Emerging Trends in Mobile App Development, or How to Make Your Business Succeed in 2020

Sofia Merenych
Think Clockwise
Published in
5 min readFeb 11, 2020

Finally, we have ascertained how the receipt for success looks like. Every time you are going to do a great job, may it be a viral piece of content or a spectacular mobile app, you need to:

  • Roll out your product right on time when users need it;
  • Make this product as useful and trendy as it is even possible.

We can’t say when it’s the best time to launch a solution. Actually, no one can: you are the only one who decides when the product development should start.

However, we are ready to help you with making your product trendy. Here, we share the tips on what unique features to augment your app with to catch the most attention.

Following mobile app development trends, you give your business a chance to grow rapidly. Constantly following the latest tendencies, you either keep your top position or get closer to the desired result. Now, it is time to discover the hottest mobile app trends for 2020. Ready for the changes that will upgrade your business? Take your next step towards success!

5 mobile app development trends to follow in 2020

Did you know that in 2019, the number of mobile app downloads jumped up to 204 billion? Year by year, the numbers keep rising. On the one hand, it’s great news for you as a mobile app owner. On the other hand, it’s a huge challenge to launch an app that can stand the competition. The users’ choice is unlimited; the point is to show them why exactly they should opt for your application. Choose one (or several) of the hottest trends to win the attention and join the list of the most popular apps for this year (and the next decade!):

1. Flutter for app development

Cross-platform app development is a highly discussed topic. There are so many great tools and technologies that allow producing apps with close-to-native performance; there are numerous tools that help to build cross-platform, cross-browser apps for any type of device. The choice gets even harder if you are not familiar with all the peculiarities that hide behind each of the concepts.

Since its launch in October 2018, Flutter has significantly increased its positions. Now, it belongs to one of the top repos on Github! Keeping in mind this technology is relatively new, the results are just inspiring.

Flutter by Google is a software development kit for mobile app development. With its help, software engineers can deliver a single codebase that runs on any mobile platform. Dart the programming languages lies in its basis; Flutter is open-source and free. It cuts time-to-market and brings many other advantages to its followers. Even BMW employs and enjoys Flutter, so why shouldn’t your company feel its perks?

Read also: Flutter Vs. React Native — What to Choose for a Startup

2. Digital Wellbeing

For so many years, mobile apps’ owners focused on keeping users’ attention for as much time as it may be possible. Now, this tendency drifts in the opposite direction: digital well-being is a set of features that allow setting boundaries between time spent with a smartphone and a real non-digital life. With its help, you can change the way users look at your app, establish trustworthy relations and help them live a better life.

Want to study from leaders? Take a look at how digital wellbeing features look on Google Pixel (powered with Android Q OS) and the latest Apple smartphones (powered with iOS 12). Users can measure screen time, set app limits, find out how many times they open each app, etc. You can help users to change their digital habits and spend more time with their friends and families instead of scrolling Instagram newsfeed pointlessly.

This trend is your chance to build better, more trustworthy relations with app users.

Read also: Single page applications. Are they a good choice for your project?

3. Touchless mobile experience

Year by year, the number of physical buttons on smartphones decreases, and we start using movements like swipes, taps, rotations, shaking, etc. We are now totally used to the fact that touchscreen is the only way of interaction between a user and an app. In 2020, this tendency is going to change as well.

To make mobile usage simpler, new gesture techniques appear. Using Galaxy Note 10, users can make a variety of actions waving a stylus over a screen. Google Pixel 4 is powered with a great cutting-edge motion sense technology. With a single wave, users can decline a call, snooze the alarm and so much more!

Motion gestures recognition tools and platforms will help you to build a more intuitive, user-oriented solutions.

4. Virtual assistants

The easiest, the most convenient way to find out about the weather forecast on the next week is to ask Siri about it. There’s no need to open the Shazam app to find out what song is currently playing: you just ask Google Assistant and get the information you need.

Most of the smart devices are now powered with great smart virtual assistants. They help with so many tasks: controlling smart homes, ordering food at your favorite restaurant, or just reminding you about important tasks.

Trying to provide the one-of-a-kind experience, consider the potential of smart assistants: powered by AI and special ML algorithms, these components of an app can serve users in the best way.

Read also: Custom Alexa Skills for Business: Costs of Smart Speaker Skill Development

5. Hyper-Personalization

Did you know that personalized users’ experience is one of the best ways to start successful cooperation? Personalization is a way to highlight your app among a variety of other similar tools. The best example of personalization is a “You May Also Like” section on eCommerce websites. However, other businesses make a profit from personalization, too. Just take a look at Airbnb or SoundCloud: these websites offer pieces of content their visitors will most probably like.

In 2020, this trend becomes one of the hottest: use artificial intelligence to precisely meet the demands and wishes of your app users and watch the number of downloads rise. And shine. And bring you revenue.

Bottom line

There are so many techniques you can employ to make your mobile business grow in 2020:

  • Write a striking app in Flutter and watch it run seamlessly on any smart device;
  • Implement digital wellbeing features in your application and build trustworthy relations with people that use your app;
  • Use motion gestures recognition tools to take user experience even higher;
  • Let AI-powered assistant help your app’s users with any task, anytime;
  • Provide hyper-personalized experience to become one of the top-rated apps’ owners.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to pick a mobile app trend to follow. Fortunately, we have studied this topic in detail. Take a look at our fresh and crispy article about the latest mobile trends and find out more about the value each trend may bring to your business.

As a bonus, we have some more hot trends for you. Don’t miss a chance to get acquainted with them.

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Sofia Merenych
Think Clockwise

Searching for the balance between productivity and happiness. Business and technology writer