Importance of updating and app and its timing

Updating a mobile application is a periodic task that must be centered on the user experience. An app development company might test and okay an app in the first go but it is mass your target users who point out all the flaws that your development team could not have thought about. Especially, when your application is set to battle the chaotic android ecosystem; you would need to tweak your apps more often to keep your users happy and engaged. However, updation and bug fixing does not come without challenges. In addition to it there is a trend that suggests that regular updation leads to user loyalty but makes a cluster of your user-base annoyed with updates at times.

So what are the advantages of updating an application and when should it be done?

Importance of updating an application:

Keeping your customers happy:

There are always several lines of codes in an application. Still at its nascent stage, testing mobile apps remains tricky and dependent entirely on the developer. Hence, most of the mobile apps go through the second minor up-gradation which are mostly the bug-fixes. For a mass driven market, users emerge as the most important app testers and their dissatisfaction must be taken care as soon as possible by a mobile app development company.

Example: Fixing of incorrect listing of ‘Gravitational Escape” achievement in angry birds space and fixing it by the company.

Keeping up with the competition:

You competitors and you are in a constant tussle to increase and retain the respective user base. And to remain at the top it is essential to serve what others are not able to provide to your consumers. If your competitor adds an additional feature in the app and rolls it out for free, you would have to do the same or look into adding or updating an existing feature in your application.

Example: While Runtastic gives voice based updates of your workout sessions for the first 2 Kms, it is unlimited for Runkeeper. Other fitness apps are stuffed with features and have their own advantages. Runtastic rolled out a major update in the last year to its free app that included features from the paid versions with a better UI than before.

Giving value to your users:

When users are using two competing apps then they are always comparing between the applications as well. Be it only a visually distinguishing update, but If your application pushes an update that makes the UI feel a little better, you have got a high chance that your customers would feel rewarded. They are most likely to spend time in your application rather than competitors’ app.

The messenger app of facebook that updated itself quite often, was able to get some regular users due to the quirky UI changes and sounds.

Keeping the app abuzz:

There are many facets that can be improved an application. There is always a mix of UI elements and code patches when a particular update is rolled out which keeps the application alive in the user’s mind. A top app development company always goes by the user comments, especially the bad ones which opens up a lot of areas that developers can emphasize and work on to keep the app alive and kicking.

Utilizing new hardware and OS:

Who would have thought that the iPhone 5S would come with a fingerprint sensor? Apps that launched before the up-gradation must strategize to utilize the hardware feature to make it more valuable for the iPhone users. On the other hand, in android, the frequent up-gradation of the OS versions brings in a lot of opportunities which must be utilized by the app developers.

For example, the immersive mode of android allows users to access app in a full screen mode while the UI stays hidden.

When to update a mobile application:

A specific version of an app can be denoted by the set of 3 digits or 3 numbers. Say version 1.2.3. Here, ’1’ represents that it is the first major release. The ‘2’ would generally represent the 2nd minor revision while the ‘3’ represents the third bug fix of 2nd the minor revision. There are bug fixing and updation guidelines by the major app stores and they must be taken care by a developer.

Immersive mode in android Kitkat.</</p>

To update an app, developers must look into the app store reviews first and update your app when:

1. A large number of users are asking for a feature. Even if the result might not be very significant, you can make a lot of difference to their perception and greet them with an updated app.


2. You see a number of unused feature in your application. Remove those features. This will make the code lighter and might also help in faster code execution in many cases.


3. You observe that a feature is using causing a lot of problems and leading to bad user experience. Evaluate the consequences and remove the feature. Timehop, an iOS app has removed the messaging feature from the app as the makers say that less than 1% of the users used the feature.


4. A competitor app has arrived that has the potential to engage many of your users and make your app less engaging. In that scenario, add a similar feature. Remember instagram’s adding of the video capture that arrived after Vine was launched. The company also differentiated the feature as it gave a record time-frame of 15 seconds compared to 6 seconds in Vine.

App updation is a critical part that has to be carefully carried out in order to keep your existing user-base hooked into your app. If you want to update your app, various factors have to be considered, most of which are listed above. If you are facing ambiguities pertaining the frequency and focus of the updates it is always recommended to consult a professional app development company.