App Development Trends to Look Out

The smartphone industry has created a user base of over 6 billion people worldwide. These statistics have created a massive app development market across the globe. Thus, with each passing day, the app development industry is witnessing evolving trends. For the last few years, the world has witnessed an increased integration of modern technologies such as blockchain, AI, AR/VR, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and more. 

Additionally, Millions of apps under several categories such as food delivery, entertainment, traveling, business, etc exist today. And these existing apps or the invention of new apps are being impacted by the evolving trends massively. So, in this blog, we decided to shortlist the top 10 app development trends that might create an influence over the industry in 2023 as well. 

Rising growth of AI chatbots

One of the major trends in the current app market is AI chatbots. According to a report by Marketing Dive, 40% of millennials are engaging with chatbots every day. The reason behind the popularity of these chatbots is the level of customization they can offer to conversations by leveraging AI. With the help of technologies such as deep learning, these AI chatbots can leverage the massive amount of data to learn different languages, dialects, pronunciations, etc, and can understand customer queries even through calls. By detecting keywords in customer queries AI chatbots offer fast resolutions to eliminate waiting time. 

Leveraging 5G for better features and visuals

2022 and 2023 both are the years of the expansion of 5G across several regions of the world. This gives iOS and Android development companies an opportunity to integrate more features into their apps without worrying about slow loading times due to connection speeds. Apps can look better and support more features and more amount of data without slowing down. So, for 5G-supporting smartphones, new apps are expected to be optimized to run smoothly.

The increased rise in low-code or no-code platforms

Low-code or no-code platforms, as the name suggests, are designed for people with no or very less coding backgrounds so they can build their apps themselves. These tools come with already prepared features which can be dragged and dropped to create user interfaces of mobile apps. With almost everything already prepared in no-code or low-code development tools, developers focus on creating apps to release them faster with as less resources as possible.

Increasing apps for smartwatches

Smartwatches have already started offering apps for categories such as healthcare, calculator, messaging, music, etc. However, if you look at the above graph by Allied Market Research, the leading WatchOS app categories are Personal Assistance, Wellness, Healthcare, Sports, and more. With time, the number of apps available for smartwatches is increasing and new categories such as music streaming or gaming apps for WatchOS might see a boost in the near future.

Leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is one of the most user-friendly technologies existing in the 21st century. This technology has enabled the concept of wireless and as more and more apps are looking forward to making users’ lives more comfortable, the concept of wireless technologies is rising rapidly. Currently, IoT is used to control appliances, security hardware like CCTVs, toys, movie-making tools like drones, and more. 

Gamification of apps

Gamification is a concept already adopted by app categories such as elearning apps. Learning apps like Duolingo have adopted the concept to make learning languages fun with the help of fun quizzes. Gamification, in 2023, might see a rise in its popularity among more learning apps as it allows developers to boost their app engagement rates as well.

A rise in instant apps

These apps are like websites that you can instantly access and once you close them, you need to look for them again. These apps do not require installations but can provide users with a limited number of features instantly. Developers are leveraging instant apps as app demos as well and with the help of app stores like Google, they are providing a representation of the actual product to their potential target app users.

Increased usage of blockchain in apps

Blockchain has helped technologies in improving their cybersecurity standards and mobile apps are leveraging this opportunity. The technology is helping app developers in deploying advanced security algorithms on servers to keep user data and app data safe. Additionally, apps using blockchain servers are also way faster due to the fast performance ability of blockchain. The transparency feature also makes it easier for developers to locate and fix any kind of possible glitches or errors in the app code.

The growing popularity of AR/VR technologies

Mobile apps are looking forward to using AR/VR technologies to offer more personalized content to users. Apps like IKEA have been key players in using AR technology to give customers a presentation of the product they want to purchase. AR, by interacting with the real world, offers a demo of how the selected product can look in real life. VR is used to provide app users with realistic experiences and education and gaming app developers have been major contributors to increasing the popularity of this technology on smartphones.

Onboarding Metaverse to offer its services on smartphones

Metaverse is another one of the top examples that app developers are bringing to smartphones to help users in accessing it easily. The technology, with the help of AR/VR, can help users in experiencing it the way Metaverse users of other platforms use it. From shopping to hanging out with friends, Metaverse through apps will become more accessible.

Wrapping up

Well, these were some of the leading app development trends that we are expecting to witness in 2023. For these technologies that we discussed above like 5G and Metaverse, 2023 is a good year as Covid had already halted their deployment across large markets in the world. As most of 2022 was spent in making these technologies available to the masses, 2023 is expected to make these technologies more accessible and leverage these technologies to their best potential by using several tools including mobile apps.