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New Post has been published on http://getnap.com/2016/09/16/3-steps-to-engage-and-retain-android-mobile-app-users/

3 Steps to Engage and Retain Android Mobile App Users

It’s fairly easy to create and launch a product, but it’s much harder to engage and retain its users. Not excluding Android mobile apps, it is important to keep in mind that an Android developer journey does not stop after launching an app to Google Play Store.

Engaging and retaining active users is the key to success. Android developers which apps obtain subscription and in-app purchase models need to have a great strategy to engage and retain its users. Some of the tools and techniques that will keep your users coming back are:

Increase usage with Android intents. This means that you are letting your user choose your app to handle specific tasks from another app, such as sharing a picture, sending a message, or playing music. Android developers can do this through Android’s open Intents system. By adding Intent filters for the tasks your app is capable of, it will be easier for your users to access your app, even through voice commands in Google Now.

It’s important to identify and package any features your app can offer to other apps

Use the ‘View’ intent to give users option to open any links to your website within your app

Familiarize yourself with actions commonly accomplished with intents. These action includes sharing, where you can focus on your app’s core functionality and outsource common actions.

Build useful widgets. One of the beauty of Android operating system is its widgets. Android developers are able to build useful widgets that will essentially bring more user engagement and retention. Widgets are an essential aspect of home screen customization. They are “at-a-glance” views of an app’s more important data and features, where it’s instantly available from the user’s home screen.

Use these widgets to remind users about important information in your apps and games, even when your apps are closed. For an example, you may showcase the latest headlines, if you have a news app. These will serve as additional gate or windows for your users to engage with your app—and hopefully they will be coming back for more.

Make useful widgets by providing in-app information like news, game status, or upcoming deadlines. Widgets should serve as more than a launcher icon.

Use rich notifications to keep users informed. Android’s notification system will allow your app to keep the user informed about events such as new messages, upcoming calendar appointments, shared photos and much more. You need to use the rich notification feature optimally to increase user engagement and retention. This is a fundamental feature where consumers check frequently to receive important notifications and status updates.

In addition to status updates, notifications can also be used to help gamers know when a time-based action is completed, or when another player took their turn. By doing so, you are giving a sense of security for your users while using your app.

However, frequent notifications and spam notifications can turn users off. Android app developers need to pay attention to the policies to ensure they are treating their users respectfully.

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New Post has been published on http://getnap.com/2016/09/07/understanding-android-mobile-app-dau-vs-mau/

Understanding Android Mobile App DAU vs. MAU

Research has shown that there are over 50 million mobile apps that are downloaded daily; however, 95 percent of them are abandoned within one month. A good Android app developer would want to retain user engagement; therefore they need to have a deep understanding upon their app’s mobile usage as well as their competitors’.

One of the most effective ways to get a deep understanding is by analyzing the Daily Active User (DAU) and Monthly Active User (MAU) of the Android app.

What’s the Difference?. No matter how many times a user access the app throughout the day, each user is only counted once daily. DAU refers to the “unique” number of daily active users for a particular app. So even though the same user accessed the app twice or more, it is only counted as one DAU. Meanwhile, MAU refers to the number of unique users over the course of a one-month period.

By having the data on DAU and MAU, Android developers would have significant information on how active and engaged their users are. The metrics not only help determine the performance of new features and advertising campaigns, but it also shows how in-app offers impact the Android app usage rates.

It is also essential to track your competitor’s DAU and MAU, which will help provide additional data on what drives user engagement within your app market. By having those data, it will also help an Android app developer to create a strategic marketing plan to combat any comparative advantages they might have.

One can also monitor the behavioral trends to extract value from DAU and MAU. The usage varies by day of the week, for example, Fox News averages 30% DAU, but the highest usage occurs during the week, and then drops off over the weekend. The same weekday/weekend usage trend holds true for Gmail as well. By understanding these trends, Android app developers can optimize their app even more.

Mobile App Usage Insight. There are marketing insights that one can reap from DAU and MAU, one of them being the “stickiness” or popularity of one’s Android app. Marketers should carefully examine its DAU/MAU ratio. If the month one is measuring has 30 days, a ratio of 20 percent would indicate that the average user uses the Android app just over 6 out of 30 days of that month.

Several factors that might influence the mobile app usage patterns include new features, location-based promotion, monetization offers, performance, or adoption by peers. Comparing changes within these metrics against DAU/MAU will help Android developers isolate which factor is most influential in their specific market.

The trick is to repeatedly refer back to DAU/MAU data points in order to construct a robust, market-wide view of user engagement, as well as understanding each app’s stickiness in the landscape.

Within the general industry, the common DAU/MAU ratio is 20% or more. Where within the games industry, it lays over 20-30%, and within social/messenger apps it is 50%. These data constitutes a fundamental component of any market and competitive analysis program. Establishing baseline metric will help Android developers to meaningfully compare their app’s performance against their competitors.

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New Post has been published on http://getnap.com/2016/09/06/5-cool-apps-for-android-wear-smartwatch/

5 Cool Apps for Android Wear Smartwatch

Android Wear and smartwatches have been gaining popularity in the past few years. Many Android users have used Android Wear smartwatch to notify them on messages, alerts, track their fitness activities, even taking pictures.

The number of Android apps for Android Wear is rapidly increasing, and sometimes it can be overwhelming for Android users to decide which one they actually need. Some of the apps may only have standard features, and some others have more than enough. As a user, of course you would be likely to take advantage of some of the best new apps for your Android Wear smartwatch. Perhaps the list below can give you a good start:

Tweechip. Some of us may have migrated away from Twitter; however, for those who are still on it, may find this Android smartwatch app useful. Tweechip is an app for serious Twitter addicts, which enable the users to do basic Twitter activites such as: check their timeline, mark tweets as favorites, and retweet information and stuff they like. The smartwatch app has a minimalist and simple design, which makes it easy for users to keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the Twitter-verse without pulling out their phone. They are connected to Twitter as close as their wrist can reach.

UP by Jawbone. Several people like to be active, and sometimes they want to track their behavior throughout the day. The Jawbone UP app enables the user to keep track of their daily steps right from their Android Wear smartwatch. Different with other products that require a separate band, Up by Jawbone doesn’t require any. Users can still tap into one of the best fitness-tracking ecosystem out there through their Android Wear smartwatch.

Wunderlist. For Android users who are organized and rely on their daily to-do list, they might want to install Wunderlist. This app is one of the most connected to-do list apps out there. Users can select a specific list to show on their Android Wear device, and use “OK Google” to add items. The enabled voice control power has made adding to-do list even easier than it already has. Users can also get reminded about their projects, or reply to comments from others.

Find My Phone. While Apple Watch users get this feature embedded into watchOS2, Android Wear users will need a third-party app to identify where their phone is. This Android app enables users to start an alarm on their smartphone if they are struggling to locate it, change volume, turn on the vibration feature, and even set the flashlight to help you track it down. Find My Phone is extremely useful for Android users who often forget where they put their phone, or to locate them if it got stolen.

PixtoCam. Technology has become even more advanced, proven by what this app can do. Android users may turn their smartwatch into a viewfinder for the camera app on their smartphone. They need to set up their phone on its front camera, and then use their Android Wear screen to check that they are in the shot. They can also access features like the flash settings, self-timer and zoom feature if needed. When they are ready, they can even take a picture from their smartwatch with the one-tap shutter.

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4 Ways to Get More Users for Your Android App

So you are planning to gain more users for you Android app. There are many ways and many tools to be used in doing so. Even though every app is different, there are a few things that can be done easily to increase your Android app users. Here are some of them:

Understand where your users come from. The basic classification of where your users are from are paid or organic. However, whether you pay to acquire users or not, you would want to focus your acquisition efforts on the channels that will bring you the greatest volume of high-value users. It’s extremely easy to identify those channels from the User Acquisition page in the Developer Console. From the performance report, Android developers may follow both organic and paid traffic from discovery to installation, then onto their purchase of the in-app products. It has a convenient predefined reporting criterion, which will make the overall activity even simpler. With the improved understanding of where your most valuable users come from, you can better focus your efforts into acquiring more users.

Add an app install banner on your website. Even though you are aware that your brand has a dedicated Android app for it, your audience may not. If you are aware that your users still access your website, you need to add a native app install banner to it, and offer visitors the added convenience of installing the app straight from your site. App install banners are offered as an extension of Chrome’s ability to deliver Web App install banners. Android developers can setup this feature in a web app manifest file. Within the manifest, one will find how the app will appear on the user’s system, how it should be launched, and whether its banner has priority over the banner of your Web App. By having this banner, you will drive more installs and awareness towards your app.

Offer over-the-air installs. Google sign in is a trusted registration system that is familiar to users and consistent across devices. Therefore, with minimal effort, you can improve your sign-in conversion with a fast and secure authentication option for users. Also, with this feature, you can offer users the option to send your app directly to their Android devices. It’s a simple method yet great way to increase your user base.

Cross-sell with house ads. A great tip from Android: one of the fastest ways to accumulate downloads or increase conversions is to tap into your existing user base. Since these users already know your product, they would be a receptive audience for your other apps and in-app products. AdMob is a house ads that let Android developers to cross-sell your other apps (or your friend’s apps) to your existing user; best of all, it’s a free service. You can also intelligently promote your in-app purchases to the users that are most likely to buy them, so it will save time and effort. Again, all can be done through AdMob’s free in-app purchase house ad format. AdMob automatically figures out which of your users are likely to spend, in order to optimize which users see the ads. It will place ads wisely, and it shouldn’t be too intrusive however still clearly visible to attract click-through.

#android #app #chrome

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5 Typical Mistakes While Promoting Android Mobile Apps

The day of an Android app developer or marketer will never be the same. Different things could happen everyday when competing with millions of other apps in gaining visibility in the eye of the users. From getting featured in major app stores such as Google Play to sending out promotions, often these strategies are treated as an afterthought—or worse, not at all.

There are some typical mistakes that Android app developers or marketers often do, and here are the things to avoid:

Letting the best performing ads suffer from saturation. Yes, you have paid for an advertising slot, and fortunately it performed well. So you keep on using that one and only best performing ads, which eventually could wear out your audience. In order to avoid that, make sure that you don’t overuse it, and try to refresh your ads regularly to avoid decaying performance.

Relying on poor reports and analytics. When you pay for an advertising space, you will typically receive a top-level reporting to track your results. Android app developers and marketers tend to combine all reports from disparate sources, which can lead to muddy data and massive reporting headaches. You will need a comprehensive view of your campaign. Look for a partner who can help to track all of your ad campaigns in one place, including incent, non-incent, real time bidding, social, email, 2D, and other types of app marketing.

Using incent networks in small volumes. Often Android app developers and marketers drive the download volumes and loyal usage through incentivized download networks. But when it’s done halfway, it will bring no good. When using incent networks, you should always make sure that you spend enough to get a significant app store ranking lift. The resulting organic users from the improved rank are the real prize in incentivized app marketing.

Bursting too quickly. The term “bursting” refers to a tactic that involves focusing your marketing budget in a very short time frame to get a big spike in downloads. This propels your app up the ranks, which brings in more organic downloads. However, the problem with this tactic is, while you use up your entire budget for one glorious day at the top of the charts, the organic results will take a while to kick in. With the “burst and sustain” approach where initial push is followed up with additional days of advertising to support the new rank, it would deliver much more value.

Choosing the wrong media partner. Although most traditional media agencies have kept up with technology, they may not be versed in mobile advertising. They may have developed strength in search engine marketing and online display, but the mobile advertising space is evolving so quickly, that keeping on top of the latest development is a real challenge. Android app developers should be smart while choosing their media partner, since it will also drive its long-term success. The media partner should particularly be mobile focus, and able to provide the mobile space.

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How to Measure Android App Engagement

According to the statistics, there will be approximately 268 billion total mobile app downloads by 2017. This makes the size of mobile app market $77 billion worth in total. These numbers sound impressive, however, just relying on number of downloads will not get you anywhere.

One of the most difficult challenges for Android app developers and marketers is to turn app downloaders into frequent app users. They will need time and particular hooks to increase app engagement. Imagine if you have a million downloads, but only ten people are actually using your app. It doesn’t make sense, right? You will get very few engagement and data to work on to improve your app.

Meanwhile, people are spending more time on their smartphones, which makes mobile app to continue to dominate their time. Companies should not focus on developing an app with a set-it-and-forget-it mindset. They will need a dedicated team to continue to develop their mobile app.

So it’s clear that mobile app engagement is very important. Then how should an Android app developer increase app engagement and measure it? First of all, before you start analyzing your user’s behavior, make sure that you actually know how to measure engagement. It would be a waste if you keep on creating strategies to drive the users to use the app more, but you actually do not understand what the important KPIs are, or how to measure them.

There are 5 metrics to keep an eye on to measure a mobile app engagement:

DAUs/MAUs. Daily Active User (DAU) or Monthly Active User (MAU) is the first key to user engagement. This KPI is essential to understanding how many of your app users access your app everyday. Every Android app has a different understanding on users being active—it could be the number of log ins, article read, comments made, or any activity that indicates the user is being active in your Android app. You can then compare the DAU to MAU to reveal the information on how engaged your users are on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Average visits per month. This is a general indicator that tells you how often does each user access the app per month. You may know how many users are engaging with your app everyday, but this information will tell you their average monthly behavior. By knowing this data, you will have a better understanding on how much each user engages with your mobile offering. You can also create a marketing plan to increase the number of visits.

Time spent in the mobile app. This essential KPI will tell you how many minutes do your users actually use your app. There are plenty of mobile apps that experience a high bounce rate as users open them and exit fairly quickly. By understanding this critical indicator, you can assess what makes them use your Android app longer, and what makes them leave.

Number of screen views. It is given that you wouldn’t want your users to only be in one screen of your app—unless that is the single screen it has. If your Android app has multiple screens, the metric will let you know how many of your screens the users actually interact with.

Retention. Last but definitely not least, it is important to keep your users to come back after using your app. Retention is important because it creates dependency between your users and your app. According to the statistic in the United States, user abandonment rates hover around 19%, while just 42% of users engage with apps. You should create a strategy that will bring your users back after their initial use.

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4 Important Metrics From Your Android Mobile App Usage Data

A good Android developer should know by now that data is the most valuable information to have when expanding or improving an app. Though competition is stiff, with literally millions of other apps in the market, Android developers should always look for ways to make their app better.

Gaining an advantage requires finesse, strategy, intelligence, and a great deal of data. Without detailed Android app usage data, one can’t expect to develop an app offer that will outsmart the work of one’s competitors.

However, mobile analytics has a lot of information, which can be overwhelming sometimes. With so much data available, where should an Android app developer start?

Reach. Reach refers to the number of people that have installed your app, or have been “reached” by your app. Determining this number is a crucial metric to consider since it measures the number of downloads by app store as a benchmark. Once you have the data, you need to compare the information on competing apps in the same category. By doing so, it will provide insight into the size of the market and your share within it. Moreover, you could also find out which exact app has the highest download rates, which will determine where your real competition lies.

Engagement. Don’t rely too much on your download number, as the more important metric is your app engagement with its users. It’s easy to make people download an app, but it’s much harder to make them use it regularly. A good Android app developer should be identifying the number of active users and examining trends within the data. By doing this extremely important measurement, Android developers will be able to analyze the percentage of daily active users (DAU) and monthly active users (MAU) to determine the user’s dependency towards your Android app, or its success as compared to others.

Screen Time. In a deeper level of measurement, screen time is also a great metric not to be missed. Measuring the amount of time that people actually spend using an app is highly recommended. If your app has multiple screens, it is essential to measure and analyze each screen time in order to see the bigger picture. Which screen is the most favorable and why, and if you should improve any screen in particular. Android developers can then compare active in-app metrics against their competitors, which will help improve your product development strategy, and ultimately increase the number of engaged users.

Connectivity/Network Type. It’s important that your Android app generates user retention—meaning, they are coming back for more. Remember that consumers want instant gratification; therefore, you should improve your Android app’s connectivity or network type. Activities such as transferring data, uploads and downloads are crucial to be effective and timesaving. Another important thing to do is to track the methods in which users access your information. These includes on which particular platforms, mobile carriers, even the type of device your users are using. These data will be useful for your development team to improve your Android app’s user experience.

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5 Useful Android Wear Apps

Who doesn’t know what an Android Wear is? By now you should already know that they are smart watches that let the user tracks their activities—from fitness, alerts, messages, to asking Google for help—right on their wrist.

Many manufacturers are developing different smartwatch design, and many Android developers have started to create dedicated Android Wear apps. Currently, there are over 40,000 Android Wear apps available, which give you no excuse to settle only on the default functionality.

A good Android Wear app should give the user serious added value to their newest gadget, which takes them away from their smartphone, and make their life easier. Here are some of the recommended Android Wear apps that is worth checking out:

Todoist. Do you have a lot of things to be checked off of your to-do list? This wrist-based computing lends itself to a quick, uncomplicated action of doing so. Todoist is a well-respected smartphone and web app, which makes the switch to Android Wear seamlessly. The app enables the user to bring up and clear tasks with a few finger taps.

Video for Android Wear & YouTube. What if you could watch a video on your smartwatch? Although different people have different opinion on this particular matter, if you are in with the idea, this Android Wear app is worth the download. Users can view videos directly on their watch with Bluetooth headphone support for audio, and a cast button if they happen to have a Chromecast plugged into their TV. Video for Android Wear & YouTube has a full list of compatible Android Wear smartwatches information on their app page.

Toggles Wear. Toggles Wear reduce the pain of turning various settings on and off on one’s smartphone. People often do so while turning Wi-Fi or airplane mode, and it can be annoying compare to just moving one’s wrist. This Android Wear app allows their user to adjust phone volume, see the remaining battery life, checks how much mobile data they are using, in a form of a simple display. With this app, the user has a full control of their mobile toggles without having to remove the phone from their pocket, or when they are away from it.

Wear Buddy. Wear Buddy is a likeable app with its small, straightforward, and specific design for Android Wear. The users can check up on the status of their phone’s battery, and find it when it’s lost. They could also activate the ringtone remotely, and get an alert if they leave the house without their phone connected. Although it’s still their first release, Wear Buddy has served many key features, and they stated to release more features in the future.

InstaWeather. Are you looking for a simpler way to check the weather everyday? InstaWeather puts location based weather reports front and center on one’s smartwatch. The Android Wear app has seven free custom watch faces, which feature radar maps, hourly forecast, wind conditions and more. The premium version offers extended forecast, more watch faces, customizable location trackers, and animated radar. This app is extremely useful for users who live in a city which wheather keeps on changing frequently.

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Top 5 Android Games Apps of 2016

Having a powerful Android smartphone doesn’t always mean that you have to use it for work all the time. Google Play Store has a few hundred of thousands of game app that you can choose from. To help you stay on the cutting edge of what’s worth playing on your Android smartphone, here are 5 of the top games worth playing this year.

Roll the Ball. Roll the Ball is a slide puzzle game that requires you to use physics and engineering to win. The users need to do some planning which requires a good amount of strategy in order to win. This brain-training game keeps you actively focused and plan ahead; suitable for users who like challenge and a little bit of thinking during a game play.

The goal of the game is to get the ball from the start to its goal. Users need to configure the tiles so the ball can move through continuous tube. There are different tiles that cannot be moved; yet it’s not always necessary to move every tube tile. Once a user passes a level, the tile volume increases. Each level has different features and bonus games that will give you hints.

Cut the Rope 2. This game has been around for quite some time. Basically, users need to feed candy to a little green critter known as Om Nom. By cutting the rope, the candy will fall down into the Om Nom, where it gets harder every level.

Plants vs Zombies 2. As well as the aforementioned game, this app is also quite well known since it has been around for a while. This classic defense games and its sequel might be the shining star of the genre. This Android game app lets the user employ a service of assorted shrubbery to defeat an approaching zombie army. PopCap, the Android app developer, delivers a colorful, addictive, well-balanced strategy game with near-endless replay value. With inventive stages, it has its own set of unique traits that gives real challenge for the users. This Android game app is quite generous in terms of the unlocked content that is freely available.

Defense Zone 2 HD. For Android users who are seeking a serious challenge, Defense Zone 2 HD is a more realistic twower-defense game, with a modern military theme. This app has more grit and excellent gameplay compare to its cutesy competition.With several tactical depths, Defense Zone 2 makes it difficult for users who are new to tower defense game to get into. However, many veterans might relish the challenge it presents.

Castle Defense. Set in a fantasy realm, Castle Defense is an exciting Android game app for beginners. The app nails the basic of the genre and acts as an excellent starting point for those who are new to this type of game. The enemies walk along a fixed path, which users must line with towers to prevent them reaching the end. It has more than 100 levels, three difficulty settings, and an upgrade system; accompanied with great graphics and audio.

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3 Essential Ways to Optimize Android Apps

With the high number of apps currently available in the Google Play Store, an app quality will determine its success. The higher quality an app is, the higher its user ratings, rankings, download numbers and retention rate. Of course that is the dream of all Android developers; but there are things to do in order to optimize your Android app. So what are the essential things to do while optimizing your app?

Track and analyze your market campaigns. Just like other products and brands, Android apps need to run a good marketing campaign in order to get more users or get user retention. One of the important things while running a marketing campaign is to monitor your user behavior. Your user behavior should be converted into a particular form of data, and used to analyze marketing campaign. The main idea is to get the right, engaged users at the lowest cost possible.

There are several tools that you can use to track and analyze your Android app user behavior. One way to track your marketing campaign is to link Google Analytics with your Google Play account. It will automatically analyze activity from source to install. The tools can be used to help track the marketing success and improvement of ROI. Third party tools can also help Android marketers to automate, measure, and optimize their mobile marketing.

Improve stability and eliminate bugs. When we are talking about Android apps, it is essential to maintain the overall functionality and stability. Besides, what else are your users going to do with your app for if it doesn’t work well? There are many tools and techniques for testing and profiling an Android app for different users and devices.

One of the recommended tools to catch stability issues is UI/Application Exerciser Monkey (Monkey). Monkey will send random UI events to the Android app’s activities, allowing the developer to trigger user flows that can uncover stability problems.

Your Android app also has a built-in Google error-report feature, where users may use it to report when the app crashes. The report will then show up in the Google Play Developer Console, allowing you to read and act on the reports appropriately.

Last but not least, Android app developers should keep an external bug and feature request tracker and let users know how to find it. This will enable the users to engage with the app at a closer level, by following features and bugs that affect them. Android developers may eliminate users’ frustration by diligent use of issue tracking and communication.

Improve UI responsiveness. Android developers should know this by now, your app should never give a slow, unresponsive UI. Research has shown that speed really do matter for any interface—from mobile, web, to desktop.

Android app UI responsiveness can be improved by moving long-running operations off the main thread to worker threads. Android offers built-in debugging facilities such as StrictMode for analyzing an app’s performance and activities on the main thread.

Another great way to improve UI performance is to minimize the complexity of the app layout. Android app layouts that are more than 5 levels deep should simplify their layout. The tools that would help you optimize your UI performance are HierarchyViewer, LinearLayouts, RelativeLayout, World of ListView, and Traceview War Story.

#android #apps

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How to Improve Android App’s Discoverability

Once a developer built a great Android app, tested, and debugged it, what comes next is its launching time. Android developers would be ready to watch the installs rack up, however, app installations and purchases rarely just increase on their own. Word of mouth can’t always be the only thing a developer relies on, as it requires so much more in order to improve an app’s discoverability.

Fortunately, there are numbers of Google products and third party products and services that can help maximize an app’s discoverability and installations.

Create a compelling Google Play Store listing

Google advises Android app developers to make their app’s Google Play Store listing intriguing by using a unique app icon, attention grabbing images, a video about the app itself, a short yet concise description, and a well-written full description that contains the app’s keywords.

App icon and visual design. An app icon would be the first contact between your app and your user. A relevant and compelling app icon would be a significant way to make an app stand out. Based on the user behavior research, it will only take them a few seconds to look through an app listing content that matches their needs. Second of all, app listings with videos are more likely to result in installation than those without, as users like using videos to assess apps.

Therefore, an Android developer should remember to create a relevant yet unique, differentiated icon. Consider working with a professional graphic designer or use the Android Asset Studio tools. The screenshots on the listing should show off the best and most important feature of the app. Those screenshots should also cover all the screen sizes the app runs on, with portrait and landscape mode shots too.

Featured image and screenshots. The featured image on the listing should sums up what is special about the app, where the description should be short and to the point. The first sentence should sumps up the app, and the rest should cover key and unique features only. The key to success is to grab the user’s attention, and keep it.

Keywords. With Google’s advance algorithm, an Android app should include a variety of words within their app description that best represent the core features of the app. It would also be best to pick on commonly used words that users type in while browsing within an app store. This step requires market research and careful keywords planning.

Create a video for the app. Users would be more engage with the presence of something visual that can explain how the app works for them—for example, an introduction video. With a video of the app in action, users would grasp the idea of how your app works better and much quicker. Many developers have used either screen capture software, or by filming a physical device running the app in order to produce the video. To make it even better, one might add subtitles within the video for all the languages supported by the app.

#android #app #playstore

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Android Wear Apps Design Principles

Android trends have been showing an increased reputation and popularity towards Android Wearable devices. With that being said, Android Wear apps have also been playing a significant role for the past few months. Android developers who have been designing for mobile devices, would think that Android Wear apps design wouldn’t be too much different with the ones for mobile. Where in fact, Android Wear apps even have its own design principles. Below are some important Android Wear app design principles that could help Android developers design their Wear apps even better.

The Context Stream. The Context Stream is a vertical list of cards, each showing a useful or timely piece of information. Users swipe vertically to navigate from each card, just like how they use Google Now feature on Android devices. One card would be displayed at a time, and the background picture acts as an additional piece of visual information.

The idea of the Context Stream is for the user to be able to retrieve important information without having to open multiple apps. Simply by glancing to their wrist, they would be informed on whats going on and what notifications need to be responded.

When a user swipes horizontally, the cards usually show additional buttons or information, which the user can interact with. The cards can also be dismissed by swiping left to right, removing them from the stream until the next time the app has useful information to display.

The Cue Card. For some cases, Android Wear may not suggest an answer proactively through the Context Stream. That is when the Cue Card allows users to speak to Google by saying “Ok, Google”, or tapping on the background of the home screen. Swiping the Cue Card up will also show numbers of suggested voice commands, that can also be tapped.

Android developers should take some advantages of this feature. For example, the developed apps may be matched to some of the voice commands intents, so the user would be able to perform tasks using their voice.

Applications could respond to a voice command in the same way as they can respond to a tap on a regular in-stream action button: by adding or updating a stream card, or by launching a full screen application. Voice input often takes the form of a command, such as “remind me to get eggs,” where a simple confirmation animation is sufficient to display before returning to the Context Stream.

Other UI Features

Home Screen. The home screen is a default Android Wear app feature that may become status indicators, showing connectivity, charging status, airplane mode, or even a count of unread items.

The background, showing either content relating to the first card or a custom watch face design, depending on the watch face the user has chosen. Tapping anywhere on the background or saying “Ok Google” starts a voice query.

Watch faces. Android wear watch faces may be chosen by the user to appear in the background of the Home screen. Watch faces display the time and accommodate the top ranked peek card, and users can choose a different watch face by long pressing on the current one.

Ambient Mode. Some devices may enter a low-power Ambient Mode when not being used. This usually involves dimming the screen, and the contents of a peek card will automatically be optimized for display in this state. Users can exit ambient mode by tapping on the screen, by tilting the screen towards them, or by pressing a hardware button if one exists.

Date and Battery.When users swipe down, the Home screen would reveal the Date and Battery display. When they continue swiping down further, it would toggle the Mute mode and prevent interruptive notifications of vibrating and illuminating the screen.

Screen Settings. The cue card and some devices use the hardware button to evoke the Settings screen. Android Wear users may shut down or restart their device, adjust screen brightness, toggle airplane mode, and access device information.

Full screen apps. Full screen apps can be launched on top of the main stream where a wider range of interaction happens. This feature is not stylistically limited to the context stream pattern;Wear apps should respect the same design principles as the rest of the system.

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2 Tips to Create a Fantastic Android Apps UI/UX

When it comes to Android apps, functionality is not the only thing that matters within an app. User interface and the app’s visual design also need to be appealing and emerged with the overall Android experience. Below are some of the important Android apps UI/UX tips that would make the design process easier:

Fragmentation. Fragmentation is something that every UI designers have to deal with regardless the operating system they are designing for. However, Android UI designers seems to have more challenge since they are developing for multiple devices, manufactured by different companies, and currently running on different versions too.

On top of that, with different devices come different resolutions, and one could not simply squeeze a UI design to fit them all. The same UI design might look very different on a smartphone compare to a tablet.

Android UI designers are running into far more challenges when it comes to fragmentation. Different companies such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, ASUS, Motorola, Google, and others are designing their own smartphones, tablets, and wearables. Each with the manufacturer’s own particular uniqueness, and each has multiple devices and iterations.

OS fragmentation. Based on a research, in August 2015, 2.6% of Android users were using 5.1, and only 15.5% of users were using 5.0. There were more users using a Gingerbread-era (2.3.x) version of Android than there were using the latest version. This means that one could not simply generalize the Android OS version that is mainly being used by their users. This also makes it difficult for Android UI designers to design upon the OS fragmentation.

Variations of specs. Specs refer to screen sizes, add-on software, different buttons and configurations that Android phones can have. It may seem impossible for an Android UI designer to develop for every single potential phones and devices that might be running the Android app.

Thus, the easiest way to go on is by picking a specific device that will best represent the app’s target market. Make a prototype of the UI design for that specific device, and determine where the individual design elements would go. From palette, fonts, and any design-related elements should be placed within the prototype. Once the basic is done, the next task is to determine what specific elements are most central to the design.

Responsive design is also one of the best solutions to overcome these challenges. Android UI designers should design and develop their app just like if they were designing a web page on the Internet. It is not recommended to approach the user interface as it is a static, immovable piece of art. It is best to think of it as a group of elements that come together from a cohesive piece of design, that could grow, shrink, or move depending on the context.

Test Android apps on as many devices as possible. In order to minimize problems on usability and accessibility caused by the UI fragmentation, Android UI designers should test and assure their app quality on as many devices as possible. Try to test the app on different version of a phone from the same manufacturer; different manufacturers; and different operating system version.

Although it is an extensive process, it’s going to provide lots of insights, and lets developers minimize problems that might come in the future. Android device emulator is widely used by Android developers to recreate as many devices and operating systems as possible.

There are other tools to help you create the most ideal Android app UI/UX that will be enjoyed by future users. Tools such as Material Design UI library from Proto.io allows developers to create a lifelike prototype of an Android app using the design philosophy. Lastly, Android UI designers should always put themselves on the user’s shoes more than their designer’s shoes.

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Marketing Strategy Tips for Android Mobile Apps

Numerous aspiring Android developers are launching beautiful yet useful apps into app stores on a daily basis. Without excellent and strategic marketing, an app could be buried underneath literally millions of other apps within the Google Play Store. Below are some of marketing strategy tips for Android mobile app developers to practice while launching their proud app.

Talk to users. What app developers and marketers are afraid of is if users find their Android app lack of usefulness. Google’s recent study stated that the main reasons why users delete an app off their smartphone are due to lack of interest, change in usage habits, or simply that the app offers zero value. However, these are subjective matter and it may change over time. Thus, it’s very important to engage in an active conversation with users to understand exactly what they need and how they’d like the app to improve.

One of the best long-term strategies is to build a beta-testing community. The community would allow developers and marketers understand what user needs, as they evolve and adapt. These beta testers alo get early access to all the app features, which gives them the opportunity to help shape the Android app. They become unofficial brand ambassadors for the mobile app.

Release on time. Before app launch, contact bloggers and journalists who would write about things related to your Android app. Getting hold of a good PR team would work wonders for app launch, and don’t forget to conduct a thorough market research. With the app versions, when it’s initially released, it should have a backlog of features to be launched in the future. Design the app in a way that with every update, it will always have something new and exciting to offer the user. As the app progresses over time, a newer version would boost sales even more.

Get first impression right. A mobile app’s retention rate depends on multiple factors including having a delightful on-boarding first experience for users. When you get a user to install an app, that’s only half the journey. The first few seconds after the app is downloaded is actually the game changer. Users will know whether they would be active users or they would immediately delete the app during their first impression with the app.

Adding a simple greeting at the beginning of the app when it’s launched is a great way to ensure the users do not go app hoping, as it makes them feel appreciated. The technique is to ensure the brand values and appreciates users by adding hospitality such as welcome message, guidance on how to use the app, or information on features the users may be benefited from.

Speed. With even a shorter time-span nowadays, a guaranteed way to get a one-star-review at the app store is to have a slow Android app. If an Android app crashes too often or crawls, the users wouldn’t use the application for more than a minute if they encounter those issues.

A few things that can be done is to reduce the heavy graphics, and optimize the app code to get rid of any glitches or a lag. The app also should not be overloaded with too much content within the launch process, as it would immediately slow down the functioning of the app.

In-app analytics. Android developers often forget that in-app analytics could give so many insightful user information to help them understand deeper towards their user behavior. It’s important to know the user base thoroughly, who is downloading the app, when is it most commonly used—and why. By observing and challenging oneself towards user behavior. Android developers could use in-app analytics optimally to continuously improve their Android app performance.

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5 Android Apps for Business

Having an Android smartphone or tablet would help users to download the right apps that would increase one’s business productivity and efficiency. Now anyone with an Android device can work any time, any place, as long as they are connected to an Internet connection, and a fully-charged device. Below are some of the top Android apps that are great for boosting productivity and efficiency within businesses.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. Android users who are looking to increase their productivity should really consider using Google’s best productivity suite for Android devices—Google’s own productivity app collection. From the word processor Docs, spreadsheet editor Sheets and presentation maker Slides, Google’s apps have more features and a cleaner, more attractive interface than the other competing apps for Android.

The collection also offer better tools to insert tables, images, charts and other complex elements into a document, where it’s also compatible with Microsoft Office files. Users may seamlessly transition between their desktop computer and mobile device.

Google Drive. Solid-storage options for Android may be a little bit hard to find, however, Google Drive comes built right into Android operating system. Though similar to other Drive services, this Android app lets users to store files and documents online, backing them up and making it accessible from anywhere on any Android device with an Internet connection.

Google Drive also integrates with QuickOffice, as users should only sign in with their Google account and get access to all documents stored in the cloud immediately. Lastly, every edit on QuickOffice is backed up to Google Drive.

Microsoft Office for tablets. It has been reported that Google and Microsoft have both tried to transform themselves to be more cross-platform friendly. Microsoft’s Office Mobile has its full-featured version of Office for Android tablets, where it includes Word, PowerPoint and Excel. They are a lot like their full desktop versions, right to the iconic options ribbon at the top of the interface. Optimized for touch devices, the apps are equipped with large, easy-to-tap buttons. It also integrates with Microsoft’s OneDrive Cloud-storage platform, so documents would stay synced across all devices.

Microsoft Remote Desktop. Small business owners may take advantages from Microsoft Remote Desktop app since it’s highly reliable and secure. The Android app connects work PC with an Android phone or tablet remotely—it’s a simple way to use Windows applications on the go. Users may take advantage of the full desktop versions of Microsoft Word or Excel right from their Android device to view and edit documents everywhere.

OneNote. For users who take a lot of notes during meetings or brainstorming sessions, Microsoft’s OneNote offers the best selection of note-taking features that would help users keep their stuff together. Easy-to-use, OneNote is a user-friendly Android app that syncs all the user’s notes to OneDrive, which allow to be accessed via the Cloud. OneNote has quality integration as it works with the user’s existing Microsoft account, and there’s no need to create and maintain another one.

OneNote works best with a stylus-equipped device such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note, as it would make users draw diagrams and write notes more conveniently. This Android app can even transcribe handwritten notes to be searchable later on, as one of its key features.

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2 Reminders For Android App Developers During App Launch

As a global brand, Android products may be used around the world. Including their mobile app, an Android app developer could make one application, and distribute it to several different countries. However, launching and distributing an Android app in different countries would take up some extra time and effort along the way, as there are many things to be checked off the list while doing so.

Often, Android developers missed some of the most important things, since they are overwhelmed with the hassle of launching an app itself. Below are some reminders to keep everything in line while going through the launching process.

Set prices for the in-app or physical products. Developers should be aware by now that they can make their Android app free, or priced. If an app is priced, or there’s an in-app purchase, or even a physical product, Google Play Store lets Android developers to set the prices for each products in a variety of currencies. This is an important thing to remember, as it is beneficial for the markets around the world, as well as the developers.

Android developers and marketers may set the prices individually in different currencies, giving the flexibility to adjust the app or product pricing according to the market conditions and exchange rates. Prior to this decision, consider how you would price your products, and what it would be priced in various currencies. Later on, you can set prices in all available currencies through the Developer Console.

Android has provided guidance in how to sell apps in multiple currencies; help center document listing prices and supported currencies; specifying tax rates and transaction fees guideline. When one is familiar with the terms and conditions, one would set the right price range within different currencies.

Start localization. Some apps may be used internationally, and it may require localization in order to reach its user experience full potential. Android developers need to assess their localization needs such as localizing the strings, images, and other resources in the app; localizing the apps’ store listing details on Google Play Store; and localizing the apps’ graphic assets, screenshots, and videos that accompany the store listing.

Android developers need to first create and finalize the app title, description and promotional text to localize their store listing. They may also translate the “Recent Changes” text for app updates as well. Then, they could add their localized listing details in the Developer Console, or choose to let Google Play Store auto-translate the listing details into the languages the app supports.

One of the most important keys in localizing an Android app is to create a localized version of the promotional graphics, screenshots and videos. A graphic might include a text that should be translated for maximum effectiveness. Developers are encouraged to create different versions of the promotional graphics for each language, and upload them to the Developer Console. Once translations are complete, it can be moved into the app resources as needed and test that they are loaded properly.

It’s best to save the app’s translated listing details for later when the assets are ready to be uploaded, and the store listing to be configured. Android provides an informative localization checklist and a guide to localize with resources.

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Free New Android Apps

One point six million apps on the Google Play Store is a lot to take, and the huge quantity of apps doesn’t mean they are all quality. To do smarter installs, one need to sort which apps actually bring advantages and make one’s life easier. An app can be fun, engaging, entertaining, or solve a major problem in one’s life. Below are some of the top, free Android apps, that users may find useful.

Gravity Gesture. Gravity Gesture is an Android app that allows users to launch four apps or functions of their choice with gestures, which take the form of a couple of quick rotations of the device used. The app is fast and intuitive, and in many cases it can be a lot quicker than hunting out an icon on the home screen. Users usually map one of the gestures to an app, such as camera, where wasted time can mean a missed shot.

Patreon. Patreon is designed to help artists find backers, and for users to be a patron of the arts. The idea is similar to Kickstarter where “investors” may net rewards for backing projects. However, the difference is, rather than a one off pledge and a one off reward, on Patreon users donate an amount of money monthly, and get ongoing rewards. Rewards may be in the form of monthly concept art and behind the scenes access. The app is easy to navigate, lets users browse projects, follow creators, and invest in creativity wherever they are.

Kids Place – Parental Control. For Android users with young children, Kids Place is the right app to create a safe environment, where their access is limited to the list that they are allowed to. Kids Place allows parents to choose exactly which apps are allowed to be used by their children, and then they can launch those apps directly from Kids Place, and wont be able to exit to the main home screen without a PIN.

In-app purchases may be blocked; screen time controls can be added; and Kids Place can be automatically launched when the device is turned on. The Android app UI/UX is fairly easy for children to navigate, with big icons and clear text.

AmpMe. This Android app solves the inconvenient problem of playing music out of smartphone speakers. AmpMe allows their users to pump up the volume and quality to impressive levels. Offering various features, AmpMe allows users to play songs through SoundCloud, YouTube, or their own music collection. An interesting feature from this app is that any nearby friends with the app may join in, with the music syncing up and playing out of everyone’s phone. The Android app works over both Wi-Fi and mobile data; it also connects to tablets and Bluetooth speakers, making it unlimited only to Android devices.

Cinematics. Head to head with IMDB apps, Cinematics is the perfect Android app for movie lovers. The app lets the users find out what the consensus on a film is incredibly fast, with IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings shown at the top of each listing. Users may also access trailers, reviews, cast lists, similar films, and other movie-related features on Cinematics.

The Android app also lets the user know what’s popular, what’s currently in cinemas, or what’s coming soon—with everything formed into tabs on its home page. Where IMDB has trivia, community, and in depth details, Cinematics has a more basic set of information that is a lot faster to navigate.

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