Developing and releasing a mobile app can be a great way for a business to boost brand awareness, increase sales, encourage brand loyalty, and keep up with the latest advertising trends. Today, mobile and web applications have become an essential part of daily life and there’s an app for pretty much everything. But when a business releases a new app, it will eventually require an update or risk becoming out of touch with the latest trends and customer expectations. With so much competition in the app market these days, continuously updating your app is the best way to make sure that it stays ahead. Here are some key signs that it’s time to give your app a major update.
You’re Adding New Features
Whenever you add a new feature to your app, you will need to also issue a major update. There are a variety of common reasons for releasing new features on your app, including extending its functionality with third-party integrations, capitalising on a current trend, addressing customer feedback, or adding the ability for the app to authenticate and sync across various devices. If you need to issue a major update to your app for any reason you should address this as soon as possible. Having an app with new features can help you secure more custom. You can learn to increase your app downloads here. This will make your investment into new features worthwhile.
Your App Needs Redesigning
There are many reasons why you might want to change the entire design of your app, but whatever the reasons behind it, it will also require a major update. New app designs either happen to improve UX by revamping the entire app or to increase the efficiency and productivity of the app by building new functionalities into the design. If you want your app to stay successful and current over time, it’s important to periodically update the design; not only will it ensure that you can keep up to date with current trends, but it will also keep your users engaged by offering a new and fresh experience.
Performance Issues Need to Be Addressed
If your app has been on the market for some time and you are worried due to a drop in performance, it might be the right time to have a major update. The success of your app directly depends on its performance, and it’s important to ensure that performance metrics are of the best quality in order to grow your app’s audience and keep it profitable. There are several parameters that you can use in order to evaluate the performance of your app, including the number of active users, the amount of time that users tend to spend on your app, and the retention rate of your customers.
User Feedback
Users are extremely crucial to your app and because of this, it’s a terrible practice to ignore their feedback. In fact, user feedback can be one of the most important factors when it comes to getting an insight into what’s working and what isn’t. If only a small group of users are asking for something to be changed then a major update might not be needed, however, if most of your users are providing negative feedback about functionality or a certain feature, it’s important to meet their demands by releasing a major update.
Your Code is Outdated
Code is subject to constant change, and today, code that’s just two years old might be obsolete. The codebase of an app is a complete source code that maintains the functionality of an app. When a developer builds an app, they will typically define a period of time after which the old version of an application will no longer be able to function correctly. If an app is running on an outdated codebase, it might use functionality or become incompatible when used with current smartphone and tablet operating systems.
You Need to Reach New Devices or Platforms
It’s possible that your app might be intended for a specific device or operating system. However, in today’s day and age, it can be very difficult to succeed if your app isn’t designed to work across multiple operating systems and devices. Releasing a major update that ensures your app is compatible with new devices and platforms will ensure that you are able to continue reaching new audiences. This type of major update will need to consider a range of factors including graphics resolution, technology stacks, and display orientation, for example, in order to deliver a strong performance across the wide range of devices and platforms used by your audience.
Security Improvements are Needed
Finally, with privacy breaches and hacking constantly making headlines, even the most loyal of users are likely to unsubscribe from an app that is putting their security at risk. In order to achieve better security, you may need to release a major update of your app with new security features to protect uses.
If you’ve noticed any of the above with your brand’s mobile app, it might be time to put a major update in place.
