As people are increasingly becoming mobile-savvy, there is an exponential rise of mobile apps on the app-store and play-store.
As per Statista
- As of the fourth quarter of 2024, users can choose between 2.47 million apps on Play-Store and 1.8 million apps on App- Store.
- In 2024,mobile apps are projected to generate more than 581 billion U.S. dollars and predicted to be 935 billion in 2024 via paid downloads and in-app advertising.
The above stats show huge demand for mobile apps in the coming time.
But, building a great app isn’t just enough; Entrepreneurs need a sustainable app; they constantly need to look for improvements, changes in customer demands, global market condition and so on.
Mobile app companies need to incorporate some of the imminent mobile app trends for 2024 in order to match the pace.
Here is the comprehensive list of the modern mobile app development trends of 2024
A) The Dominancy Of Mobile DevOps
Mobile DevOps is the process and approach aiming to provide continuous integration and continuous delivery in least time.
The steps of Mobile DevOps includes:measuring, ideation, building, testing, shipping, and monitoring. These steps enable the team to understand the specific requirements of mobile, help them to streamline the workflow, and execute task as fast as possible.
Adopting Mobile DevOps can be a beneficial for organizations as it ensures the team to become productive.Consequently, we may witness high adoption rate in 2024.
B) Extensive Use of Mobile Analytics
Mobile Analytics tracks and analyze the data of app users to know the app’s performance and understand user behavior. With the increase in mobile app adoption, The analyzed data can help application development companies to reach their consumers easily.
According to the Global News Wire, The mobile analytics market was valued at USD 2.66 billion in 2024, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 9.24 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 23.12% over the forecast period (2024-2024)
With such great acceptance ratio, we can predict the high demand of mobile analytics in 2024.
C) Use of Cross-Platform Framework with Native UI functionalities
A cross-platform app – Single app capable to run on more than one platform with single code base. It helps to overcome challenges of native app development like budgeting, storage, and time.
React Native and Flutter are the two most popular cross-platform frameworks being used to develop thousands of mobile app.
Both frameworks are backed bytech giant Facebook and Google respectively. They have strong community support to keep documentation up-to-date with API references and comprehensive resources.
Due to varied functionalities and features of React Native and Flutter, the future of these cross-platform frameworks looks promising and demand may surge in 2024 and beyond.
D) The Rise of Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality apps
Augmented and Virtual Reality apps have already expanded its boundaries by creating immersive experience in gaming and entertainment industries.
With the rising innovations in recent years, varied industries have started developing apps with the focus on creating 3D environments instead of 2D. For instance: IKEA, Ingress, Pokémon Go etc. are some of the mobile apps using VR and AR to create immersive experience.
MR being still being infancy, it is expected to be the most used technology in coming years. Tech companies like Microsoft and Mozilla will bring hi-tech MR products in coming years which will increase the acceptance of Mixed Reality.
According to Statista,
- As of 2024, estimates suggest that the consumer market for immersive technology will bring in around 10.6 billion dollars in revenue around the world
- The augmented and virtual reality marketis forecast to grow into a 160-billion-dollar market by 2024, as the consumer electronic devices which enable the use of these technologies become increasingly available
Undoubtedly, it can be predicted that in 2024 and beyond, AR, VR, and MR can offer us an exceptional experience.
E) Lite Apps – The Major Turning Point
Large apps can be difficult to download especially for the phones that have limited storage facility. So, the companies like Spotify, Skype, Tinder, Instagram, YoutTube, Pinterest, Uber,etc.have come up with the lite version of the app especially for lower-end devices.
According to research,
- TikTok’s Lite app has reached over12 million downloadssince August according to TechCrunch.
- Facebook Lite has 1 billion downloads and growing as of now on the Google Play Store.
Lite apps can be a major trend in 2024 as companies are looking forward to increasing their user base andcompete in the market.
F) Growing Call for Instant Apps
In 2016, Google came up with the concept of Instant apps with the aim to provide native app experience without downloading the application. This doesn’t hold up extra space in your phone and eliminates the mess of installing needless apps on device.
Companies like SkyScanner, NYTimes Crossword, BuzzFeed, RedBull TV etc. are already taking the advantage of Instant apps.
Advantages
- Limited consumption of storage space
- Higher user retention
- Ease of access
Looking at its features and benefits, it can be predicted that there will be rise of instant apps in coming future.
G) Progressive Web Apps To Gain High Attention
PWA is the web apps that use the technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScriptto provide native app like experience.
Without downloading from app-store or play-store, PWA loads, runs, and functions in the web browser and works in the area of low-connectivity.
With PWA,
- Tinder cuts down the load time from 91 seconds to 4.69 seconds
- Forbes takes only 2.5 seconds to load on mobile compared to 6.5 seconds for its previous site.
- Flipkart’s PWA is driving 50% of its new customer acquisition.
From Starbucks to Twitter, most of the booming brands are moving towards PWA. As PWA continues to grow, bigger and better things awaits in 2024 and beyond.
H) The Focus on Electronic Wallet
As per Wikipedia, An electronic wallet also known as “e-Wallet” or “digital wallet”which refers to an electronic device or online service that allows an individual to make electronic transactions.
Today, e-wallet has become one of the most preferred payment modes due to its ease of access, fast, convenience, security, and availability.
Mobile wallet applications like Amazon Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, etc. are already gaining immense popularity. As the world is adopting cashless approach, demand can surge in coming years.
I) Increase in Beacon Apps
Beacon – Tiny device sending signals to other nearby devices with the help of low energy Bluetooth technology. Since its inception Beacon technology kept on growing. It was initially used for navigation and gradually became useful for many industries like Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Education, Defense, Automobile, etc.
According to the GlobalNewsWire, Global beacon technology market stood at $ 1.17 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 45.5% during 2024-2024
J) 5G is the next battleground
The next-gen network technology is all set to revolutionize the networking space. 10 times faster than a current internet connection, shorter frequency, lower latency rate, more reliable connections, etc. are some of the expected perks of 5G connection.
5G will revolutionize every industry vertical enabling businesses and consumers to experience innovative technologies.
K) AI and Machine Learning to become smarter
The blend of AI and ML has made significant growth in past years and still continues to grow. Apart from the apps like Siri, Alexa, Faceapp, Prisma, etc, we will see various apps featuring AI-based cameras, voice translations, cybersecurity etc.
In the coming years, AI and ML will help to make more intelligent applications, generate recommendations based on past data, make automated decisions and predict precise outcomes.
From entertainment to the education industry, the next wave of mobile applications will use AI-ML to deliver more personalized experience.
L) Development of IoE apps
IoE isa wider form of IoT that includes IoT and other technologies to sense the environment and communicate for data exchange.
Currently, IoT applications are used to control smart homes, smartwatches, fitness trackers, etc. On the contrary, we will witness IoE apps which will have potential of big data to deliver more useful business insights.
IoE connects people, processes, data, and things to improve business functions and gain competitive advantage. CISCO was one of the initial companies to harness the full potential of IoE.
IoE still being in the early phase, we may witness its more traction in the coming years.
M) Cloud AppsTo Inflate
Cloud technology is already impactingthe mobile app world by enabling to store massive amount of information. Businesses are just no longer limited to use the storage facility of the devices.
With the increasing demand to access the data on the go, most of the companies today use AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, etc.
Gartner projects the cloud services industry to grow exponentially through 2024.
With such a fast growth rate, mobile apps may boost up storage capabilities which can save costs and results in convenience.
N) Chatbots To Take A Leap
The chatbot is a piece of software that enables humans to interact through voice commands or text around the clock. It is one of the preferred mobile apps for consumers to interact with the brand
The size of the chatbot market is forecast to reach around 1.25 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, a great increase from the market size in 2016, which stood at 190.8 million U.S. dollars.
Source – Statista
Thus, it can be estimated that chatbot apps are an integral part of the businesses to communicate. In coming years, chatbots are likely to use advanced predictive analytics to understand customer’s conversations and solve their queries.
Mobile App Trends in 2024 and Beyond
While there is no crystal ball to decide how these tech trends will help to develop sustainable mobile apps in 2024. But, Businesses will continue to develop mobile apps by leveraging the power of trends to optimize the operations and improve customer experience.
With innovations developing at a rapid rate, it will be exciting to observe what 2024 has stored in.
I am Ankit Kumar, Business Development Manager at SPEC INDIA. As a tech enthusiastic person I also write and share content on latest tech trends, news, tips related to software and more.