July 2018 – Testreveal

How Apps Are Changing the World

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile application development is the domain infused with incredible discoveries and innovations. Mobile apps have shaped our lives in ways never imagined before. Today there is an app for everything you can think of.

Developers are constantly on a whim to invest their creative passion and vision in utilizing modern technologies. Smartphone apps have taken over many slices of our daily lives including banking, online shopping, digital payments, social collaboration, healthcare and much more.

The fact that we can communicate, work and play at unbelievable speed is the proof of sophistication and power mobile apps have brought to the world as we knew. In this blog, we are going to learn the impact of mobile apps on the world.

The Dawn of Mobile App Explosion

In a short run, Apple and Google have done what nobody ever dreamed about. Statista report 2017 confirms how leading app stores currently house staggering 6.3 million of mobile apps.

This is the achievement hit in merely 9 years of the establishment of Google and Apple app stores. Mobile apps deliver incredible advantages and lifestyle convenience standards by using the power of super-fast processing of today’s highly evolved smart phone technology and its infallible supporting network.

Two major factors that drove the eruption of mobile apps are:

User’s ability to download and use smart apps on their devices
Luxury of carrying their mobile phones wherever they go

Due to these two major drivers, people owning mobile devices became enchanted by the mobile app experience and slowly began to expect almost everything they do on their mobile phones.

They began to realize how it is possible to replace sedentary computer activities with dynamic, interactive and innovative mobile app experience.

The Decline of the Computer

What mobile software development did to people is called dynamic mobility. Instead of pushing dozens of features in single version of program on desktop, advanced technology of Smartphones made people perform computing tasks from their phones.

Apart from providing basic single functions of desktop (calculator, convertor, flashlight, calendar), they gave more power to mobile users such as photo and video editing, blogging and designing, socializing and gaming and much more.

Instant communication and collaboration

Communication is made enriched and simplified with mobile apps that can be used for messaging, voice and video chatting or social networking.

Connect with people living in distant locations instantly or talk to your loved ones while you are away from home. With communication apps, all you need is just a fingertip to enable seamless, quick and fruitful communication.

Now you can have multi-function mobile apps with which you can collaborate with your office employees, friends, family and share media, files, work progress with them on the go.

Healthcare and fitness

Mobile apps have revolutionized the way people monitor and keep track of their daily health and fitness. Built with focus improving health of users, these dedicated mobile apps can include a range of healthcare purposes like patient monitoring, remote assistance and diagnosis, doctor appointment scheduling, online prescriptions, and so on.

Users wanting to maintain their fitness can depend on apps built to improve your workout routine, cardiovascular functioning, diet and food habits and offer motivational boost to stay healthy and fit. Either they use smart fitness tracking wearables or download a smartphone app to fulfil their fitness goals.

Influence on Education & Training

Prior to having apps that transformed the shape of education, having physical classrooms was a necessity that drove students bored.

Virtual education mobile apps brought in the new trend of elite learning programs that provide sophisticated solutions for kids’ education.

Thanks to the gigantic rise of mobile app development technology, you can now choose digitally feasible ways of education and learn the same courses without compromising the comfort of your home.

Moreover, such apps can act as a training tool for both training institute as well as organizational structures. With the integration of Augmented Reality into learning mobile apps, even smart classrooms of science and engineering have become intense and effective, inspiring development of more mobile apps of state-of-the-art class.

Work Productivity

Earlier it was difficult to fulfil work leftovers outside the office hours, but now you can fulfil all your occupational commitments with mobile apps.

Not only are you able to make an online call through communication apps or send an email, but with company’s specially dedicated apps can help you stay connected to your office network 24/7.

Such apps are built around the idea of enhancing productivity and integrating your professional workflow into your digital apps especially when you are travelling a lot and need instant access to project-related updates.

Digital Virtual Assistants

The era of digitally smart and interactive virtual assistants has begun and will not cease. For instance, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa are set to make you life even easier, better and properly organized by helping you remember and find things you need.

Thanks to the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence, days of forgetfulness are gone. Virtual assistants programmed to help you with almost everything you request are changing the way we all conduct our daily life.

Conceptually, AI-powered digital assistant mobile apps have also found their way into mainstream industries such as healthcare, hotel and hospitality, banking & insurance, domestic lifestyle and many more.

Smarter home and smarter workspace

This is another revolution mobile apps have triggered with the help of IoT and AI technologies. Like Smartphone, Smart TV and smart watches, offices and homes are also growing smarter with the combination of IoT and Artificial Intelligence.

Machines can control your home appliances and amenities based on your tastes and usual preferences.

For instance, hotel customers can set the room temperature remotely knowing that in the background the combined technology of IoT, sensors and AI is working to match their specific standards.

This is how mobile apps can sophisticate and automate your living style.

Media & Entertainment

Mobile gaming has not yet completely overpowered the charm of gaming consoles, but there is no denial that the gaming base created by famous game development companies is attacked by mobile game development popularity.

Due to significant improvements in mobile hardware technology, we can see the rise of more advanced mobile games with intricate, immersive and engaging elements.

On the other hand, online entertainment media like YouTube, Amazon, HBO and Netflix enable cordless, TV-less small-screen entertainment, which captures young demographics and increases scope for growth of media advertising.

The eternal pool of infinite data

This is, we can firmly put, the era of delicious data as we as users are surrounded by and leave behind gargantuan amount of infinite data for company owners.

The apps used for social engagement and chat messaging open up the greater opportunities for marketers to generate relevant products and custom offers for end users.

Apps directly interact with user’s social profile as they allow access to their various online footprints on different online portals and location details.

The user data travel to brands that imbibe and assess this massive amount of information to convert it into custom product recommendations to hit the target audience at the right time and the right place.

Apps taking over the world, literally

Based on the history of past decade, it goes without saying that mobile apps have almost taken over the entire world.

The online galaxy of apps is so influential that even schoolchildren can easily memorize popular apps such as Angry Birds, WhatsApp, Temple Run, Candy Crush saga, Pokémon Go, Cut The Rope and so on.

Some of these have been epic blockbusters making their owners rich, creating an unstoppable source of revenue for start-up businesses and emerging app writers.

The app industry is indeed reaching new heights every day, setting new records with brand new innovations and marvellous technologies.

It is true that mobile apps have hit the world by storm, crafting a unique digital economy for professional developers, consumers and entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

Mobile app development is perhaps the greatest breakthrough for the entire world. Enhancing the standard of interactions and methods of staying connected, mobile apps have undoubtedly come a long way, giving us a whole new perspective in life:

Living digital. Innovations like AR and VR have infiltrated mobile app market, offering us completely different realities of real and unreal world. We can conclude that as long as internet remains fast and secure, mobile apps will continue to turn the world around.

9 Most Essential Tips For Successful Mobile Game Development

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

The mobile game development market is both rewarding as well as challenging, stimulated with a lot of incredible opportunities for mobile game developers. Many companies have hit the top notch by making stunning games. However, it is undeniable that only a few games become profitable and joins the league of successful games. While the speculations about game’s future are high, certain important guidelines can help you improve your chance to beat others in the app store.

In this blog you are about to dive into top 9 most essential tips to develop a successful game for popular mobile platforms. Implementing these ideas, you can ensure that you game get acknowledged quickly in today’s booming mobile game market. Let’s start with major reasons for game failures:

Factors that impede mobile game success

Usually, mobile games often fail to capture its audience and get low scores because:

Lack of creativity and innovative appeal
Interesting monetization tactics
Banal features and lack of engaging elements
Poor user acquisition
Complicated or confusing game play

To help your game acquire more users and reach smashing success, the following are the essential tips:

1) Research to outsmart the competition

Online app stores are infused with tens of thousands of games at the moment. Hence, there is a pretty enough chance that there is already a few good games similar to the one you are trying to build. This is why it is crucial to do serious research on your game idea to ensure it is original or has original, more appealing elements for users. Download and explore all the games that fit close to the one you have in mind.

Determine the game platform

After you are sure you have a clear vision and a viable idea of game type, it is time to identify the best platform for success. Think of what platforms are trending and have humongous influence on users. Mobile Platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Hybrid) set the foundation for game development. Since every platform comes with its own pros and cons, it is important to pick the right choice which depends on:

The target audience for your game
Technical requirements and graphics
Processing speed and available resources

If you are muddled between iOS and Android, it is judicious to opt for both the platforms as long as you believe your idea is resilient and functional. When you launch games on multiple platforms, you can reach maximum audience with increased visibility.

UI/UX Design should be a stunner

You have a greater chance to attract and engage more users if your mobile game carries an intuitive, user-friendly and compelling UI. In an effort to make UI more appealing, make sure you don’t overwhelm users with too many complicated controls. If you game promises massive play, design a set of instructions that introduce users to game structure and get them on board.

Also, your game design graphics should not blur or create distorted pictures on high resolution screens. Consider all screen sizes and resolution quality well before actually designing the game graphics.

Create addictive stories

Stories sell quickly especially if it is mobile game development. Be it fantasy games or strategy gameplay, beautiful stories fascinate users, bring objects and characters into a context and enhance game’s worth. A good meaningful storyline makes players addicted to your game, ultimately increasing user interest and engagement.

There is no specific formula that turns your game into an addiction. Keep up your creativity and find out why these big titles are big. You may require multiple iterations before the game is what it should be.

Create social engagement

Social media a blazing fad that drives engagement to your mobile game. People love to share victories, rewards and performance score with other members and connect with more users. Integrating social elements improves community value and triggers word-of-mouth publicity.

Hook users with sensational sound effects

Every mobile game development buff knows how important it is to include music that obsesses users with the game. The best way to weave a musical surprise for users is to leverage open source library of game sounds. You can either pick free audio effects or custom-create your own. Your game has a better chance to be a brand and attract more audience with custom music. Users appreciate creativity of sound effects especially if it is in mobile games since it sets gaming vibes and mood.

Don’t prioritize Monetization

Although the mobile game development has business expectations, while building beautiful games of immense value it is better to keep aside the intents of monetization. Dedicate your time to creating the best game play possible. Make a monetization strategy after the game is up and in demand.

Read also : How To Create an App and Make Money

The stacks are high: you have to beat thousands of competitors, create the original and addictive and attract maximum users. If you fulfil all these criteria, the game will definitely earn you well.

Practice relentless testing standards

It is every game developer’s religion to test the game app for bugs, crashes and functionality of games they build. Users don’t install the game to experience obstacles in their play. They seek smooth, hassle free performance and enjoyable hours of engagement. Prepare a draconian testing format and pass your game through all the rigorous test routines on target platforms. Don’t limit the testing to just yourself. Instead, you can hire game testers or QA freelancers and ask your friends to for honest opinions.

Introduce frequent updates

The best way to receive more retention for your mobile game is to launch MVP with a promise of scaling it up with additional characters, levels and essential layered elements. This can be done during marketing and promotional campaigns as well. Asking people for their initial feedback can help you design new creatives and introduce more updates. Gradually, you will see a viral wave around the game. As you evolve game constantly with new features and updates, user retention improves.

Be creative and proactive for Marketing

Game will not become famous on its own. You have to be proactive and prepare for the launch from scratch. Your branding activities must reflect your ultimate goal and vision so that it becomes easy to launch and promote the game, and for the game to be absorbed in the market.

Blogging: Pull in massive traction from online influencers and communities who share similar tastes in the field. If you are not good with words, you may contact bloggers who can write about your new game, promote it and help make it more discoverable and visible. Blogging is also effective for increasing downloads and branding.

KPIs: Determine the clear objective and vision along with key performance indicators (KPI) from the beginning. Try to figure out custom KPIs to go beyond the general factors and dig up more specific changes that can boost game’s performance and put big impact on different user groups.

Localization: To make your mobile game achieve wide éclat, you ought to constantly seek stepping into new markets. Localizing the mobile game makes global distribution much more effective, rapid and profitable. The faster you reach the target user community, the more chance for terrific success.

Final words

Despite general belief that mobile game development is only full of fun and no challenges, bringing the concept to reality for game developers is a cumbersome process. The job is both stressful and rewarding. Set clear and realistic expectations from the very beginning. Mobile game development success formula involves solid development skills and creative marketing. Those who have clear vision and awareness of upcoming challenges can attain gratifying results.

Top 15 Employee Attendance Tracking Apps 2021

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Attendance marking has moved from manual punching to biometric and employee tracking apps within a short span of time. Thanks to market competition, HR and managers have plenty of options to choose the best. New companies are coming with innovative technologies with each one offering solutions better than the other.

Selecting the perfect app for your organization can be confusing in this industry. For this reason we have listed top 15 employee attendance tracking apps. This will give you an overview of technologies in the market and what each player has to offer at different price points.

Here are top 15 Employee Attendance Tracking Apps for your company.

WiFi Attendance	Edsys Timetable	Time Clock Wizard
Aqua Teams	Virtual Attendance	ZOHO People
MyAttendanceTracker.com	Time Station	Kronos
Time Intelligence by Replicon	When I Work	primaERP
Time Doctor	DeskTime	Where’s My Staff

1. WiFi Attendance

WiFi Attendance is a cloud based attendance tracking system that uses office WiFi to mark employee attendance. Employees within the pre-set office WiFi range can mark their attendance through the app. They can also apply for leave and view calendar in the app.

Using WiFi can avoid problems such as punch-in failures and buddy punching that are common in biometric and usual attendance apps. It also makes live tracking possible so that you can know the real time location of each employee in the premise.

Because of live tracking, information on working hours and productivity is readily available with managers. This information can be used for leave management or easily integrated with payroll systems.

Unique Feature: Ease of setting up is the biggest advantage of WIFi attendance. Since every office already has a WiFi network, it is easy to plug in this solution and get started with hassle-free tracking. It requires zero infrastructure investment and gives accurate time tracking.

Real time tracking and live location are other features that make this app valuable

Pricing: WiFi Attendance is free for up to 10 employees. The standard plan for up to 40 employees costs $1 per month per employee and Fast plan for 40- 100 employees is for $1.5.

Superfast plan for more than 100 employees is $2 per month per employee. It includes app customization, chat facility and integrated help desk.

Available : Android & iOS

Check this video to know more about WiFi Attendance System

2. Edsys Timetable and Attendance Management

Edsys has numerous services for schools, colleges and universities. Timetable and attendance management is just one of the many services they offer such as parent portal, school bus tracking and school ERP.

They offer a simple solution in form of mobile app that can mark attendance of students, faculty as well as staff. Teachers can easily see their class schedule, student lists and calendar. It also has timetable scheduling service which is a big headache for educational institutions.

Unique Feature: If you run an educational institute, Edsys is the right solution for you. Since they specialize in the education sector, they understand your specific needs.

Pricing: Price on Quotation Request

3. Time Clock Wizard

Time Clock Wizard is a cloud based solution offering more than just attendance tracking. They have all the features related to attendance such as payroll calculation, leave management and employee scheduling. Since the service is cloud based it is possible for employees and managers to access dashboard from any device and any place.

For employee clock-in, managers can set geo-fencing so that clock-in is only possible in office or on site. This prevents incidences of proxy attendance. In fact, with the clock-points feature manager can know the exact location of clock-in using device GPS and IP address.

Unique Feature: Photo Capture Feature. Time Clock Wizard captures photo of employees at the time of clock in. This prevents buddy login and promotes honesty in remote office locations.

Pricing: They offer a Value, Pro and Enterprise plan. The Value plan is great for any business just wanting the basic time tracking feature. At $ 14.95 a month you can track attendance for unlimited employees. With the Pro and Enterprise version you have many more useful features such as employee scheduling, payroll reporting, photo capture, real time activity tracking etc. Pro plan is for up to 50 users and priced at $29.95 per month and the enterprise plan supports unlimited employees for $99.95 per month. All plans have a 30 day free trial period.

Available : Android & iOS

4. Aqua Teams

Aqua app is positioned more as an HRMS rather than an attendance app. It gives managers detailed information on aspects such as employee check-in time, leave balance, late arrival, overtime, etc. Location tracking is via the app and it is possible for managers to view location log and distance travelled by employees. Attendance app is supported by multiple technologies such as biometrics, geofencing, and beacons.

Price: Price on Quote Request

Available : Android & iOS

5. Virtual Attendance

This is one of the employee attendance tracking apps that works in both iOS and Android smartphone. The admin generates profiles with QR codes for each employee. This QR quote is tracked using an Apple device at office. Unlike other solutions on the list it does not have live location, payroll and a plethora of other services.

Unique Feature: This is a simple to use app with intuitive UI. It’s great for start-ups who don’t want to bother with too many features. It’s also great for Generation X users who like simple app that does the job without other distractions in it.

Pricing: The app is free for up to 5 employees and 1 manager. Unlimited employees and managers are allowed at just $5 a month.

Available : Android & iOS

6. ZOHO People

Zoho People has many HR processes offered as a service through their elaborate web portal. Their services include leave management, job scheduling, HR documentation etc. As far as attendance is concerned, it can be plugged into current biometric system or employees can also punch-in using web portal or Zoho app. Geo-fencing can be set-up using IP address to restrict location of check- in.

Unique Feature: The advantage of this solution lies in freedom of customization. HR can define their function and processes in the dashboard and generate customized forms, documents and reports. Attrition reports, job hour charts and attrition trends are some of the reports that are extremely helpful to HR.

Pricing: ZOHO People has 4 plans namely; Essential HR, Professional, Premium and Enterprise. The rate varies from $.83 per employee to $4.16 per employee per month. The higher end plans have performance appraisal, customized forms and attendance and shift scheduling which are not a part of low-end plans.

They also offer a 15 day free trial period.

Available : Android & iOS

7. MyAttendanceTracker.com

This solution was built for school attendance but it is now used for educational events and employee attendance too. It’s essentially a digital attendance register where teachers or employers can enter student / employee data on cloud and access it anywhere and anytime. Teachers can also add grades in this online register.

Other features like live location or employee punch in is lacking in this. It’s suitable for employers who want to maintain a record on cloud without any action required on employee’s part.

Pricing: This solution is free for now.

Available : Android & iOS

8. Time Station

Another simple cloud based app to track attendance. The technology is simple. Manager can sign up their company along with the employee list and generate a bar code for each employee. The print out of this bar code is given to each employee which they have to scan to punch in and punch out at office. Bar codes can be scanned with any smartphone or tablet that can be kept at the office reception.

Managers can login to mytimestation.com and see a full report time and attendance reports for employees. It’s also very easy to export the reports in other payroll software. Geographical location can be mapped my managers to allow punch-in only in office locations. There is a possibility of buddy punching in this app although it comes with its own unique feature.

Unique Feature: The good thing about this app is that it can work offline too! The device records all the punch-ins and syncs the data when network is available later. This makes it perfect for tracking attendance in multiple remote locations for companies in civil construction or social services.

Pricing: The plans range from $19.95 a month for 20 employees to $59.95 a month for 200 employees. All plans have a 30 day free trial period.

Available : Android & iOS

9. Kronos

Kronos is a business with a long history and reputation. The company was one of the pioneers in time tracking technology with the first patented microprocessor based time clock to its credit. Since then Kronos has grown a suite of services in human capital and workforce management.

They have a comprehensive set of HR solutions that cater to mid size and large companies. In fact, they have five solutions just under attendance and time tracking. Kronos strategy is solution based offering rather that product or service offering. For this reason you may end up buying a suit of solution for your company that is an expensive upfront investment in HR.

Unique Feature: Kronos strength is its reputation and a comprehensive HR solution package for businesses.

Available : Android & iOS

10. Time Intelligence by Replicon

Time Intelligence is a pre-build collection of solutions offered by Replicon. The company looks at time as a valuable commodity and has solutions for time tracking, scheduling, payroll and everything else related to time management. Services can be brought in a pre-packaged of the shelf solution or custom built to meet your company’s unique requirement.

It has all the usual capabilities of a time tracking service such as cloud storage, advanced reporting, biometric integration and mobile app tracking.

Unique Feature: Replicon is working with cutting edge technology like AI powered self service, face recognition and much more. They have the likes of FedEx and Deloitte among their customers.

Pricing: Price on request for demo.

Available : Android & iOS

11. When I Work

When I work is an easy app that managers can use to schedule shifts, budget labour costs and track attendance. Managers can assign shifts to workers and also manage shift budgeting through a simple web based application. The app is highly communicative with chat features and ability to see when employees have seen their work schedule.

On the other hand employees can mark their attendance, know work schedule and raise request for day offs. The clock-in is GPS enabled to ensure honest and avoid attendance frauds.

Unique Feature: The app has an intuitive User Interface and is free for up to 75 employees.

Pricing: The basic features of app are free for usage by up to 75 users. Attendance feature is priced at $1.5 per user per month. For companies above 75 employees, price is available on request.

Available : Android & iOS

12. primaERP

This is one amongst the great cloud enabled employee attendance tracking apps for teams working on client projects. The app has three main features which are attendance, time tracking and billing. For detailed analysis of tasks and time spent on project activities, the time tracking module is very helpful. It can give interesting reports such as return on activities, profitability of projects, billing accuracy, etc,

Unique Feature: prima ERP is used in more than 100 countries and is available in more than 7 languages.

Pricing:

Attendance module is charged $9 per month for every 10 users
Time tracking module is $4 per month per user
Billing module is $4 per month per user

Available : Android & iOS

13. Time Doctor

This is a good app if you want employee monitoring along with time tracking. This cross platform app tracks time spent on each tasks as well as idle time. Screenshots of systems can be captured and web usage can be tracked. This means it’s possible to catch an employee spending too much time on Facebook and intervene. Automatic alerts for tasks also ensure that employees are kept at their tasks.

Unique Feature: Apart from accurate employee monitoring the advantage of Time Doctor is that it integrates seamlessly with most of the payroll, HR ERP and project management platforms.

Pricing: They have only one plan with all the attendance, time tracking, monitoring and integration features in it. The cost is $9.99 per user per month

Available : Android & iOS

14. DeskTime

This is time management web app that tracks not only attendance but also the time spent on each task. Employees can log-in their tasks through a convenient desktop app. Everything from break time to meetings to app usage can be logged in. Reports on productivity are made available to both employees and managers in the web dashboard.

At the manager’s dashboard, managers can see important metrics on productive time, desk time, break time etc.

Unique Feature: Daily activity, sick leaves, vacations, over-time and employee monitoring can all be managed at one place by managers.

Pricing: Full features are available at $7 per month per user

Available : Android & iOS

15. Where’s My Staff

Where’s my staff uses NFC technique to mark attendance in office or institutes. The method requires an NFC tag that is fixed in the office. Employees can simply pass their phones over the tag after they have downloaded the app. The solution has geolocation feature for on-field staff like sales agents and consultants.

Unique Feature: The app works even in offline mode. Punch-ins are recorded in the NFC tags and updated in the admin account once internet connection is restored. It also supports QR code scanning for smartphones that do not support NFC technology

Pricing: NFC tags can cost anywhere from $5 to $25. They have three plans of $9.99 per year (for 10 employees) $19.9 per year (for 50 employees) and $49.9 employees (for more than $50 employees). These plans are currently free but will be made chargeable soon.

Available : Android & iOS

Tying It All Together

You can find everything from simple employee apps to a comprehensive HR solution package for attendance and time tracking. Needless to say, you will pay more for any services availed in addition to attendance tracking.

Almost all providers offer services on cloud so that you can be up and running in a few hours. The difference between vendors is in the technologies and platforms used by them. As we saw, attendance can be marked using WiFi, NFC tags, biometrics, online app punching or portal login.

Because each sector has its own unique requirements, many service providers also specialize in industries such as education, health or IT. You should choose your vendor based on ease of implementation and a perfect fit for your requirements.

Siri Vs Google Assistant. Which is the Smartest in 2018?

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

It is hard to imagine a world without technology. Virtually all aspects of life have been transformed with technology. As ICs get smaller, batteries become efficient and software become smarter, technology has ushered in digital sidekicks that perform most tasks bringing in speed and convenience to mundane activities.

As brands launched their own versions of digital assistants, loyal customers waged online battles claiming superiority. While the basic functions of most digital assistants were more or less the same, some scored better than the others in certain functions, while others outperformed elsewhere. We help users to rest their case by pitting Siri Vs Google Assistant.

Here’s the low down on the best between the two popular brands.

1) Depth of information

When it comes to posing questions, Google Assistant steals a march over Siri. This is understandable considering the search engines access to most of the traffic on the internet. With algorithms that help users find answers to questions on the browser, it is not difficult to understand how Google Assistant leverages this access to powerful search engine tools to offer quick responses to questions. This makes it a more reliable option if you are looking for answer and insights. You can be sure that you will get the most accurate information here.

2) Compatibility

This is the all important question that you need to ask yourself. If you are an Apple lover, with the iconic logo adorning your devices, then it would be a good idea to go for Siri as it works best within its ecosystem. While Google Assistant is compatible with both the platforms, the experience is a bit different. You will find it seamless to use a Siri on iOS devices. And Siri does not work elsewhere, so its basically two different platforms that you are looking at. If you an Android user, then Google Assistant will be the only choice, between the two.

3) Natural language processing

The idea of having a device for convenience is to make things simpler and less complicated. This effectively means that you would certainly not want to spend time training yourself to shoot out commands that the assistant understands.

You would certainly want one that understands you. In other words you would love to give directions in a natural manner, in a language that you use conversationally. Here it is Google Assistant that walks away with the trophy. It understand your language easily and you do not have to actually take time to frame your commands in machine friendly context.

4) Playback options

Here it is Siri that takes the honours. This may have a lot to do with the fact that the iOS devices are famous for the music experience. Here the experience is a lot better when it comes to accessing the library and playing your most favourite tunes, including playing back songs on commands that are contextual. While Google Assistant has greater flexibility when it comes to being contextually aware, Siri scores on the music front, being able to do it faster and with equally, if not more contextual commands.

5) Pioneer to grouped commands

While Siri introduced a new feature ‘Shortcuts’, it was regarded as an attempt to match the features of Google Assistant and others. However, Siri was the forerunner in this with the versatile ‘Scenes’ feature. This offered users the power to direct one single command which would then proceed to get all devices execute the command. This gave it a head start over the rest of the digital assistants. This feature was upgraded in Google Assistant with additional options that gave it more traction than Siri, which probably prompted Apple to come out with the Shortcuts feature. However, despite the inclusion of the new feature, Google Assistant took the lead with the inclusion of more features.

6) Ease of Commanding

For instance, when it came to setting of alarms, both fared equally well. Well almost, actually. The setting of alarm were more or less the same. However, when it comes to cancelling of alarms, Google Assistant clearly had the lead here. This was because of the ability of the latter to understand simple language commands.

Also Read : Best Voice Search Apps For Android (2018)

With Siri it takes a sharp command to get the work done. This is the obstacle that prevents Siri from performing tasks easily. Google Assistant seemed to intuitively understand the commands. The use of AI in search has certainly helped the developers to put together a far more intelligent device than the others in the market.

7) Ability to take questions

When it came to the ability to take questions, it was Google Assistant that outran the entire opposition. As various studies that have been undertaken to determine the better of the digital assistants, typically threw questions at the devices. The speed of the response and the quality of the response indicated the ability to the assistants to process the information. Across all metrics, it was Google Assistant that performed better.

Contextually aware and throwing responses in the fastest possible time, it was Google’s baby that outdid Siri. Though Siri had responded to all the questions, the time taken and the need for framing the questions in a particular manner robbed it of it shine. When it came to accuracy, Siri was as good as Google Assistant, provided the device understood the question.

The jury’s take

Google Assistant scores over Siri, mostly by virtue of its association, and by extension, the access to the substantial search engine algorithms and AI. Siri, despite having an array of stunning features that work wonderfully on iOS devices, is limited to the closed iOS, and is handicapped by limited access to search engine algorithms and AI.

Despite coming a close second in the race among digital assistants, it is fair to conclude with finality that Google Assistant is the leader of the pack, and unless the others come up with something spectacular that changes the convenience levels, the narrative will remain unchanged. Google Assistant rules, and is by far the most enterprising of the two.

Amazing App Features That Will Blow Your Mind

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Mobile has carved an all new frontier for businesses and companies to grow and connect with their new as well as existing customers. Even small businesses choose to penetrate the relevant market by developing a smartphone app rather than opting for the responsive, mobile-friendly version of the website. However, not all apps you discover in Android or iOS app stores offer the same value to users and businesses alike.

Since mobile apps are also responsible for your business reputation and brand personality, you must consider designing the exemplary features for your mobile app that best suit your business model.

If you are looking for fresh outlook for integrating trending app features, the following list based on latest industry standards will surely help you make the right decision.

1) Feedback and ratings

This can be seen as an integral feature that every mobile app aspiring grow large should have. Having a way for users to provide honest feedback and ratings is key to growing your app from nothing to something. Either you offer a button or a link or message box with request to post review. Users can find it easy to report bugs, share improvement suggestions and critical remarks on their overall experience.

2) Customization

Users appreciate it, if the app they use has great options to adjust its various settings such as font colour, size, background and privacy setting. This is especially more important if it is a social app or game app. your app is likely to take off exceedingly well if you give your users opportunities to tweak and take the charge of customization.

3) Geolocation

Geo-location can be an epic feature for your mobile app in 2018. It helps send relevant notifications to the users based on their specific location. Mobile apps focusing on fitness, traffic and tracking can leverage this feature, enabling users to discover their current status, track their workout, running routes and more. Outdoor fanatics have a lot to gain from Geo-location feature.

4) Push notifications

If used without intending to nag users, sending push notifications or alert messages can keep users engaged and coming back to your app with more interest. This is the most essential support feature in your app that helps make your communication effective. You can build this feature to keep users updated on new features, upcoming attractions, promotions and offers and a lot more. It increases your chance to further enhance engagement level and creates monetization opportunities.

5) Google Indoor maps

Walking an extra mile for users will give you extra returns, of course. Think of Google Indoor-maps, for example. While exploring a premise with many attractions or stores, this feature can help users as they navigate within indoor locations. The feature is of much use especially when the users are visiting malls, museums, restaurants, libraries, etc.

6) Social media integration

Logging in to your app can be interesting and easy with existing social media credentials of users. Getting registered via Facebook or Google or other popular media can make user experience even better, faster and more convenient. Social integration not only simplifies the sign up process but it is also a beneficial feature for brands who want to connect with consumers on a common app ecosystem.

7) Payment gateway integration

If built to outlast customer expectations, Payment gateway has power to represent your mobile app. it makes payment acceptance a wholesome experience. Though it does not fit into the category of charismatic features, the payment gateway does have bragging rights for it gives your business an uncanny advantage of boosting sales by delighting customers.

8) Forums and Support Groups

Be it iOS or Android, mobile apps integrated with community forums and support group do add some value. Users can easily stay connected with other fellow members.

You can think of affording the luxury of chat-based connections to inspire conversational sharing among users. If it is a health and fitness app, users can resort to the support group to consult with experts in the business right in your app.

9) Augmented reality

If there is any technological innovation that has brought unforeseen standards in the world of retail shopping, it is this: Augmented Reality. It offers dynamic features that step out of the reality to encourage “try before buy” model. Consumers using AR apps can avail the advantage of try on items of interest before making the decision. Thus, AR can be considered as one of the amazing app features in 2018, making your experience unreal, exciting and quite interactive.

10) Elements of Relevance

What differentiates common browser-based websites from mobile apps is that app content is focused around the concentrated information. The condensed structure of essential content in mobile apps minimizes the customer journey so that users can grab relevant information quite easily. Adopt the practice of building apps that are not just another extension of web portals, but are strategically built apps offering valuable information in the most straightforward fashion.

11) QR code scanning

The number of layers between customers and quick transaction are depleting with the help of QR and Barcode scanning facility in mobile apps. This feature allows customers to experience immense convenience while making a at ecommerce retailers. The process helps save time and provides hassle-free user experience.

12) Voice-enabled services

As the decade progresses, the mobile apps add more capabilities and power to users’ life. For instance, voice-enabled UI provides highly interactive experience to users. The success of virtual voice assistant Amazon’s Alexa has inspired the rise of voice assistant apps. Enhanced with friendly voice agents, such apps are creating hot trends in app market. This is why the number of users seeking feature is soaring up. The trend of touch-free voice search is intrusive and irresistible as it enhances user experience and offers tremendous convenience.

13) The power of IoT

IoT technology redefines what ‘smart’ exactly stands for. For instance, cable service providers have already started providing voice recognition into TV remotes so that users can quickly discover their favourite shows and channels in a matter of a few seconds. Philips has also developed smart light bulb technology that integrates with mobile app to control the bulb intensity through voice commands. We expect to experience a significant rise in the adoption rate of such creative app features into mobile apps.

14) Advanced analytics

The idea of implementing advanced analytics with comprehensive dashboard is every app maker’s thought while creating back-end architecture. Advanced app analytics is central to understanding user’s behavioural pattern and specific decisions deeply. It helps you track user activity as they interact and navigate through different pages of your app. ultimately, the numbers and figures about users will further boost marketing strategy and help design perfect user experience.

15) Don’t forget to keep it straight and simple

It is easy to think that throwing in a handful of alluring features will entice more users, and that app users will find it cool and attractive. But overkill of such approach may turn your business upside down. Users are now growing smarter and expect great things in simple ways.

Hence, it is wise to focus on a small set of features that you believe are going to resonate with end users. Remember that users seek and trust in mobile apps that let them complete the action in shortest time and with smooth navigation. With this idea forming the major part of user experience, try to create a straight, intuitive and interesting UI.

Conclusion

Your Android and iOS mobile apps will elicit user satisfaction only if there are features that make their in-app journey worthwhile. While all of the features described above capture users’ attention, what puts powerful impact is the simplicity mingled with innovative design. In 2018, these features are must-have for mobile apps built with the considerations of latest standard and trends. They also act as the best value proposition for your customers and help engage increasing number of users

A Comparison Between Flutter and React Native

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

To create a successful and contemporary style mobile application that works on all available target platforms, you need equally sophisticated and advanced tools that enable fast, efficient and user-friendly mobile app development.

At present developers are struck by two major options in mobile application development: React Native and Google’s Flutter.

While React Native is around since 2015 and powers famous mainstream apps (Facebook, Skype, Instagram, Bloomberg), Flutter is still a newcomer in the market.

After Google launched Flutter, there have been many discussions raging around which one from React Native and Flutter leads as the best framework for building cross-platform apps.

In this blog, we are going to make an honest comparison between Flutter and React Native.

Introduction To Flutter vs. React Native

React Native open source cross-platform framework was first released in 2015 on GitHub. It unites both Android and iOS native APIs to deliver unquestionable native-like environment and experience for mobile app users.

React Native offers time-tested tools to developers and there is little chance that they choose the newcomer over the established rockstar.

Flutter is another unusual framework developed by Google. It allows Google developers to build high-quality native apps for both iOS and Android simultaneously without changing the code.

For this reason, Flutter seems tremendously promising, productive and fast, and deserves to stand in line with React Native in future.

1) UI Elements

When it comes to defining the UI elements, both platforms have little in common. To form the building blocks for UI, React Native relies on native iOS and Android components or on custom and third-party components. On the other hand, Flutter has proprietary widgets like:

Material widgets
iOS-style Cupertino widgets
Platform-agnostic widgets

Unlike React Native, Flutter’s approach includes fully custom UIs, promising interoperability along with native components and UI screens.

However, the downside to Flutter framework is that its Cupertino library lacks essential elements and components.

React Native clearly emerges as a winner in this as it allows you to easily tap into native OS components to provide admirable user experience.

2) Native Look and Feel

React Native is already an established name for cross-platform mobile app development and has more mature and stable version than Flutter. It is evident that React Native lives to its promise of delivering impeccable native look and feel in its apps.

However, Flutter apps have still not received potentially positive responses on their performance and user experience.

The limited capability of Flutter framework somehow reflects from the fact that Hamilton is the only success story for a renowned mobile app built using Flutter.

Flutter is obviously the new tool and will take some time before the developer community carves unanimous practices needed to deliver undeniable native experience across different platforms.

3) Performance

What gives Flutter a competitive edge over cross platform champion React Native is its agility. From technical perspective, Flutter is comparatively faster because it uses Dart, and unlike React Native, it doesn’t have a JavaScript medium to enable interaction with native components. But even the speed difference does not overshadow the dignified performance of React Native.

According to React Native community of developers, React Native based app development does not experience any performance issues.

On the contrary, RN fans claim that the framework offers smooth operations, dynamic user interactions and reliable solutions to challenges down the road of development.

4) JavaScript & Dart: Face off

JavaScript and Dart are two different programming languages used for React Native and Flutter frameworks respectively.

As for JavaScript, its popularity on GitHub in 2018 is unquestionable. It works seamlessly across the browsers, server and mobile devices and is widely adopted among developers. Web or Node.js developers find it easy to start off with React Native development.

On the other hand, Google’s Dart has unique personality unknown to many in the domain. Due to still-obscure presence, it would be a big gamble for developers to be confident about fully adopting Dart-based Flutter.

It is undeniable, though, that Flutter users did enjoy the perks. Developers who took the leap of faith for Dart admired its potential features. For once, Dart is expressive, type-safe, accurate and involves a brief learning curve for native developers.

Read Also: React Native App Development Company in UK

5) Real-time Apps

Since React Native is an old unforgettable legacy in the world of famous programming languages, it is used to build numerous mainstream applications so far. Some of them are conspicuous brands such as Airbnb, include Airbnb, Skype, Instagram, Walmart, and Tesla.

When it comes to real-time mainstream applications built with Flutter, Hamilton is the only name that graces framework’s success story.

With Hamilton being the only example, the industry adoption of Flutter for now is not significant except perhaps in the coming future as we all expect.

6) Productivity

Mobile app development productivity is an area where both frameworks seem to have found similar strengths. Both allow developers to write for two platforms simultaneously and unshackle them from recompiling the code.

A few great features where Flutter and React Native compete fiercely are:

A) Fast Reloading

Both frameworks enable hot reloading which is furiously fast compared to the way native apps recompile in XCode and Android Studio. Upon reloading the app, you also find yourself on the same screen with forms maintaining the previous input.

B) Tools

React Native obviously contains a huge range of IDEs and tools which gives good enough competition to Flutter. But still Flutter can pride itself on the compatibility with Intellij Idea, Android Studio and Visual Studio. Dart also boasts positive reviews for its linter, debugger, and code analyzer and auto format.

C) Hardware-specific APIs

React Native has built-in APIs for WiFi, Geo sensing and allows for essential third-party API solutions for camera, sensors, Bluetooth, etc. However, the framework lacks API for custom graphics due to which custom graphics in React Native apps will cause unwanted friction with native code.

With Flutter, the situation is different. Many hardware APIs are either in developing stage or readily available. As soon as all hardware-specific APIs are ready for app development, Flutter may beat React Native to an extent.

D) Coding style and experience

In Dart file, you will see no separation between templates, styles or data, which results in an unappealing styling of code. This is not an issue in React Native’s JavaScript programming. This drawback affects Flutter developer’s overall experience and performance.

7) Documentation maintenance

When it comes to comparing both frameworks based on providing clarity and simplicity of online documentation, Flutter seems to intimidate React Native.

React Native has Github blog with monthly updates whereas Flutter maintains a dedicated page in a way expected of a new framework.

Flutter has got an impressive edge over React Native since Flutter documentation is typically how it is supposed to be. React Native documentation appears a little more unkempt and chaotic due to being a large open-source project.

So who ultimately is the winner?

Despite being emergent, Flutter has everything that makes it a considerable mobile app development tool in future. The framework closely follows UI development model practiced by React Native to deliver rapid, expressive, frictionless and type-safe language.

As discussed above, Flutter also has well-documented resources online and features that are advantageously compatible to the functioning of developers.

In our opinion, Flutter is great but still progressing while React Native is a triumphant champion in 2018!

From comparison, it is evident that both frameworks have unique potential to make vital difference to development process and deliver smooth performance and native look & feel.

The world may not be ready for Flutter because:

Unfortunately, Flutter is not offering on your plate anything React Native is incapable of
Hamilton is the only real-time success Flutter carries in its portfolio of mainstream applications
Since Flutter is so new, it needs to build more traction and trust in the community
Compared to the massive influence of React Native, it’s too soon to judge what Flutter has in store for future
Developers who are highly obsessed with React Native don’t ponder over Flutter with seriousness

Only if Flutter gains momentum with more mainstream brands, the framework will be as adored as React Native among app developers.

Looking at the pace at which Flutter is forging ahead, we can just hope that it will also be recognized as a renowned mobile app development tool.

What is MVP? How is it Beneficial to Mobile Apps?

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Any entrepreneurship sparks off with doubtful thoughts and a cloud of confusing ideas which somehow end up being a one great winning strategy. In the beginning phase, what often puts you in the muddle is the question: What if users don’t like it or can’t relate with the solution I offer? When it comes to designing an app, this question becomes the crux of the brainstorming. Thankfully, there is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that can let you feel easy save you from the torture later.

Since MVP is a feedback-driven app model, it helps manage the product development quite in it early stage relying on the real-time responses of users.But again, for any start-up business, it is important to first understand the babysteps for MVP as to what it really is and what it means to businesses launching their next big app in the niche market.

Let’s take a wider look at how MVP benefits mobile app development from a broader business perspective.

What is Minimum Viable Product?

Basically, MVP is a first compact version of the main product developed and launched to test the value and acceptance of the idea. More like a base model, MVP is usually built with minimum but essential features that define the product, and it helps determine the market potential as well.

However, MVP is definitely not an amateur model, but rather focuses on a future growth presenting a mature product model that contains most important features for fetching feedback from customers.

How does MVP work?

After creating an MVP for a mobile app in a standard app development cycle, the team of developers releases MVP to a specific user group or into the market to see if it works. If MVP does not appeal to users, it means that either developers need a different directions for mobile app development or the app idea needs some polish and attention.

MVP in a way helps understand users’ perception of the product idea and how to further improve the product performance and its impact. Thus, mobile app MVPis considered to be an active yet minimalist model of an actual product and not the product undergoing various stages of development.

Benefits of MVP for mobile apps

Given the fact that MVP stands for checking the viability of the product idea, it brings following benefits for mobile apps:

Rich entrance with minimum risks for smart entrepreneurs

MVP is rich, risk-optimized investment for smart entrepreneurs

For smart start-up entrepreneurs, MVP mobile app works as a starting point which, upon being successful, results in a scalable business. Due to wide user base spread globally, it helps you set your foot quickly in to the market and access the user experience without investing a big slice of your budget.

When starting a business, risk management plays the key role in determining the success of the product. MVP helps evaluate the risks involved and project the impact of deliverables in the target market.

MVP is the essence for Lean Startup success

An MVP for mobile apps effectively supports the dream of Lean Startup where idea is the primary fuel and is processed with restricted budget in limited time. As it fits well with the Lean start-up approach, mobile app MVP helps acquiring customers faster than any other method. Interestingly enough, the minimum viable product gives the start-up ventures the quick insight into existing market trends and its future promises, and makes them see what they otherwise can’t without even spending a fortune in the process.

MVP product development keeps your guesswork to a minimum

By shaping an MVP model, the potential area where business feel at an advantage is its ability to test the product value for users without exploring market the hard way. With an MVP, you can confidently touch the surface of how the product performs and makes difference to users by checking the progress on our own.

You don’t have to spend months working on a full app version that may include features rejected by users. Since people are often vague about their exact needs, MVP clears the cough and presents users with several options until they find the one that seems interesting.

MVP means cost optimization

Since MVP does not require to build all the features in one go, you don’t have to worry about making a heavy initial investment. It tests the success and impact of an idea at a very beginning phase, saving you a lot of money in the long run. As you launch the first release of mobile app to a chosen market, you can determine the precise interactive personality of your product, which also you generate more revenue.

Technical performance and resource management

This is another considerable gain of launching MVP for mobile apps. As users post reviews and express honest opinions about how the initial version of your mobile app is actually performing, you begin to gather a clear picture of how to address the issue with right technologies and tools what quality of human resources can yield better output.

Security improvement and feature enhancement

If your app has security threat issues and left loopholes for data loss, it becomes the most critical hurdle for the business. The app with bugs is the biggest disappointment. Users are unforgiving to this and choose to delete the app over waiting for the solution. MVP helps you correct the mistakes and improve the security aspects of mobile app in time. As the issues is resolved in the initial stage, there is less risk of losing reputation and brand image, and a bigger chance of winning back happy customers.

Inspiring Real-time use cases of MVP

Most all the highly successful social media travel assistance mobile apps started from the basic level and gradually scaled up after attaining the significant impact in the relevant market If you have been using Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Snapchat and Instagram for more years, you would know there were not the same when they were launched. These are the real-time use cases of how starting off with an MVP helps you rise to the pinnacle with wise tactics.

Facebook: Intended to connect people virtually irrespective of their location and country, Facebook revolutionized the way people socialize with their friends and make new ones. It pioneered the innovations like photo tag, public comments, private chat box, expressive emoticons, and now it provides AI-based chat assistance, marketing platform, enhanced features of social gaming and expressions, personal storyboards and more.

Uber: It started with the apps that connects drivers with customers along with payment facility. It wasn’t much but it helped Uber enter the market. Uber progressed from the most basic to now quite sophisticated, highest earning app that has cab sharing, digital wallet, location tracking and many more evolved capabilities.

Snapchat: Ideated by Evan Spiegel, Bob Murphy and Frank “Reggie” Brown, Snapchat was built around the logic of sharing images and messages that automatically self-destructed 10 seconds after reading. Launched in 2011 only for iOS devices for sending photos, the app received incredible response with 166 million active users by May 2017.

Things to consider before launching an MVP

Before practically presenting the app in any live app store, make sure your app does not impose glitch after installing it. Since there is a tight market competition, mistakes are seldom forgivable and may destroy your start-up dream.

Hence, run an in-depth check on your MVP and troubleshooting to see if it works perfectly. Share its beta version with your nearby users and friends before you hand it to thousands of online strangers. This is vital step towards saving the future business reputation.

Gauge your success and CSAT with the power of Analytics

The very next step after you have finished the entire development operation is to see whether or not the launch of the product is working fine. At this stage, your work gets double as you begin to understand the gradual success of your business idea. To get capture the precise picture of the product performance, it is important for you to integrate data analytics that helps take smart decisions.

Statistics helps you conceive future directions about where to improve and what changes it needs down the line to evoke satisfaction signals from users.

Summarize

MVP is a brilliant mobile app development strategy about user expectations with a minimalist approach without drilling your financial capacity. All you need is to identify your target market, conceive the essential features, and hire the best mobile app development company with right technology and latest insight. Hope this blog has delivered clear understanding of MVP and its benefits for mobile apps.

How Good is Xamarin for Android App Development?

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Xamarin is a cross-platform development software that makes the creation of mobile applications a breeze. Given the growing patronage of mobile-only strategies by big and small enterprises, it was long before that desktops were replaced by mobiles through innovative and convenient mobile apps. A host of Xamarin app development services can be availed by you after signing up with a xamarin mobile app development company.

All set to enable mobile app developers to come up with user-friendly Android apps, let us look at the positives of xamarin application development.

1. The Dire Need for Cross-Platform Mobile App Development

In the past, mobile app development focused on churning out apps that were compatible with the three popular platforms including Windows, iOS and Android. However, this situation posed a problem to enterprises looking to develop their indigenous mobile apps.

Business fell short of addressing issues concerning budgeting and operations through their native mobile apps. It was not the “one app fits all” case. Since their native apps had to look into various specifications that came with different platforms, it was not easy to develop an omnipotent mobile app.

As a ray of hope, emerged the concept of cross-platform mobile app development supported by Xamarin. That means, a Xamarin app can work seamlessly across various platforms, allowing developers to churn out cost-effective apps whose code can be reused to come up with Android apps.

2. Enjoy The Real Experience of a Native App

With Xamarin as your chosen mobile app development software, you will be in a favorable position to offer similar functionalities to apps developed on various platforms. For instance, an Android app presents a unique user experience when compared to an iOS app, although both of them meet the same objective. Through Xamarin, you can conveniently build apps with a single code that effectively blends with different platforms. Through this cross-platform software, you can enable the end users to enjoy the real experience of a native app.

3. Financial Viability

It is indeed a futile attempt to write multiple codes for native apps so that they can work on various platforms. This is not only a time-consuming exercise but also puts a big hole in the pockets of a mobile app development company. However, with Xamarin, you can bring down the cost of building Android apps that will work their best on other platforms and brands as well.

That means, Xamarin helps you to reuse the same code that will deliver the same results across multiple functions and platforms. Guaranteeing you a performance-centric Android app, Xamarin helps companies keep their mobile developments costs to the bare minimum.

4. The Inclusion of The Advantages of C#

Xamarin, the cross-platform mobile app development software employs C# as its coding language. C#, identified as a modern and simple object-oriented programming language comes a host of benefits including: flexibility and ease of learning. It is also an all-in-one utility with which you can build Android apps which are pure and type-safe. When you use Xamarin to build Android apps, you will be at the receiving end of all the benefits of Microsoft’s C#.

5. A Provision to Tap Into the Expanding Knowledge Pool

Given the ever-increasing patronage of C#, you as a mobile app development company need not sweat over identifying niche coding talent. You can make the most of C# which has, since its introduction gained recognition as an easy to learn language.

C# developers who exhibit a certain level of learnability will be able to put their skills and knowledge to the best use. They will be able to come up with some extraordinary Android apps that will attract the attention of several end users.

So, if you are looking to develop a cost-effective Android app, you can simply rely on Xamarin.

6. Enjoy Native API Access

Having picked up Xamarin as your mobile app development software, you will be in a position to come up with an Android app that will enable developers to access the native APIs in iOS and other platforms.

When you have a complete access to the APIs, you will be able to save a great deal of effort and time, so that you can launch your Android app quickly into the market. This feature lends a helping hand to all those who are looking to build various apps so that they can support multiple brands launched on different platforms.

7. The Best Advantage of “Write Once, Run Everywhere”

In today’s times, you will find everyone looking for apps that work on a single code which is compatible on multiple platforms. Enterprises are constantly on the lookout for Android apps which promise a single codebase coupled with a superior user interface and native performance.

Xamarin Forms is a platform that enables you to live the dream of “Write Once, Run Everywhere”. With Xamarin Forms, you will be able to share all the apps across multiple operating systems including Android, iOS and UWP (Phone 10 and Windows 10).

Key Takeaways

The markets are flooded with umpteen choices of software to build mobile apps for various brands and purposes. However, the key here is to make the right choice so that you come up with an Android app that is high on end-user experience, cost-efficiency and productivity. In view of these two prime requirements, Xamarin can become your top choice that virtually shortens the learning curve.

Sign up with a xamarin mobile app development company so that you can derive the best of xamarin app development services that will come to you as part of the numerous benefits of xamarin application development. This way, your Android app powered by Xamarin will be able to speak for itself, demonstrating superior user-interface coupled with a classic user experience that every mobile end user looks forward to.

Importance of Choosing the Right Color for your App Design

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

Well, when it comes to mobile app development, arguably there is nothing more important than user experience, but the very next important thing would be color of the application. Of course, both user interface and user experience are vital when it comes to engaging and interacting with more users. However, we certainly cannot ignore the fact that the impact of the combination of vibrant and lively colors is just as important.

Don’t believe me? Did you know that almost 93 percent of users’ purchasing decision is affected by the visual dimension? So there is more to this color theory than meets the eye and that is why the mobile app designers should not only focus on ensuring the application user-friendly but also make sure that they chose the right proportion of hues for the app to attract more users.

The importance of selecting the right color for your mobile app

In most of the cases, the mobile app designers follow the footsteps of the recent trends and happenings in app design, but only very few of them choose specific colors whether it is their logo or any other element of their app.

Red color

Signifies vivacity and desire and is one of the most suitable colors to build youth-centric applications

Blue color

Highlights success and integrity and can be utilized to show a sense of trust and fidelity toward the users

Pink color

Has become one the top colors that most women love around the globe and is right color to build both women-centric applications and apps that break stereotypes

White color

Usually means peace and harmony and is a significant aspect of an application to amass coordination between distinct palettes

Green color

Always signifies money and sustainability. Applications that are related to financial and environmental-friendly can blindly opt for this color.

When working on a new mobile application, it is often a bit hard to choose the right color combination which works great as there are tens of thousands of users to target. In this article, we’ll see you can select the right color for your mobile application.

How to choose the right color for your mobile app

If you check App Store and Play Store, there would be infinite apps’ icons that have plenty of colors. Usually, the color of the icon mostly depends on what type of app you are building. So, for a better understanding, will see how you select your hues correctly.

1. Figure out your target customers’ perceptions

When it comes to colors, some of them have a universal meaning while others have a distinctive local perception. So before finalizing any specific color, you should take into consideration the different meanings of different colors so that you can rightly target your audience.

One deviant color meaning to your mobile app can bring catastrophic outcomes. In addition to that, a variety of colors might signify multiple meanings for various generations. So the ultimate motive here is to understand the underlying meaning that your target customers attach to various colors.

2. Understand your brand philosophy and identify a corresponding color shades

The color combination of your app is an extension of your brand philosophy and vision. Every company/business has its guiding value which makes it stand out from its competitors. Ensure the colors you utilize show this very same philosophy to your customers. The coordination between your brand philosophy and the color scheme will make it much easier for your target customers to interact and engage with your brand. The perfect color and philosophy combination will itself acts as a marketing tool for your mobile application.

3. Choose the color of your application icon

The application icon is the first thing that your target customers will notice when they see your app on App Store/Play Store, and it plays a vital part in deciding whether they’d like to download the app or not. The app icon color palette should show the application the app utility in a clear and concise way. Hence, the color palette you select for your app icon will define the whole app. Figure out what colors define your brand philosophy and go exceptionally well with the app icon design.

The symmetry in the icon design and the color palette will uplift your application design. Utilize the icon colors as the foundation shade for the whole app to avoid a fine art of multiple colors which might be visually repulsive.

4. Limit the number of colors to three

Having a little mix and match of colors is always good, but it is also essential to make sure that you are not going overboard with your application design and incorporate too many colors as possible. Make sure you limit your color palette to maximum three and choose your app’s primary, secondary, and background color for better readability and clarity.

5. Utilize multiple shades for better brightness and highlighting essential features

As you would like to limit the number of colors to three, there is no particular limitation on the number of shades of colors you can use. Try and experiment with various shades of one color to understand exactly what shade suits your app. Utilizing multiple shades will lighten up your application without looking too bright with colors which clash with one another. Likewise, you can also utilize various shades and tones to highlight the essential features which make it special and different from other apps.

Wrapping up

After the complete post, you indeed must have understood how colors are essential for your app and how they can affect your overall popularity in the app stores. It can make your app stand out from your peers’ apps. The bottom line is that the visual appearance of your app is what first attracts your customers in the first place. The user interface and experience only come into the picture when your customers appreciate the look of your app. So make the best use of the color palette and scheme to enrich your app design.

How To Create a GPS Tracking Application?

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Super Admin Testreveal

With GPS or Global Positioning System, the method of tracking has got to be easier where you can easily find where something is.

Of course, even now there are people who still give such broken directions, most of the times, we just prefer to send them our location pin that shows where we are exactly standing. And that is the beauty of GPS tracking.

To find a specific place, we certainly don’t require a road map or to ask unknown people for directions. Our smartphones have all the capabilities to guide us toward the particular place we want and tell the exact place that we are looking — A nearby drug store, restaurant, etc. For businesses, location-based tracking services provide a comprehensive suite of opportunities also — Right from improved customer services to detailed marketing and greater in-store traffic.

Now, before we start getting deeper into the technical stuff, there is another essential question that you have to ask yourself: What do we have to build a GPS tracking app at all?

What is the purpose of your GPS Tracking application?

The main purpose of a location tracking app is to get information about the person’s current place and pinpoint the exact position. However, this information and functionalities can be utilized in multiple ways across industries and here are some of the instances for your understanding:

GPS location tracking can be combined with time tracking to determine your remote employees’ efficiency and performance. Also, it’s up to you if you want to integrate automatic reporting and payment depending on the extra time they did. That’s it. You now have an effective and robust employee management tool.
Location tracking is frequently utilized to streamline fleet management operations. Users can offer their drivers with mapping and routing functionalities and through the app, produce reports and forward warnings if there is any emergency scenario. In situations like these, a GPS tracking app completely rules out the requirement to buy and download GPS handheld electronics.
You can create a GPS tracker application for outdoor and sports enthusiasts so that they can organize their everyday routes, get statements on the distance, and ensure never left behind.

User Privacy — Important Concern

Many times, users find that the rate of access to their location data surprising and feel like they are being followed by their own smartphone.

Also, a study by Pew Research Center says that in most of the situations, people feel completely normal regarding giving their personal information against some personalized deals or any other tangible benefits and on the other side there are scenarios where such close monitoring becomes too intimidating.

Almost 45 percent of participants said that it is highly unacceptable for insurance companies to provide them surveilling their driving practices and provide deals or discounts for safe driving.
More than 50 percent felt uncertain about social media networking applications which collect their exact location and other related info and utilize it to send them personalized ads or even trade it with 3rd-parties.
55 percent participants said that they never even think of installing s “Smart thermostat” as it would pursue their in-house actions and make its own temperature changes/modifications to minimize the electricity bill.

If you indeed want to build a GPS tracking application then ensure that your location-based functionalities really offers some great benefits for your customers. Put your theories to test with your customer pool clearly and tell them why they should choose to share their locations with you.

Know How Mobile Location is Received

Now, how to develop GPS tracking apps which are exact enough? Let us take a detailed look at what affects the quality of data in this scenario:

Users’ actions and the frequency of re-evaluations have to be conducted as and when the user changes his or her position.
Multitude of location references.
Wi-Fi, Cell-ID, Network data, and GPS can provide data on users’ location. But depending on just either of the choices can be a bit difficult as they each have their own speed, exactitude, and battery efficiency.

The last two can result in unfolding prevalence of assisted GPS — A method which utilizes both GPS and network data to receive location data. Google Maps and some other map apps usually utilize this style and recommend to connect your device to the network for an enhanced positioning.

Another concern for this GPS tracking application development is that location data received 10 seconds past from one channel could be more exact than the present location received from another channel. Such stabilization might be needed to obtain accurate information.

APIs for Location-based Services

If your GPS app customers are iOS users, then you need to compare the Core Location Framework and related APIs before you start doing anything else. This will let you identify the user’s status and direction, design, and plan the delivery of place and managing events, create a geofence if it is required and make sure the application works with iBecaons.

Thinking about a GPS application for Android users? Well, in this case, elements are a little less easy since there are two distinct approaches to receive the users’ location on this platform:

Utilizing Google Play services location APIs
Utilizing Android framework location APIs

The below are a couple of tips for app developers to take into consideration:

Android Location API

This earlier released API utilizes 3 separate providers to receive user’s position data:

LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER identifies location utilizing satellites and takes some time to deliver the information.
LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER identifies location depending on the reachability of a cell reception tower and Wi-Fi access networks.
LocationManager.PASSIVE_PROVIDER returns location produced by different providers. You indirectly obtain locations’ updates when rest apps or services ask them without having to request the location yourself.

Google Play Services Location APIs

Nowwadays, Google is actively promoting thischoice as a robust, less-battery consumption solution and dynamic solution for identifying user’s location. It is a component of Google Play Services APK and is developed on best Android’s APIs.

The provider automatically chooses which location channel to utilize depending on the efficiency and battery utilization and lets set up more cutting-edge features such as geofencing.

Read also : 24 Best GPS Tracking Apps For Android in 2021