The sale of smartphones is also hitting new heights; therefore, it is the best time to indulge in the mobile app programming industry by selecting the best language for app development. Still, millions of mobile apps exist and are working extensively for each platform.

Many times, having so many options to choose one from it also becomes an enormous problem. So, choosing the best mobile app programming language for your app development remains a great dilemma for many.

In today’s world, for your business, mobile apps will work as an online store to fulfill the customer’s needs instantly. So, develop the best quality app; it is crucial to choose the best programming languages for your app.

Further, we are going to discuss 10 Best Programming Languages for mobile app development. But the selection of appropriate mobile app programming language is dependent on what you expect to achieve.

Source: RawPixel Website

Let us take a look over 10 Best Programming Languages in detail for mobile app programming and are as follows;

10 Best Mobile App Programming Languages

1. Kotlin

Kotlin, one of the best mobile app programming languages, was developed by “Jey Brians and Opensource Contributors.” It was introduced to the developers in the year 2011.

Kotlin is a cross-platform mobile app programming language. It is also used as an alternative to Java for Android App Development. It can effectively interoperate with Java and can run over Java Virtual Machine. In 2017, Kotlin was officially addressed as the secondary Java language.

The only difference Kotlin has is that it removes the redundant features of Java, like null pointer exceptions. It also removes the requirement ending every sentence with a semicolon.

Basically, Kotlin is a statically typed mobile app programming language developed to overrule the limitations of Java for android app development. It can be easily used with Java to develop efficient and high-performance applications.

Kotlin has very simple codes and clear syntax easy to understand. It is a versatile and interoperable platform. It can efficiently generate crisp and clean codes as compared to Java. Therefore, Kotlin is considered as one of the most popular platforms used for mobile app programming languages.

Features:

• Kotlin supports Java Virtual Machine and can be compiled with JavaScript Source Code too.
• It has complete support from Google to use Android as the Operating System and the installation packages of IDEs. IDEs can be directly included as an alternative to the Standard Java Compiler.
• It follows aggressive interference which regulates the program’s value and expression if it is not clearly stated.

Popular Applications built on Kotlin are Netflix, Slack, Basecamp, and Evernote.

2. Swift

Swift mobile app programming language was developed by “Chris Lattner and Apple Inc.” It was introduced on June 2, 2014.

Swift is one of the best mobile app programming languages suitable for iOS application development. Before the introduction of other languages, Swift was having the monopoly in iOS app development. Despite that, Swift is still ruling as the iOS app programming language. Evidently, Objective-C was introduced but was not that efficient and eventually was ruled by Swift as the mobile app programming languages.

Later on, Apple made Swift an open-source which gets available to the developer’s community for app development. Swift is a powerful and intuitive app programming language for macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and other Apple’s device applications.

From developers point of view, writing code on Swift is quite fun and interactive. The syntax is very expressive yet concise, and it includes numerous modern features which developers used to love. Swift UI offers multiple features to its developers and allows them to add seamless design in the application.

Features:

• Swift is a parallel mobile app programming language used to develop an app for iOS, macOS, tcOS, watchOS, and Linux too.
• Apple Inc. developed Swift app programming language. It has multiple features and is a well-compiled app programming language used for general purposes.
• Its code can be executed on Cocoa and Cocoa Touch platforms.
• It is inspired by many languages. Its idea has been taken from multiple sources like C#, Ruby, Python, Haskell, Object-C, CLU, and others.

Popular Applications built on Swift are Airbnb, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Khan Academy, Hubspot, Pandora, Lyft, and OpenTable.

3. Objective-C

The Objective-C app programming language was developed by “Tom Love and Bred Cox.” It was introduced to the developers in the year 1985.

Objective-C is derived from C language and is an object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. Apple’s core language was used to develop the Swift programming language for iOS and OS X development.

It is a simple to use app programming language and supports dynamic typing and dynamic run-time. Objective-C uses Static Libraries and run-time code compilation. It works effectively with Apple Inc.

Since 1985, it remains the popular app programming language in 2020. Partly because Swift is developed with this language, and many iOS apps were written in this language. Therefore, developers use this language to continue maintaining the existing iOS apps.

Features:

• It is an updated version of C programming language with additional features like Smalltalk-style messaging.
• It is a well updated and mature language, i.e., familiar to many developers and can be used for both the application and operating system development.
• Apple mainly uses it for macOS and iOS operating systems development.

Popular Applications built on Objective-C are Apple Services- iTunes, Apple Music.

4. C++

C++ is one of the oldest and best programming languages developed by “Bjarne Stroustrup.” It was introduced in 1985.

C++ is very much similar to C-language. It follows the concept of Object-Oriented Programming and uses it with the syntax of C-language. It features a low level of memory manipulation.

In mobile app programming languages, it is a great language to go with, as it helps to develop cross-platform mobile apps easily with easy debugging experience and a powerful environment. C++ can be effectively used to build applications and design amazing Android, iOS, and Windows applications.

It is widely used for implementing GUI applications 3D Graphics for Games. C++ also offers numerous properties like exception handling, Congruity, and native development kit with the Object-Oriented paradigm.

Features

• It provides facilities like low-level memory manipulation.
• It is a general-purpose programming language which has object-oriented, imperative, and generic programming features.
• C++ is standardized by ISO (International Organization of Standardization). ISO released its latest ratified version in December 2017.

Popular Applications built on C++ are Mozilla Browser, Adobe products, and Microsoft Softwares.

5. PHP

Source: Unsplash Website

Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) was designed by “Zend Technologies.” It was introduced in the year 1995 and is an open-source programming language.

Initially, it was developed for websites, but later on, it is used for general purpose development. It is used for Server-side Scripting along with Command-line Scripting and Coding Applications. Primarily PHP is a coding language used to build dynamic websites but can effectively be used to develop iOS and Android mobile app programming.

Mobile app developers can use PHP effectively by embedding it into the HTML code line or mesh it into a content management system and frameworks. PHP is a great programming language in creating GUI for apps.

Features:

• It is an open-source server-side scripting language.
• It serves simple database integration.
• PHP is easy to learn mobile app programming language.
• It is platform-independent and uses procedural and object-oriented interfaces.

Popular Applications built on PHP are Wikipedia, Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, Tumblr, WordPress, MailChimp, and many others.

6. JavaScript

Source: BurstShopify Website

JavaScript was developed by “Netscape Communications Corporation, Mozilla Foundation, and Ecma International.” It was introduced on December 4, 1955.

It is a high-level, interpreted programming language. It supports multiple paradigm programming languages like object-oriented, functional programming. JavaScript is characterized by dynamic, weakly typed, and prototype based programming language.

JavaScript supports programming styles, such as imperative, functional, and event-driven. Primarily JavaScript is the language that is run by browsers, used to develop and control web pages. But it can work effectively in mobile app programming and association with CSS, HTML, and AJAX.

Developing mobile applications on JavaScript is quite easy because it requires writing code once for the app and can be released on all the platforms, i.e., Android, iOS, and Windows.

Features:

• One of the easiest languages to learn.
• It is a very fast and efficient programming language.
• It is executed on the client-side. Hence it saves bandwidth by not using the server.
• It is majorly used for making websites and mobile applications interesting by adding animations and dynamics into it.

Popular Applications built on JavaScript are Wikipedia, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, and many more.

7. Java

Java, one of the best programming languages, was developed by “James Gosling.” It was released on January 23, 1994.

Java is the most used and official programming language used for mobile app development, majorly for android. It is one of the best mobile app programming languages and is the most supported language by Google. Evidently, numerous apps based on Java can be found in the Play Store. Along with that, it has a great online community to get the support and problem resolution.

Despite that, Java is a complicated mobile programming language to learn for beginners. It contains typical topics like null pointer exceptions, constructors, checked exceptions, concurrency, etc. Java also uses the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), which takes the complexity level of programming language to another extent.

It uses JVM (Java Virtual Machine), which allows it to work smoothly on every system. A majority of developers and organizations prefer Java over other programming languages because of its versatility and flexibility for engineers to develop error-free mobile applications quickly.

Initially, the language was named Oak after an oak tree stood outside Gosling’s (developer) office. Later, it was called Green and was finally renamed as Java, from Java coffee.

Features:

• It is a portable language that works across operating systems.
• It provides a stable environment for mobile app programming.
• Java supports high-quality code compilation.
• It offers high stability.

Popular Applications use Java to build web apps, and backend web systems are LinkedIn, Amazon, Twitter, eBay, and many others.

8. Python

Python programming language was developed by “Guido Van Rossum.” It was released in the year 1990.

It is popular among developers and organizations because of its ability to deliver better results, agility, and user experience. Python language is easy to understand the mobile app programming language. It minimizes errors, has a natural and basic syntax that looks like English. These features make it the best choice for beginners and amateurs developers.

It is used for general purpose programming language and is an interpreted high-level programming language. It possesses a  design philosophy which provides code readability, especially using convincing white space.

The Python interpreters can be available for many operating systems. It is open-source software that serves a community based development model. Its vast collection of frameworks makes programming very easy and flexible.

Features:

• It is open-source software and an object-oriented app programming language.
• It provides cross-platform solutions.
• Python supports an asynchronous coding design.
• It can effectively use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for developing desktop and web applications.
• It promotes access to several modules.

Popular Applications built on Python are Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Reddit, Quora, Dropbox, and many others.

9. Ruby

Ruby was developed by “Yukihiro Matsumoto et al.” It was released in 1995.

It is a general purpose object-oriented programming language and supports dynamic type systems. Like PHP, Ruby is also designed by developers for web development, but eventually, it shapes the basics of Ruby on Rails structure. Being one of the best mobile app programming languages, it becomes the friendliest programming language.

It is an easy to learn programming language and have liberal community support to assist developers when facing any issues. It has clean syntax and is considered as the savvy and reasonable programming language.

To develop a mobile application, Ruby requires the support of frameworks such as Rhodes or RubyMotion. Using any of the one frameworks can effectively develop Android, iOS, Windows, and OS X applications.

It is such an easy programming language that one can develop an app in 10 minutes. It is an easy programming language and insanely powerful.

Features:

• It supports Dynamic Typing.
• It is an Object-Oriented Programming language.
• Ruby supports easy coding, such that anyone can do it.
• It uses existing codes, hence best for beginners.
• It has a wide and helpful community backing.

Popular Applications built on Ruby are Bloomberg, Twitter, Airbnb, Shopify, Pixlr, Groupon, Scribd, ThemeForest, Basecamp, and many others.

10. HTML 5

Source: RawPixel Website

HTML 5 was developed by “Web Hypertext Application Technology working.” It was introduced on January 22, 2008.

Like HTML helps in building web pages; likewise, HTML 5 is used for building web-based mobile applications. HTML 5 (Hypertext Markup Language of WWW consortium) is the latest update of HTML. It highlights the exceptional features like quick market deployment, multi-platform functionality, and multimedia support for different gadgets and programs.

HTML 5 can be effectively used for developing the mobile application, both Android and iOS, as it provides incredible flexibility. It provides cross-browser support and responsiveness, which makes developing anything in HTML 5 a painless activity on any device. HTML5 supports easy and clean coding.

It provides descriptive and improved connotations with which developers can increase semantic value as code is standardized in HTML 5. HTML5 has CANVAS elements which is used in embedded applications like dynamic graphics, online and offline games, interactive audio and video, and animations.

Features:

• It is responsive to most of the devices.
• Supports drag and drop functionality.
• HTML5 fully supports audio and video.
• It uses CANVAS Tag to develop games in HTML 5.

Popular Applications built on HTML 5 are Google Docs, Google Drive, Zoho App collection (about 33 apps), and many others.

Well… here we sum up the list of top 10 Mobile App Programming Languages suitable for 2020. You should definitely consider opting and learning these languages for a promising growth in the app industry as a mobile app developer. Nowadays, Cross-platform development is much preferred technology in mobile app programming. People prefer quality along with time-efficiency and effort-reduction, which can be achieved by cross-platform development. It allows easy development of apps where you can make multiple apps using the same codebase.

Source: RawPixel Website

If you are having any business idea and would like to build a quality app, then EngineerBabu can surely provide you with an excellent platform to reach your mobile app development destination. We are having a great team of skilled and experienced app developers on all the above-defined app programming languages. For any assistance or business guidance, you can contact us during business hours from anywhere. We are here to help and assist you when you need it. We will make sure that we introduce your business plan to the market and a wider audience.

The post Top 10 Mobile App Programming Languages appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Mobile Phones allow people to perform a variety of tasks on their smartphones through dedicated applications for such activities as ordering goods and groceries, ticket booking, cab booking, and many more. If you have a unique plan for Mobile App Development, then it is a good time to go with it and grab the market.

The smart phone users are relying more on online shopping and performing other numerous activities. Therefore, if you are having a different plan for mobile app development, then start working on it without any delay.

In this planning of app development, I am going to guide you through this blog. By following the procedure and steps in a precise manner, you can easily refine your business idea. It will also guide you to plan for Mobile App Development and get accurate results thoroughly.

Here are the following steps to create a successful mobile app.

Source: UXPlanet Website

Step 1: It all starts with an Idea

The point where it all starts, the fundamental base of a business is an idea. It all begins with one simple thought- why only this and why not this? Apps require constant updation and make lives a little easier. It is the reason which drives our community forth. Most great ideas start due to need arousal.

A successful entrepreneur provides a solution to the problem in such a way that we could not have imagined. So, look for numerous problems that exist in your daily life and list each of them. Once you are having an ample amount of issues, then start looking for the unique ideas to resolve the issue. Every problem has a solution; if we look for it properly, so find solutions to choose the one that makes more sense. Make sure to put the end-user at the priority because if users are not getting solutions for their problem, they are not going to use your mobile application. Mobile app development is all about providing a solution to a lot of people and making their life more comfortable.

Step 2: Market Research

Now the real work starts after finalizing the idea for mobile app development. To take your app development idea ahead, which requires a lot of research, based on multiple factors. The research is very important to consider because it will form the basic knowledge for your app and help you to decide whether to take this idea ahead or look for something else. So, make sure not to rush this phase and do it appropriately.

a. Competitors

It is very important to learn about your existing competitors in the market first. The existing applications in the market are going to be a great source of knowledge for you. So, just pick the best existing competitive mobile apps in the market, do thorough research, and learn about their working. It also includes the platform app is running, tools, features, and everything as much as you can get the details of it.

After that, look for their targeted customers and the users’ reviews and feedback. As well as, list out the best features that you can also add in your app in a new manner definitely. This will help you lay down a path to move ahead and the numerous points you can add and ditch in your plan for mobile app development.

b. Target Users

The second important thing you need to focus on in the Research phase is to look out for your competitors target users and define yours as well. It is a well-known fact that certain types of apps are developed for a specific group of customers in mind based on their age, gender, and ethnicity. You need to be assured of which type of users you are going to target with your application. Therefore, make all these decisions in the early phase only because every delayed decision will greatly affect the development process.

c. Trend Research

The last part of the Research phase is to analyze market trends. We all know the market trends used to evolve rapidly with time. Before introducing your product in the market, first learn about the market trends, i.e., learn about whether your product is required or have such a demand in the market. Look at your app’s functionality. All of it should be in alignment with trends because nowadays, people want to be updated on all forms. With trend research, gain some insight over where the trend is heading and will be in the next couple of months or until the time you are available with your final product.

Step 3: Planning

After gathering all the information in the research phase, it is now appropriate to plan things before moving ahead. The planning is all about preparing a blueprint or plan for mobile app development. The planning phase also involves different steps, let’s learn about it in depth.

Source: Entrepreneur Website

a. Plan an MVP for App

In the Planning phase for mobile app development, it is important to create a plan to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It is a smaller and concentrated version of your app. Building MVP is a feasible option for your app development as it provides clarity about your goals and finds the features which will work as a guiding agent for your app. Developing an MVP will be a great call for your marketing strategy to generate a buzz about it and gather critical reviews and feedback from the users.

MVP for your app development will allow you to provide a chance for users to experience the features and functionalities of your app and review it. These reviews might be harsh but will eventually make you aware of the working of the app and the user’s expectation too. This will help you minimize such flaws, and please your users by improving the app quality and working over their feedback.

b. Select the Platform

The major smartphone Operating Systems that dominate the market on a broader scale is Google’s Android App Store and Apple’s iOS App Store. Both the platforms are a hit among its users.

Google’s Android Play Store has extensive user coverage as compared to Apple’s iOS App Store. Android is open-source. Therefore, a lot of devices are running on this operating system. The enhanced customer penetration and cheap availability of android smartphones have made it more handy for users to go for Android Apps. For any business, Google Play Store will be a great platform to introduce their mobile application. But this handy availability of android smartphones, doesn’t attract more customers to go for in-app purchases or other facilities to spend money over an application.

On the other hand, the iOS Platform is quite expensive and comparatively less users than Android. But the iOS users are very active and can easily spend good money on in-app purchases or purchasing any specific feature through the mobile application.

Instead of going with a particular platform, you can also go with both the apps. For this, you have built the hybrid app, which effortlessly works on both the platforms. It requires a steady internet at all times to work and doesn’t need to be downloaded in the user’s device. Such apps work similarly a website works but with the features of apps. Thus, mobile app development is cheap and requires less time to attain the final product. Overall, in a time and cost of one app, you can get a hybrid app that works effectively on both platforms. Examples of hybrid apps are Gmail, Instagram, Uber, etc.

c. Required Budget

Mobile App Development is a costly call to take for anyone. Despite doing everything the right way, there is no guarantee that you will achieve the desired results at the end. So, step into mobile app development if you are ready to put in the money and a lot of perseverance.

There are numerous methods to build the app, like investing your own money, finding the investors, or Crowdfunding.

Investing your own money is one of the riskiest options. It is a bad idea unless you have so much money to risk, and if faced failure then it won’t affect you too much. The second way is to find investors. It is a bit tedious and a time-taking process. But there are many investors in the market who can invest a good amount of money in your mobile app development if they found your business idea feasible and valuable for the market.

The third way is to fund your project from various sources through Crowdfunding. There are few online platforms that help you to gather money from strangers just by uploading your business proposal on these websites. Such online platforms are GoFundMe, Kickstarter, etc.

Step 4: Development

The mobile app development requires developers to develop the product. The developers will provide life to your business idea, which was on the paper till now. To deliver the plan for mobile app development into reality, you can develop the app on your own, or you can hire a dedicated team of developers, or you can hire even an agency to develop the app.

I don’t think developing the app on your own would be a great call unless you are an expert in app development. Despite that, you will require two-to-three more developers to do so. Being the owner and responsible person for everything, it still won’t be a good call. So, you can go with any of the other two options.

Among these two options, I would suggest hiring an agency would be a great call. It will ease your work and save your time too. With an agency, you don’t have to sit and check every little progress in the app. These agencies are responsible for their work and make sure to deliver accurate products to their clients.

So, look for a good agency in the market and you are sorted for the development of the application. You only need to make a plan for mobile app development, and rest implementation can be done by the agency itself.

Step 5: Testing

The major part of testing will be performed by the developers or agency you have hired for app development. Being an owner and user of the app, you also have to perform testing over the app at frequent intervals. This will help you get a glimpse of on-going work and let you decide if the work is proper or not, or do you require any feature to be more refined or attractive from the end-users perspective.

Only having a plan for mobile app development and assigning it to the agency to develop the app won’t work. You also have to dedicate your time to test the app modules and the final product. Your interest in app development testing will lead towards a quality product and help you strategize your marketing plan to introduce or deploy the final product in the market.

Different types of testing need to be performed for maintaining the quality of the app and make sure to have a bug-free app. The testing are User Acceptance Testing and Beta Testing.

Source: RawPixel Website

User Acceptance Testing (UAT test) makes sure the app is working for users, i.e., the final product is easy for your targeted audience to use or are they facing any problem. Once the app passes the UAT test, then you can conclude that your solution works appropriately.

Beta Testing is done by either the open solicited participation of the previously enrolled identified groups. Feedback from Beta Testers will help to determine whether the app’s functions are operating properly in the real-world environment or not.

Step 6: Deployment

Congratulations! Your plan for mobile app development seems successful. Now, it’s time to formally introduce your product in the marketplace through the Play Store or App Store.

Make sure to follow the preferred platform’s guidelines to make the most out of your app store optimization. Once, your app is live on the App Store, now is the time to grab the customer’s eyes.

You can follow various ways to promote your app. Initially, you can go with Email Marketing. As soon as your app is live, make sure to inform your customers through emails and ask them for their valuable feedback by replying to the mail or sharing it on the app store.

You can also promote your app on Social Media Platforms. You can follow numerous tactics to promote your app on such platforms. Instead of only sharing the apps link, you can create a buzz about your app by making numerous posts about the app. You can highlight the unique features and functioning of the app and attract users to download the app.

Through Social Media Platforms, you can even share a demo of a few seconds to attract viewers and use your application. You can also provide some offers to the first few users or downloads of your app. Be creative, and you can attract an enormous amount of traffic towards your mobile app development through social media platforms.

Another tactic to promote your app can be done through Websites. If you have a dedicated website for your product business, you can Update your Website with this information. Along with that, you can also advertise your mobile app development information through other similar websites. You can simply contact the website owner and request them to promote your app development message on their website for a while in the offered amount. It is a feasible promotional strategy. If you get a few such sites, you can definitely attract a good number of users for your app.

Step 7: Upgrade App with New & Improved Features

After grabbing a good market and getting user’s reviews and feedback, it becomes your duty to resolve all the queries of such users and respond to them individually. These feedback’s will help you to improve your app and add advanced features too. So, maintain regular updates for your app and let users feel that their queries have been heard and resolved too.

This will help you retain the users for a more extended period and makes your plan for mobile app development success. Updating your app with innovative features also enhances the visibility and downloads of the app. This will also motivate users to recommend your app to others and leave a good impression too.

Conclusion

Once you start the plan for mobile app development and deploy the app, don’t think your job is done. To maintain consistency in the app, you need to be in constant association with your agency or firm. So, look for a good and reliable agency with whom you can go to the long-term association.

Mobile App Development is a never-ending process. After app deployment, working over the app continues. Make sure to be in association with a good agency to take your plan for mobile app development to live and maintain consistency in the future.

Source: RawPixel Website

Being a reputed and responsible company EngineerBabu makes sure to follow each phase involved in the Mobile App Development Cycle properly to get the best results and assist you with your personal preferences. So, if you have any idea or plan for mobile app development, you can contact us, and we are always ready to serve you with your specific requirements. At EngineerBabu, we have dedicated and skilled developers who used to follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle with precision.

The post How to Create A Plan for Mobile App Development? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

In today’s evolving world, building a mobile application doesn’t require any rocket science learning. But, a successful mobile application requires to follow a proper procedure of SDLC and extensive pre-planning. Building an application could be quite easy such that, in a week, you can complete your app development and submit it to Google or Apple Play Store. On the other hand, it could be extremely tedious and involves rigorous research, designing, testing, a full beta life cycle, and then deploying it in different ways.

Mobile App Development Cycle is similar to conventional SDLC. Mobile App Development is a smooth process only when the Mobile App Development Cycle phases are taken care of and followed appropriately.

Source: BuildFire Website

As every app is different from another, and technological trends are also evolving rapidly. But, SDLC is fairly considered the standard process when it comes to Mobile App Development Cycle. The Mobile App Development Cycle typically follows 6 following steps;

1. Ideation,
2. Strategy,
3. Designing,
4. Development,
5. Deployment, and
6. Post-Launch.

Now, let’s take each step in depth.

1. Ideation

Every great product, service, or application begins with a great idea. If you don’t have an app idea, then the best time is to start now. For a unique idea generation, train yourself to think in terms of problems and look out for its potential solutions. You have to make your brain instinctively ask “Why do we have to do things this way?” or “Is there any better way to solve the problem?”

If you can identify a problem, you are halfway to your idea generation for mobile app development. Only Idea generation will not be effective; you need to refine your idea by doing proper research over it. Make sure your research for idea validation includes actual demographics, goals of your buyers, behavior, motivation, and buying pattern of customers. While doing so, always keep the end-user in mind.

In the Ideation phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle, you need to be very specific about the following points and find the answers to these questions.

• Define the aim of Mobile App Development.
• How is your app different from the existing apps in the market?
• Is there a requirement for such an app?
• Distinguish the kind of audience your app will target.
• Analyze the time required to develop the app.
• Define the platform on which the app will be developed.
• How will your app solve the existing problem?

While answering these questions, you will get a clear picture of your aim and idea. Make sure the app is user-friendly and targets the appropriate audience. Thorough ideation and research at the initial phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle will minimize the risk associated with your project.

2. Strategy

After the Ideation phase, the second phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle defines Strategies to evolve your idea into a successful app. As each app’s objective differs from another; therefore, a proper strategy is required for applications. The strategy can be formed based on different perspectives.

a. Competition

Once you are done with the Ideation phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle, it’s time to plan for apps success. So, the best step would be to identify your competition first. Just find, if there is any app working on the same thing and providing the service you are planning with and look for the following;

• See the number of downloads of the application.
• Look for the Ratings and Reviews of the app and analyze the customer feedback/comments. It will help you to learn about the likes and dislikes of the application users.
• Look for the application and the company’s history. Take a look over how the application has evolved and what challenges it faced during the course of time. As well as, do analyze their marketing strategies and how did they grow their user base.

To beat your competitor and get informed about it in advance would be a great strategy. So, learn as much as you can about your existing competitors. Apart from that, never think you can beat the competition easily without getting into the competition. So, make sure to understand how hard it will be to compete in the marketplace.

b. Monetization

Well, it is a known fact that if you are entering the market, you will definitely look for the options to monetize your business opportunity as much as possible. There are several methods of monetization that works effectively are as follows;

• In-app Purchases,
• Premium Features,
• Subscription Payments,
• Ad-revenue,
• Traditional Paid Apps, and
• Selling User Data.

To analyze the best strategy among these, you need to learn what the market expects to pay and how to pay for such similar available services. You also need to look for what time is best for the new business to introduce the monetizing feature in your app or do it when you introduce the app in the market. Skipping or delaying strategizing the Monetization step in the Mobile App Development Cycle will give your business a hard time later turning on profit.

c. Marketing

To strategize the marketing tactics in Mobile App Development Cycle is solely for identifying the challenges you are going to face while marketing your app. Suppose you have successfully built and designed your app with quality features. Still, the biggest hurdle exists is to drive the customer or users for your application. So, you need to learn about your marketing budget and approach you are going to follow to attract users.

d. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The final stage of strategizing is to define your app’s roadmap. In this step of the Mobile App Development Cycle, you will define the goal, what your app will become one day and what it requires to succeed. Initially, you can also go with the version of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Along with that, define all the things you require in your app and prioritize it as well. This priority will help you to build an MVP easily and, in minimum time you can introduce your working app in the market. As you gain users with your MVP, then based on user feedback, you can timely introduce new features in the app.

3. Designing

A. User-Experience Designing

Source: Appinventive Website

Building a prototype or MVP requires excellent design. The Designing phase in Mobile App Development Cycle aims to deliver seamless and effortless user experience with a refined appearance. The goal of mobile app UI/UX Design is to provide excellent user experience by making your app user-friendly, interactive, and intuitive. The Designing of app will be based on the following features;

a. Information Architecture

In the Mobile App Development Cycle, the Information Architecture process allows you to decide what data and functionalities should be presented and how it should be organized in your app. For this, just list down the features separately, what you want the app to perform and what should be displayed. This list will help to build the wireframes.

b. Wireframes

Wireframes are used to design screens and assign data and functions. These wireframes are digital forms of sketches and conceptual layouts. It provides the visual representation of the functional requirements of the app. Wireframes are more focused on highlighting the aesthetics and user experience instead of apps styling and color combinations.

Wireframes are quick and cost-effective for designing apps layout and reviewing the designing process. Make sure to create device-specific wireframes, so that it can provide a device-specific and intuitive user experience.

c. Workflows

Workflows are the guidelines for users to travel within the app. It contributes to the app’s design strategy. Presenting workflow early on will help the Mobile App Development Cycle process and improve the developer’s productivity. As the predefined guidelines will also make your app look and feel consistent.

If you find any problem with your workflow, then update your wireframes and try again. Make sure to follow each step after any update or changes to confirm that you didn’t increase any difficulty of one action while attempting to improve another.

B. User-Interface Designing

The aim of user-interface designing while following SDLC to achieve the accuracy and quality of product development. In the Mobile App Development Cycle, building an interactive and user-friendly user-interface is very important to make the best and introduce the best in the market.

a. Style Guides

It is considered as the building block of your Mobile App Development Cycle. Having a decent styling guideline will help your app to look good and attract users. Having a consistent app design will make users more likely comfortable within the app. Style guides include:

• What font family will your app’s text use?
• What should be the color scheme for your app?
• How does your company’s brand get reflected in the app design?

Try to keep the cluster aside and put forward the main points. The experienced design team can render all your requirements and deliver the app that would be an excellent fit for you and the end-users.

b. Rendered Designs

Rendering high-fidelity design under Mobile App Development Cycle is to replace the greyscale elements of wireframes with your style guide. Make sure to provide a dedicated screen for each wireframe screen. If you want to make yourself stand out from the existing app market crowd, then maintain the new style and feel free to update or amend your style guides. In the end, make sure these changes don’t affect your design, so be consistent.

c. Rendering Click-through Models

After rendering all the screens, return to the click-through model application and test your app again. This is the step in the Mobile App Development Cycle, which requires your time. Make sure to implement and verify all the changes and updates because, after this, changes will become increasingly very costly for your app development.

4. Development

The Development phase in SDLC generally starts once an idea gains some maturation in the conceptual stage. The development of a working prototype facilitates and validates functionality and assumptions, and provides an overview and understanding of the scope of work.

Planning remains an integral part of the Mobile App Development Cycle. So, before implementing the actual development process, define the following points first;

• Define Technical Architecture.
• Define Development milestones.
• Choose a Technology Stack for your app development.

Generally, a mobile application is built over three integral parts: Back-End Server/Database Technology, Front-End Technology, and API(s).

a. Back-End Server/Database Technology

The back-end is majorly responsible for your app’s performance and scalability. The technologies used for app development are similar to those used to power web-based applications. So, before writing codes, decide the following things first;

Source: EdSurge Website

• Language- There are numerous programming languages that can be used to build the API. The most common languages used are C#, Golang, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Python. These languages have numerous frameworks also that can be utilized appropriately.
• Database/Server- There are two types of modern databases used nowadays, i.e., SQL and NoSQL. In the majority of cases, SQL has been the best and first choice. SQL implementation commonly includes MYSQL, MSSQL, and PostgreSQL. Proceed with a well-thought decision as having a reliable and well-organized database is important for success in the course of the long-term.
• Hosting Environment (Infrastructure)- In a hosting environment, you have to decide how and where your API and database will be hosted. This decision will help you determine the budget for hosting, performance, scalability, and reliability of your final product development. You can have dedicated hosting or cloud-based hosting, based on your preference and convenience.

b. API

Application Programming Interface (API) is a method of establishing communication between the app and the back-end server or database.

c. Front-End Technology

Front-end technology basically follows 3 approaches and is Platform-Specific Native, Cross-Platform Native, and Hybrid.

• Platform-Specific Native- The platform-specific apps are built separately for each platform. The codes for Android or iOS-based apps can’t be reused. But these apps are made in such a manner to be fully optimized for each platform. Platform-specific codes in Mobile App Development Cycle is quite an expensive approach to follow, but is very appropriate and tried, and tested to go with.
• Cross-Platform Native: The apps built under this approach may have some or all shared code, but can run natively very well. The conventional technologies used for cross-platform native programming are Xamarian, Native Script, and React Native. It is a very cost-effective approach, but can easily optimize and style each platform.
• Hybrid: Hybrid Apps are built using Web Technologies, i.e., HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, and the app is then installed through a native wrapper. Such apps can be installed through Ionic, Phone Gap, and Cordova. This is the cheapest option among all the three, but it comes with some difficulties as well.

Coding

To perform all the above appropriate steps requires coding to successfully build a mobile app and follow the SDLC to gain the quality at the end. The approach of coding in the development phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle requires developers to implement the app’s style and functionality.

Your coders need to understand the application’s goals as a whole and the individual function too. The developer needs to be in sync with that particular feature and understand the requirement’s intent to get the accurate return result.

After coding is done from the developer side, now it’s time for the Tester to review each module’s functioning.

Testing

The significant amount of app testing is performed by the non-developers, i.e., the people who are not the app’s primary developer. This ensures a more genuine testing experience. To follow the Mobile App Development Cycle, several types of testing can be performed. Typical testing approaches are:

• Functional Testing- ensures the features are working as described in the requirements. The Quality Assurance team makes sure to test the plan with a list of actions they are provided with and the desired app behavior over each action.
• Usability Testing: ensures all the features are working correctly, and make sure they are user-friendly and as intuitive as possible.
• Performance Testing: ensures that the app is working properly along with the timely and quick response or results. Keep an eye on the responsiveness of the app. If it takes too much time to respond or in providing the required result; then, no one will use your application.
• Fit and Finish Testing: ensure all the designs are done properly and accurately as described in the design. The designers should make sure and re-check their work to attain accuracy and get the finished product as desired.
• Regression Testing: ensure testing of each module and each modified module as well. After any coding changes, it might be possible that, earlier the things that were working properly might get affected. So, do test the same thing again and again to get the final product.
• Device-Specific Testing: There are a variety of combinations of operating systems and devices in this tech world. Therefore, while testing, perform testing over numerous devices based on different Operating Systems and screen sizes. There are also tools to accomplish such tasks and automate this step. You can use Google Firebase but always try to do manual testing of the app on a handful of devices.
• User Acceptance Testing: is usually performed by either the app owner or the app’s end-users. So, always ready to take the feedback from the end-user and make the required improvements in it.

5. Deployment

After following all the above steps of the Mobile App Development Cycle, it’s time to deploy the final product in the market. The proper testing and debugging of the app will make sure to deploy the app, and this can be done by following 2 different ways;

a. Deploy App on Web Server

For the functioning of an app, a back-end server is very necessary because it helps transfer the data between the application and the database. The application will stop performing if the back-end server is not working correctly or is overloaded. To avoid such issues, make sure the server is configured effectively to fulfill all the app requirements and meet the users needs. Some services like Amazon Web Services, RackSpace, etc. are some of the best web services that are efficient in handling the traffic. Such web-based services help you identify the situation where the app can stop working due to a rapid increase in traffic.

b. Deploy App on the Google Play Store or iOS App Store

Once you are sure about the best configuration and features of your app, you can release the app on either or both the app store, i.e., Google Play Store and iOS App Store. To make this possible, you can follow the separate application procedure of Google and Apple. It might be possible that you have to make some changes to your app due to each app store’s guidelines. Apple app store reviews apps manually, so it might ask to make some changes to follow their guidelines and maintain the regulations.

6. Post-Launch

After following all the phases of the Mobile App Development Cycle and the successful launch of the app doesn’t refer to your app will be a hit in the market. It is a crucial stage for your application, so make sure to monitor the app functionality regularly. As well as, keep an eye over its analytics, and continuously update the app for fixing bugs and crashes. Monitor user reviews on social media and app stores and try to respond to them individually and quickly. All these are essential steps of SDLC, that should be followed post-launch of the application.

It is evident that the Mobile App Development Cycle procedure is quite long and exhausting, but in the end, it is quite overwhelming too. Building the full-fledged app and following each phase involved in the SDLC requires substantial investment in terms of money. It also requires a lot of time and resources to achieve quality accurately and follow the Mobile App Development Cycle. But, if you perform every step properly, then, in the end, it will be a very rewarding process.

Source: RawPixel Website

We also follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle properly to get the best results and assist you with your personal preferences. As an ideal company for following all the steps of SDLC, we are always ready to serve you with your specific requirements. At EngineerBabu, we have dedicated and skilled developers who used to follow each phase of the Mobile App Development Cycle with precision based upon your convenience and requirements. For further assistance and detailed information, you can contact us, and we are here to help you.

The post Mobile App Development Cycle- The Ideal Method appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Who are we?
Foodies!

What do we want?
Food!

How much do we love food?
A lot!

A Food delivery app is today’s Tinder! The only difference is that there’s no swipe but a scroll, tap, and checkout! That’s why social media platforms during weekends have more cheesy platters than cheesy smiles. That’s how much of a Foodie we are! Talking about food, even the businesses cannot help but leverage the due advantage of this never-ending demand for food. Yes, we are talking about an on demand food ordering solution.

In recent times, EngineerBabu being a way-to-go for many of our clients across the world has witnessed a visible growth in the demand for developing food delivery apps and that too similar to Zomato. However, not everybody can communicate his or her requirements because Zomato is a big stadium and all that we have seen so far is just from the bleachers.

So, for all my aspiring business buddies, Let me present you a complete guide for building such food delivering apps.

What should be the business model for building an app similar to Zomato?

The key stakeholders for a food delivery app like Zomato are:

• The Restaurant Owners
• The Platform Owner
• The Delivery Professionals

The platform owners charge a certain amount of fee from the restaurateurs to get their restaurants listed on the mobile app to serve on demand food. When the user places an order, a notification is sent to the restaurateur, the nearest delivery person, and the platform owner. By collaborating at every stage with a powerful algorithm, all the three stakeholders maintain the smooth functioning of the platform for the users.

Zomato does not own any restaurant or chain of delivery services. It coordinates with the third party to plan a supply for the demand that arises.

In other words, it is an on demand food business model. So, if you want to build an app similar to Zomato, you don’t need to have a chain of restaurants as you can create your own brand on such platform. That’s the business ease of building an app like Zomato.

What makes Zomato different from other On demand Food Ordering Mobile Applications?

Most of the food ordering mobile app businesses that exist today are but the basic version of Zomato clone with a couple of nascent features. Here’s how Zomato works.

While others are confined till date with just the placing of an order and delivering food, apps like Zomato stand out with the following USP:

• Food ordering: Allowing the users to order on demand food.
• Table Booking: Enabling the users to book a table at the restaurant of their choice with just a few taps and the wait time at the restaurant is eliminated!
• Explore Places: Offering the discovery and guide to the user for exploring nearby restaurants with pictures and map locations.
• Zomato Gold: The subscription model that offers an exclusive dine out and social drinking membership with special perks of its own.

What are the Important features for building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

Zomato was once launched with the most simple functionality. It allowed the users to search for restaurants, look at the menu, and order their food. Later, it developed into a dedicated community for foodies that kept the users coming back to the app. This highly contributed to the engagement rate and ultimately, Zomato became the by-default food delivering and ordering app. Then it accelerated to expand with advanced features like booking tables. Apps like Zomato came about as the food-ordering app gained success.

All the stakeholders have their own application and the features of all these apps differ. If you want to plan the features for your Zomato- like mobile app, here is a list of features for the five categories of the app that’s the perfect Zomato clone:

Features for Web Service-

The web service is under the accountability of the platform owner. This means that if you develop a Zomato-like mobile app,  or Zomato clone you are in charge of handling the web service portal.

Admin Dashboard:
To manage the overall functionality and different stakeholders, the admin dashboard has the capability to view the list of the restaurants, the number of users, and the delivery professionals. The admin can add and remove any stakeholder at any point of time using this control panel.

Analytics and Reporting:
Data insights and metrics based on the bookings made is shown by generating reports from the app  and analysis can be done about the usage times, total number of users on board, demographic data, total number of restaurant listed, number of delivery professionals, profit and loss calculation per week, month, and year, etc.

For Delivery Professionals-

This app is specifically used by the delivery men. They get a delivery request and as soon as they accept the request from the app, they are provided with the information of the order, restaurant details and the address of the customer.

Trip Information:
The delivery man receives the restaurant’s pickup address and the drop details of the user.

Navigation:
The app for the delivery men consists of GPS which is integrated into the app for easy navigation. It consists of the route and the total time estimated for the delivery.

Route Optimization:
The map integrated with the app helps the delivery professionals with the best possible route where they can beat the traffic and make their deliveries as fast as possible.

Contact User/Restaurant:
The app consists of a contact user/ restaurant feature that helps the driver call the concerned stakeholder without having to copy the number and dial it manually.

Start/End Trip:
Once the delivery professional accepts the request and begins his trip towards the restaurant, his trip starts. Similarly, another trip begins on his way to make the delivery. This is the basis of the amount he earns per trip.

For User App-

It is the main source of revenue, it is important that the user app is rich in features. Some of the great features for a Zomato-like user app are listed below, in terms of how Zomato works for consumers:

Social media account integration:
For an easy signup process, the users should be able to sign up with their social media accounts.

Search Option:
With the help of the search module, the user is able to search for food on the basis of restaurants, cuisines, outlets, dishes, etc.

Call Restaurant/ Driver:
By using the call feature, the user will be able to make a call directly to the restaurant/Driver in case of any specific instructions to give against their order.

Multiple Payment Options:
The users should be able to make their payments using multiple options like Debit Card, Credit Card, Cash on delivery, Mobile wallets, etc.

Notifications:
The user gets a push notification about their order, trending search, favourite restaurant, etc.

Track Driver:
With the help of ‘track driver’ feature, the user is able to access the map integrated into the app and track the status of their food.

Show Veg Option:
The user app has the option which will filter out the veg and non-veg dishes for the users.

Real-time Availability:
The online reservation system of the app allows the user to check the availability of the tables in real-time and make the booking.

Social Community:
The app allows its users to integrate their social media handles for creating their profiles. The users can connect with each other, follow and make recommendations on cuisines, dishes, puns, restaurants, etc.
Pertaining to the ease provided by these features, many startups are pacing towards building an ace of a Zomato-like mobile app.

How to Build an app like Zomato and beat the cutthroat competition?

Simply search for the term, “build a Zomato-like app” and you will find hundreds of blogs providing you the information. There’s huge demand for a Zomato clone out there. An app like Zomato is drawing in millions for a reason. 

What does this imply?
There is a lot of competition out there with your Zomato similar mobile app development. It is important for you to make a move of innovation to step higher than your competitors,  when it comes to building an app like Zomato.

But how to do that?
It’s simple, please your customers with the quality of your service and remarkable features for them to have a lasting impression of your brand. This will keep them engaged to your platform and ultimately, you will swiftly be able to scale up your Zomato-like business.

For this, you need to carry out a thorough research on what your unique selling point is going to be. Keep a track of the launches and services that your competitors are planning to or have probably done and try to provide a better service. If there’s some process that you can ease out for your customers, make it a priority and do it.

Make your users feel that their problems are acknowledged by you and addressed well in the form of features. Give them a, “Why should I install your app?” reason that your competitors lack. This way your Zomato-like mobile app will be able to drive a large amount of traffic, engagement, and ultimately conversion.

What should be Considered While Building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

From the point that you have this idea of turning a mere concept into a full-fledged Zomato-like mobile application to launching the first prototype of the app for testing, there are many vital steps to be followed to make your mobile app a big success.

The ground to building any food ordering mobile application is mostly flat. This means you do not have to brainstorm a lot on where to start developing your application. The only front of the mental focus for you as a business person should be to choose a brand name and identity that is relatable to the user. This way there are more instances of brand recognition and the marketing budget will reduce significantly, when you build a Zomato clone.

Here are some other important things to focus on:

• Customer convenience with easy navigation for different pages.
• Clean UI/UX designs with a call out as and when required.
• A helpline for 24*7*365 for all the stakeholders.
• Updated data about the restaurant for providing the right information to the customers.
• The visual appeal of the mobile app as well as the assets used for displaying menu, dishes, ambience, etc.

Simplified Process for Developing a mobile app like Zomato

Here is the right approach to follow in your venture to develop a skyrocketing Zomato similar app:

Know what is your primary aim with the launch of your app before beginning with the development process. This will help you decide on the USP of your business and will set your business apart right from the start. Know how Zomato works and why this app is scoring well.

Understand your target audience well. In case of an app like Zomato, you will need to be thrice as careful with three different types of stakeholders to take care of – the restaurateur, the delivery personas, and the end users. Carry out a detailed market analysis and make a note of who your buyer persona is. Check for his demands from the platform and plan the supply that is inline with the demand for creating a long-term business relationship.

Research carefully on the existing applications that are similar to Zomato. List out their drawbacks and come up with some creative solution. If needed, tweak the business model a bit and see how effective it becomes.

Choosing the technology for your mobile app? Is it that tough for you? Always remember, you do not have to be technically sound to sound technical. All you need to know is the basics of what your app needs and leave the rest to the experts and skilled developers. Have a clear understanding of your business model and your revenue model. If you are planning to introduce the revenue model after the base has been set, then inform the developers accordingly.

Know what devices are preferred and are most popular amongst your targeted audience and go for developing an app with that platform. You can eventually introduce another platform for your business. Never let your focus go away from your brand recognition. With so many food ordering apps, it is common for your customers to switch to other app providing the same functionality. This is when a visually appealing UI and UX design play an important role in retaining the customers. Attract your customers on a psychological level and make your portal as relatable as possible for your customers.

Always plan the features well in advance by keeping your budget in mind. It is advisable to go easy with expansion. Not all applications have all the features and so you need not worry about the growth of your business when it is still in the incubator. Market enough to generate traffic. Get your customers engaged and try to convert them into loyal customers. Then plan for an expansion, as your Zomato clone provides plenty of features to ensure easy scalability.

Leverage the power of referrals, promotions, discounts, while launching your application and prepare grounds for on-boarding as many customers as possible. Give them the deal they cannot refuse to and provoke them to try out your app for at least once. Then let your features and quality service speak for your brand at the top of their voice!

It so happens with the aspiration that once the information from the article starts to convert into the research, most of the aspiration dies foreseeing the challenges and hardships of getting an app build in the right manner. However, when you consider on-boarding expert developers, you might feel your burden lessening and your ‘idea’ taking its real form. Need help with ideation or the app development? We are just a click away!

What is the Cost of Building a Mobile App similar to Zomato?

Without being diplomatic and making statements like, “Well, it depends”on the cost of developing an app like Zomato, let me walk you through the estimation on the basis of the features included. You have to consider all the three apps with both the platform – iOS and Android.

This again can be segregated on the basis of MVPs and advanced features. However, there is something that you should take into consideration while planning the features for your app. The admin panel cannot have basic features. You need to have a complete control over all the ongoing activities and transactions. So, it is recommended to not be a miser with the web service app.

Moving towards the driver and the user app, it is recommended to go basic first and make progressive moves with your features. This way you will be able to experiment with your customers and make implementations with your new features while keeping the engagement intact and increasing if you are lucky enough!

Hiring or outsourcing have their very own influence on the cost of building an app. You could end up hiring a cheaper resource team that eventually takes a while to develop your app or you might meet a team that promises to develop even before the timeline you have determined and ultimately none of them proves to be worthy of your time, energy, investment, or even to be a part of your business dream.

So, you need to be very careful while outsourcing the resources for building a Zomato clone. Coming back to the cost for building a mobile app similar to Zomato – If we consider the most basic version of the app with only the MVP features and simple UI/UX design, the projected price can go to $7,000 to $10,000 for development of all the three apps.

If we consider a fine tuning of both basic and advanced set of features, the estimated price can be somewhere in between $35,000 to $50,000. If we consider the full-fledged Zomato like app, the price rises up to $75,000 and above. 

How to hire developers for developing an app similar to Zomato?

• Make a list of your requirements on the basis of the research you carried out.
• Search for the developers using the credible sources and websites.
• Read resources and case studies on the websites.
• Find out what their existing customers are saying about their work and make your decision.
• When in doubt, talk to them and get your query resolved.

You can outsource and hire skilled developers by choosing different types of pricing models. Most of the web and app development companies have their own pricing models. So, choose whatever fits the best in your requirements and hire the number of professionals accordingly.

For developing a basic version of your Zomato like mobile app, you will require –

• A UI and UX designer
• 2-4 Developers
• Testing engineer
• Backend Developer
• Project Manager
 

For developing an app with mixed features, you will need –

• Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• 2-4 developers
• Testing Engineer
• 2–3 backend developers
• Admin panel developer
 

For developing an advanced version of the app, you will need –

• Team Manager/Project Manager
• 2 UI/UX designer
• 3-5 developers
• Testing Engineer
• 3-4 backend developers
• Admin panel developer
 

Having built the roadmap to your Zomato-like digital business, are you ready to put your plan into execution and launch your mobile app for generating recurring revenue? Yes?

We would love to put in our expertise for building you a Zomato-like app just like we helped you find the path to discover your business idea. Having faced many challenges with the limitations of technology and the innovative demands of our customers, app development to our developing team has been a practice to perfect episode.

Have an idea that could transform the face of the Indian food industry? Drop us an email at mayank@engineerbabu.com. We promise we’ll keep it a secret and help you build it!

You can visit our website for more information, or directly talk to us.

Recommended readings for you-

1. How to Hire Dedicated PHP Developer at EngineerBabu?
2. Best Way To Hire Node.js Developer
3. How we Developed a Grocery Delivery App with 1,00,000+ Downloads!

The post How to Build an App like Zomato? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

What Every Aspiring On-demand Business Should Know Before Developing a Mobile App like Uber

Taxi service was once a royalty, ‘Uber‘ made it a need by making it affordable. Not only did Uber disrupt the traditional taxi service, but also impeded the way people carry out their business.

Today, Uber’s on-demand service model can be applied to almost all the industries and their niches. It is not exaggerating to say that the demand for an on-demand solution is increasing with every passing day. People optimize their power of imagination and conceptualize a fairly unforeseen niche with an on-demand solution.

Uber taxi started its disruption with an iOS app. Initially, Uber app for riders could only book the rides for the customers. With time, Uber delivered luxury cab services with the launch of Uber Black. Uber Black allowed the user to choose the ride as per their preference from a wide range of luxury cars.

However, it only managed to please the upper class and Uber had the solution to lure all the sections of the society. UberX came up with a promise to charge what’s right and became a default cab hailing service for most of the people. But Uber had more plans to enhance the customer experience through the uber app for riders and this came in the form of UberPool.

Having explored all the ways to please its customers, it is planning to make a leap in the sky with UberCopter! An Uber like app is in great demand nowadays.

What makes this rise in the Uber clone business so obvious?

The basis of the on-demand business model is the aggravation of demand and planning a supply to meet the demand. However, the right approach to planning for an ‘Uber like’ app development is :

• Dive into the industry with a Primitive Approach.
• Build a sustainable model to aggregate the demand in the form of a mobile app for the service providers and customers.
• Meet this demand of the customers with a distributed supply chain management.
• Retain your customers.

But what makes Uber taxi different from other taxi-services? Uber like app, development must be popular for a reason. Here’s the secret: The thoughtful features of Uber!

Plan the features for your Uber like app, the Uber Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f67ztGpHLc

Not many to-be Uber businesses know that basically Uber is made up of three mobile applications:

• The admin app
• The Uber app for Drivers
• The Uber app for Riders

Each of these stakeholders has its own set of features. For your ease to understand each of these features, I have jotted down the features in different categories:

• Most Viable Features
• Advanced Features

Let us first take a look at the features that build up the billion-dollar taxi-hailing company, Uber.

Features for Uber App for Riders

Track a Ride
Uber cab provides an option for its passenger to track a ride after they have booked their ride. What happens is, after the rider enters the pickup and drop location, the driver accepts the ride request through his uber app and approaches to the pickup location. To find out how far the driver is from the location, the passengers can track them by using the map integrated into the uber app for riders. Uber like apps are perfect for monitoring the journey and this makes for a unique value proposition.

Fare Estimation
The passengers are able to draw a fare estimate for their ride on the basis of their pickup and drop location.
The fare also varies as per the selection of the car for the ride. When the passenger stops at multiple destinations in between his pickup and drop location, it gets calculated at the end of the ride with the help of the powerful Uber algorithm. Uber like app development, therefore, needs to focus on this feature.

Multiple Modes of Payment
For making the taxi-hailing ecosystem user-friendly for the customers, Uber provides multiple modes of payment to choose for paying the fare. In the uber app for riders, passengers can select any type of payment, e.g. credit card, debit card, cash, mobile wallets, etc. offering a wide range of payment gateways is the key to an effective Uber like app.

Track Service History
For the passengers who commute on daily basis, Uber has a feature called Track service history. With the help of service history, the passengers can get details about their rides in a specific period. The passengers can view any dates and the entire service history details will be available for them in the form of a report in the Uber for riders. Uber like app development should, therefore, focus on tracking service history.

Book Now Ride later
Book Now Ride Later is an advanced feature of Uber. It allows the passengers to schedule their rides before the actual time of the ride. Once done, the passengers get confirmation. The passengers get the driver’s details before an hour of their scheduled ride and they can track the ride.

Book for Others
Similar to Book Now Ride Later, Book for others is an advanced feature for the Uber app for riders. The passengers can book a ride for their friends and families by using their own account. After the booking is made, the passenger gets all the details about the ride and an SMS is delivered to the rider. Here, the tracking can also be done by using the link present in the SMS.

Smart Wallets
Uber provides a smart wallet to its passengers for paying the fare. The passengers integrate these smart wallets with their bank accounts and transfer a certain amount of money. The passengers can directly make their payments using the mobile wallets. Uber like apps or Uber clones must incorporate this feature.

Panic Button
To ensure the security of the passengers, Uber has taken measures in the form of a panic button. As soon as the passenger is on-board, a panic button gets enabled in the Uber app for riders. Uber clones should have such safety and security features in place.  If you’re wondering how to make an app like Uber, remember safety is a huge concern for cab passengers nowadays.

When the passengers feel threatened or sense danger, they can press the panic button in the Uber taxi app. This sends a notification to the nearest police station, the Uber authorities, and the family members of the passengers. The Uber cab app, therefore, considers every aspect.

Favourite Destinations
The favorite destination is an advanced feature for the Uber rider app. When the passengers have to travel to the same destinations day-in and day-out, they can enter the destinations for once and can select it using a single tap, through the Uber app. The passengers can save destinations for their home, office, restaurants, etc. using the Uber app.

Split Charges
This is an advanced feature for the Uber for riders. When the passengers are traveling with their friends, they can split their fare and pay individually on the basis of the charge of the ride and the pickup and drop location of each passenger. They can split their fare and if they have leveraged mobile wallets, the fare automatically gets deducted from the wallet. So the Uber like app should consider such features.

Features of the Uber App for Drivers

Driver Delivery Reports
In order to ensure the safety of the passengers as well as the drivers, Uber for drivers has a delivery report feature. The report is a summary of the driving style of the driver during the entire week, month, etc. If the driver continues to drive rash, Uber can even remove the driver from the service, all thanks to the Uber cab app. On the other hand, if a driver drives smoothly, he becomes the trainer for the newbie Uber drivers. An Uber like app must have such features, too.

Route optimization:
Route optimization helps the driver take the most efficient route so that they can reach the destinations in the fastest possible time. The driver can leverage the route optimization feature, reroute the entire journey and can navigate efficiently to the path, using the Uber taxi app.

Driver Destinations:
The driver destination is an advanced feature in the Uber app for drivers. The driver can choose to take a ride to his preferred destination. This feature can be used by the drivers when they want to make money and have to reach their destinations, through the Uber cab app.

Quest earnings:
Quest earning is a feature in the Uber for drivers. It helps the driver earn extra money. The quest comes with a pre-defined number of rides that the drivers have to complete in order to win and earn the additional amount.

Shorter 2 Minute Cancellation Window:
The cancellation window is the time that the driver has to wait for the passenger. It is an advanced feature in the app for Uber drivers. When the driver arrives at the location on time, the first 2 minutes are non-chargeable for the passengers. However, if they take a lot of time, the charging starts and the passengers have to pay for that extra time as well along with the base fare of the ride.

Heat Maps
Heat maps is the advanced feature in an ‘Uber like’ app. It is like a cheat sheet for the drivers. Heat maps is basically a map view of the demand. The drivers can know where the ratio of the passengers is high and can move to that location to get requests easily from the passengers.

Forward Dispatch
The forward dispatch is an advanced feature for the Uber app for the driver. It allows the drivers to accept the request for another ride while they are still completing their current ride. This helps them to cut down the ideal time and earn a few more extra bucks.

Niches to plan for an ‘Uber like’ app

• Healthcare
• Beauty services and on-demand salons
• On-demand mechanic
• On-demand gas delivery service
• On-demand transportation
• On-demand food delivery service

How to Strategically Build the Features in an Uber like app?

Developing an app like uber is a long-term commitment. You need to stay on your toes from the time you start conceptualizing about the idea until the beta the release of the beta version of the app. A smooth way of developing an app like Uber is to plan your development beforehand. An Uber like app development process must have all the features and consider all the challenges.

Allow me to help you with the planning of features for building an app similar to Uber:

Basically, there are three categories to start your development. The basic version of the app like Uber can consist of the most viable features for all the three stakeholders – the admin, the driver, and the passenger. Uber clone apps must incorporate these features.

The advanced version of the app consists of the most advanced features for all the stakeholders. However, this version can be launched once you get a hand over the market. The third version of the application consists of all the basic features of app ‘like Uber’ for all the stakeholders and some of the advanced features. Now, it is upon you to decide on how you want to go about with your ‘Uber like’ mobile app.

What should you keep in mind for Building an Uber like App

The ideal way to build an app like Uber is to build a basic version of the Uber cab app and study the market carefully. Building an Uber clone requires careful planning. Know what could be the possible innovation for the driver’s and the passenger’s app. Once this is clear, you can proceed with the advanced set of features. Uber customer apps must consider the journey from the consumer’s viewpoint.

Apart from this, you should always try to attract and retain both the drivers and the customers for a smooth functioning. For the best Uber clone, you need to work on the features and functionalities. While there are many in the app development market claiming to be the pioneers in the industry, not everybody has got that hands-on experience with the on-demand solution. The key is to research well for your app like Uber to ensure that your business is in safe hands. Uber like app development involves careful consideration of these factors.

Apart from this, other important elements to keep in mind while building an app like Uber or an Uber taxi app clone are:

• User-friendly navigation
• Smooth UI/UX designs
• Pleasing visuals and graphics
• Real-time functionality

The best way to plan for developing an app like Uber  is mentioned as the following:

• Your USP should be your first concern. Afterall, it is going to separate your voice from the noise. Ask yourself as to why do you want to build an app like Uber. What difference are you going to make with it and then proceed with its development?
• As mentioned earlier, your features are going to be the voice of your brand. It is going to resonate with your end users. Keeping the importance of user-friendly features in mind, plan for your first app release with the most viable features and then scale up your business in the subsequent phases.
• Demography plays an important role in the launch of a business. Know what demography are you targeting. Promote your app to those users and take feedback. Implement on the feedback provided and come up with innovation the next time.

What could be the possible Revenue Model for building an app like Uber?

Uber has got no fleet of cars. It only has got the drivers and the passengers to make its revenue.
The possible revenue streams for your ‘Uber like’ app can be:

• Commission from the drivers
• Ride fare from the customers
• Cancellation charges from the customers

Let me walk you through the cost of building an app like Uber.

Cost of Developing a mobile app like Uber:

It is obvious for a businessman to focus on the ROI. And to figure out the expected turnover, you need to know the investment required. To cut it short, let us find out what could be the cost of building an ‘Uber like’ mobile application:

Influence of features:
Basically, there are three possibilities with which you can develop your Uber like app.
You might either go with the most viable features, advanced features, or a perfect blend of both the basic and some advanced features.

Influence of operating system:
It is a known fact that iOS app puts a bigger hole in your pocket as compared to that of the Android app. However, it is upon your target audience and their preference of device to select the operating system. The possibility is, your target audience can have an equal ratio and you might have to launch an app for both the platforms. Uber app Android development or iOS is largely a matter of customer preference, therefore.

Influence of technology:
While coding your app in Kotlin would be costlier but trendy, it is upon you to figure out your app development needs. Similarly, you have to make a smarter choice with native and hybrid app development. If you are not technically sound, you can seek assistance from your developers. Uber like app development involves using the latest tools and technologies.

Influence of resources:
If you don’t already have a team of hard-headed developers and you are thinking to outsource them, you need to be very careful in your selection process. Look out for the case studies and experience. Compare the cost of the app development and then make a decision. While different app development companies have their own variables, there is quite an ambiguity in the cost of developing an ‘Uber like’ mobile app.

So, an exact figure cannot be determined but to give you a rough idea about the estimate, have a look at the following:

• If we consider the most basic version of the app with only the MVP features and clean UI/UX design, the projected price can go up to $7,500 for development. However, there is very little support and maintenance required.
• If we consider a blend of basic features along with some advanced features, the price can increase to somewhere between $20,000 to $25,000
• If we consider the app to be developed with complete advanced features, then the price can rise to as high as $50,000 to $60,000.

The smarter way to Outsource Developers for Building an ‘Uber like’ Mobile App

Determine the scope of work and then decide upon the number of resources for building a mobile app like Uber for your business. There are many different types of pricing model that you could choose from – time-based, scope based, fixed price and fixed time pricing model, or dedicated resource hiring. While some of these models are based on the client’s demand, the others are determined by the app development firm itself.

Dedicated Resource-based Hiring

When opting for a dedicated resource based hiring, ensure that you know the scope of work and that you are not paying for an extra resource.  To develop a basic version of your Uber like app, your set of resources will be-

• UI and UX designer
• 2 – 4 developers
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• A Backend Developer
• A Project Manager

To develop an advanced version of Uber like app, you will need a team of –

• Team Manager/Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• 3 – 4 developers for each platform
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• 2–3 backend developers
• Admin panel

Brace yourself to build a disruptive business with Uber like app.

In case you have concerns and queries about the cost of building an Uber like app, help us with know your exact requirements here and we will let you know the estimate. EngineerBabu, being an experienced app development company, Uber like apps are now a practice to perfect episode for us.

Do you want to hire our teams of expert developers for developing your Uber like app? Connect with our Experts

Our clients are highly innovative and we respect them for coming up with innovative challenges for us. Spare some time to know about our creative solutions to various technological challenges with our case studies here. Did you hear what our clients have to say about us? Get to know us better by reading the work experience of our clients with us.

Here is our complete library of innovative mobile apps which we have developed for our clients across the world. Feel free to ask for a demo and we will help you with it. We would love to be your app development partners. Please drop a detailed inquiry about your requirements and our team will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss further on the development.

On a scale of yay to nay, how helpful did you find this guide? Please share your views in the comment section below and we would appreciate your efforts. We’d love to expand our knowledge. Shoot an email to us at mayank@engineerbabu.com, or Talk to Us  directly.

Also check out:

• Best Way To Hire Node.js Developer
• How to build a Fintech App, like BankOpen?
• Build a Food Delivery App like Seamless
• Make An eLearning Mobile App Like Khan Academy (Or Udemy)

The post How to Build an App like Uber? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

We made an edutech android mobile app for Witcircle, to help out students efficiently.

Want to know how? Take a look at our case study.

About WitCircle –

WitCircle is an integrated platform that has a plethora of interesting study material for everyone connected to it. The application’s goal is to help students prepare well for entrance exams, reducing their test anxiety with better preparation, and progress in their education and career. Learning is done on fingertips with the most sought after study material prepared by a panel of experts. One can participate in tests with students all over India, e-coaching, topic-wise preparation and best guidance – all at one place!

WitCircle is the brainchild of two extraordinary entrepreneurs- Abhishek Pushp (Bihar) and Chandan Satyarthi (Delhi). The duo had a terrific idea and they wasted no time in approaching the best known team to sought help for their dream product. When they approached us, they had the idea of bringing all the study material at one place- previous year question papers, mock tests etc, to be kept available 24/7 for the students.

Is there really a need for an edutech app for students?

There’s a vast majority of young Indians that live in a remote area with no good coaching classes in their vicinity, or cannot afford coaching classes from good institutes due to the extravagant fees. Remember the very recent ‘Super 30’? It isn’t something peculiar, but really, really common. In a scenario where education has grown into an industry, the lesser privileged Indians students are often struggling with a proper structured basic guidance.

What exactly did the client want in his mobile app?

After the client, Abhishek decided to come down to Indore, where our office is headquartered, our team including dedicated employees, had several brainstorming sessions with him. It was found that Abhishek had a non-technical background. His goal was to keep two central entities- Students and Coaching Centres.

1. Students: After signing up and verification from the admin, students would get access to courses and test materials for the desired course, at no cost. They can follow at most 5 coaching classes at a time and download their courses and appear for tests. Wit Circle education team would upload courses and prepare test material. A student can then appear in various tests and check their performance based on the ranking amongst all the students taking the test.
2. Coaching Classes: Coaching class can make use of this virtual platform to impart education to its students by e-coaching through study courses and online test. A coaching class can prepare their own test papers or may use test papers prepared by the admin team for the students. Coaching classes can access the individual analysis of its students’ test performances and give feedback based on it.

What approach was taken by EngineerBabu for this particular mobile app development?

A team of dedicated developers.

Since the project scope was broad, we assigned dedicated developers to the task. At engineerbabu, we also provide dedicated developers for PHP, Java and Node.js. It took almost a year, since we had to simultaneously develop the website and android application. Two project managers, one designer, two front-end developers and two backend developers made this project a success.

Our additional insights- Logo designing.

We analyzed the need and scope of the project and realised that to target a competitive market, our focus should not be just on the website and the application, but on building a brand. Brainstorming was done by team to create some mockups and finally turn it into a pixel perfect brand logo of “WitCircle”. Earlier during the project, we started working on this aspect as well.

Development Model

For developers, we have our methods to decide upon the approach once a task has been assigned to us. The entire system and application components were divided into modules in order to carry out tasks on various elements at the same time without affecting the work of the other. Backend developers were also working on the principle of modularity. Dividing the entire project into modules allowed various developers to work on the project at the same time in order to reduce the burden of doing the task on a single developer and in turn, reduce the time required to complete the project and hand over the product on time.

If you’re a business owner looking to grow your business, there are certain things to keep in mind before developing an app. The approach that was used for WitCircle’s development was the waterfall model. It took a team of 6 of our employees, hired on a dedicated hiring model by us. The requirements were understood by the sales team initially, and were then provided to the design team. After all the layouts had been created, it was the task of the developers to implement it.

Wireframe

We wanted to build an intuitive UI and an easy to go User Experience. We built low fidelity wireframes and developed a flow. After the analysis of the flow was given a green flag by the client, we built high fidelity wireframes using tools like Adobe XD, Illustrator and delivered a flow prototype in Invision.

Results:

What did the client have to say, upon completion of the project?

Client’s satisfaction is our promise. We strive to create a relation that lasts not during the project, but also after completion.

“It feels as if they’re part of our company. Within two days, I was given the scope of work and working process for my project, which gave me confidence in them. To be honest, their customer service and communication have been excellent.” -Abhishek Pushp.

Tech stack used for Witcircle app and website

Android –

• IDE – Android Studio
• Build System – Gradle
• UI Designing – XML, Material design standards
• Web Services Calling – AQuery
• Image and Data Caching – AQuery
• Programming Language- Java
• Push Notifications – Firebase Cloud Messaging

Backend-

• Programming Language – PHP
• Database – MySQL
• IDE – SubLine

User reviews/rating/downloads

Have an idea that could transform the face of the education system of India? Have any edutech ideas to help the distressed students? You can visit our website for more information, or directly contact us here.

The post An EduTech App for Indian Students to Crack Entrance Exams appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Earlier this week, Asia’s first Neo-bank “BankOpen” raised $30 million in a new funding round as investors found an opportunity to replicate a globally tried and tested business idea in the emerging market- Fintech Mobile App Startups. The Series B financing round for the start-up was led by Tiger Global with Tanglin Venture Partners Advisors. The pre-existing investors that also participated in the funding round include 3one4 Capital, Speedinvest, BetterCapital AngelList Syndicate. This round valued BankOpen at $150 million, and has raised about $37 million till now.

BankOpen has partnered with ICICI Bank for creation of accounts. On ICICI Bank’s internet banking website, BankOpen has integrated its tools including a payment gateway powered by Stripe. It gives back-end support to YES Bank and ICICI Bank. This one of a kind FinTech project was undertaken by EngineerBabu, an award winning IT company for web and mobile development services for StartUps, SMEs, as well as Enterprises.

What Is FinTech and Why it matters?

Neo-banks are conventional banks that do not have any physical branches but only use FinTech Mobile Apps and websites to provide their services. It is basically an institution that provides checking, a prepaid debit card and some form of savings account minus the traditional brick-and-mortar building. It includes P2P payments, mobile deposits, real-time digital receipts and mobile budgeting tools.

For Asia, neo-banking might be a comparatively newer concept, but globally, the experiments with neo-banking have been done by major global banks for close to a decade now and the trend has since then, caught up the entire world. Very recently, banks and FinTech Mobile App companies have started to support each other in this venture to promote digitization, hence easing the banking experience for millions of micro-entrepreneurs and homepreneurs.

Some other Indian neo-banks like BankOpen include- NiYO, 811 by Kotak, Yono by SBI and InstantPay. Monzo, a neobank from the UK, after garnering more than a million customers, is now reportedly going to enter the US market. Some other notable fintech mobile apps across the globe are- Tyro Payments, Volt Bank and Xinja (Australia), bunq and N26 (Europe), Atom Bank, Revolut and Starling Bank (UK), Simple (USA) and WeBank (China).

How BankOpen started?

The vision –

The startup was founded by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan and his wife Mabel Chacko in 2016. They found the inspiration for BankOpen after having come across the financial issues faced by small businessmen across the country. In Ahmedabad, one of their clients, a small businessman has an average of 59 transactions from his customers in the firm’s bank account every few hours. Prior to using BankOpen, the firm had to juggle all day to figure out where these transactions originated from or went to. It was because, on their bank statement, they only see one-line description of a transaction’s detail.

The pain points –

CEO Anish Achuthan in an interview told that, “Traditional banks have either not addressed these small needs, or charge huge amount for their own solutions that is not feasible for a small business.” With over 100,000 customers (around 20,000 coming onboard every month) BankOpen processes about $5 billion in transactions each year. Within the next one year, BankOpen aims to grow its customer base to 1 million. Today it is competing with a handful of startups including InstantPay, but the CEO is of the view that much of the market remains untapped.

The solutions –

The two-year-old Bangalore-based start-up automates accounting and GST, tax filing, bookkeeping, and reconciles bank transfers, cash and cheque payments. In addition to this, it also manages invoicing, payouts, payroll & accounting in one place. It uses a payment gateway powered by Stripe, whose other clients include Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and Uber.

Team building –

• Zwitch, the previous digital payments venture by Anish Achuthan and Mabel Chacko, was acquired by digital payments firm CitrusPay in September 2015.
• Following the acquisition, Ansih Achuthan joined CitrusPay as vice-president of new initiatives and business head, whereas Mabel Chacko headed the firm’s digital marketing.
• In 2016, the duo quit CitrusPay and founded BankOpen.
• In July 2017, BankOpen raised $250,000 from Amrish Rau, CEO of PayU India and Jitendra Gupta, managing director.
• In November 2017, BankOpen appointed former TaxiForSure chief financial officer Deena Jacob as head of revenue and growth and CFO.

Why is India a Billion dollar market for Fintech/Neo Banking?

In the past 5 years, the SME sector in India has grown as a lively and dynamic sector in the Indian Economy. They play a significant role in Nation’s cross-platform development, but the one aspect that plays a major role in their success is- efficient banking and financial management. Till recently, SMEs faced issues like difficulty in managing multiple bank accounts, bandying out payments to employees, bookkeeping of daily spending. Neo-banking is one good way to drive digital innovation in this sector by providing its clientele with personalised products that not only add value, but also ease their burden effectively.

At the Singapore FinTech Festival in November last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced attractive policies and plans to invite investors to the Indian landscape amidst the largest ever gathering of FinTech firms. “I say this to all the FinTech companies and startups: India is your best destination,” he said, as the keynote speaker. “Less than 50 per cent of Indians had bank accounts in 2014. Now, it is nearly universal. So today, more than a billion biometric identities, more than a billion bank accounts and more than a billion cell phones give India by far the biggest public infrastructure in the world,” Modi had said. He became the first world leader to address the festival that was launched in 2016 and was in its third edition last year.

Financial Technology and Its Scope In The Developing World:

A Nigerian FinTech startup NetPlus provides simple and reliant digital payment system to the consumers of the nation who initially used to be cynical when it came to using e-commerce. Nigeria has now embraced the platform. Several developments like these have given a boost to evolving markets such as Indonesia, Brazil, India, Nigeria, etc.

London, San Francisco and Singapore, were earlier reserved as the FinTech hubs but the scenario has been changing rapidly. Now these developments are driving investors to huge rewarding markets in developing countries as well, since the growth opportunities here are massive. This shift in the market has now gained a significant attraction and developing nations are experiencing tremendous growth in investments across FinTech and RegTech.

Also, several financial establishments have planned to open up new premises in these countries that is a clear indicator of what is expected to come our way in 2019.

BankOpen and EngineerBabu:

The two companies collaborated in order to build something unique. With EngineerBabu’s expertise in Fintech and BankOpen’s idea they took the first step i.e. MVP. The goal was to a unique integrated payment gateway for customers, so they can accept bank transfers via virtual accounts that auto-categorises their income and expenses. It supports multi-bank connect from 60+ Indian banks to BankOpen.In addition to this, BankOpen is the first API banking platform in the entire region of Asia. The developer friendly banking APIs lets developers easily integrate banking & payments into their applications or accounting systems. From instant account creation to mass payouts, the APIs help the users create a tailored solution which meets their unique payment needs. The simple and easy to integrate REST APIs are built with seamless security in mind that support mass processing. There are no loops, be it a mass payout or mass account creation, all the heavy lifting is taken care of for the customers.

How To Start A FinTech Mobile App Company?

If you have never traded Bitcoins and aren’t sure how stocks work, there’s still a solid chance that you might have used some sort of FinTech services— online banking solutions or mobile payments. In fact, the adoption of fintech globally reached 33% in 2017, as compared to nearly half, 16% in 2015.

The top 3 FinTech Companies and their funding, niche and current values are as understated-

1. Stripe– Got a funding of $685 millions in a total of 9 rounds. It is now valued at $20 billions. It’s niche is- Online Payment Service.
2. RobinHood– Got a funding of $539 millions in a total of 5 rounds. It is now valued at $ 5.6 billions. It’s niche is- Trading and Investment.
3. Lu.com/Lufax– Got a funding of $1.7 billions in 2 rounds of funding and is now valued at approx. $10 billions. It’s niche is- Peer-to-Peer Lending and Financing platform.

Fintech definitely isn’t the easiest industry to target and when all the pitfalls are taken into consideration – It takes time, effort and sweat to create a successful FinTech company. To launch a startup in such a frivolous and competitive domain, it takes a lot of expertise and creativity. The immense and rapid pressure is on the tech companies to deliver huge results. Still, if you believe that you have what it takes to solve the financial issues for your users through innovative means, go ahead. You will be needing the right people by your side.

At EngineerBabu, we have experts when it comes to crafting products that engage your audience, sets your brand apart while helping you achieve your goals. We focus on making sure that the mobile apps and websites we develop for you are both useful and easy to use. Feel free to reach out to us for any consultations.

How Much Does a FinTech Mobile App Cost?

To estimate the cost of any new business venture, the resources including manpower, and the time taken by them to finish the task is what will help you to reach to an estimated figure. When it comes to app development, several factors will decide the costing. It might vary depending on the niche of your app, the target-audience and their population size, the scope of the application you’re going to build, the platform it would be launched on (iOS or Android), etc.

But generally speaking, a Business Analyst takes around 10-15 days. A UI developer would take 15 days to finish his design. Then there are front-end, back-end (for iOS and Android platforms) and testing developers that usually take 70 days, 60 days and 15 days respectively. When all of this is done, the final cost would be around 20,000-30,000 USD for one app.

A lot of other steps are involved in developing a mobile app and you can manage your finances wisely if you know how to balance them by— knowing the regulations, discovering your edge, hiring the right talent along with the right tech stack, creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), getting funded and building resourceful partnerships.

EngineerBabu’s Concept in FinTech Mobile App?

Fintech mobile app start-ups are bound to focus more on the customer experience and services in the digital era and engage with the established industry contenders. In the long run, Fintech will be investing more in risk management, innovation techniques and partnerships through collaboration which will be of great aid to both the banking sector and Fintech mobile app companies. The sector also has to innovate the business models and find their place in the B2B sector.

Furthermore, traditional financial contenders will be exploring growth opportunities through new monetization models. As a result, banks will have the benefits from the financial technology company’s knowledge about developing the insights for needs of their customers. New age customers are looking for smooth on-demand transactions and good interpersonal relationships. Hence, what we will be witnessing 2019 onwards is, massive opportunities for Fintechs to add value by artificial intelligence, employing big data, machine learning in the financial services. FinTech is going to be the second-most significant transformation in Finance, since the first permanent banknotes. Fintech is constantly maturing and developing, and many fundamental tasks still need to be explored.

Our team at EngineerBabu makes sure to incorporate our knowledge about this dynamic sector while we create the best website and application platforms for you. With more and more FinTech firms, central banking will surely take a backseat as lenders and borrowers are matched with each other to make a more stable credit exchange. This significantly newer concept has the potential to completely change the way banking functions. FinTech is taking the age-old method of lending and borrowing without the existence of separate institutions while challenging the territorial habits of banking services and traditional insurance.

We at EngineerBabu excel in creating fintech products utilizing the latest tech stacks and we possess immeasurable domain expertise in developing these products. This is why so many of our clients have gone on to acquire record funding from renowned investors, including this most recent developments in the case of our client, BankOpen.

Have an idea that could change the face of the Indian FinTech market? You can visit our website for more information, or directly contact us here.

The post How to build a Fintech App, like BankOpen? appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

What You Must Know for Developing a Photo-sharing Mobile Application like Instagram
Instagram has been the reason why people across the world have taken ”travelling” as a serious hobby. Also, Instagram is the reason why digital businesses have started considering the photo-sharing app as a serious business.
Can a mere photo-sharing app be a serious business?
Yes!
All that a business needs are engagement. Moreover, with the rise of the smartphones, it has become pretty easier for the users to click pictures to their heart’s content and share it with their peers.
Selfie is the new norm set by the millennials for the years to come. This photography culture has not even spared the baby boomers from its addictive influence. The point remains, irrespective of the identified user persona, the photo-sharing app is constantly widening its horizon by engaging users of different age groups.
If we believe the stats on Hootsuite, Instagram has over 1 billion active users today and they share around 95 million posts per day.
What does this convey to the aspiring Instagram-like photo-sharing app businesses?
The stats show that the photo-sharing app business is not yet to be concluded. It has a huge potential in terms of both innovation and expansion. With video-first content being the very near future for the digital businesses, video ads will turn out to be the most promising source of revenue generation for photo-sharing mobile apps like Instagram.
All in all, the time is right to build your very own Instagram-like mobile app. Let me provide you with a complete guide to build an app similar to Instagram.

How Exactly is it like to build a photo-sharing mobile App like Instagram

Instagram is a lot more than just a photo-sharing app. It is a bundle of smaller businesses run under a single umbrella.

Instagram as a Photo-editing App:
It is a photo-editing app in disguise with so many colourful filters in place.
The users can crop the picture, adjust the contrast and brightness, use markers and text in their pictures, or simply play around with the filters.

How can this benefit you as a photo-sharing business?

Since you already equip your user with the additional tools they require for editing their photographs, they stay on the platform for a longer period of time. During this time, it is upon you to fill their feeds with sponsored ads, video ads, etc. and earn out of it.

Instagram as an eCommerce Portal:
The success of eCommerce has conceived a new term known as “Social Commerce”.
Undoubtedly, photo-sharing applications keep the users engaged on the platform. This creates ample of opportunities for the brands to showcase their products in the best of its light for the already engaged customers and create an additional source of income other than their own apps and websites.
The brighter side?
You, as the owner of the photo-sharing application, can earn commission for every transaction made.

Instagram as a Messenger App:
Be it any type of application, a direct message feature has made its place in the MVPs of the feature list.
Direct message helps the users to connect deeply with other users. Other than scrolling for hours in their feeds, the direct message has the capability to engage the users with emojis, share pictures from the feed, create groups, and chat!

The Set of Features Required to Develop a Photo-sharing App like Instagram

The features of a photo-sharing app like Instagram have a fair share of contribution in keeping the engagement intact and constantly elevating. It helps the user differentiate between a quality app and a crappy app developed with the sole intention to make money. By providing user-friendly features, you communicate that your business cares for its users and this is all that is required to engage the customers and retain them especially when you have no physical product.
Here is a list of features that you must know for developing a photo-sharing app similar to Instagram:

A Quick and Simple Registration Process
What’s in a signup screen? Well, it is the deciding factor that determines whether the user stays in for a longer time or directly uninstalls the app. Most of the times, businesses feel the need to extract the complete information. However, it might do more harm than good to your business by frustrating your users with pages and pages of data to type and submit.
Plan to extract the information from your users, the Facebook way. Facebook never asked it’s users for a mobile number during the time of registration. With time, it called out for the ease to log in with the mobile number and smartly collected the contact details.
So, in order to build your photo-sharing app, a social media login and signup is a must to have feature. It not only makes it easier for your users to register quickly but also creates an opportunity for your business to create cross-platform ads.

Push Notifications
Let’s face it. A photo-sharing mobile app is but an entertainment app for your users. And your app isn’t the sole source of entertainment for your users. In this case, how to keep them coming back to your app and ensure that they spent a good amount of their digital time using your application?
The answer is simple – push notifications!
Your users are curious social beings. They want to know even the most minute update about their friend’s life.
Set an algorithm that will help you know whom the user follows the most. Whenever there is an update or a photo shared by the particular user. Send a push notification to the fellow users to keep them coming back to your photo-sharing app, wanting to know more.

Social Media Integration
Your users have posted an image on your platform. What next? They want to post the same photograph on other social media platform.
Now, keeping the competition aside, consider the fact that your platform needs promotion and what better than doing it with Facebook! If not others, at least provide a Facebook integration. This way your users will be able to post their pictures on your photo-sharing app and share it on other social media platforms with a tap!
Not only you are building up the customer experience, you are promoting your app by leveraging user-generated content on popular social media platforms. Could there be any better win-win marketing strategy?

Cross-platform Compatibility
Instagram doesn’t run on many desktops and operating systems with all the features. It is a dedicated photo-sharing mobile app. To make the maximum out of this bottleneck of Instagram, you can create a fully-functional web app along with a mobile app.
While a smartphone’s camera plays an important role, code your app in such a way that it can access the webcam to click a picture.
And why only for posting and sharing pictures?
You can create a photo-sharing app for helping the user to perform all the actions using a web app – like a picture, share it with a group, comment on a picture, etc.

Stories
Stories, as witnessed in Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram have become the most engaging form of user-generated content. Whenever a story is published, a push notification is sent to the fellow users. Stories can be used as an invite-to-engage feature.
An innovative way of building a story feature can be by providing the user with the control to choose the amount of time they want their story to be displayed for.
By default, the time duration can be for 24 hours and the users can set their story display duration as per their wish.

Direct Messaging within Stories
An exciting feature for the users is a direct message within stories. It is like speaking to the public but getting personal replies.
The user can create questions for their followers, ask them to make suggestions, create polls, and keep the engagement going on within the platform with the image, short video, or even plain text.

Search option
The search module helps the users to look out for people, tags, and places. Moreover, the app also provides suggestions in the search bar.
It is an MVP feature for a photo-sharing app. You can leverage the search results to know the best of the followers for a particular user and fill his feed with the updates of those followers.
This way, the user will be more interested with the help of personalized feed.

GPS Integration
Your users love to travel to places. More important is the fact that they want their followers to know where they have been. This calls for a GPS integration for your photo-sharing application.
The location feature is dynamic in nature. This means that the user can either automatically fetch the location or can add the location manually when their connection is poor.

Activity
The activity feature in itself can be divided into two categories:

• Your activities
• Follower’s activities

Here the users can get suggestions as to whom to follow and keep a track on their recent actions on the photo-sharing application.
While on the other hand, the follower’s activity feature shows complete information about what the followers are doing on the photo-sharing app along with the exact time activity.

How can you stand out with your Instagram-like photo sharing app?

With a successful business model on Instagram, you are not going to be the only business. There’s already a cut-throat competition to serve the customers and earn their loyalty.
If this is the situation, what can be the solution to emerge as a winner in the photo-sharing app market?
An important aspect to keep in mind is that the photo-sharing businesses do not have any apparent revenue model. A lion’s share of their revenue is contributed by video ads, sponsored ads, and e-commerce. This implies to the fact that engagement is the revenue for such photo-sharing applications.
The proposed solution can be to follow a customer-first approach to your business by developing user-friendly features. A better way is to build an Instagram-like app with just the right features to elevate your customer’s engagement.

Important Things to Consider While Building an Instagram-like Mobile App

You have got an idea to start a business with a photo-sharing app of your own.
What next?
The mobile app development demands a lot of planning right from the start to the end. This means that you have to be literally on-the-go before launching the first version of your application.
However, a lot of your hassles can considerably reduce, if you plan the development well. Let me walk you through a proper plan.
Every photo-sharing app looks alike at the grassroots level. Your basic version of photo-sharing app just demands a simple photo-sharing feature with followers. But the difference starts to build up when you add branding and UI/UX design to your app to create a strong brand awareness in the mindset of your users.
Other important elements to keep in mind while building an app like Instagram are:

• User-friendly navigation
• Clean UI/UX designs
• Pleasing visuals and graphics
• Personalized feed
• Easy Photo-sharing option

The ideal way to go about building an Instagram-like app is mentioned as the following:

• Your front-of-the-mind focus should always be your USP. Know what is the goal that you want to achieve with your photo-sharing mobile application. This has to be figured out before starting with the development process to be crystal clear in your app development approach.
• Always plan your business with the most basic features and then gradually enrich it with advanced features. This way you can test your market and make implementations.
• Same is the case with demography. You might have a strong personal reach but it is always a good idea to go baby steps with the demographics. Target a specific demography, earn their loyalty, and they will talk about your brand on your behalf.
• Your ultimate goal is obviously to earn revenue out of all these painstaking efforts. However, your primary goal should be to create engagement for your users. Learn the photo-sharing app revenue rule: No engagement, no revenue!

What could be the possible Revenue Model for building an app like Instagram?

Instagram makes money by monetizing on the user’s attention span. More the attention span, higher is the revenue.
The possible revenue streams for your photo-sharing app can be:

• Sponsored Ads
• Sponsored posts
• Video Ads
• Social commerce
• Carousel ads

Since everything has been said about the development of a photo-sharing app, it is obvious for you to wonder about the budget. Let’s find out the cost of building an app like Instagram.

Cost of Developing a mobile app like Instagram:

Ultimately, as a businessman, your focus must be on the ROI. And to figure out the expected turnover, you need to know the investment required. To cut it short, let us find out what could be the cost of building a photo-sharing mobile application like Instagram:

Influence of features:
Basically, there are three possibilities with which you can develop your photo-sharing mobile app.
You might either go with the most viable features, advanced features, or a perfect blend of both the basic and some advanced features.

Influence of operating system:
It is a known fact that iOS app puts a bigger hole in your pocket as compared to that of the Android app. However, it is upon your target audience and their preference of device to select the operating system. The possibility is, your target audience can have an equal ratio and you might have to launch an app for both the platforms.
Influence of technology:
While coding your app in Kotlin would be costlier but trendy, it is upon you to figure out your app development needs. Similarly, you have to make a smarter choice with native and hybrid app development. If you are not technically sound, you can seek assistance from your developers.
Influence of resources:
If you don’t already have a team of hard-headed developers and you are thinking to outsource them, you need to be very careful in your selection process. Look out for the case studies and experience. Compare the cost of the app development and then make a decision.
While different app development companies have their own variables, there is quite an ambiguity in the cost of developing an Instagram-like mobile app. So, an exact figure cannot be determined but to give you a rough idea about the estimate, have a look at the following:

• For the most basic version of the app with only the MVP features and clean UI/UX design, the projected price can go up to $6,500 for development. However, there is very little support and maintenance required.
• For a blend of basic features along with some advanced features, the price can increase to somewhere between $20,000 to $25,000.
• For an app to be developed with complete advanced features, then the price can rise to as high as $55,000 to $65,000.

How to Outsource Developers for Building an Instagram like Mobile App?

Based on what you are planning to get developed for your business, determine the scope of work and then decide upon the number of resources for building a mobile app like Instagram for your business.
There are many different types of pricing model that you could choose from – time-based, scope based, fixed price and fixed time pricing model, or dedicated resource hiring. While some of these models are based on the client’s demand, the others are determined by the app development firm itself.
Dedicated Resource-based Hiring
When opting for a dedicated resource based hiring, ensure that you know the scope of work and that you are not paying for an extra resource.
To develop a basic version of your Instagram-like mobile app, your set of resources will be-

• UI and UX designer
• 2 – 4 developers
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• A Backend Developer
• A Project Manager

To develop an advanced version of the photo-sharing mobile app, you will need a team of –

• Team Manager/Project Manager
• UI/UX designer
• 3 – 4 developers for each platform
• Quality Assurance Engineer
• 2–3 backend developers
• Admin panel developer

Ready to bring your photo-sharing mobile app in the real world?
If you still have queries regarding the cost of building an ‘Instagram like’ mobile app, let us know your exact requirements here and we will help you with the exact pricing.
Having worked on multiple projects and with clients across the globe, we have reached a level where we can cater to any requirement and innovation that our client seeks.
Some of our clients came up with an unforeseen solution and we did face challenges. But along with it, we grew. Take some time to read our case studies to know how we overcame those hurdles to innovation.
How about knowing what our clients feel about our work? Have a read here to find out our client’ an experience with our profound team of developers.
Yet not convinced? Here we are with practical and live applications that we have created for our clients. You can go ahead by testing these apps, who knows you might find your perfect app development partner!
We would love to be your app development partners.
Please drop a detailed inquiry about your requirements and our team will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss further on the development.
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Everything today depends on logistics. Although we live in a parallel universe of the internet, where everything transits online, the physicality aspect of transit is impossible to ignore. It also plays a very important role even in businesses of any kind today. So, what’s the fuss about logistics? Logistics has inevitable challenges – availability, negotiations, timely delivery, and pickup, etc.

How about an app which makes logistics free of all the botherations? Maalgaadi is the answer to that. A one-stop solution to all the intra city headache of transportation.

What could happen when a boring job drives you to create something unique? Something like Maalgaadi.net happens. It was Anirudh Garg’s and Saurabh Raj’s brainwave. The duo from Indore identified a gap in the prevailing transportation system. A gap in terms of all the hassles one has to go through for a mere transit of goods. They decided to tackle the inconvenience and created Maalgaadi.net. They wished Maalgaadi to be the Ola of transportation and today it has come to hold that true.

A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step

– Chinese proverb

Although success didn’t come that easy. Initially, Anirudh and Saurabh had to face the headwinds. The criticism was to such an extent that they had to shut down the operations within two days of the initial launch. But facing this failure induced a new motivation in the young entrepreneurs. They didn’t only came through the obstacles but also created an example by getting perfectly into the legal framework hence not bypassing any laws.

Next big thing was awaiting this success. Anirudh and Saurabh found investors for their project. Moira Group, one of the bigwigs of the city, agreed to invest in their company.

How Maalgaadi works

Maalgaadi is designed to enable a driver to pick or dispatch a shipment by getting the information from the customer. It exactly works as Uber/Ola or Jugnoo.

The pickup and dispatch information is given by the customer either on the website or over a phone call.
This information is then used by our team to get the pickup and the drop location with customer’s name and contact.
The driver who is in or around the pick-up location gets the lead on the app.
He picks up the shipment and drops it at the destined location.

Throughout the process i.e. from pickup to dispatch the team at Maalgaadi app gets the vital information of the transit like- time is taken for the dispatch, speed of the vehicle, routes chosen by the driver, any detours if taken, any delays, etc. which plays an important role in fleet management.

What Maalgaadi is all about –

Simple – Maalgaadi.net  is simple to use. It is built keeping in mind the potential users – the drivers and the users.

Accountability – In service industry all that matters is service. Maalgaadi.org is a highly dependable service. The real-time data of the rides is shared with the customers. They can track the trip all through.
Authority – The service enables the customers with the full authority of their shipment regarding – selecting the vehicle, pick-up and destination points and even the driver for the transit. This gives the full control and choice to the customer.

Transforming lives with small steps

Maalgaadi App has stringent guidelines which changed the lives of the drivers associated with them. There is a list of dont’s which every driver has to follow, like – no alcohol, no tobacco, not abuse, to name a few.

Maalgaadi’s story tells us the power of resilience, the power of bouncing back and then taking on the hurdle with a renewed energy and hope.

Wish to develop an app like MaalGaadi? Contact us at EngineerBabu for a free consultation!

The post MaalGaadi – An Intra City Logistics and Fleet Management Solution appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Mobile application development is thriving from past five years. The pace of the mobile application industry is so huge that a research paper says that, it will grow to the half of the overall revenue generated by the digital market of USA. The mobile phone application has evolved from smartphones, tablets to smart wearable. Now mobile applications are used in analytics and business dealings. With the achievements in the mobile application development industry, now clients want their mobile applications to be developed in much faster rate. Due to this, we can see lots of tools and platforms in the market that speed up the whole life cycle of the mobile application development.

Our team at “ENGINEERBABU” is going to suggest you some of the new trends in the development of mobile applications. By knowing these trends, developers can develop a mobile application with a better quality and advanced on the current scenario.

Secure Mobile Applications
The newest and most concerning trend in mobile application development is the security related to the mobile application, as the whole world has witnessed the biggest leaks related to mobile applications in 2014 and 2015. Now developers should build mobile applications with more focus on security than ever.

HTML 5
HTML 5 is the new big thing related to the mobile application, as from 2014 HTML 5 is gaining popularity among the developers. The best thing with this technology is that it creates the mobile application that can run smoothly on any platform. In the coming years, the popularity of mobile application will be shifted to HTML 5 from Native Apps.

Utility
There was the time when only fewer mobile applications are available in the market, but now there are numerous mobile applications available in the market. Now the popularity of the mobile applications solely depends on upon its utility. As now the developers should try to develop the user-friendly mobile application.

Analytics
Now mobile applications are being used for analysis and management purpose. As now working professional prefer mobile applications that work on some algorithms. Professionals want the mobile application’s which simply their data and present sorted when they need. Developers need to focus on the feature that promotes the analytics in the mobile applications.

E-Commerce
Mobile application related to E-Commerce Is a booming industry. These mobile applications are between us from past 3 to 4 years. The main concerning point’s related to these apps is that now customer want’s fast and secure mobile applications. The developers dealing with the E-Commerce platform should focus on the simplicity and security of the mobile application.

We at “ENGINEERBABU” has our main focus on the latest technology and customer satisfaction while developing a mobile application. In the past, we have made many advanced and user-friendly mobile applications.

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