's rewards program through the app, for example, can also significantly increase adoption by your customers. For these reasons, more and more retailers are investing in mobile apps to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

8. Content management for mobile apps

For the longest time, content management systems (CMS) were used exclusively to manage the content of a single website. With the rise of headless CMS - which allow content to be distributed across multiple channels from websites to mobile apps to info screens in your local mall - it has become increasingly practical and attractive to manage the content of a mobile app with such tools. Having a single source of information for all of an organization's channels saves valuable resources that would otherwise be wasted applying changes to a variety of systems, and ensures that all published information is communicated consistently across all platforms.

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