Mobile App Development Trends In 2023

The mobile app development market is growing steadily, and even the pandemic failed to affect the global mobile app revenue, which is likely to reach 935.2 billion in 2023.

With the thriving app market, the competition is also rising. So, to be competitive and stay ahead of the curve, most enterprises and companies adopt innovative technologies and the latest trends.

You might be well-versed with the standard mobile app development trends. But, let you know, you need to follow the modern app trends that may make your business unaffected from any mishap, be it a worldwide lockdown or anything else.

This post will focus on the most valuable and practical mobile app development trends that you need to check out in 2021 and beyond.

Let’s start!

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

As per the records, by the end of 2021, artificial intelligence and machine learning will improve the customer experience by 57%, which was 34% last year, and help retain customers by 31%, which was 29% the previous year.  Furthermore, it increases brand awareness by 31%, which was 14% last year. Besides, the deployment of AI and ML can promote varied business processes.

AI and ML are dominating every tech-focused corner of mobile app development. As more and organizations and companies are getting interested in these latest technologies, the demands for AI- and ML-enabled mobile apps are also rising.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have reached a critical tipping point and will increasingly augment and extend virtually every technology-enabled service, thing, or application. : Gartner.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have much to offer to an online store, from providing better product recommendations to obtaining deep business insights.

For example, the most popular mobile app, FaceApp, caught up with fame overnight because of the usage of AI. It permits users to add filters to their photos which let them know about their look when they are younger, older, etc.

According to the reports by SensorTower, the worldwide downloads of FaceApp in September 2021 would be 5m, and worldwide revenue would be $900k.

Future Trends of AI and ML

• Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity
• Combination of Internet of Things (IoT) and AI/ML
• AIOps
• AI-enabled chatbots
• Edge AI
• AI/ML Explainability  Edge AI
• Hyperautomation technologies

Virtual Events Streaming

As COVID-19 kept the real events on halt, the latest app trend, virtual events streaming, emerged as a big savior.

As the live streaming apps caught up with popularity too soon, this mobile app trend is also likely to prosper even after the COVID-19 pandemic effect is fading.

Future Trends of Virtual Event Streaming

• Gamification And Interactive Entertainment
• Projection-Mapping
• Live Translation
• Facial Recognition
• Event Apps
• Connect through Live Streaming
• AI Chatbots and Machine Learning

Beacon Technology

The worldwide market value of beacon technology was about $519.6 million in 2016 and will reach approximately $56.6 billion in 2026.

Beacons are wireless transmitters that utilize low-energy Bluetooth technology to send signals to other nearby smart devices. By making location-based searching and interaction more accurate and manageable, beacon technology connects and transfers information to smart devices.

The ecosystem of app developers and beacon manufacturers is important in pushing these technologies forward, and the best ideas won’t come from just one company, so we encourage you to get some Eddystone-supported beacons today from our partners and begin building! : Chandu Thota, Engineering Director, and Matthew Kulick, Product Manager

Businesses use beacons to target promising clients. The online stores can use Beacons by sending notifications to the customers relevant to offers and other information. Therefore, the growth of beacons is likely to increase ahead.

For example, NearBee is a lightweight, free app that integrates smoothly with beacons to broadcast notifications on iPhones.

Future Trends of Beacon Technology

• Mobile payment solutions powered by beacon technology
• AI-enabled beacons
• Beacon in Travels and Tourism
• Beacon in physical games, e.g., treasure hunt
• Beacon in Healthcare

Biometric Authentication

The global biometric system market revenue is likely to reach $68.8 billion in 2025, which was about $36.6 billion in 2020.

By integrating biometric technologies with mobile devices, we can interact with various forms of biometric authentication. Its accurate implementation ensures that just the right people catch up with access to sensitive information.

Facial recognition is a good example of biometric authentication that can still prove challenging to implement as it tends to be prone to a high false-positive rate : Siân John, EMEA chief strategist at Symantec, told CNBC via email.

For example, Apple Pay uses facial recognition to identify the users and offer them one more layer of protection to their data and funds.

Recently, WhatsApp has rolled out its new biometric feature, which creates a secure way for users to link their apps across devices.

Future Trends of  Biometric Authentication

• Biometric Single Sign-On Services
• Authentication Tools
• Facial And Voice Recognition
• Cloud-Based Biometric Solutions
• Mobile Biometric Technologies

5G Network

The number of 5G subscriptions all over the world will reach 3 billion by 2025. With the introduction of 5G, the app development future will witness a revolutionary change. It will come up with various traits, like:

Speed: 5G aims to offer a fast and smooth cellular connection, which promises 100 times more rate than what 4G is offering.

Low Latency: The caliber of 4G to reveal about 50 milliseconds of average latency will soon get low to 1 millisecond with the arrival of 5G.

The widespread use of 5G will affect mobile app development through superior video apps, improved AR/VR apps, increased IoT implementation, larger and faster file transfers, improved UX, increased battery life, etc.

Future Trends of 5G

• Cloud computing
• Wireless healthcare services
• Driverless vehicle technology

On-Demand Apps

According to Brookings India, the on-demand applications industry will likely generate about $335 billion in revenue in 2025, about 24 times more than the stats recorded in 2014.

As smartphones meet almost all our demands faster through mobile apps, that’s why today every person owns them. The on-demand apps are developed in varied categories, like taxi booking, food delivery, grocery, and more.

For example, Uber is the most popular on-demand taxi booking app worldwide. As recorded by techjury, the mobility revenue of Uber was about $6.1 billion in 2020.

So, apps with on-demand capabilities can append advanced functionality to the apps that will help increase profits.

Future Trends of On-Demand Apps

• Salon Apps
• Laundry Service Apps
• Domestic Helper Apps
• On-demand Babysitting Apps
• House cleaning Apps
• Fitness On-Demand

Voice Technology

The voice recognition tech market caught up with $11 billion in 2019 and will likely increase approximately 17% by 2025.

The worldwide voice recognition market will grow by $27.16 billion by 2026, which was about $27.16 billion in 2020.

Speech recognition and the understanding of language is core to the future of search and information, but there are lots of hard problems such as understanding how a reference works, understanding what ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’ refers to in a sentence. It’s not at all a trivial problem to solve in language, and that’s just one of the millions of problems to solve in language.

Ben Gomes, Head of Search at Google

The hottest mobile app trend, voice technology, increases functionality, saves the users from complex navigation, form-filling, etc. The users find it easier to submit their requests with this technology even if they don’t know the item’s name.

For example, Alexa for Business permits businesses to create a voice-enabled assistant that may assist with organization processes and communication within the company.

Future Trends of Voice Technology

• Voice Cloning
• Voice Technology for Business
• Smart Displays
• Voice Technology for Gaming

Internet of Things (IoT)

The worldwide spending on IoT is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2023, which was about $749 billion in 2020.

Additionally, the total annual revenue of IoT globally is likely to reach $1 trillion in 2030, which was about $389 billion in 2020.

IoT is a new concept, and the integration of IoT in apps assists in instant communication, automation, and faster processing.

IoT apps run on IoT devices and can be developed in almost every industry or verticals, like smart homes, healthcare, wearable technology, etc. IoT apps use AI and ML to add intelligence to devices.

From the lights of our homes to the music and doors can be controlled through Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa.

For example, Google’s collaboration with Nest, a manufacturer of home security cameras, reveals that the company is moving faster towards IoT.

Future Trends of IoT

• Smart Home and Appliances
• IoT Tech
• Self-driving Automobiles
• IoT in Healthcare

Security

Be its a startup or a million-dollar brand, everyone is likely to get affected by cybercrime.

From an app development point of view, you need to be extra attentive to app security. Being an online store owner, the security of your app should come as a top priority, even for your clients.

App users know about the security risks. So, before taking a step ahead, they think twice before sharing their sensitive details to 3rd-parties.

So, app developers should choose the best algorithm, implement the best encryption standards, and develop antivirus software. Moreover, they need to be proficient enough to identify and handle security threats.

Cross-Platform App Development

A developer survey in 2021 says Flutter is the most preferred cross-platform mobile framework that global developers use. Multiple IDE support, ease of learning, hot relead, and more features of Flutter make it an ideal technology for cross-platform app development.

In the last few years, we have noticed app development shift towards cross-platform technology. The big and trusted names in the app industry, like Pinterest, Facebook, etc., have implemented this technology to enhance their efficiency.

By the end of 2021, this latest revolution is likely to grow higher.

Apart from Flutter, mobile app developers also use other mobile app development frameworks, like Xamarin, React Native, and more to develop cross-platform mobile apps.

Enterprise Mobile Applications

All over the world, enterprise mobile apps are becoming the top priority among businesses.

The enterprise mobile app market will likely reach $98.03 billion by 2021, which was about $48.24 billion in 2016.

Enterprise mobile apps improve internal communication between the companies, increase productivity, satisfy employees, and boost ROI.

Enterprise mobile app is like a digital transformation that will assist organizations in smoothening and managing complicated business processes effectively.

Instant Apps

Maybe launched a few years ago, instant apps are witnessing a rise in their development and usage in 2021.

Android Studio permits app developers to develop instant app experiences to enhance their app discovery. Such apps facilitate the users to try them without even installing them.

Such apps allow the users to try out the demo version and ease the decision of app download. Such apps make it easy to reach the target audience who haven’t installed them.

The cost of developing such apps is comparatively less as compared to other mobile apps.

Accelerated Mobile Pages

AMPs, Google’s open-source coding project, assists in loading websites rapidly on mobile devices. It strips the pages down to their essential parts and stores a cached version on Google servers that permits them to deliver content immediately.

The target of AMP is to deliver content faster, almost instantly, to offer a better user experience. Speed is one of the top-ranking factors.

Wearables

According to Statista, the number of connected wearable devices all over the globe will increase to 929 million in 2021 and is likely to reach 1,105 million in 2022.

So, the stats show wearable technology is reaching heights progressively worldwide. Soon, wearable apps will also become an essential part of our daily lives.

In fact, Apple Watch apps will soon become independent of their companion apps as they will have their own App Store. It clearly exhibits the rise in wearable technology.

Future Trends of Wearable Technology

• Virtual Assistant In Contact Lenses
• Smart Shirts, Pants, Buttons, and Shoes
• Virtual Keyboards via Nail Polish and Smart Lenses
• Mind Reading Glasses
• Hearables
• Silicon Drives Smartwatches

Folding Display

As per the stats, the foldable phone shipments all over the globe are likely to reach 50.1 million units by 2022, which was about 3.2 million units in 2019.

The gradual increase in the number of foldable mobile owners worldwide has affected the mobile app development process. The app development solutions for transportation, education, manufacturing, and other sectors should consider foldable screen devices. Such displays hold the transformative capability that allows the users to use it as a phone, unfold the display, and experience a medium-sized tablet.

These foldable devices permit the users to fold them in, which makes them more compact. The gaming and video streaming apps perform better on such devices, as they also offer an increased screen size experience instead of using additional controls.

Geolocation Based Apps

A multi-purpose app technology trend, GPS, suits every industry.

For example, retail can use geo-location-based apps concept to assist the users in finding the stores quickly. Now, there’s no need to look for the nearest specific store, just app users need to install their apps, and it will automatically scan their location and catch up with their nearby stores.

For example,  Grubhub uses GPS functionality to enhance customer experience by showing their delivery person’s current location and arrival time.

Such apps are also best for the automotive industry, dating, hospitality and travel, and sports apps.

Blockchain

All over the world, the spending on creating blockchain solutions in 2021 is about $6.6 billion and is likely to reach about $19 billion by 2024.

When we talk about blockchain, we immediately start thinking of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Nowadays, currency converters and mobile wallets are everyday things that use blockchain technology in the apps. It facilitates tracking digital assets, offers cloud storage solutions, secures digital identity, offers proof of provenance, keeps track of rewards and loyalty programs, and much more.

Smart contracts with blockchain lead to infinite possibilities. The security that smart contracts offer makes sure that you can use it for various things, like renting many items, issuing loans, etc.

Future Apps & Trends of Blockchain Technology

• Swarm Robotics
• Secure public elections
• Asset Tokenization
• Blockchain in Anti-piracy
• Trading on cryptocurrency exchange
• Blockchain as service (BaaS)
• Transparent betting
• Blockchain-based technologies, such as DeFi

Cloud Integration

The worldwide cloud integration market is likely to rise by $6.7 billion by 2026.

Cloud technology arrives with its infinite possibilities and benefits. It is the most reliable platform that securely stores and access data faster and more seamlessly.

The cloud services companies of all sizes…The cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy.

Marc Benioff, CEO – Salesforce.com

When integrating with apps, the cloud makes the apps run on the cloud, taking off the load from the smartphone’s internal memory. That’s why while running such apps don’t crash.

Cloud integration is best for both app developers and users. It eases the app development process and also leads to cost-saving. Moreover, the users get seamless access to such apps without any need to install them.

Future  Apps of Cloud Technology

• Multi-Cloud Platforms
• Hybrid Cloud Solutions
• Cloud Quantum Computing

Mobile Wallets

As per a report, the mobile wallet transaction will likely reach about $13,979 billion by 2022, which was about $4,296 billion in 2018.

Top brands, such as Apple, Samsung, and Google, use mobile wallets to serve their users convenient and secure platforms for bill payments and money transactions.

The app users don’t need to pay in cash or fill in their account details while managing their transactions. Just they need to link their account details to the mobile wallet app. This way, they can transfer money to anyone easily using such apps.

Integration of payment gateways with the mobile app wallets makes the payment process easier and faster.

Future Trends of Mobile Wallets

• RFID based (Radio-frequency identification payments
• More Audio-based mobile wallets(e.g., Google Pay)
• More secure payments
• Contactless payment
• NFC based (near field communication) payments

Predictive Analysis

The worldwide predictive analytics market is likely to reach about $10.95 billion in 2022.

If you want your app to be valued, you need to value your customers. The app’s accumulation of insights and data helps them deliver the best services to the customers they want.

This way, predictive analysis, ML, and data mining will gain popularity in 2021. This trend uses stats, data mining, and AI and ML to estimate future events. And this ahead assists in improving the user experience.

Moreover, app developers use predictive algorithms to optimize their apps, resulting in improved quality and performance. It assists in enhancing customer retention and, thereby, ROI.

Future Apps in Predictive Analysis

• Healthcare apps to offer better diagnosis
• Baking apps to point out customer requirements

M-Commerce

The global mCommerce sales will cover about $53.9% of eCommerce sales by 2021. Globally, mCommerce share in eCommerce is likely to reach 72.9% by 2021.

The buying and selling of goods and services using wireless mobile devices are known as mobile commerce. These days we buy almost everything using our mobile devices, even opening a bank account, applying for a home loan, taking online classes, and almost everything online.

So, this trend is likely to grow with time.

Future Trends in M-Commerce

• Omnichannel Shopping
• One-click Ordering
• Multi-Channel Retail
• In-App Chats
• Image Recognition Technology
• Smart Site Search and Navigation
• Smart Personalization
• Voice Shopping
• Social Commerce
• Crypto Payments
• Proximity Marketing

EMM and APM

The two primary components of the enterprise app development process, Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) and Application Performance Management (APM) are top app trends.

APM is the management of software app performance, ensuring an expected level of service, as evaluated by user experience monitoring and performance metrics. Such solutions target detecting and pinpointing app performance issues before real users get affected.

EMM is software that facilitates organizations to allow employees to use mobile apps and devices securely. Moreover, it increases the employees’ productivity as IT departments can offer them the apps and data they want to perform their work-relevant jobs on mobile devices.

These technologies make the apps faster and check the apps’ quality.

Chatbots

There are millions of apps on Google Play Store and App Store, but a small fraction of those use chatbots. So, the use of this technology is going to increase. As per Opus Research, about $4.5 billion investment in chatbots is likely to report by 2021. Moreover, the Chatbot Market size is expected to reach $1.34 by 2024.

Digital workplace leaders will proactively implement AI-based technologies such as virtual assistants or other NLP-based conversational agents and robots to support and augment employees’ tasks and productivity. However, the AI agents must be properly monitored to prevent digital harassment and frustrating user experiences.

Helen Poitevin, senior research director, Gartner

Chatbots prevent the need for human-to-human interaction in varied fields. And these days, client engagement is leading to increased profits. So, the use of chatbots is going to increase in the future.

Wrapping Up

The mobile app development trends we have mentioned above will help grow the app industry faster. That’s why more app developers will follow these trends, leading to increased competition in 2021. That’s why, before starting with your app development process, you should check out every trend as per your app industry.

It may be challenging for a newbie to choose the best trend and technology for his app. So, he needs to take the assistance of industry experts to emerge with the best app development trend.