5 Tips to Consider when Switching from Web App to Mobile App
The biggest challenge for development teams is to decide the best from web and mobile apps, but the choice totally depends on different organizations, as few organizations need both web and mobile apps. There are several differences between the two apps when trying to convert from one to other. But also, web app development provides businesses with the customization they require to grow.
Find below some useful tips when managing the leap from web app to mobile.
- User Friendly Experience:
Mobile apps are generally a smaller version of desktop experience, and it is more personal than a desktop as people love to keep their mobile close to them. People are more protective of what they put on their mobile device and this is the reason that people remove shoddy app from their mobile device. People are more attracted by good design than good functionality with mobile apps. So when moving from web app to mobile app, this should be your paramount consideration. A visually appealing mobile app will more likely be successful in today’s market.
2. Security:
The main concern with the native mobile applications is their security weakness as they store data on the mobile device, rather than on the cloud and in case mobile is lost all the data will also be lost. It is important for corporate apps that handle sensitive data to store everything on the device, which can easily be accomplished by sandboxing the data. Other possible way is to encrypt the data that can only be accessed from the app.
3. Permissions and Data:
The key importance of mobile apps is that they bring vast amount of data available. When a user downloads an app on their mobile, they are presented with several permissions which include access to camera, microphone, location and contact book. In comparison of Mobile Apps, Web Apps have less information available which reduce the personalization they can achieve. Mobile Apps also introduce offline mode feature that allow users to work in the absence of internet.
4. Deployment:
Deployment is a key consideration when moving from web app to mobile app. As Mobile apps have to be downloaded onto the user device, it becomes very easy in case of consumer facing app where you just have to put the app onto the App Store for download. But in case of enterprise app, which is basically designed for the employees, it becomes difficult for employees to install them on their device.
One possibility is manual provision in which an IT department of the organization will load the app on all necessary devices. This is suitable when an organization is distributing devices to their employees. The other possibility is that few businesses are opting an enterprise app store, where employees are given direct channel to download corporate approved apps.
5. Streamlined Features:
Before going with the transition from web to mobile app, you should keep in mind that the mobile version of the app will not do everything. Never try to build a mobile replica of the web app, rather try to cut down few things from the web app and then reproduce them. While building a mobile app you should go with few things that work well on mobile and leave the more complex functionality to be accessed on full web app by the user.