Each year is a new beginning and we welcome the year 2022 especially after the devastating pandemic of 2020. The technology was impacted as anything else. With the rapid expansion of mobile apps, new trends emerge that shape the industry. Let’s have a look at what’s new in 2021 in terms of mobile app development. We will come up with the top 10 mobile app development trends.
5G Technology
5G is going to be 100 times faster than 4G. In the case of 5G technology, the delay between sending and receiving information is very short. If 4G was 200 milliseconds, 5G is 1 millisecond.
Does this tell anything to you about mobile app development? Sure it does. Apps are going to be developed using 5G technology. Apple, Broadcom, Samsung, T-Mobile US jumped to 5G and it is a good sign that we’re getting ready to start transferring into the 5G era.
M-Commerce
M-commerce or mobile commerce is going to be a trend in 2021. Is it a surprise after the lockdown of 2020? Consumers started making transactions online and their behavior is learned for life. Now that you can sit in the comfort of your home and make a purchase, most will rarely go back to retail. And retail services will either close or adjust to the new needs of mobile commerce. This relates to anything from food to appliances.
Subscription-Based Services
Ever thought that you could start a service like Netflix? To your surprise or not, Netflix’s revenues are solely generated from subscriptions. Spotify, Google Workspace, HubSpot are also prospering.
Subscription-based services are going to expand to new sectors in 2021. From gaming to education, medicine, and hospitality services, we look at service-focused industries that are trying to make things cheaper for customers by embracing subscription business models.
For mobile app development, this means that these industries are going to expand their cloud services, breaking the current need of keeping updating their PC hardware or buying new consoles.
Wearables
Let’s talk about wearable technology. These are smart electronic devices that are worn on the body to detect and transmit information like pulse rate, intake of oxygen, and so on. With the rise of this technology, new wearable apps emerged in healthcare, fitness and sports, and more. For example, Calm offers meditation lessons for a daily meditation routine.
Recordr lets users record surrounding sounds by just a single tap on the right icon on their smartwatches.
There are other apps that use wearable technology with millions of users like Telegram, Spotify, Bring, Google Pay, Runkeeper, and more.
Blockchain
The world needs secure transactions. And blockchain is far the best solution for cybersecurity. In terms of mobile app development, we are witnessing decentralized apps or Dapps that don’t need a mediator to function or manage the information. This technology is being spread across various industries — from healthcare to banking to government.
Dubai, for instance, intended to expand blockchain in the city by 2020. Alibaba also announced it will use Anti Financial’s blockchain technology in Kaola, China’s №2 cross-border import retail e-commerce platform, after Tmall Global.
Augmented Reality
For some, it seems a bit funny. But AR may do wonders in healthcare and hospitality, just to mention some. What about the design and construction industry? AR and VR are already extremely popular in the gaming and video industry.
Augmented reality apps do not sound futuristic anymore. The consumers are just excited. About 60 percent of them prefer stores with AR technology and 40 percent are ready to pay more when experiencing wares with AR. Does this tell you anything about app development? No wonder augmented reality is among our top 10 mobile app development trends.
Flip Phones
Today, some people tend to prefer good old flip phones. They believe, and not without any reason, that these phones are more durable, simple, and affordable. For UX designers this means they have to extend the standard rectangle app to additional screen apps. There are some offers in the market already, including from Samsung (Samsung Galaxy Z Flip), Motorola Razr, Nokia (Nokia 2720 Flip), and more.
Edge Computing
Let’s first see what is edge computing and why it matters. Basically, edge computing is bringing computation and data storage closer to its usage location than relying on a central server or cloud-based location. This is done so that the data does not suffer latency issues. Apart from this, companies also save money by processing the data locally.
What does this mean for the developers? 75% of developed data will be generated and processed locally by 2022, according to Gartner.
Dropbox, for example, has developed edge technology for better connectivity and faster file access. Nest, a producer of IoT home automation devices, also applies edge computing for thermostats, cameras, and security systems.
For developers, it means they need to provide real-time applications that run on the edge allowing much less time for data to be processed.
Event Streaming
The year 2020 will be remembered not only for its devastating impact of the pandemic but also for the change of consumer behavior. Almost all workshops, conferences, concerts went live online. Not only did this help to overcome the hardships of the lockdown but also brought a new way of doing things. Today international events are held online without the need to travel long distances. Apps that will help concerts and other live events to be held online with a big audience, like TikTok, will be very popular. There is a very small probability that people will go back to offline events completely. Most probably we will witness hybrid events.
IoT
According to IDC, investment in IoT is expected to go over $1 trillion by 2022, and the development of mobile apps for that purpose goes hand in hand. The app development industry has to face the reality of smart homes and smart appliances. ‘’Smart homes’’ are starting to grow in number and will intensively affect mobile development.
Last Words
These were just 10 top app development trends to follow in 2021. The list is much longer. Addevice, an app development company, considers these trends in the development process. And not only these top ten.
Here are a few others that our mobile team considers when developing apps that are on a competitive edge:
- Artificial Intelligence: chatbots and voice assistants;
- Mobile wallets;
- Biometric authentication;
- Accelerated mobile pages and Progressive Web Applications;
- Foldable displays;
- Mature hybrid mobile app development frameworks.
Learn more about Augmented Reality App Development
