Month: November 2017

Steps to Build Apps using Xamarin in Visual Studio

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Xamarin is a cross-platform technology that makes the development of simple form of native mobile apps for Android, iOS and Windows. Using a shared codebase, Xamarin allows the development team to build mobile apps with the help of skills they already possess, thereby, spending lesser time on writing code for each platform.


Xamarin provides its users a complete access to Android and iOS APIs with making any change in language and data structure. To ensure a smart and easy flowing visual studio mobile app development, it is important for an individual to follow certain steps as mentioned below:

1. Setup and install Visual Studio and Xamarin

The first step towards building an Android or Windows app using Visual Studio and Xamarin is to ensure that these two are properly setup and installed in the system. In case a person is working on developing an iOS app, then he/she needs to ensure a proper installation of a Mac with Xamarin and Xcode.

Once the setup and installation of the two is successful, the next step is to confirm and verify whether everything is setup for development procedure to start.

2. Create a solution

The next step is to create a Xamarin solution using native UI. This can be done by following a few simple steps as mentioned below:

  • Create a new blank app solution and name it as Weather App. One can easily find this template by searching for ‘Native Portable’ in search engine
  • On clicking Ok, one gets to see a number of individual projects such as WeatherApp (Portable), WeatherApp.Droid, WeatherApp.iOS, etc.
  • Add Newtonsoft.Json and NuGet package to the PCL project that can be used to process information obtained from weather data service
  • Once Newtonsoft.Json is installed successfully, one must find and install Microsoft.Net.Http package
  • Once the above steps are complete successfully, the system is ready to build a new solution.
  • On successful completion, one must ensure to confirm that there are no build errors in the development

3. Share the data service code on different platforms

The best aspect of developing any app using Xamarin is that the code is written in portable library class (PCL), which makes it easier to be shared on different platforms. In case of an Android, iOS and Windows apps, PCLs are automatically included in the package.

4. Design the look and feel of the app

Design of an app plays an important role in its success or failure. Therefore, one must be extra careful when designing these apps. To design the look and feel of the app, one needs to follow a few simple steps as mentioned below:

  • Go to the solution explorer, expand the WeatherApp.Droid>Resources>layout folder to open Main.axml and the file in the visual designer
  • Delete the default button present in the designer
  • Open the toolbox to drag a RelativeLayout control on the designer. This control will be used as a parent container for all other controls
  • Go to the Properties window to set the background property. This should be followed by the pulling of Text View control onto the Relative Layout control that can, the, be used to set various properties such as zipcode, number, etc.
  • Finally go to the properties window and sort the list as per one’s own choice

5. Replace shared code

Once the solution is ready, one can open its file in the code editor so as to replace the automatically geneayed UI code

6. Run the app

The app is now ready to use. One can opt to make it a start-up project in explorer or use it on the most suitable device.

7. Test the app

Checking an app developed for Android is easy as one needs to use Visual Studio Android Emulator. All one needs to do is select the app project, choose a device to copy and then click to start. The app is perfect to be used by all if it runs perfectly on Android device.

Testing an app for iOS is a bit different as it requires an iOS Mac to copy the content. One needs to set up and connect to Visual Studio followed by selecting the app project, switching the design plan to iPhone Simulator and then finally, choosing the version of device used and click Play. X`

On successful completion of the above mentioned steps, one gets ready with an app that has been developed on Xamarin. Since the platform is rich in its properties such as code sharing, efficiency and use of single technology stacks, the platform is getting preference among the developers. The apps developed for each platform are different and unque, including visual studio mobile app development. Therefore, it is better to use Xamarin Cross-Platform Development rather than taking a new sort of risk.

13 Ways by which Apps have Revolutionized the Education System

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile applications have been helping education for some time now. However, COVID-19 has made it much more self-evident. In 2019, we all witnessed the closure of schools and educational institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While educational institutions had no option except to close their doors, students could not access online classes due to the availability of applications. Students could connect, ask questions, write tests, utilize the library, submit assignments, and do nearly all they did when schools were open at the ease of a few clicks.

The biggest benefit of mobile apps is that students can learn from the comfort of their bedroom from anywhere and anytime. Due to the availability of these mobile apps, education has become a continuous process and is not limited to traditional classrooms or what teachers teach.

Additionally, schools and educational institutions can now teach students online, provide e-learning resources, mentor students and keep an eye on each student’s performance with ease. In short, mobile apps have slowly changed the traditional age-old classroom teaching and enabled them to incorporate smart learning.

To sum up the power of mobile apps in education, here are 13 ways mobile apps have revolutionized the education system.

1. Reduces the Cost of Learning

During pre-COVID times, students had to travel to different countries to learn. With the adoption of mobile apps, students can be in Australia, get admission into an educational institution in Canada and attend online classes in the comfort of home. Students no longer have to spend money on traveling, accommodation, and other costs that come with traditional school learning.

In short, mobile apps help students grow, learn creatively, and adapt to digital ways of learning at a low cost.

2. 24×7 Presence

The mobile app is available for students 24×7, helping them learn at their own pace and clear doubts wherever and wherever they want. In a traditional classroom, the timing of classes is limited, and no educational institution can open schools 24×7. The mobile apps facilitate the flexibility to learn, eliminating the stress about time and schedules.

Several mobile apps enable students to connect with teachers personally to resolve their queries. The mobile apps eliminate the stress of students who are not comfortable asking doubts in a traditional classroom setup.

3. Resonates With All Demographics

The intimidating fist of mobile technology has banged interestingly against the walls of age-old traditions of the educational industry. In a traditional classroom setup, teachers would struggle to teach toddlers as it was hard to keep them engaged throughout the class.

Mobile apps gamify the learning process with the help of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and more. Students no longer have to pass on the lessons; instead, they can learn the concept by learning from the practical application of ideas. The graphics, charts, pictures, colors make the learning fun and interactive at the same time.

Educational mobile app development services have blown the trumpet of helping the entire range of demographics to achieve their goals in the most desirable way on earth.

4. Fresh Models Enabled with M-Learning

Seen immensely as a personalized way of learning, modern mobile devices are sophisticated enough to champion the M-learning process. The costs of hand-held devices are getting low day after day, which further enhances their ubiquity and usability. Apart from games, socials, entertainment, what makes mobile app development fruitful is using apps for educating oneself.

Read Also : 15 Best Learning Apps For Kids 2021

There is also a ripple of open learning models and thoughtful initiatives where people can upload and contribute their observations and insight, making it a dependable research tool. Such a series of educational revolutions will drive a great paradigm shift in the industry.

5. Time-Saving Solution

Initially, people used to commute to the office and were not getting enough time on learning and development. Due to the availability of leisure time due to the WFH model, adults and working professionals are now able to attend online classes from the comfort of their homes. This aids in upskilling and securing a better position in their organization.

6. Immense Synchronization among Educators, Students & Parents

Collaboration is a crucial element while learning, and there has to be seamless synchronization between students and teachers to convey information efficiently. In traditional classroom methods, educational institutions were not able to involve parents in their child’s learning.

Mobile apps have made it possible for parents and pupils alike to track progress. Educational Apps like TeacherKit, Evernote and Dropbox are quite helpful when it comes to monitoring students’ performance, attendance, grade status, assessment, etc.

This immense collaboration keeps parents informed and establishes a tremendous virtual bond between educators, students and their parents.

7. Taking Education Inside and Outside the Premise

Now a day a new trend enables students to remain connected to their future classroom lectures even outside the institute premises. An amazing technology, The Flipped Classroom has risen to innovate classroom activities and give it a better shape and structure. Students can adopt this practice to watch lectures, content videos and much more at home.

8. Great Aid for Disabled Young Children

If apps like this can enhance the world of normal-brained people, it can surely change the world of mentally challenged children. Mobile app development experts are busy creating mobile apps, specially designed for kids who are slow or unresponsive to conventional learning processes.

These apps are going to help such children suffering from certain mental issues (like dyslexia) fight the challenges and overcome their disabilities.

9. Boundless Learning, Timeless Transformation

Now that augmented reality, artificial intelligence and IoT have struck the chord of digital innovations, education industry also seems quite prepared to absorb the new trends of educational apps. The education landscape is bettered by portable technology with its smart notepad courses, virtual interactions and video streaming.

Coursera and TED are a couple of such apps that have made the learning more fascinating, enjoyable and intelligent. This educational transformation is timeless depending on its adoption speed, and it promotes learning with virtually no boundaries at all.

10. Smart Classes, Smart Exchange

Implementing technology in education was a huge thing for educators. The traditional classroom setup was limited to the art of chalk and talk. Due to mobile apps, educators can conduct smart classes where students engage differently with their imparting teachers using technology as a preferred medium. They can stream video on a big screen, or open illustrators in 3D holograms or submit their projects using a smart mobile app in a single touch.

Read Also : 18 Best Apps For Teachers & Educators 2020

In school, unconventional learning is becoming so common as they are trained progressively to learn all about how to use fresh technologies like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, AI and IoT. The combination of advanced virtual and augmented reality can help them touch science and experience practical processes of body’s anatomy as if it is all so real.

Educational mobile app development services today have built imaginative mobile apps that children can work on their devices to send their assignments and get them reviewed remotely. This greatly benefits children who live far from education centres.

11. Digital Educational Apps Is Annihilation of Poverty

The revolution of digital learning is not just for the developed countries, as computers, tablets and mobile phones are growing affordable, even children who have limited resources have started using them. Even these underprivileged kids can engage in educational apps and liberate themselves from outmoded school education systems.

Poor children can see the digital revolution as an opportunity to adopt agile ways of learning and upgrade their living standards through online education.

12. Educational Apps Eliminate Gender Bias

Even after massive development across countries, there are still places where young women and girls are forbidden from formal education. Here is where mLearning comes which allows women to take education forward using mobile apps discreetly.

13. Sustainable Solution

After all, mLearning apps do not involve any use of paper, pencil or other disposable plastic material. As we know, earth is at risk of losing its inherent charm and health. This is the reason why utilizing eco-friendly methods are a prevalent concern across many parts of the globe because of its environmental consequences.

As kids get accustomed to using mobile apps, there is much certainty of sustainability of nature. Mobile educational apps are sustainable when compared to the dangerous use of pencils and cardboard and notebooks.

There would be almost no paper-made tangible reference book or textbook for many crucial fundamentals of learning some primary subjects and other topics where practical illustrations work miracles. The download of a book is just a finger-tip away, which means saving of a lot many trees.

Conclusion:

Digitalization is a wave that touches every industry that comes its way, and COVID-19 has made all of us realize its importance. The world has partially adopted the NEW NORMAL, and the use of mobile apps in our daily life is no more a choice.

From entertainment, chatting to shopping and online bookings, there is rarely any sector that isn’t interrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that the much-proclaimed thought of ‘there is an app for that is becoming a reality over a course of countable years.

But these innovations have not only revolutionized the education industry but it has transformed and redefined the meaning of education as well. Educational mobile apps development services have stretched their wings to show how education is everybody’s right, whether rich or poor, male or female.

Explained above are just some of the many ways mobile apps have revolutionized the global education system and helped make virtual classrooms easy, affordable, and accessible to everyone.

Also Check: Latest Updated Educational Apps Directory List

Fundamentals of Mobile App Development for a Start-up

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Year after year, the need to realize that mobile apps has become the formidable tool to attract customers and drive sales has inspired businesses to invest in mobile app development. The mobile-first strategy stems from the fact that the use of mobiles not only helps customers engage with the products but also allows them to interact and respond to what they experience. Be it shopping online or chatting with friends, mobile app users remain increasingly dedicated to their personal devices for assorted purposes.

The reason why today’s companies, big or small, are thinking of having a business mobile app is that more than 50% of people in the world uses smartphone. It comes as no surprise that nearly 70% of the global internet traffic is coming from mobile devices.

Such an enormous amount of mobile users offers a solid ground for business owners and marketing strategists to build a viable app.

A survey from Clutch.co reveals that close to 47% of small businesses across the US view the launching of their mobile apps as a wise investment and a fruitful plan for future profit.

However, to meet the rising demands from customers is a massive challenge for both business app owners and developers. Building complex enterprises apps could be quite a leap for start-up organizations who have just ventured a few good steps in this area. In order to fulfil the expectations from client’s side and of consumers, these start-ups require a strategic investment of exceptional research abilities, flexibility and stringent work methods while developing an app.

Here are some of the most essential fundamentals of mobile app development for every mobile app creating start-up company who wants to make it big in the business:

1) Cross-platform Enterprise Mobile Apps

Despite the fact that any start-up can achieve their goals through gradual from-basic-to-scalable process, the best way to hit the mark in quick efforts is to conform to cross-platform app development standards. To elaborate it further, startup companies that start building apps that work equally well across all device platforms are among those getting recognized faster in the world.

From utility, banking & finance, travel & booking appointments right down to social media and online shopping apps, modern customers are looking for sophisticated apps that accommodate all of their needs, the smallest and the biggest. Hence, the enterprises that deliver the software products and services desire to shake hands with those developers who have world-class expertise to take up sharp challenges and develop multi-facility apps designed to work across many available platforms.

2) An Approach Towards Dynamic Functionalities

Since enterprise mobile applications clearly mean developing apps with dynamic functionalities, startup industry must work on providing high-end superior-quality apps from scratch. The end users of such apps can be business users or, alternatively, consumers. They like to explore a heterogeneous set of interactive functionalities such as GPS, transactions, messages, responsiveness, sensors, and even audio/video. This should support their phones, tablet, wearable devices and IoT connected gadgets.

For this dream to be real, your mobile app development startup firm must be conversant with using right tools, technologies, research capabilities and development processes.

3) Innovative Apps can Accelerate Startup Growth

Now a days, enterprises refuse to compromise on developing apps that are creative, innovative and thoughtfully designed. Corporate Enterprise companies are especially interested in having an app that helps them connect with their customers and represent their business like a tangible brick-and-mortar structure. They demand dynamic app options for managing their account and customers, tracking their online behaviour, or creating a rich social media for enhanced level of engagement.

With large number of apps being developed and released every day, it is pivotal for mobile app development startup industry to give shape to an influential, result-oriented app that befits all magnitude of businesses and acquires maximum customers.

4) Discern the Clarity of your Goals:

Knowing your goals enrich your vision and helps you develop apps that hit the precise pain point and transform into a remarkable success story. Define and set your final goals where you want to reach so that you can make a clear strategy and avoid confusion down the path of development. Once you are aware of the outcome, it becomes easier to face the challenges down the line.

The primary goal of having an app is to penetrate the existing digital market, engage customers and boost sales number.

Proper analysis:

detailed analysis of the product and target audience helps you build an effective app. Find out the actual behaviour of the target market and trends that are heating up, which will in a way determine the demographics of end users – business customers or youngsters or children. Align with customer’s exact requirements so that you will be able to match the developed product perfectly with the envisioned product.

Test of compatibility:

If you are on your way to build an impeccable mobile app, make sure it is compatible across all platforms and devices used by the target audience. Cross-platform mobile app  development therefore is preferred more than native apps to reach maximum users.

5) Choice of Technology

Before choosing any technology platform, one must ensure it is feasible in every way possible. The final product must come out robust, usable and highly functional. The most ubiquitous platforms are iOS, Windows and Android, and they are evolving rapidly with frequent handy updates. These platforms make it practically possible for developers to build unique features and impressive interface to deliver outstanding user experience. Choosing the right platform means your apps will be supported by numerous devices used by customers.

6) Security and Speed Efficiency

Monitoring the responses of the app functionality is conceived as the best idea. Doing so eliminates the scope of errors and eventually builds an engaging and interesting app. Make it a practise to identify obstacles in the existing product and improve its standard before its finally deployed.

Security problems are potential threats to customers who will become the end users of the app. Choose a reliable, secure, authentic resources and industry-standard processes to build the app to ensure its highly secure.

The app you design must be able to function and run in the normal internet environment. Make sure the app remains effective and healthy so that users can access it all the time. Also, the app should respond instantly to process customer requests in time.

7) Testing Quality and Consistency

Testing the app is a crucial stage for any developer as it confirms whether or not the app is ready to venture into the online app store. Anideal app testing method must include testing on different devices of varied screen sizes in order to measure its performance and view its compatibility. Check its quality and how it appears on all the devices. This will help you check if all the features and functionality of the app works consistently on all devices that customers are likely to use.

Apart from this, the developer must also necessarily maintain the consistency while coding the app to make sure the entire mobile app development process, along with its documentation and program updates and interface, is genuine, consistent and unblemished.

8) Introduce a Pilot Version

Once the development team is confident that they have built a well-tested, mature and fully functional app, they can go for launching the pilot product. The course of ideal mobile app development must end with the launch of pilot version. It helps developers receive the feedback and responses from the users and judge the success of the app. you can approach your colleagues, friends and family to use the app so that you can practically find loopholes if any. Their feedbacks can be taken and processed to assess the functioning of its top features so that you can determine its most admired and underrated features.

Finally, get ahead of the competition

Mobile apps are in great demand, and enterprises require better face of apps to accelerate the growth prospect of their respective business and improve their existing working system. The challenges are intense and need your skilled efforts. One of biggest challenges in this area is fierce competitors. Therefore, start-up mobile app development companies must invest their focus to deliver the highly evolved and innovative product that gratifies customers, earning them high ROI.

The best way to get ahead of the competition is to extract feedback from experts who have substantial experience in using or reviewing the similar product. Being in involved in the competitive IT scene, your app must have something unique to offer and have better run speed, stunning aesthetics and good accessibility.

Top 9 Trends On iOS App Development

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

As the year 2017 is heading towards the end of its journey, it leaves behind a scene of great technological transformations in the area of iOS app development. Because of its envious technological revolutions, iPhone users always expect significant uniqueness from Apple. Moreover, iOS users tend to spend way more on apps than Android users. Therefore, Apple store is overwhelmed with more than 1 million apps. This is also why Apple never stints on bringing surprising innovations.

In 2017 alone a number of innovations were introduced, including Swift 3.0 programming language, iOS 11 version update or a shift towards AR technology. They all have changed the way iPhone app developers build apps. To understand these changes, here is the list of top 9 trends on iOS app development 2017.

1.Swift 3.0 Programming Language:

Initially creating a lot of curiosity, Swift platform has now completed more than two years. This open source programming language accommodates many complex iOS application development requirements, with the help of its unique set of coding methods and frameworks. It has surpassed the Objective C language with the introduction of Swift 3.0 in Xcode 8 which is more advanced compiler infrastructure. Swift 3.0 helps iOS developers write codes easily, all thanks to Xcode tools. However, some of the latest updates in 3.0 also means that developers need to adapt to new API design guidelines, naming conventions, modified GCD, core graphics, etc. These changes also suggest that iOS app developers have to consider updated migration needs and ways to utilize the increased smartness of APIs and accelerated speed of app development process.

2.Augmented Reality Drives Excellence and Delight:

Augmented Reality has now fairly become a familiar term in the world of technological revolutions. After successfully showing promises in sectors like education, gaming, retail, manufacturing, maintenance and many other commercial sectors, AR has also invaded the domain of iPhone app development. Because of its GPS capability, the concept of using AR has intrigued iOS app developers by great extent in 2017. The use of AR in gaming industry has been a massive influence for iOS app developers integrating generous potential of AR for highly advanced and upgraded 3D gaming experience. The Augmented Reality as a trend strikes iSO users dominantly adding excellence to iOS application development and making user experience much more delightful and fascinating.

3.IoT Touching the Consumer Market:

Despite receiving a reluctant start, consumer IoT is now going leaps and bounds day after day. Ever since HomeKit was released at the developer’s forum, it is reaping impressive responses in the field of consumer iOS app development services. The use of effortless, hassle-free remote control IoT for interconnected devices has gained its boost through integration of iBeacon technology creating a flawless control of multiple devices. With the unbelievable success in GPS sensor based technology this year, it has become possible for iOS app developers to take things further with consumer applications. Businesses and big brands are willing to opt for IoT, showing utmost interest in having iOS app developers integrate it in their business apps.

4.Marketing Goes Sophisticated With iBeacon and GPS:

GPS technology can show more surprises than it has previously. GPS in coordination with iBeacon technology can offer integrated location based tracking and is used by iPhone app developers to create solutions that help businesses serve their customers precisely. Due to location based preferences derived from GPS integration, it is easy for brands to focus their marketing efforts on individual customers.

iBeacon technology has shown effective results for businesses for quite a while and iOS app developers are ready to take the power of the technology to next level. In 2017, iOS 11 was introduced with its advanced separate controller for device or appliance. This, when combined with GPS sensors, is capable of offering the incredible power of remote controlling.

5.Security Problems: Still a Battle for Developers

Apple has now gone relaxed around its proprietorship policies and made some of its services open source to engage more developers and encourage more creativity. However, this approach provokes the frowns over security. The glorious integration of superlative technologies like AR, VR, its home grown iBeacon and IoT often induce challenges of security concerns for iPhone app developers. Despite their great calibre to capture more audience, these technologies require developers to focus on increasing security against vulnerable threats. This is because consumers feel increasingly dependent on their Smartphones for most intimate information and banking transactions, security becomes the core subject needing much more attention.

6.iOS for M-commerce App

After the disruption of apps in eCommerce industry, customers feel more delighted at the speed and security they enjoy in M-commerce mobile apps. These apps offer more convenience, simplicity and compact shopping store structure which is far more superior than responsive websites in terms of customer experience. In 2017 the eCommerce industry observes this drastic change, and as a result iOS M-commerce apps are the main focus of eCommerce stores.

Since online internet users and shoppers now increasingly prefer placing their order from dedicated well-crafted mobile apps, M-commerce in iOS app development is growing at exponential rate. Due to high demand of eCommerce mobile apps in the market, iOS app developers can have sumptuous opportunity to fully integrate app system with iOS device to take advantage of its whole set of feature.

7.iOS Business Apps For Enterprise Market:

After consumer apps, iOS business apps are largely being appreciated in enterprise market for the leverage and efficiency it offers. This year, the Apple’s iPad has surprised the enterprise world by tremendous extent, delivering substantial results for enterprises at large. This success of iOS business apps gives enormous stimulus to iPad app development, making iPad a priority device for both enterprise market and iPad apps developers. Moreover, Apple’s integration of iBeacon technology pushed the boundaries when it comes to building iOS applications that bring incredible benefits for commercial and marketing area.

8.Cloud Computing Technology Rules 2017:

Users of all kinds work across multiple apps and access their information from multiple devices. At organizational level, employees tend to access mails through special Gmail accounts. This is attributed to cloud computing technology now becoming famous among iOS developers. iOS app developers seriously consider the idea of opting for scalable potential of cloud storage.

The cloud computing in iOS is focused more on enterprise market where performance plays a vital role. Due to its ability to empower businesses with functionality and efficiency, there is an increased use of iPad, Mac and Apple watch in 2017. This further inspires the trend of enterprise app development through cloud based iOS apps.

9.Wearable Apps for Apple watch:

The smart intelligence is getting tinier, and yet is giving rise to ample thrill and admiration among Apple fans. Such is the case with Apple Watch whose growth in the Wearable devices market is dazzling. At its launch, there was a boost of 80+ million in iOS apps downloads. Earlier seen as a status enhancer, Apple Watch has not only shown the power of smallest dimensions in the world of Smart technology but also pushed it to next level. From 2016 to 2017, the number of iWatch users have increased in thousands and so has the volume of apps (being 5 figures now) for iWatch OS.

Due to massive worldwide fan club of iWatch wearable devices, iOS app developers must gravitate enthusiastically towards developing user-oriented, creative, customized apps for Apple wearables. According to latest ripple of news, Apple watch will also be used for the convenience of contactless payment which will prove quite a revolutionary experience for its users.

Wrapping Up:

If there is a technology or fashion, there will be a turbulence of trends. But if technology becomes a big fashion, all there remains is a storm. This is the truth realized on the scene of today’s rapidly evolving technology. Apple, being a leader of innovations, focuses its vision on upcoming trends happening in iOS application development. The trends and updates discussed above are gradually tightening its grip over the enterprise and commercial market alike, creating much more grounds for marketers to invest their inventiveness and creativity using latest innovative updates from Apple. Although they are a bit of a challenge in itself, businesses can better find a way to utilize its power and make their brands stand out with technology-enabled competitiveness.

Why Choose Mobile App Development Companies in Pune?

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

The rapid evolution of smart phones has made mobile app development industry quite an expansive one. Pune in India is often considered as a top choice to develop mobile apps for both iOS and Android. So why should you choose mobile app development companies in Pune? Let’s find out.

1) Wealth of IT Resources –

Being a top tier city in India, Pune attracts a huge number of IT talent in the country. This means there is high competition among the developers inevitably resulting in better skill development.  You are guaranteed of a minimum project quality and quick turnaround time. Also, in case a web developer chooses to leave it half way through, the app development company you hire can easily find a replacement.

2) Lower Cost, Better Quality –

The technology ecosystem in Pune allows global customers to avail high quality app development services at low costs. There are multiple factors like the presence of a huge number of IT companies, skilled developers and designers, etc apart from lower living costs which ensure your app development cost remains under control.

3) Work Experience–

Mobile app development companies in Pune often have a large workforce with a mixture of experienced and fresh resources. These developers are continuously assigned projects on which they work together. This gives even relatively less experienced developers a great amount of work experience.

4) Testing Services –

Testing is a vital part of any software before it gets to the customer. Pune hosts a number of individual testing companies as well as companies that offer software testing in addition to mobile app development services.

5) Reliability –

When compared to freelancers or companies from obscure cities, hiring a mobile app development company from Pune offers much better reliability. Your project would not be left half way and you would be able to get regular updates through Project Managers.

6) Latest Technology –

Being one of the top technologically-aware cities in India, app developers in Pune stay updated on the latest trends, features etc and try to apply them to their work. Thus you would be able to enjoy positive suggestions from developers to implement amazing new features. Such features can make your app a much more interesting proposition for your target audience.

To conclude, apart from the general benefits in India, there are numerous advantages to outsourcing your app development to Pune. If you have any valuable insights to share, please make your comment in the comment section below.

Why do Enterprises Prefer Swift to Develop iOS Apps?

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Over the last few years, there has been an upsurge in the number of mobile phone applications being developed by the business houses. This is majorly owing to the rapid increase in the number of mobile phone users and market across the globe.

In such a scenario, it becomes essential to focus on developing such applications that are user-friendly, easy to use and understandable. With iOS taking a lead in introducing new and latest products in the market, it is essential to use such an iOS app development programming language that turns the app into a high-performing application.

Among the large number of iOS app development programming languages, Objective-C and Swift are the most popular. However, gradually Swift is taking over the entire market. Swift is a programming language that has been developed by Apple to serve general purposes.

Used mainly to develop codes for iOS, Watch OS, Linux, and TVOS, the language offers its users a number of value add features of Objective-C, which, in turn, make it an ideal programming language to build user-friendly and engaging apps.

Preferred by numerous top-notch companies, there are several reasons for giving Swift a preference as an iOS app development programming language.

1.Easy to Read

As compared to Objective-C that makes use of @ to differentiate different keywords and types from C-types, Swift can unify all the keywords and culminates the need of the numerous @ symbols. Swift also ends the need of using semicolons at the end of each lines.

Instead, it makes use of the standard comma-separated list of parameters within parenthesis. All these and similar other changes have enabled the development of a simplified and cleaner language.

2.Low Maintenance

Unlike C and Objective-C programming languages that uses two-code files to improve the build time of executable app development, Swift combines the Objective-C header (.h) and implementation files (.m) into a single code file (.swift).

This is because the Xcode and LLVM compiler can easily figure out dependencies during development as well as enable incremental builds automatically in Swift 1.2.

The language is also helpful in reducing the workload on programmer, which, in turn, allows them to spend more time on developing the logic of the app.

3.Ensured Safety

As compared to Objective-C in which calling an uninitialized pointer turns the line of code no-op and causes a huge number of bugs, it is possible to keep a nil optional value clear in Swift. This implies that a compiler error would be generated if a person writes a bad code.

Read also : 9 Skills you Need to Become a Hireable iOS Developer

Writing codes in Swift saves a lot of time and money as bugs and errors can be fixed while the code is written. The optional types and value types keep it clear in the method definition if a value exists or if it can be kept as optional.

4.Amalgamated with Memory Management

Using Swift programming language can lead to better productivity as it provides support for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) across the technical and object-oriented code paths. Using Swift ends the programmer’s responsibility to handle memory management.

When working with different Graphics APIs available on iOS. Moreover, the best part of using Swift is it ends the problem of huge memory leaks that a programmer might face with other programming languages.

5.Requires Less Coding

Swift uses less amount of codes especially in the case of string manipulations and repetetive statements. This is because Swift makes use of the modern features available for programming languages. For instance, it adds two strings by using “+” operator.

The language also allows for string interpolation. This, in turn, ends the need to learn tokens and instead, makes it easier for programmers to add variables directly inline to a user-facing string, such as a label or button title.

6.Fewer Name Collisions

Swift language provides in-built name spaces. This, in turn, allows the same code file to work across different projects without requiring any special names such as CG Point (Core Graphics). The availability of this feature in Swift improves productivity of programmers by ending the need of bookmarking.

It is also easy to differentiate classes for the programmers using Swift as it allows to do so using the same namespace identifier. This feature has enables multiple software companies to create the same code filenames without the concern of any sort of collisions when integrating open source projects.

7.Supports Dynamic Libraries

This is one of the biggest reason for Swift being a preferred iOS app development programming language. Using dynamic libraries is advantageous as these include executable group of code that can be linked to an app. This, in turn, allows for easy link between the existing Swift apps with its newer versions.

Read also : Importance of the Programming Language ‘Swift’ in iOS Development

It is with the evolving of Swift that has enabled the support of dynamic libraries on iOS, even while these were already supported on Mac. The enabling of this feature has made the programming language changes and improvements to take place faster without making its users to wait.

In simple words, Swift programming language is a boon for the programmers. Apart from the above, the language is also more approachable and fully featured. While the world can notice its role in the development of iOS apps, the day will come soon when it will also be used for the development of other Apple applications.

Must-have Features for Modern Mobile Messengers

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Nowadays users wish to use messenger apps not just for basic texting but wish to perform more superior actions such as calling, sending multimedia objects(audio, video, images, documents etc.) while still keeping their security intact.

Like Whatsapp, you may want to create a chat app with outstanding features that define its success. Some of them are:

1) User Login:

There are two options when it comes to allowing users to subscribe to your app’s messenger services. Whatsapp comes with little restrictions and offer users to sign up by typing their phone number and receiving a confirmation message from the app. It simplifies onboarding process for them.

However, things have changed and your app can now support multiple devices. Also, users will be asked to go through a proper sign up process in order to avoid security issues so that people you exchange messages with will have limited access to your online profile. You can decide ultimately which option is more viable for your audience.

2) Rugged and Capable Backend:

You must not compromise while adding high capability to your backend architecture from scratch. Your server will eventually deal with loads of content and messages, which requires you to avoid any occurrence of system downtime. Whatsapp had a robust protocol called XMPP to handle and organize heavy load of messages that are exchanged between users and servers.

The protocol supports group as well as one-on-one communication with its secure, scalable and flexible system. Ejabberd is one of scalable, customizable and system-friendly XMPP server that ensures massive security and trustworthy SSL/TSL encryption.

To create a chat app, you can even opt for other available dedicated servers to process and store multimedia files and messages of dynamic nature for seamless management of high-load communications.

3) Emoticons:

People have gone crazy with the usage of emoticons. There are entire conversations that make use of just emoticons. A chat app cannot ignore them quite easily.

4) Personalized Experience through Geo-location Sensing:

Like Whatsapp, you can allow your mobile chat app users to share their status and specific location. It will be great if you can even capitalize on this feature to generate small revenue per each user.

Take Geolocation to next level by monetizing it and letting nearby stores to advertise their products deals and offers through several messages that will appear on users’ mobile as they stroll by the store.

5) Push Notifications:

Push notification is a handy message used by service providers for communication between a provider and a user. From time to time, these messages update users about small events/activities that may matter to you.

You can avail push messages to tell users about available online friends, group friends status, message reception, and if they have read it and responded. You can think of many creative ways to use push notifications to keep your chat app users interested, engaged and active.

6) Encrypted Messages for Inviolable Security:

People have grown smarter with smart technology and they demand highly secure network apps. Security level offered by an app influences their decision to choose an instant messenger app. Message security and protection is an essential feature needed to create a chat app.

The western people are more agitated about the security of their information they share online and wand off the criminals hacking their devices. Due to increasing world concerns about information safety, messengers like Telegram, Snapchat have strengthened the security of their services.

Whatsapp also provides an end-to-end encryption system now that will restrict the intrusion from any third party decoding the messages of users. Signal, a chat messenger app, offers unique authentication system where each conversation is protected by random app-generated phrase that participants use to confirm their identity.

You can use open source or your own in-house encryption protocol for sure-fire pre-emptive security.

Wickr messenger app offers security of another level by generating a new key for each conversation.

7) Data Back-up Services with Cloud:

Cloud sync is the best option to keep files stored in a different virtual place in organized fashion. It updates itself when you initiate the action of changing a file on your device. In messenger apps, this can be achieved by allowing users to save their chat histories and files in cloud and access them anytime.

This can be quite a boon for those who are likely to lose their devices or delete their chat app by mistake or use multiple devices. WhatsApp, for instance, offers an option to back up your chat content using Google Drive or iCloud.

There are several other messengers that furnish mature cloud sync service where cloud chats are stored on their servers using keys set on local devices.

8) Broadcast Messages for Additional Control:

It will be wonderful for your users if they can create a group of their favourite contacts and send them personal messages that are non-group messages. To create a chat app, this feature (aka Broadcast messages) can be an excellent exciter for users.

In this message exchange system, the recipients can’t identify who all received the same message content. This comes handy when you have something to announce or spread ahead. This can be a perfect tool for marketing agencies who want to reach the customers with special promotional messages.

On the whole, a good and efficient messenger is certainly the tool every smartphone must have. Despite the fact there are plenty of offers within apps like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and others, users still keep searching for messaging apps that is more efficient and provide more off user friendly features. No matter what strategy you opt for, make sure that you follow a long-term value to turn your app into recognized and well-established brand in the niche.

10 Important Do’s and Don’ts for App Store Optimization

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile apps are dominating app store Optimization with the volume of as much as over 4M apps. With these many number of apps ruling the app stores, one must think how fierce the competition must be. This scenario suggests that there is a huge challenge for both developers and marketers to survive the crowd and enhance their apps’ overall visibility. To overcome the challenges, it is therefore important to optimize your app to rank top in any app store.

Believing that the mobile app development itself means your app will be downloaded rapidly by millions of interested users is a mistake. After developing the app, another journey of making your app quite visible begins. There are certain steps and benchmarks in the area of app store optimization (aka ASO) that ensure it performs exceedingly best in the saturated app market. Here are 10 important Do’s and Don’ts for effective ASO:

10 Important Do’s

1.Title:

  • Title is the first priority in app store optimization strategy. Make your approach creative while you decide to keep a unique app title. You have built a brilliant app and you don’t want to ruin your hard work just by being shallow about the title.
  • Usually, the app should be named in such a way that it represents both the content of the app and its purpose. Make it look uncommon, specific and appealing. Emphasize on the relevance of the name or it may confuse app store algorithm and users.
  • Try to limit the title to as long as 25 characters for Google play store and 40 for iOS as it works optimally. You can include keywords in the title to help its ranking, but only if suits and looks organic.
  • Some unprecedented titles like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Temple Run, Landlord, Candy Crush are eminent examples of the most successful mobile apps.

2.Keywords :

Mobile app development specialists cannot alone shoulder the success of your app. Keywords are also the decider of how your app ranks and what position it will end up with. Just like SEO, mobile app requires keywords that are highly researched and preferred by app users. Therefore, it necessary to conduct a thorough research to identify the list of most preferred keywords for your app context.

3.App Description:

Be careful as you utter or think anything about describing your mobile app. People are not naturally fond of reading app description, so you may not grab much attention through it. But still, it is a vital post mobile app development step. Here is what you need to consider:

  • App store ranking algorithms process and churn all the keywords used in app description, which means including primary keywords will help achieve the target. With that being said, you must not overstuff the description with too many of them.
  • Make the first lines of the description attractive, catchy and rich since app store visitors are going to determine the quality of your apps just from those few words. Compose the most compelling description that defines your app most and interests many users.
  • Explain in brief all the functionality and purpose of the app and how it will add value to users’ life. Make it persuasive and convincing enough through the details of its benefits and features.
  • You can also increase the credibility of your app by writing about the recognition of your app or previous app success. A little bit of bragging can be done in this description with sensible freedom. It will boost the download numbers in a way.

4.App Icon:

Well-designed, bold and unique app icon does the job of a vibrant painting and impels viewers to take more interest. Make it original, simple yet eye-catching while avoiding the scope of unwanted clutter. By inserting the purpose of the app in its icon, you can make it speak for itself. The popularity of any app icon can be measured through A/B testing. Experiment with a few of them and see which one goes well.

5.Screenshots magic :

Screenshot can work miracle for your app and it serves as a visual guide to its essential internal features that you think will make difference to its users. Introduce the audience to its inner architecture and tease them with its unique traits.

Screenshots have magical qualities and are as important as mobile app development strategy. It is especially for those who are not much of a reader and like to judge mobile apps through app store screenshots. Make sure you integrate the following points in your screenshots:

  • The screenshots that people can view on their screen in first shot without swiping are the ones that have power to grab most of their attention. So make sure they look impressive, expressive and influential. It must be good enough to supply the users a great hint of what your app actually is all about
  • Your app screen shots should be optimized to tablet viewing if your app also targets tablet users.
  • Publish as many shots as the store allows, and try to emphasize on using default orientation for the screen shot – which is Portrait
  • If possible, have an approach of showing at least one feature with each screen shot.

6.Video :

Like screenshots, make a video that gives a vivid illustration of what your mobile app can do. Make a preview video highlighting all the remarkable hallmarks of your app, its amazing key features and its ultimate benefits. Add video somewhere near app description and screenshots. The video is more effective than words. It will help to a great extent in case the app your have published contains several complicated features. Make is as long as maximum 90 seconds which appears optimal.

7.Reviews and Rating :

And how about gaining more leverage from Reviews and ratings? Even A/B testing practiced during mobile app development is a part of review system where certain feedbacks are implemented to make the app still better.

Reviews and ratings are a part of social activities which drive app store ranking algorithm. This means reviews play no less than a hero for app store optimization. It also suggests that your app is alive and seen by users and is not latent.

8.Recognize your Target audience and Competitors :

There could be almost no mobile app development strategy without a well-meditated ASO strategy, and there is no app optimization if you fail to incorporate your target audience and competitors in your strategy.

You can start by asking a few important questions like:

  • What does your app do for its users? What goal you want to touch with the mobile app?
  • How does it drive your next mobile app marketing plan?
  • How will the audience understand and perceive the app?
  • Can language be the barrier/saviour for the target audience?
  • Why should they download and fall for only your app among many?
  • How are your competitors doing in the similar market?
  • Does your app offer a fruitful competitive advantage?

Before you start on your ASO strategy, you must take a walk in users’ shoes and think from their perspective. Make your deep research to find out the facts about consumers and know about their trendy approach for mobile apps. Sneak in the land of your competitors and scoop up something viable. Discover those precious keywords that can pull in plethora of traffic. Study some of the effective moves of your competitors and how their reviews, social media exposure and other vitals work for them.

9.Localize Your App :

Localization is important for mobile app development and marketing plan. While developing an app, developers and strategist think of mobile apps in global perspective. However, when you look around you will realize the world is not populated with English speakers. You will have a great chance of increasing downloads by considerable extent by localizing your mobile app.

When you analyze your target audience, you will have a brighter picture of their language, cultures and general interests. You can focus your ASO on each discovery about your target audience – especially their language.

Perceive localizing the app as a tool to gain more responses and downloads. Communicate all features and your brand in the language they love.

10.Frequent Updates :

The mindsets of mobile users tend to evolve rapidly, which requires your mobile app to present them with charming updates added frequently. Constant improvements made considering customer feedback in the app are highly embraced by customers.

Not only that, but apps that are regularly updated by mobile app development veterans are given more preference and value by app store and users, resulting in better reviews and much positive response as each version is launched. Remember the following strategic points:

  • Lure your customers towards a note or an update link at login area with a prominent message urging them to download new updates. Push notification also works intrusively within an app telling them about fresh, exciting improvements
  • Try to preserve all the positive reviews and ratings of the latest version, especially those highlighted as five stars. Customers often select the app with good ratings.
  • Alternatively, you can also update the description field in app store and outline new bits with a noticeable call-to-action.
  • Make sure the normal average app update frequency is 30-50 days which is a general preference of top highly popular mobile apps.

10 important Don’ts

1.Doing mistakes in visual elements

Thousands of apps are released and published every year, but not every app ends up in users’ screen or stays there for a long while. Even the exemplary mobile app development methods can’t save the app that is built from shallow angles. This is why certain mistakes should be completely avoided or they will eventually drown your app in the app store. Some of them are:

Name:

Using clichéd, overused app words will not make your app much visible to searchers. Hence, avoid keeping frequently used names/words for your app.

Description:

Don’t make it overwhelming to read the app description. Nor make it too long, tedious and unnecessarily florid. Instead, stick to the main points: purpose, interesting elements, core features, unique approach and its benefits.

Icon design:

Icon can either make or break the app game. So don’t overdo it or make it complex. Users do not appreciate the idea of downloading apps with obscure or illegible icon designs. Even too much of bright, distasteful colours or ridiculous shapes can spoil the hard work done by mobile app development gems.

 2.Imitating your Competitors blindly

You can’t really turn the blind eye to the fact that more original your app looks, greater the chance you have of making it to top ranked position. So don’t just blindly follow all the tricks and implementations done by your competitors. In order to stand out and get good reviews from customers, it is important to be different. Choose slightly differing keywords compared to what others have tried.

3.Believing that localization means language translation

A big no to this thinking, because localizing your app does not clearly mean merely translating your app content into local language. It is deeper than that, and more thoughtful. When you localize your app, you convert all the assets and architecture of your app into the form that is most acceptable in specific locality. By localization, you adapt all the app essentials – date formats, time zone, currency, calendar, and other systems – to match the specific country code. This implies that language translation is just a small part of mobile app localization process.

4.Fostering Misconception that: ASP = SEO

Over years, due to similar looking common word (Optimization) present in both practices, people who are not much familiar with App Store Optimization often confuse it with SEO. Despite having slight similarity, ASO is still not SEO. Even many mobile app development companies cannot tell it apart if asked.

SEO strategy helps improve visibility of websites in Google search results by optimizing content. ASO, on the other hand, is actually the process of optimize a mobile app for store-listing to increase its inside-the-app store discoverability. ASO is done also to enhance the conversion rate of an app and boosts the number of downloads.

Some parts of SEO can be used for listing the apps and optimizing its supporting content. But still ASO does not mean SEO. Paid campaigns often work in ASO unlike what is experienced in SEO.

5.Ignoring the frequent changes in app store algorithm

This mistake is as common as confusion between ASO and SEO. Both Google Playstore and Apple App Store are updated time to time and adopt new functioning standards of app store algorithm.

One way to stay informed of these changes is to keep in touch with the community of professionals who have expert knowledge of ASO and app store algorithm changes.

When Apple altered its algorithm last year and reduced the app name characters to 50, the rankings of many apps got affected.

Being unaware of app store algorithm changes means you won’t be able to refresh your own ASO strategy to meet the fresh requirements of updated algorithm. This will not help you while beating the competitors in the market.

6.Incomplete knowledge of effective ASO tools

Without tracking the performance and the effect of your strategic actions, how can you measure the success? That is why you need right ASO tools for thorough measurement of ASO effect.

It is been a while since there are several ASO tools that can help track and monitor several aspects of your mobile app’s performance such as its visibility, keywords ranking, top charts, reviews, competition, etc. Many mobile app development start-ups and brands fail to consider this vital analytical aid.

With ASO tools, it becomes easy to measure ASO KPI score – which gives you the detailed picture of how well your app performs in the app store and whether or not you need to improve your current ASO strategy.

Some of the helpful ASO tools you can consider are: Mobile Action, Searchman, ASOdesk, Apptentive, AppFollow, Applyzer, App Annie, Apptopia, Splitmetrics.

7.Black Hat SEO short-cuts

Some mobile app developers and firms believe that black hat SEO – which is cleverly controlled by Google’s SEO algorithm – can be a great shortcut to achieve the purpose of ASO. Clearly, it is not. However, in Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App store this tragedy is still there.

People encourage fake installations of apps, spurious reviews, robotic installs and several other sleazy tricks. These shortcuts may work for now, but it will stop once next app store optimization algorithm is introduced just like Google did for its search engine refinement.

It is advisable to stay away from such unscrupulous optimization practices to achieve organic, long-lasting results.

8.Misunderstanding: ASO is a one-time investment

To the glorious mobile app development industry that is still not properly receptive about optimization approach, we can say that ASO is more like digital marketing endeavours. This means that it is a collective effort rather than just a one-time investment. ASO is a long-term continuous process that involves constant updates and regular changes in trends.

ASO contains all fancy, technical terms such as keywords rankings, Top charts rankings, user reviews, A/B testing, progress tracking, conversion rates, algorithm rules innovations and competitive advantage. All these factors are time-dependent and demands much observation and cognitive insight.

As keywords change over time, your app store listing turns accordingly. All you need is a permanent wisdom and open eye towards recurrent updates that redefine app store algorithm. Competitors along with their new techniques to get to the top for the same keywords also inspires the fact that ASO is definitely not just a one big shot but a series of long-term sensible implementations.

 9.Belief that Visual Graphics don’t help with conversion

There prevails a great misconception among developers and marketers that ASO is all about pulling in scores of people. Getting traffic to your app store listing helps, but in the end it will be valued only when you get more installations and users.

This is where the first impression comes in handy. The whole set of visual assets (Name, Icon, screenshots, feature videos) in app store helps explain visitors that your app is truly amazing and downloadable. So work on the design aspects of the app and not just be satisfied with what mobile app development experts have done.

Your app is most likely to leave big impact on users if its design is marvellous. If people who browse through the app store falls for its graphics, its conversion rate and Top chart rankings will go up. It must be remembered that human brain captures Visual effects more than anything and is influenced by its attractiveness.

10.Neglecting the presence of competitors

Tracking only your app’s doings will swoop as a curse to your ASO dream. In the era of internet, everything has become open and visible, and you can make the most of it if you want to.

You must check how your competitors are doing well in the app store: how they catapult to top spot in the app store, how they maintain their app listing in the store with the keywords you are most interested in, and why they reap the best of genuine responses from users.

The magic of profound mobile app development can only be seen by including your close competitors in your ASO strategy. If you neglect their presence in the app store, it will be an enormous mistake.