Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid when building a Mobile App

When you submit an app to the store, you compete with million others in the same category. With both the stores receiving over 20 submissions every hour, the chance of your new app getting down in the list is highly probable.

What makes it even more possible are the small mistakes that are commonly made by companies in ignorance.

Here are the top 7 mistakes that companies make, which you should pay attention to while getting your app developed by a mobile app development company.

1. Making the app for multiple platforms at the same time 

One of the biggest mistakes that is neither time efficient or cost efficient is making the app for multiple platforms at the same time. When you aim to make an app for both iPhone and Android at the same time, you end up putting in extra cost in the different tools and expertise that both the platforms individually calls for.

What you should, as a mobile app brand, should focus on at this stage is to develop the app for the platform where your majority audience is. Once you have analyzed that, make the app for the specific platform and then eventually expand to the other platform.

2. Too many features

It is a common belief, populated by the mobile app marketers that app users look for an app that has a lot of features and is a one stop for all of their varied needs. But truth is farther away from this belief.

If you look at some of the top ranking and most used mobile apps, you will find that they all focused on limited features, which were crucial for the app to serve its purpose.

Having too many features not just make your app slow, but also leaves little to no imagination, making users getting really bored really fast.

3. Not testing the app enough

For a user there is nothing else that decide the future of an app than its functionality and speed. You cannot expect to get this information by showing the app to limited people or by restricting the testers to those in your company.

To know how people are liking your app, you will have to send it across to the class of end users who will ultimately be using it. Only by getting your app tested by both technical and non-technical group of people will you be able to analyze the performance.

4. Not including Analytics

There are so many factors that you need to know and measure after your app has reached the market. Just making an app and promoting it is not enough. You even has to know how your users are behaving on it.

Having the right set of analytical tools in place will give you an idea of the time people are spending on your app, the elements that are making them quit the app, and how they are responding to the offers that you have included in the app.

5. Too many notifications

One of the most turn off elements in an app are the constant notifications. Even though they are an important element when it comes to engaging users, the timing and frequency can have a bad effect on the business growth. You wouldn’t want to annoy your users and send them the other way.

Giving your users the control to turn off notifications is what you can implement in your app to retain them in the long run.

6. Making the app an extension of website

Adding in the list of mistakes that companies do while developing their apps is creating an extension of their website. The value that your website is offering to the end users should be different than what your website offers them.

Your app is supposed to be a different platform for the users in terms of value, end benefit, and experience. The user experience should be adjusted according to the native mobile interface and not for browsing on mobile.

7. Not thinking of app monetization

The ultimate reason behind making an app is to generate income from it and still one of the most common mistakes that companies make is not thinking of how they would generate money from their app.

There are a number of options when it comes to monetizing mobile apps. You can either choose to go with paid downloads, paywalls, Freemium or focus on In-app purchase, in app advertising, or sponsorship. Whatever you choose from the list of monetization options, whether individually or in a combination, should offer returns to you.

These are just the six mistakes that should be avoided at all costs while developing an app, but there can be many else as well. While you cannot prepare your app for all of them, try and solve as much as possible on time and keep space to handle issues as and when they come.