Mobile apps have gained importance for businesses due to its innovative features. User-friendly interface and marketing campaigns. If you have ever searched about app development, you might get a lot of stuff about app development frameworks, app development steps, app store optimization tips and so on. After the launch of the App, there is one thing that has its own importance i.e. mobile app maintenance. But there are just a few things that can guide you regarding the maintenance of mobile app. You already know the importance of mobile app development, but do you know the importance of app maintenance?
Here we will discuss all about the need, types and the engagement models of maintenance so that you can plan out your mobile app’s maintenance cost.
Nearly every 6 months, new hardware is being launched and adapted by each new phone that is to be launched. Hence your app should be optimized so as to work with modern hardware. This is a time where you need a maintenance team to make changes and release new versions.
Each year, there are new updates for iOS and Android version and accordingly apps should be updated for proper functioning.
Let us consider an example of Dark mode which changes the complete theme of your phone to dark in order to lessen the eye strain in case of low lighting. Now consider that, a user is accessing a mobile with dark theme, then he would expect the same from your app too. If you didn’t change the app as needed, the user may face eye strain and hence he may search for another similar app that provides dark mode and uninstall your app.
The app journey will not end with the launch of an app. Continuous monitoring and maintenance are the best ways to achieve success and it can be done after the app is being used. It is beneficial and necessary to consider the feedback you receive or the analytics you get. It will help to analyse the behaviour of users and get rid of uninstalls.
New technologies are taking over the market and you cannot predict anything about them. The only thing is to integrate it after a stable release. Let us see how maintenance is necessary for your app if it revolves around emerging technologies.
• AI-
Artificial intelligence needs data regularly and hiring a team for maintenance is cheaper than getting panel to control how data is fetched. AI algorithms could be anything but what it will fetch has to go through app directly. In this way, maintenance can solve your problems by changing the code.
• IoT-
IoT allows you to operate devices of daily chores through app, and hence maintenance is necessary
• AR-
Aligning images that are displayed on your phone is an ongoing task and it can be carried out smoothly through maintenance. Augmented reality always need more objects as your customers increases and it is better to hire permanent designers to make them, maintenance team would be cheaper for deploying them and updating the app accordingly.
Applications may be affected by security holes, and you have to update the app so as to fix the issues.
Apart from all these points, you should frequently update your app to keep it top on the app store.
Corrective maintenance includes removing faults and residual errors in the daily app functions. Residual errors are the errors in design, logic and coding.
Adaptive maintenance is the maintenance carried out to achieve perfect adaptability to modern technologies and app store guidelines after the app is deployed. The environment where your app would work in would always be upgrading, so it is necessary to carry out adaptive maintenance.
As users use app, some new requirements can be discovered. Perfective maintenance considers these feedback and make functional modifications in the source code to provide users a perfect user experience as they expect.
This type of maintenance can take care of all abrupt issues and errors that expect immediate intervention. Whenever an organization detects an unpredictable issue with their app, they must go with emergency maintenance.
The app maintenance cost is based on the type of app and complexity. You can distinguish app maintenance cost into following categories-
According to the number of users, your hosting cost can increase. It may go up to thousands or ten thousands of dollars each month. These expenses do not include human expenses of creating and maintaining the backend but are important as your app scales up.
You will need app analytics tools to monitor usage patterns to improve in-app experience. You must invest in tools that will send you real time crash reports.
App store optimization is important to list your app on app store. You should spend considerable time to keep your app store listing updated by searching appropriate keywords, A/B testing headlines and descriptions, answering reviews, considering feedback, uploading screenshot or videos as features change, running search ads etc.
Most of the apps were built using licensed technologies. Some licenses are taken for life, while others need to be renewed on a yearly basis. You must consider the app licensing cost while setting the app maintenance cost.
Apart from these, there are some activities that costs you are as follows-
Mobile app maintenance is important to succeed. Many apps have failed down because creators forget that the users want things according to their way and not the perfect way. App maintenance is not a one time task. As the market is competitive, once the app is launched, it needs more attention and maintenance to provide the expected user experience.
If you are looking for the best app development company to build an application, then we are here to help you for app development and maintenance. Connect with Solace and get a free quote develop a success app that meets users requirements. You can hire android developers and iOS developers of Solace team for effective app development. We will be happy to help you.