Top 5 Mobile Trends of 2020
What app features and tech upgrades helped brands thrive this year.
In this blast from a not-so-distant past, Digital Turbine takes a look back to the simpler days of 2020 to highlight the top mobile trends we’ve seen this year. From rewards programs to virtual travel experiences, let’s jump in and see how the same brands we examined in March have continued to thrive.
1. Mobile-first rewards programs
As you’re reading this, someone nearby is ordering their food through a mobile app — again. According to the Pew Research Center, mobile food orders skyrocketed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Biting off even more than they’ve been chewing, Dunkin’ Donuts announced that it’s renaming National Coffee Day (September 29th) as National Dunkin’ Day. In celebration, the Massachusetts-based brand will be giving away free coffee (with purchase) to loyal customers nationwide.
For our Starbucks fans, myself included, the Seattle-brewed coffee company announced a few updates to its loyalty program. According to a July press release, the update will be rolled out “this fall” in company-operated stores across the U.S. and Canada. The Starbucks® Rewards™ loyalty program will soon offer more payment options and ways to earn stars when ordering via the mobile app.
Solidifying this as one of the top mobile trends? New data from Domino’s Pizza that highlights the success of its mobile loyalty program. As of July, the pizza technology company was reporting its strongest membership growth since the first quarter of 2019.
2. Freemium-to-premium monetization strategy
As business leaders continue to scramble throughout the economic downturn, free trials have become more abundant — and more attractive — than ever. However, B2B and B2C consumers are likely to remain risk-averse well into 2021; meaning a free trial might not suffice.
Enter the freemium model, a ‘forever-free’ solution that is suitable for consumers and companies alike. One on hand, your forever-free group won’t be as easy to move down the pipeline that leads to paid subscriptions. On the other hand, when freemium is done right, it can result in a win-win for consumers and brands.
At the end of Q1 this year, Spotify banked 130 million Premium subscribers globally — partially thanks to an increase of 6 million subscribers from the end of Q4 in 2019 (up by 31% YoY). While Spotify has always offered the freemium model, several brands have started experimenting with the success factor in an effort to help consumers (and businesses) during the pandemic. One of the noteworthy brands offering an extended freemium to premium version is Apple Music: offering a free, three-month subscription and a tiered-subscription model after the trial ends.
3. Smart automation integration
As more industries are starting to reap the benefits of smart automation and AI, banks and financial institutions are finding success with virtual assistants; specifically, mobile banking apps like Bank of America (BOA) and Ally Bank. Erica, BOA’s virtual assistant that functions similarly to Siri, helps mobile app customers by answering voice commands.
While chatbots are perfect for handling simple tasks and streamlining customer service operations, virtual assistants like Erica are better suited to perform multi-screen transactions: “Erica, set up a Zelle transfer and send $100 to my grandpa.” Although Ally Bank already had a chatbot — now branded as a virtual assistant with the same voice-command functionality as Erica — the company released another AI-powered assistant called Ally Skill for Amazon Alexa.
The mobile apps that invested in AI seem to be yielding high dividends with 71% of people prefer getting help from bots instead of humans. We don’t expect this trend to slow down any time soon, either. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of customer interactions will involve machine learning (ML) applications and chatbots.
4. Virtual Travel and Retail Experiences
With most vacation destinations and theme parks around the globe stifled by the pandemic-induced lockdowns, savvy tourism teams began offering “virtual experiences”. Some of those included: a scenic (virtual) tour of South Africa’s art-inspired Woodstock street and a Zoom-ride away to explore the galaxy with NASA.
Retail brands started to catch on, specifically everyone’s favorite furniture giant: IKEA. The brand launched IKEA Place, an augmented reality (AR) app that provided customers with a function to ‘test out’ decor or furniture before they make a buy. From corporate learning content in the B2B-space to the retail and tourism trades, we’ll continue to see virtual reality and AR being leveraged.
5. Morning Screen Time Increases
We ran a survey earlier this year and gained some insight into how people between the ages of 18 and 75 spend their mornings. The goal was to examine which mobile apps were most popular during the breakfast hours. We recommend these ones for your mobile app routine, but the survey results show something different:
- 25% of time spent in apps goes to Facebook, spanning four generations of users.
- 25% of respondents reported they check Facebook first, followed by Instagram with 15.7%.
- 23.3% of respondents reported checking email with their morning coffee.
While experts suggest foregoing screen time before your head leaves the pillow, there are other apps that can help users establish a healthy morning routine and enhance mental wellbeing. There certainly is value in striking a balance between social media apps and therapeutic apps, especially as many remote workers are leveraging both types.
Regardless of when the new normal starts, these mobile app trends will stick around for the foreseeable future. Brands that can keep pace will have a seat at the table if they work to embrace machine learning, smart automation, and other emerging tech. Whether its machine or human led, companies that focus on providing the best possible experience for customers will create the next disruptions.
