Mobile apps are being developed at an enormous rate now, and with the huge numbers of apps crowding up the application markets, you need to make your app stand out and add trending as well as juristic features to them in order for them to have an edge.

The quickly advancing technologies have made it difficult to keep up with the competition. Staying updated with the latest trends and leveraging the latest trends can get good engagements for your apps and provide a decent user experience. Here are a few new app development trends that you need to follow in 2018.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT makes it possible to use sensors with non-IT devices. This allows us to control, automate and monitor these devices remotely. The developers have chosen most prominent remote devices as the IoT applications started to rise. Majority of the IoT devices make use of mobile devices to organize the data, especially in consumer IoT.

Increase in the usage of IoT in all fields has increased the demand for IoT applications, and the developers will focus on developing more and more applications in near future to manage the IoT devices.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the users expect more interactivity and engagement when it comes to apps. This is the reason AI-infused applications have been a hot topic and is going to be a rising trend in 2018 too. AI is helping various industries. It helps businesses to know users preferences and behaviors in order to make personalized targeting campaigns for both business-to-business and business to customer marketing.

Users also get a more personalized experience with the availability of personal assistants, smart recommendation, and conversational interfaces that give a more emotional interaction with the users. An example is the infusion of chatbots in mobile applications. Right now inclusion of chatbots in apps is a rare practice, but 2018 and onwards, we will see a rise in the trend. Integration of AI into the apps will further simplify the tasks, minimize the costs and increase business optimization. This would lead to an increase in profits.

All areas of mobile development such as IoT, data security and virtual assistants, etc. make use of the AI integrated UI/UX. Sending automated emails based on the customer interaction and behavior in the apps is another feature of UX enabled by AI in applications. Therefore, in 2018, these intelligent apps will look more into enhancing the UX.

Age responsive features

App developers are directed more towards providing their users with interactive, smart and personalized features. The users are more likely to amazed if the user interface is designed keeping in mind the age and needs of the users. You will witness more and more developers resorting to developing more age responsive user interface. This could be done by adjusting the color, font size and other such things according the age of the user by detecting it via Artificial Intelligence.

Instant apps

Google launched instant apps for android devices in 2016 so that the users can use the apps without having to download them. Periscope, Buzzfeed, Wish and Viki are some of the instant apps that were developed in 2018 only and we will see more of such instant apps. These apps can be used right from the Play Store. Users can download these apps if they need them or if they have the required storage for the apps.

Cloud computing

With the amount of data rising daily and at a high rate, cloud computing has become the need of the time. Integration of Cloud computing with mobile apps has made it easier for the users to store and process the data for heavy tasks. The speed, reliability and security of the mobile apps have gotten better as it is now easier to collect, store and analyze the user data.

Blockchain

As soon as the crypto currency was introduced by Blockchain, it has re invented the mobile payments by creating an endless irreversible ledger. We saw a huge rise in blockchain based mobile payment apps in 2017 like, Gliph, Fold, Bitpay and many more. Similarly, we can expect more and more of these crypto currency based apps in 2018 that would facilitate mobile payments.

E-payment wallets

Mobile payments are not only revolutionized by blockchain, there has also been a great rise in the mobile banking and mobile payment applications that integrated e-payment wallets with the apps. This emergence and increase in the need of e-payment mechanisms is due to the rise in the use e-commerce. In near future, you should expect to see a rise in these mobile payment apps that make use of the scan and pay systems like in VISA cards.

location-based services

With geo-fencing and geo-location gaining more attention as the latest technologies are being explored, the apps having location-based services are also growing. These apps not only provide location based individual information, but also initiate several actions to support location-based services. This year, 2018, is expected to see many apps providing location based services.

Augmented Reality (AR)

Developers now have amazing platforms to develop the AR based mobile apps with the launch of Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. Due to the better User Experience in provided by these apps, developers might focus more on such apps in 2018.

Wearable Devices’ apps

Wearable devices that are paired with our smartphones for easy collection and access of the data provide an amazing user experience. Smartwatches and other wearable devices require support from OS of the smartphone to function, e.g., Apple watch has an OS that works with iPhone’s iOS only.

This is the reason, we can say that developers in 2018 are going to take advantage of these newer technologies to develop applications for better user experience.