Author: Abhishek Kalyan

List of Leading Databases for React Native App Development

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

React Native app development has become a prime choice for SMEs seeking rapid growth while saving time and money. The increasing demand for this approach is encouraging React Native app developers to create high-performance offline-first applications that can be scaled whenever required. This, in turn, has led them to take a lot of prerequisites into account for developing robust cross-platform apps. React Native database is one of the most important factors among them, which is also deemed the backbone of an app.

In this article, we have curated a few names that are worthy of being listed in leading React Native databases.

So let’s dive in…

Realm

The Realm database was launched for facilitating the development of real-time and offline apps, which run seamlessly on both mobile and wearable devices. The database is equally valuable when it comes to creating cross-platform apps using React Native. 

Realm has its own database engine and doesn’t rely on the key-value stores. This is why React Native app developers prioritize this database. Besides, it helps them in handling massive data and developing large-sized applications.

Benefits of Realm for React Native App Development:

1. Realm Sync – Realm synchronization services operate in the background to record and save the user interaction and the service requests offline. Once the device is online, it sends back data to the server and executes the operations without affecting the user experience.

2. Offline Friendliness through Redux Offline – For those seeking a way to integrate offline-first architecture for React Native applications through Realm, Redux can be the best option. Redux suffices almost all the arbitrary requirements of offline-based architecture.

3. Security – Realm utilizes various encryption standards for each mobile platform.

SQLite

SQLite is a relational database management system designed to provide local storage to mobile apps. This database has a lightweight library and requires minimal setup. The key benefit of SQLite is that it can be integrated within the app for accessing the database directly.

1. ACID-compliant – SQLite is an ACID-compliant database which implements SQL standards, although with some omissions. This database has a file-based architecture with some tools that can easily handle all types of data

2. Offline Persistence – To enable this functionality, developers can implement a react-native-SQLite-storage plugin to manage data within the application.

Firebase

Firebase supports real-time NoSQL database for React Native app development. It is mainly used for offline data synchronization as well as data modification. This database is completely capable of sufficing the requirements of M and C in MVC needed for React Native apps.

Benefits of Firebase for React Native App Development:

1. Real-Time Data Sync – The most significant advantage of using Firebase for React Native is that the data is synced in real-time across all the clients simultaneously. This plays a vital role when the app goes offline due to no internet connection.

2. Minimal Setup – Firebase offers a cross-platform API that requires minimal setup while using it within an app. Besides, React Native app developers won’t need an application server to access data as it can directly be done through a mobile device.

3. Offline Persistence – The blend of Firebase and React Native allows developers to create real-time applications having offline persistence capabilities. This includes marking users’ online or offline presence and storing a timestamp when users get disconnected.

PouchDB

PouchDB is an open-source JavaScript database that stores data in JSON format and allows developers to create, read, update, delete, and query objects using a simple JavaScript API. The API can be accessed with a single call on React Native, which is also a JavaScript-based platform. Additionally, PouchDB is compatible with CouchDB, MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

Benefits of PouchDB for React Native App Development:

1. PouchDB eliminates the need for performing queries over the network, as the database stays inside a browser. This results in faster and more optimized execution of the queries.

2. React Native app developers can sync data with any supported server, resulting in both online as well as the offline working of the application.

Async Storage Class

This is a local storage system designed to allow developers to store data locally and persistently over the device. The database comes in-built with React Native and can be used without additional deployment. However, Async storage is not suggested while dealing with massive data due to slow runtime and no indexing capabilities. 

Benefit of Async Storage for React Native App Development:

  • It enables developers to save data that the application needs to use even after the users close the application.

Vasern

Vasern is a fast, lightweight, and open-source database for React Native. The API of this database is used not only for local data storage but also for cloud storage as well as synchronization across the app’s clients. Vasern is developed using Goland, which is a server-side language introduced by Google. Besides, its design and structures are inspired by multiple open-source databases.

Benefits of Vasern for React Native App Development:

  • It is open-source
  • Focus on consistency and performance 
  • Write schemas. Create, Update, Query, and Delete records.
  • Developer friendly end-to-end database syncing
  • Operate quickly

Watermelon

Built on SQLite, Watermelon is a reactive database for React Native. It comes with the capability of scaling tens of thousands of records without losing its speed. The database is well-optimized for developing complex apps in React Native with maximum attention on real-world performance.

Benefits of Watermelon for React Native App Development:

Besides scaling a multitude of record, Watermelon allows developers to leverage React Native through:

  • Offline-first system
  • Static typing with Flow 
  • Developing apps on SQLite foundation

Final Words

While these are the leading React Native databases currently, there are plenty of other backend tools React Native app developers can use to build robust applications. The answer to which is the best database ultimately depends on the type of your project. To figure out which database would fit perfectly to your project and align with your requirements, approach the experts of our React Native app development company.

How IoT Can Benefit the Education

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Education is the most powerful tool we have in our possession. By educating more and more people, we can drive a better social and technological change, leading to a more prosperous future. Thus, it is imperative to improve the education in terms of access as well as quality.

Technological advancements have significantly impacted education globally. Among all the technologies, the internet has the most profound effect on the way we educate and learn. Today, you can take a Harvard class right from your living room. You can replace high schools with online resources, learn new skills from YouTube, and even take degrees online.

But what’s next? Is there any other technology that can immensely benefit the education system? Obviously, there is. IoT is the technology that has radically revolutionized almost all the industry verticals. The IoT app developers believe that this innovation is one of the next technological advancements in schools, universities, and education in general.

Below, we have explored the role of IoT in education to unearth the boundless opportunities offered by this technology.

Note: If you already know the IoT impact on education and want to adopt this technology, reach out to an experienced IoT app development company.

Now let’s dive in…

Smart Classrooms

We can anticipate that future classrooms will be driven by technology. Augmented Reality (AR) will make the dissection day more humane by eliminating the need for real animals. Virtual Reality (VR) will replace the science class with a true-to-size display of the particles that make up life.

However, the foundation on which these classrooms will operate is the Internet of Things. Occupancy sensors can automatically detect and record the attendance of the students. Wearable devices will determine if the class is disengaged, tired, or need a break, and the whiteboards will record all the notes taken in the class. An IoT network will completely automate all the functions of the class.

Foreign Language Instruction

The most popular way of learning foreign languages is immersion, where one gets real-time feedback from teachers. For example, while learning French in France, you can get instant feedback from native speakers for free. However, such an environment is hard to recreate in other countries where French is spoken.

This is where IoT comes in handy. Utilizing connected devices, foreign language instructors can create a simulation environment to check whether students have made a correct statement, monitor their progress, and provide them real-time feedbacks irrespective of their location.

Task-Based Learning

IoT will impeccably impact the way we teach because connected devices or systems free up the teachers from monitoring students, allowing them to facilitate learning and educate seamlessly. In task-based learning, students learn-by-doing, and instructors help them when required. IoT-enabled systems provide assistance, feedback, and classroom-level monitoring automatically. By signaling teachers for help through an IoT device, no student will get too far ahead or falls too far behind – an issue that has always persisted in the classroom.

Disability Accommodation

IoT is extremely beneficial for disabled learners. For instance, hearing-impaired students may use a pair of smart sign language interpretation gloves and a tablet to translate sign language into audible speech and thus convert sound into written language. Using IoT devices is the best way to provide educational assistance to disable learners or students.

Final Words

IoT may take some time to gain mainstream adoption in education. The fundamental purpose of the IoT applications is to shed light on the massive benefits one can yield by integrating IoT into educational environments. So, we can conclude that IoT can contribute a lot to improving the quality and accessibility of education.

To create an IoT-based solution and facilitate learning globally, approach our IoT app developers.

7 Unique Features of a News App You Must Know

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

People love to read new things – be it a geopolitical situation or technology updates. But in this fast-paced world, who has got time to stay updated with the latest news? This is where the demand for news app comes into view.

News apps offer easy access to every kind of information. Instead of buying a newspaper and adding to the clutter in your bag or on your office desk, it is way easier to open a news app in your smartphone and scroll news on the screen. Besides, news apps save trees.

For businesses that publish news, the benefits of a mobile application are enormous. Adapting a mobile-driven approach considerably enhances your audience reach, especially the younger generation. Besides, news apps also make older people more mobile-centered. The larger the audience base, the more the revenue.

So, if you want to fuel your business with a news app, investing in iOS/Android app development services would be the best idea.

But before embarking on an app development journey, let’s explore a few features that can make your news application stand out.

Convenient News Viewing

A news app allows users to read location-based news. For instance, a user from the USA would get news updates related to the people living there. Additionally, people who don’t have time to read detailed articles can browse over the headlines to stay abreast of the happenings around the world. If they find a headline matching their interest, they can read the whole article in depth. You can also add images, GIFs, or videos to make articles more interesting and appealing.

Breaking news

Plenty of historical and political events take place across the globe daily. It is a known fact that some news is more vital than others. Users should be able to distinguish such essential information.

This is why a news app pins breaking news at the top of other news. You can also send push notifications to inform them about the breaking and latest news using your app. Besides, you can display these notifications on the lock screen of their mobile devices to improve their experience.

Smart View

Most news apps work online, and articles can only be viewed if the device has internet connectivity. However, with the SmartView feature, you can allow your users to consume news offline without any hassle. This feature was built into the news API for Japanese users commuting in the Tokyo subway. In this feature, the web view is removed, which reduces data consumption.

Categories

Using this feature, users can browse news through various categories such as Top, Tech, Sport, Science, Social, Entertainment, Lifestyle, and more. Since each user has unique interests, an AI-based news app provides them with an option to tap and remove a category they’re not interested in.

Discover and Add Channels

The users can customize their newsfeed by searching the name of publishers and news channels they want to follow. After discovering, they can add channels that publish news articles related to their interest. Integrating this feature will make your news app a notch better than your competitors.

Share and Report

It is our tendency to share stuff we find interesting or useful with our mates. Allowing users to share articles via platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Gmail, etc. will help you improve your app installation rate through word-of-mouth. Additionally, they can also report their concerns over any news or articles they find inappropriate.

For Publishers

While devising a news app, make sure that even news publishers yield the benefits of your app because they will contribute a lot to its success. The add channel feature we discussed above will help these publishers to gain more viewers, make an identity, and make earnings.

The advertisements in the news articles generate revenue for the publishers. Some news apps charge a small commission fee for this. However, being a newbie in the market, you’re advised not to deduct even a penny from their earnings.

Final Words

News apps provide every kind of information in real-time, which spreads globally at a lightning-fast speed. This is why the popularity and demand for these apps are soaring with each passing day.

If you’re looking forward to developing a news app for your business growth, take the above-mentioned features into account. They will help you to make a statement in the market and stay ahead of the competition.

For more information or guidance, feel free to approach the experts of our iOS/Android app developers.

An Ultimate Guide to Developing a Healthcare App

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Mobile applications are propelling technology adoption in the healthcare sector. Today, we can witness a myriad of apps that are actively contributing to the betterment of people’s health while improving and streamlining medical services. According to a report, the global mHealth apps market is anticipated to reach $11.17 billion, exhibiting a growth of 21.1% CAGR by 2025.

To contribute to this market and improve ROI, many hospitals, medical institutes, and physicians have embarked on an app development journey. These apps not only enhance the well-being of people but also help medical professionals reach out to more and more people. While mobile apps offer enormous benefits in improving patients’ health and driving interoperability, one needs a meticulous approach to building a comprehensive app solution.

A Step By Step Guide to Building a Healthcare App

In today’s fierce competition, standing out from the crowd, reaching out to the target audience, and increasing the installation rate are not easy to achieve. So, starting on the right foot is extremely important as a task well begun is truly half done. Below is a step-to-step guide that you should follow to penetrate the healthcare market and make headway with your app.

Note: To create a cost-effective app and quickly step in the mHealth app market, we suggest to approach a reliable Hybrid app development company.

Brainstorm and Validate the App Idea

The key to a successful app lies in knowing what problem are you going to solve with your app. Focusing on the purpose instead of the product will lead to an app that your audience actually needs rather than that you think users want. Also, conduct thorough research to gather knowledge about the healthcare market, existing mobile apps, and make a list of features that you should incorporate into your application.

Furthermore, make sure not to create an app similar to one that already exists in the market. However, if your app functions similarly to an existing app, it should have some features that set you apart from the competition.

Some of the key features of a mHealth app are:

  • Record Accessibility
  • Minimal Data Collection
  • Limited Access and Permissions
  • Secure Authentication
  • Application-level Security
  • Clear Communication and More

Decide the Platform for App Development

Once you elucidate the problem, target audience, and app features, determine the platform for your app development.

Android, iOS, or both??

To decide the platform, you should introspect on your business requirements and the resources. Native iOS and Android applications offer an improved user experience (UX), but they also need a lot of time and resources to create an app for both platforms.

You can prioritize one platform first based on your target region and preferences of your target audience. However, if your audience is spread across a range of devices – both iOS and Android – incline to hybrid mobile app development. It is budget-friendly and works seamlessly across multiple platforms.

Hybrid app frameworks like React Native, Ionic, and Flutter accelerate the app development process as they allow developers to deploy a single codebase simultaneously in both the platforms.

Determine the Approach: Going All-inclusive or Building Incrementally

Everyone dreams of developing their business app that is all-encompassing and has the perfect set of features. However, following an MVP-first approach can contribute more to your app’s success.

A minimum viable product (MVP) is your basic app version that has all the core features and is devoid of additional features that can be incorporated later during future iterations of the app.

Since apps like Facebook, Uber, Instagram started as MVPs, following their footsteps will definitely land you to a better beginning. It will also expedite your time-to-market, give you an opportunity to validate your idea and add features as per the users’ feedback to the future version of your application.

Firstly, bring the simplest version of your healthcare app in the market, and then align it with your future, feature-packed vision by developing incrementally.

Design and Develop the App for an Excellent User Experience

The user experience can make or break an app as it has a significant impact on its usability as well as user engagement. Apps that offer sub-par user experience have more possibilities to end up being uninstalled. So, pay more attention to the UI/UX of your healthcare app as it not only needs to works well but also needs to look well and attention-grabbing.

Besides, adopting an iterative approach and developing an app in distinct modules allows the developers to make changes without affecting the overall functionality of the application. Ensuring integration with frameworks and third-party APIs that already exist fastens the app development process by eliminating the need for reinventing the wheel.

Most importantly, app integrations with EHRs and EMRs are essential to driving healthcare interoperability. Considering the innovations in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), connecting the app with fitness wearables and leveraging the collected data to achieve outcomes is also something you must take into account. Modern healthcare applications can also exploit AI algorithms to use the data to obtain insightful and actionable inferences.

Pay Attention to Testing

The bar for quality, security, and accuracy for healthcare apps is quite high. So, the testing phase of your app should leave no room for bugs and errors. Below are the quality assurance aspects that your software testers need to consider before releasing the app.

Data Security – Since healthcare data is more prone to hacks, identifying and eliminating all the areas of vulnerability in the testing phase is crucial. Encrypting data through a transport layer security will facilitate data validation in your healthcare app.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality – Set up strict authorization and access control measures within your app to make sure data is received only by its intended recipients.

Usability— Usability problems in your app can result in clinical issues impacting the outcomes of the patients’ health. Even a small issue encountered in the app will be a turn off for the users. So, meticulous testing of the app’s usability will improve its overall performance.

Don’t Overlook Data Security

mHealth apps that garner personally-identifying information must meet the regulatory compliances like HIPAA. These compliances apply to both the covered entities and their business associates. Besides, the repercussions of non-compliance can result in hefty fines. So, your app developers should go through the HIPAA compliance checklist before creating your app.

Maintenance and Support

Your app development journey doesn’t end at the launch of the application but slightly extends beyond that. Maintenance, support, and scalability are the other essential factors that you should consider while planning for app development. These factors are not just about fixing bugs but also modifying the app to improve its performance and live up to user expectations. App maintenance and enhancement will also help you to match the app with the latest industry trends and stay competitive in the market.

Summing Up:

These are the essential aspects that you must know to develop a futuristic healthcare app. Following these guidelines will certainly help you to create an app that will help you to level up your business and make a statement in the healthcare market.

To create a cost-effective app and drive your business growth, approach the experts of our hybrid app development company.

Top 5 IoT Trends to Watch in 2020

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

 IoT is redefining both the industrial and the consumer worlds. This smart technology is finding its way to every business and consumer domain – from healthcare and energy to finance and agriculture. Due to the continuously increasing popularity and adoption of the Internet of Things, the market share of this technology is also surging.

By the end of 2020, IoT is anticipated to rake in additional revenue of $344B and drive $177B in cost reductions. Besides, the year 2020 will impact all the major components of an IoT model – Sensors, Analytics (Cloud), Networks (Communications), and Applications – with different degrees.

IoT and smart devices have already been improving the performance metrics of major US-based organizations. By investing in IoT development services and solutions, businesses can overcome routine management issues and enhance their productivity by 40-60%.

The following trends will give you an idea of the potential of IoT and what future holds for this technology.

1 Artificial Intelligence – A Big Player in IoT

Leveraging the data and even understanding how modern infrastructure operates require computer assistance through AI. AI allows businesses to extract more value out of their massive collection of data. Thus, various startups strive to boost their market share through AI algorithms i.e. Machine Learning and Deep Learning. The major cloud platforms are also competing with one another based on their AI capabilities.

Since AI is the fundamental ingredient to leverage garnered data these days, it will facilitate IoT data analysis in various ways, including data preparation, data preparation, time series accuracy of data, visualization of streaming data, real-time geospatial and location, and predictive and advance analysis.

2 Voice User Interface will Gain Mainstream Adoption

Industry leaders are competing to dominate the IoT market at an early stage. Digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are the future of smart devices, and companies are endeavoring to bring forth more and more devices to improve their consumer experience.

Voice represents 80% of our daily communications. The use of voice technology in setting up the devices, change the setups, giving commands, and getting results will be the norm in this smart world, including homes, companies, cars, and more.

3 More Investment in IoT

The impact of IoT will continue to attract more startup venture capitalists toward innovative projects in software, hardware, and services. Investment in IoT development services and solutions will hit $1.4 Trillion by 2021.

IoT is one of the few markets that have the interest of traditional as well as emerging venture capitalists. The meteoric rise in smart devices and the increasing dependency of customers to perform many tasks using them will foster the investment in IoT startups. Customers will also be waiting for more smart innovations like smart ATMs reinforced with smart security cameras, smart beds that will automatically turn off the lights when everyone falls asleep, and more.

4 The Growth of IIoT and Digital Twin Technology

The blend of IoT and automation is driving this new industrial techno revolution, and making manufacturing less risky, more efficient as well as profitable. Besides, Industrial IoT enhances efficiency and productivity through data integration and analysis in a way that is impossible to achieve without an interconnected manufacturing process.

Another idea that is gaining momentum is digital twin technology. This technology allows businesses to create a clear picture of how IoT devices can interact with the manufacturing process. Leveraging this advancement, they can also gain insights into how the life cycle of their equipment works and predict changes that may be required down the road. As per the Gartner reports, 48% of smart manufacturing businesses have devised to use the digital twin concept.

5 More Movement to Edge Computing

Edge computing is a paradigm that distributes the load of data processing and moves it closer to the edge of the network – sensors in case of IoT. The benefits of this technology are very attractive to IoT app developers, allowing users to minimize latency, operate accurately with quick decisions, conserve network bandwidth, garner and secure a vast amount of data, and move it to the best location for processing with better analysis and insights of local data. Edge computing has been on a surge in recent years, but the growing adoption of IoT will make this technology even more pronounced.

Two aspects propelling this change are:

  • Powerful edge devices in various form factors that are becoming more affordable
  • A centralized infrastructure that is becoming more stressed

Edge computing also makes on-device artificial intelligence (AI) a realistic proposition. It enables businesses to exploit real-time data sets rather than having to sift through massive data in a centralized cloud in real-time.

Final Words

These are some of the IoT trends that will dominate and fuel the IoT ecosystem in 2020. Industry experts believe that both the industries and the consumers will witness immense advancements in devices, thus making a big difference in the lives of people. With these trends in the market, IoT devices will become more intuitive and convenient to use.

So, if you want to create your own next-gen IoT product and step in the IoT market to bring disruption, approach the experts of our IoT application development company.

9 Features That Can Make Your Fitness Application Stand Out

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

A few years back, fitness became a religion for people across the globe. They got ample tech innovations, including fitness tracking apps and other mobility solutions in no time. The majority of them use apps to live a healthier life, shed their weight, and get a wedding-ready body and that too, without spending hefty amounts for getting gym memberships.

Health and fitness apps have gained high momentum in the past years. It has been anticipated that the sports and fitness apps market will exhibit a tremendous CAGR of 20.4% from 2019-2027. Besides, the advent of wearables like fitness bands is also encouraging users to use these apps and make their lives healthier. This, as a result, has fostered the demand for fitness apps globally.

If you belong to the fitness sector, this is the best time for you to invest in fitness app development, and leverage its enormous benefits. But before embarking on your app development journey, you must be familiar with the key features that can help your app to stand out of the competition. In this article, we have discussed a few of them.

Note: To expedite the development process and cut down the cost, collaborating with a React Native app development company is the best option.

Features you must integrate into your fitness application

There are various types of fitness apps, including weight loss apps, on-demand personal trainer apps, nutrition, and diet apps, and exercising and workout apps, and more. To decide the features, you must first determine the type of fitness app that suits your business. However, we have shed light on the basic features that can be incorporated into all kinds of fitness apps.

Seamless Profile Creation

Personal account creation is the first feature to consider in a fitness app. Facilitate the account creation process by allowing users to feed their personal information, select all the facilities they want, and track their fitness journey. Besides, letting them sign up not only via email but also through social media accounts will save their time and ease the registration process. And if you develop a fitness app with subscription plans, providing facility to store billing information to make payments will improve their experience.

Social Media Sharing

We are living in the era of social media where everyone wants to share their achievements on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. So, adding social media sharing features to your fitness app should also be on your checklist. It will allow users to not only share their goals and achievements with their online family but also spread a word about your app. Thus, people in their social media networks will get familiar with your applications leading to cost-effective brand awareness as well as marketing.

Personalization/Setting Targets

Every user has a unique body structure, needs, and goals. Providing them with the same fitness course won’t be a good idea. So, it is essential to give personalized services to them and make them feel valued.

Allow them to set their own targets, decide which exercise or activity they want to perform, what supplements they need to intake, and more. With these personalized features, users will tend to be more consistent and stay committed to your application.

Gamification

Like music in the gym adds more fun to workout, you can easily add fun elements to your app processing, leveraging the concept of gamification. By integrating different aspects such as Rewards, Badges, Progress Bar, and Leaderboards, you can make your app more engaging and improve user acquisition as well as retention rate.

Audio/Video Guide

Enhance the workout experience of users with an audio or video guide. This guide will serve as an instructor and help your users to learn the right technique to exercise. It will mitigate the injury risk due to wrong postures and encourage them to complete their workout without leaving a single exercise.

Geolocation and Wearable Integration

Geolocation and wearable are two prerequisites for developing an outdoor fitness application. Geolocation functionality will help users to know the exact path and minimal time required to go through the track. They can also track activities like the number of steps taken, swimming, cycling, etc. if you integrate these technologies into your app.

Besides, connecting your app to wearables like bracelets and smartwatches will allow your app to monitor users’ heartbeat rate, steps, pulse rate in real-time, and provide valuable advice or information using these insights.

Tip: There are various public APIs and developer’s kit for incorporating wearable into a fitness app like Garmin Wellness, Misfit, and Pebble. You partnered React Native app development company can help you determine which one is apt for your fitness application.

Activity Log

Enabling users to record their daily activity is an essential feature of a fitness application. The recorded stats will inform your users how much calories they have burnt and how long it will take them to achieve their goals. It will also motivate them to be more dedicated to workout.

Push Notifications

A missed workout can break the users’ routine as well as their interaction with your app. So, adding a push notification system to your app can encourage them to exercise and use your app regularly. Additionally, it can give you an extensive understanding of user behavior using which you can deliver a better experience to them. But make sure not to send too many notifications to your users. It may annoy them, and once a frustrated user left the app, he/she will never come back.

Multi-device Synchronization

Like Fitbit, you can also integrate multi-device synchronization into your app. This feature will be highly appreciated when the users won’t have a synchronized fitness tracker but still want to workout. Allowing them to sync another device will make it easier for them to workout and yield the benefits of your app.

Final Words

Embedding the above-mentioned features into your fitness application will not only help you to stand out but also unleash new revenue opportunities. So, take no time to devise and invest in the development process.

If you already have a plan and want to develop a quick yet high-performance app, hire react native app developers of Beyond Root. Our experts will leave no stone unturned to deliver you a future-proof app matching with the current industry standards and trends.

How a Mobile App Can take Your Retail Business to the next level

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

It is now apparent that the world is going mobile and no other industry than retail is taking the maximum advantage of this continuous advancement. Research says that an average US consumer is spending about 3hrs and 50mins on mobile devices in 2020. Furthermore, we are likely to witness that 85-90% of the time on mobile is spent on exploring apps.

From the same source, it has been reported that retail m-commerce sales will reach $338.02B in 2020, which was nearly $207B in 2018. Online retail businesses also have a higher customer retention rate as compared to all other industries. Thus, we can presume that a mobile app offers enormous benefits to a retail business.

Now, let’s try to understand how mobile apps have revolutionized the retail industry, along with its impact on your business.

The mobile apps have transformed the way retailers sell their goods and run their businesses. They have eliminated the need for billboards and printed materials to advertise special offers and discounts. Additionally, applications have significantly impacted the buying habits of the customers. They can now compare prices, save items, track and receive them to their doorstep with just a few taps on smartphones.

Today, mobile commerce is maturing rapidly as apps are gaining mainstream adoption in the retail industry. If you want to increase your customer engagement as well as revenue, collaborating with iOS/Android app developers to create a future-proof app is a good idea.

Key Benefits of a Mobile Application to your Retail Business

Improve Online Shopping Experience

Smartphones have been progressively relied on for shopping. A lot of consumers utilize mobile apps for discovering new products, exploring product reviews, saving items in a wishlist, and more. Sarcastically, you can call it online window shopping.

There are ample ways you can improve customers’ shopping experience and encourage them to buy products through your mobile app. Some of them are:

  • Offering multiple filters to narrow the product’s search
  • Giving loyalty rewards as a token appreciation
  • Allowing users to track the real-time status of orders
  • Providing re-order feature to save their time

Enhance Business Recognition

Brand awareness is an essential factor for your business as it can influence the purchase decision of your customers. Since customers spend most of their time using mobile phones, a mobile app will enable you to attract their attention in a way that no other traditional marketing tool can do.

Also, the continuous in-app advertisement will boost your business visibility and bring your brand to customers’ minds whenever they are searching for a product that your company deals in. Ultimately, the increased brand visibility will improve the overall sales as well as the revenue of your business.

24*7 Availability and Automation

A mobile app allows you to operate your retail business day in, day out. Besides, you can fully automate your business so that you don’t have to oversee all the in-hand transactions taking place on your retail mobile app. Automation also allows you to offer enhanced services to your customers using technologies like chatbots, virtual assistants. Thus, you can increase your new as well as repeat sales.

App features that can help you to step in the online retail market

Swift Responses and Registration Process

This is a fast-paced world. Customers need quick responses from the app they use, or they will switch to another app instantly. Unresponsive apps or apps with complicated and time-consuming registration process are entirely a turn off for the users. So, create an app that loads quickly and offer seamless registration via Google or a social media account.

However, if you need more users’ information, make sure to trim down insignificant details to keep hold of their attention in your app.

Multiple Payment and Currency Support

The primary concept of a mobile app is to localize your online business, which, in turn, can help you reach a broad user base. An application with multiple payments and currency support can localize your retail business easily.

Besides, every user looks for a secure and easy payment method. With various payment gateways like Paytm, PayPal, Debit/Credit card, Stripe, etc., you can boost their confidence to proceed with streamlined transactions. It also eliminates the issue of late payments and enables you to monitor all the transactions hassle-free.

Customer Loyalty Programs

To boost your customer’s loyalty, implementing a loyalty program into your retail app is the best idea. You can integrate your mobile app with a loyalty program platform to gather valuable data about your customers and give them special discounts or coupons based on their purchase history.

Using an application, you can also send points for social media likes or coupons, birthday coupons, and many other actions. Such an approach will considerably increase your customer retention as well as sales.

Enabling New Age Push Notifications

 Using a retail app, you can send push notifications for communicating information, exclusive offers, and discount on users’ mobile phones. The more they stay updated, the more value they will feel. Thus, you will not only attract their attention to your products but also empower customer engagement.

Additionally, you can send real-time alerts to inform customers about every checkpoint of the order, including received, picked up, dispatched, delivered, etc.  

The other value-added features of a retail app are in-app GPS, Beacon technology, mobile point of sale (POS), and QR-code scanner.

Key Takeaways

Considering all the above factors, you can easily take your retail business to a new level. Ordering products using an application is more prevalent than ever. A quality retail application will help you to provide a personalized online experience to your customers and increase your revenue exponentially. So, if you want to customer-friendly app for your retail business, we suggest you invest in iOS/Android app development services.

How the Surge in Hybrid apps will Shape the App Development Market

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

Mobile app development is no longer limited to native apps only. Owing to the idea of hybrid app development, companies are able to capture the whole consumer market regardless of their phones and operating system. About 80% of consumer mobile usage is due to native applications. With the HTML5 hybrid app approach, this percentage is only going to rise. Besides, hybrid applications promise to change the way we ideate or conceptualize app development.

What are HTML5 Hybrid Applications?

As the name implies, hybrid apps are the applications that can be run on multiple platforms like Android and iOS. The key feature of these apps is their extensibility, as users don’t have to be concerned about limitations related to the applications they install on their mobile phones.

HTML5 and JavaScript are widely used for developing hybrid apps that are then packaged for installation on various devices through conventional app stores. Hybrid applications can be locally executed on native app packages, which facilitates their access to inbuilt mobile features like GPRS, camera, and more. Typically, a hybrid application comprises an HTML5 hybrid web app within a wrapper. The wrapper is basically a simple native app or a full-screen browser window where the HTML document of the web app can be loaded. When the application starts, the HTML document loads, and the web application starts running in a browser window inside the wrapper application. Thus, hybrid applications run faster and can be executed offline with a native app.

Before hybrid mobile app development, you need to meticulously examine all the technical aspects associated with its design and development. Since hybrid apps can be launched on multiple platforms using a single HTML5 codebase, they are highly cost-effective and can penetrate the market quickly.

Where are Mobile App Development Startups Headed to?

The surge in hybrid applications is a tide that many mobile app entrepreneurs are trying to ride. However, despite the low development cost and time, accomplished mobile app development companies still prefer to invest in native app development. Currently, not all hybrid app developers are able to provide a comprehensive user experience to the applications. Startups devising to embark on hybrid app development would have to go into overdrive to build consistent cross-platform user interfaces.

Technologically speaking, software available for building native applications is far better than what is available for hybrid apps. However, the evolution of hybrid app frameworks like React Native, Ionic, Flutter, etc. are revolutionizing the existing ways of app development and gaining a lot of traction. Thus, businesses are now less reluctant to try their hand at developing hybrid apps and delivering quick, cost-effective solutions.

Future of Hybrid Applications

Currently, native application development seems to be a more favorable choice for most businesses. But over time, the next-gen HTML5 hybrid application will rule over the market. The future of mobile app development lies in the hands of JavaScript and HTML5, the combination of which can significantly improve the end-user experience of apps regardless of their platform. Eventually, hybrid apps will be smoother, richer, and consistent in UI behavior. 

Besides, in continuous efforts for improvement and advancements, Google’s Angular JS and Appurify are making considerable progress. With other companies also realizing the potential of hybrid apps, it is just a matter of time when hybrid application development will outshine the native application development. In the foreseeable future, the paradigm shift of technologies will allow mobile app development companies to prefer and develop hybrid applications over native applications.

Takeaway

The consumer market is propelled by constant technology evolution. Plenty of companies are extending their mobile app development services according to the framework of choice. To develop a hybrid app, you don’t have to be concerned about the budget. All you have to do is to consider the type of consumers you want to target. Besides, hiring a hybrid app development company that understands your idea and has expertise in creating cross-platform apps can be a smart move. 

hybrid app development
hybrid app development

To sum up, the time is not far when hybrid application development will turn into a boon for all the business verticals and the app market. We believe that investing in a hybrid app, now, will give you fruitful outcomes in the coming future.

How Smart IoT Solutions will Suffice the Electricity Demands Globally

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

The global population has been increasing by leaps and bounds, and so is their electricity demand. To fulfill this demand, power generation companies and utilities are continuously improving their existing working methodologies and machinery. Thus, they are able to elevate the overall plant efficiency, which in turn, enables utilities to provide electricity to a wide area network.

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and SCADA systems have enabled these companies to assess the condition and performance of their power plants’ tools for a long time. However, these systems are less interoperable and don’t offer consumption pattern monitoring of energy consumed by the end consumers.

The emergence of IoT in the energy sector has also resulted in the advent of smart IoT-based energy solutions. These solutions underpinned with IoT sensors and telemetry capabilities offer enormous functionalities to the energy sector in terms of operational optimization, consumption pattern monitoring, and asset performance management.

Smart Energy Solutions

Smart energy solutions are made up of devices like the smart grid and smart meters that are used to garner relevant data. This data comprises factors related to electricity flow and can vary from equipment performance to energy utilized by the end-users. By analyzing this data, the energy companies can make informed decisions to manage electricity flow in three processes, including power generation, transmission, and distribution.

IoT plays a vital role in maintaining the power flow in all these three processes. It allows electricity companies to manage the electricity supply at peak hours and eliminate wastage.

Let’s dive deep into the benefits of the Internet of Things in all these processes.

Power Generation –

Power plant machinery must be efficient enough to minimize electricity wastage. However, power plants undergo high levels of inefficiency and unreliability due to:

  • Use of old and malfunctioning equipment
  • Improper operations and maintenance (O&M) procedures.
  • Incorrect utilization of historical data related to equipment.

These factors considerably affect the efficiency of machinery and equipment. With the help of IoT app developers, power generation companies create cost-effective solutions to enhance their O&M tasks, thus improving the lifetime of the equipment. By continuously tracking the performance of assets, point of failure and required maintenance time can be estimated accurately.

Uptime Monitoring:

Uptime monitoring is the time during which machinery or equipment runs. While the machine is working, different parameters are considered to assess its performance and condition. These parameters help companies to estimate the machine breakdown time and even schedule predictive, condition, or risk-based maintenance tasks.

Downtime Monitoring:

The time in which equipment is not running or under maintenance is referred to as downtime. By using the historical data of equipment garnered through different integrated sensors, appropriate repairs and maintenance can be done to get it ready for operation.

By simultaneously assessing the uptime and downtime of various machines in a power plant, the availability of equipment can be determined. Thus, the standby machines can be used during peak hours to fulfill the extra demand. A few other benefits of monitoring equipment availability are:

  • Minimized maintenance costs
  • Improved efficiency and reliability of assets
  • Fast inspection and detection of sources of failure
  • Elimination of unplanned downtime and emergency repairs

Power Transmission –

The efficiency of power transmission systems decreases after a prolonged duration of usage. Additionally, these power grid systems often run along with power plants having high emission rates and low fuel efficiency that result in reduced efficacy of power transmission systems. 

Nowadays, these conventional power grids have been supplanted with upgraded IoT-based smart grids. The new smart grids provide quick remote control on multiple electricity transfer parameters such as voltage, frequency, ramp rate, etc. Moreover, they offer a two-way dialogue system that enables utilities and customers to transmit data and electricity quickly.

Key benefits that an advanced transmission system yield with smart grids are:

Renewable Energy Management:

The energy produced from renewable resources is known as variable power, which varies with change in environmental conditions. A smart transmission system can identify these variations and also balance the power supply by extracting energy or electricity from conventional power plants.

Reduced Operational Costs:

Smart grids complemented with distribution systems can gauge the energy consumption in different locations and the duration of peak power consumption. Based on this data, utilities can choose the best possible time to run “peaking plants” to manage power supply when there is a peak demand for electricity. Since this reduces the usage of less efficient peaking plants, the operational cost is also reduced considerably.

Asset Management:

A transmission system comprises transformers, substations, and transmission lines. These assets and equipment develop faults owing to overloading and continuous operation. So, different IoT sensors are used to examine various factors related to the working of the equipment and identifying safety hazards as well as vulnerable components. This improves the maintenance tasks along with the life of transmission equipment.

Power Distribution –

IoT is improving the distribution services and customer experiences using smart meters and smart grids. A smart meter is an IoT application that transfers power consumption data of a home to the utility provider. Customers can also access the data through a web app or even from television.

Besides, smart meters foster the development of smart distribution systems, offering various benefits in the field of:

Supply Rerouting and Restoring:

Due to unwanted environmental conditions, transmission systems and assets can get damaged, which averts the electricity flow in certain regions. It can take a lot of time to recover the breakdown and restore the electricity supply in a location. However, the blend of smart meters and smart grids can find a separate path to supply electricity and help utilities to reroute the power supply to the area suffering from a blackout.

Energy Management Solutions for Home:

Smart appliances at home can exchange data with smart meters to store and analyze data related to energy consumption. Furthermore, smart meters share this data with a centralized platform that can even be accessed from a TV. This data can be utilized by consumers to manage electricity consumption and thus reduce the bills. 

Final Words

Smart energy solutions are improving the power generation, transmission, and distribution processes. IoT adoption in the energy sector has fueled the emergence of more reliable and efficient systems that reduces the power flow from power plants to end consumers. Thus, utilities are able to boost the reach of their electricity network to more remote locations and suffice the electricity demand of the continuously soaring global population.                                                 

If you also want to add intelligence to your power supply business, we suggest you investing in IoT app development services to create a smart energy solution and drive your business growth.

3 Factors to Consider for Successful Beauty and Salon App Development

Posted on by Abhishek Kalyan

On-demand applications are gold mines that give assured returns to all the businesses. From booking cabs to booking online appointments, users can perform everything with just a few taps in a mobile app.

Being in the beauty and salon business, you might be encountering certain obstacles like messing up with appointments in busy days, missing phone calls while attending other clients at the salon, unable to prepare special gift cards for your regular clients or offering them discount coupons.                                                                 

With an iOS/Android app development for your salon business, you can get a comprehensive solution from bookings to payments and also enhance your customer base. Apps like Glamsquad, Stylebee, Priv are the leading salon apps in the US, which provide the best on-demand experience to customers.

The on-demand salon apps not only save customers’ commute time but also eliminate waiting in a queue for their turn. Probably, everyone can now easily avail beauty services in their four walls using a salon app. So, if you’re devising to create your own salon app and offer a remarkable customer experience, consider these three factors that can add value to your app as well as business.

Provide a Versatile Menu to Users

To develop a salon app, consider all the needs that users might expect in an online beauty service. So, you need to curate a versatile menu that comprises every beauty services right from manicures and haircuts to every other body rejuvenating therapy.

Additionally, looking for more options is a human tendency. Even while scrolling an app, users would like to explore more beauty services and packages that are pertinent to their needs and budget. Thus, create a user-friendly design for seamless navigation from one menu to another in your application.

Provide Convenient Scheduling/Rescheduling to Users

When you aim for a scheduling app for your salon business, keeping customer convenience in mind is of utmost importance. Customers have shifted to online services because of their instant availability and other perks like:

  • Schedule or Reschedule a service
  • Select a date, time, and location as per their convenience
  • Choose their professional service providers
  • Book more than one service at a time
  • Cancel an appointment anytime for minimal or no charge

Online appointments serve as a boon for your business as well as customers. You will be able to give a personalized treatment to every client, avoiding misunderstandings that usually happen over a call. Additionally, with an automatic scheduling and rescheduling feature, you can easily manage multiple appointments using your beauty salon application. Also, you can scan through available slots and appointments through an in-app calendar.

So, to develop a salon app in 2020, it is essential to bear such an intriguing factor in mind. With the help of iOS/Android app developers, you can have an idea of the scope of an online beauty app and also cross-verify your salon app idea.

Provide Shopping Experience to Users – An Additional Benefit

Besides providing beauty services via the app, you can sell your own beauty product line. Using your app, users can buy their desired products whenever they want. Furthermore, you can offer exclusive discounts and offers as a gift of appreciation to your loyal customers in order to encourage them to make more online purchases.

Now, let’s go through some key features that you must integrate into your app to engage and retain more customers to your beauty platform.

Features of Beauty Salon App

  • Login/Sign Up
  • Catalog of Beauty Services
  • List of Professionals
  • Book an Appointment
  • In-built Calendar
  • In-app GPS Tracker
  • Schedule/Reschedule Appointments
  • Multiple Payment Gateways
  • Push Notifications
  • Automated Cost Calculator
  • Photo Gallery (To showcase your work)
  • Customer Ratings and Feedback
  • In-app Chat/Call System

These features are more than enough to survive and thrive in the market.

Final Words

The mobile app allows the salon business to have as well as offer everything under one roof. This way, you don’t have to list down every entry, follow-up the clients, and calculate the payment. All-in-all, a salon app almost eliminates the manual handling of tasks and facilitates business management even in your absence. You can manage cashless payments in the database, track the billing details of clients, send real-time notifications to clients, and more. 

So, to have a head start, partner with a reliable company that provides end-to-end iOS/android app development services for salon businesses. They will not only code your app idea but also guide you in penetrating the market and gaining a competitive advantage.

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