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Since the past few years, wearable technology has gained widespread popularity in numerous business sectors, communities and lifestyles. Devices such as smartwatches and activity trackers have changed the whole idea of health, fitness and medical record-keeping for a lot of people out there.
In 2019, eMarketer estimated that 56.7 million people in the United States will use a wearable device at least once a month, and over half of those people will wear a smartwatch. So, it is important to know, how to increase user engagement in wearables!
In recent times, wearable technology in healthcare has become an integral part of our livelihood. Since these devices can monitor your health factors and track your fitness goals and workout routines, more and more people are opting for these devices. According to a report, the use of wearable technology, particularly in the health and fitness niche, has tripled in the last four years.
Devices such as Fitbits and smart watches are some of the health wearables that we see a lot of people using nowadays. The primary goal of these devices is to collect the user’s health, medical and exercise data in order to let the user know about the status and progress of their health and fitness regimes. According to Accenture, in 2018, use of health and fitness wearables increased from 9% to 33% in the United States alone.
Here are some of the commonly-used health wearable devices:
Business Insider estimates that fitness and medical wearables will grow at an annualized rate of 10% to amass 120 million by 2023.
A study from Endeavor Partners found that even with a sharp increase in the global sales of wearable technology, one-third of its users stopped engaging with their wearable device within a period of six months.
This gives a clear indication that manufacturers need to drive user engagement in wearable technology, or else, just like any other modern-day innovative technology, users might switch to a competitor product real quick. But the question is, how to increase app engagement in wearables?
Here are some of the ways:
One of the most important factors in this market niche is the relevance of information and the overall speed at which this information can be delivered to the user on his or her smart device. According to Justin Leong, the Lead Product Designed at Olio Devices, if a user has to spend more than 3-5 seconds to find the required information on a wearable device, it defeats the whole purpose of wearing a smart device in the first place and the user might as well use his cell phone for that.
Similarly, the user should be able to find relevant information quicker than using a cell phone. Whether it is a reminder notification, an email alert, calls or texts – it should take a user no more than 3-5 seconds to get the information and perform the next applicable call for action.
In December 2019, the International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research published a detailed study that was conducted by Mohd Kamal Othman, Nicklos Ugap and Nur Diyana Rahman. The study talked about how to increase user engagement with Play4fit, a health and fitness app, using the gamification concept.
Using various methods and procedures, the study concluded that use of gamification positively impacted the user engagement metrics in the health and fitness wearable app niche. Using Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) analysis, the findings in this study showed that sensory and imaginative immersion components impact a user when using their Play4fit fitness and health app.
Whilst this is not the only method to increase user engagement in wearables, it certainly is a starter! The use of gamification can certainly assist developers and manufacturers to increase engagement in wearables watches, trackers, health monitors, etc.
Since health and fitness wearables and trackers use GPS tracking technology or have the ability to connect to a user’s cell phone to retrieve GPS information, this allows the app to have sensitive and personal data of a user that includes location details. In addition to the app storing the location details, some apps can even show a user’s location and the total number of hours he or she was in deep sleep.
Needless to say, this sort of information needs to be safeguarded by the app developers to win a user’s long-term trust towards the app and the device itself. We are well aware of data breaches that have happened in the past, like the one that hit UnderArmour’s MyFitnessPal app in 2018. It leaked private information such as usernames, passwords and email addresses of over 150 million users. In order to avoid these sorts of attacks from hackers, app developers need to ensure foolproof security and data privacy of its users’ information at any given time.
People usually do not want to carry a power bank or any other external charging device these days. Same is the case with a wearable device, too. App developers need to focus more on coming up with optimized app solutions that consume as little device battery as possible. If not much, the wearable should at least match the battery consumption of any other device it is connected to – for example a cell phone. In an ideal situation, the wearable device battery should go way beyond that.
According to a 2017 study that was largely based on Healthcare Technology Self-efficacy (HTSE) questionnaire assessment of 34 users from two famous fitness trackers – FitBit and JawBone, the motivation and user engagement in fitness tracking was closely monitored over a course of four weeks. The whole concept of user experience (UX) was thoroughly studied in mobile and health wearables, since it is a key element that helps users understand, interpret, derive motivation and act on their personal data.
The empirical analysis and detailed findings of this study implied that users’ motivation and self-efficacy are very much dependent on successful data, content design, sending context and having the ability to provide valuable and appropriate feedback to the user regarding their health and fitness activities.
Self-determination Theory (SDT) framework was found to be one of the deciding factors in future app design and UX guidelines incorporating self-efficacy and heuristics in the mobile healthcare and fitness wearable technology. This should be part of user engagement strategy for product designers and app developers of wearable devices to gain maximum results in this market niche.
When considering how to increase user engagement in wearables, looking at the trends is probably a great place to start! Even though the world has been hit by a major pandemic lately, the year 2020 is still seen as a massive year of growth in the wearable sector – specifically the health and fitness devices and technologies such as AI, 5G, 3D Printing and Wearable technology, Digital Twins, etc.
Statista reported a total revenue of $27 billion in the global wearable technology industry in 2018. By the end of 2020, this figure is estimated to increase to $44.4 billion.
The upward trend in the wearable industry clearly shows the enormous opportunity for health and fitness wearable manufacturers and app developers to meet the ever-increasing demand of existing and potential new users.
Emarketer reports that in the initial years of wearable technology, growth was mostly witnessed in the low-priced fitness tracker niche. However, wearable devices such as smartwatches, hearables, smart glasses and smart clothing are gaining substantial market share and constantly attracting new audiences from all walks of life and age brackets.
The aforementioned report further suggests that wearable technology mostly attracted the younger people for a few years. In 2015, 24% from the age bracket of 25-24 owned a wearable device in contrast to the 6.5% from the age bracket of 55-64 having one of those devices. In 2019, the younger audience is still the largest group to own a wearable device, with an increase of 38%. However, old age consumers were also expected to increase to a 13.2%. With this being said, wearable technology holds a big opportunity in the coming years for the older generation as well – one of the signs why Apple offered new health features in their latest Apple Watch.
In November last year, Google acquired FitBit, the leading health and fitness wearable brand, for $2.1 billion. Even though there has been widespread criticism regarding the acquisition, with many speculating the deal could pose a serious threat to users’ privacy, this deal is still considered and predicted to be vital for both the parties involved.
According to Google device SVP Rick Osterloh, Google has made substantial in-roads in the wearable industry in recent years – mainly by partnering with Wear OS and Google Fit and this deal could pave way for more innovation in Wear OS and introduction of wearable devices that are made by Google.
On the other hand, FitBit did enjoy a huge amount of success initially since they were the pioneers in the wrist-worn tracker industry. However, in recent years, the brand has struggled since the introduction and growth of smartwatches that has taken over the health and fitness tracker market to a great extent. According to FitBit CEO and co-founder James Park, the brand is expected to accelerate innovation in the wearables technology using Google’s global platform.
A disturbing statistical report published by National Sexual Violence Resource Center showed that 1 in every 5 women in the United States have been raped or sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, while 1 in 71 men have gone through similar sexual assaults. The use of wearable gadgets are expected to bring the number of these incidents down in the US and elsewhere around the world.
It is a gadget which is camouflaged as a piece of garment and can effectively work in case of a fall or use of force. The device is connected to the phone via Bluetooth and the user can either close the function in case of a false alarm or enable an emergency rape button if the assault is actually taking place. In addition to this, the phone will still be able to send distress signals to the concerned authorities in case the attacker overpowers the user and the user is unable to close the app within 5 seconds from the first point of fall or force detection.
Let us now have a brief overview of three renowned organizations that have made effective use of wearable technology into their respective business environments:
BP – a global energy organization, began using wearable technology way back in 2013. At present, more than 75% of participants enroll themselves in the company’s annual Million Step Challenge and more than 79% achieve their goal.
In order to add more goals beyond the one million steps, and smaller goals for those who are less active, BP has modified the program over the years to meet the expectations of its participants.
Emory University in Atlanta – launched Healthy Emory, a wearable program, in 2014. Using its results from five sites, Emory made further modifications and redesigned the program’s effectiveness and offered it to all its employees the following year. The Move More Challenge was a fun activity for its participants to encourage team-based social support and friendly competition.
In 2015, the program expanded with 6,300 Emory employees participating in the challenge. It was observed that 82% of those employees remained active for the complete 8-week period. A survey was conducted once the program ended and two astonishing stats were uncovered – 67% stated that this was their first experience with a wearable device, while 82% said they used the wearable device every day of the challenge.
Ochsner Health System – a New Orleans-based regional hospital network, started a program in 2008 that focused on offering its employees a free wearable device and giving them an incentive upon reaching a target number of steps.
Over the years, it has been learnt that Ochsner employees who regularly use wearable devices have lower medical costs in comparison to those employees who do not.
The technological sphere is evolving more and more in recent times. The wearable industry is constantly witnessing new additions of gadgets and devices like bracelets, headphones, clothes, glasses, running shoes, rings, etc. This industry is all set to grow at a higher rate in the coming years – giving a clear indication of the importance of user engagement in wearable technology.
Health and fitness wearable devices have already made noticeable progress in recent times. It is just a matter of time when every other person around us will be owning one of these wearable devices.
Long before the pandemic hit the world, there was a growing percentage of people relying on mobile banking apps. Gone are the days when you would have to physically visit your bank or meet up with your branch representative to get the very basic of financial activities and transactions done.
However, ever since the world got adversely affected by COVID-19, finance apps became more volatile. Like other business sectors, the banking and financial apps also saw upward trends in terms of usage – while the world economies dropped to their significant lows in decades.
The worst part for all of us is the fact that no one knows for how long this pandemic might last. In order to make sure people can safely continue to make transactions on their phone, app product managers and developers need to ‘up’ their game in terms of user engagement and retention.
In this article, we’ll delve the following 10 statistics on banking and finance app’s User engagement:
The first question that needs to be addressed by a bank or any other financial institution is why their customers need a mobile banking app? What are the various financial activities being made and with what frequency? What areas need to be focused more than the others?
Below is a 2018 report that shows the core reasons of mobile banking apps usage in the US:
Image Source: Staistica
App development needs to be carried out in a way that meets the core expectations of its users in accordance with their main reason for using the app to interact with the financial institution. Taking into account the above trends, 90% of app users used their mobile app in order to check their account balance. In contrast, only 19% used it for opening up a new account. These sort of trends should assist developers and app managers to identify the key areas that need to be addressed.
With 89% of their user base also having Facebook’s app and 82% also have Instagram, Venmo might signify a shift towards more Gen Zer, or Millenial style banking and finance apps, that you’d expect from the typical Facebook or Instagram user. Not a lot of financial apps make use of the ‘newsfeed’ functionality, the way we see on social media platforms. Venmo, a famous digital wallet these days, stands out in this regard since it makes the feed public. This means that users can see where and with whom their friends spent their money, while following data privacy guidelines at the same time.
Another credit score reports provider, Credit Karma, came up with the idea of ‘Stories’ that enables its users to make full use of the app via AI-based suggestions and recommendations for them. For example, if a user’s credit score has recently improved, it might prompt the user with a message like ‘Great time for a cheaper car insurance’.
Digital payment has already been witnessing an upward trend since the past few years. According to a report, in 2016, non-cash transactions amounted to 482.6 billion globally with a growth rate of 10.1%. These figures are expected to grow with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 12.7% by 2021.
The concept of mobile wallets have seen enormous success. According to the findings published by Business Insider Intelligence, more than half of credit unions that were surveyed witnessed a 56% annual increase in mobile wallet adoption and a 53% in transactions. For developers and app managers, it is the best time to come up with mobile wallet offerings for their app users where they can easily link up their debit and credit cards for contactless payments.
The way users behave in an app varies from one business model to another. There will always be different expectations across different app niches for a user. According to a report, the users in the banking and finance sector have a lower bar of happiness as compared to other sectors. Also, they are less likely to change since their expectations from the app are observed to be a lower level, too.
Here is an analysis conducted by Apptentive in the mobile banking and finance apps sector in terms of Android and iOS users:
Image Source: Apptentive
According to this data, the difference of customer sentiments is visible when it comes to apps in iOS and Android platforms. With 73% positive emotions and 20% negative emotions, Android apps are clearly taking the lead against their iOS counterpart apps. However, converting unhappy customers to satisfied customers is also low on Android apps.
In addition to this, the New or Repeat Fans number is above the general average. New or Repeat Risks sections are also lower than the general average number, giving an indication of the different behavior observed when it comes to the way people use their financial apps.
Also, as per this research, financial apps usage frequency is low since transactions are usually not made every day, specifically during these difficult times. As a result of this, in-app actions are also low. As a developer or a marketer, one needs to know such statistics in order to improve app efficiency across various platforms during the pandemic and even after that.
This is, without a doubt, one of the most important factors in the banking and finance app industry. Back in the day when financial apps were not common, people used to be reluctant to sign up for banking apps due to security concerns.
Numerous incidents of credit card data leakages and banking app hacked by fraudsters were reported in the US and elsewhere, and still it is a major issue for mobile developers and app managers. In 2019, 28% of businesses were attacked with a botnet infection. One-third of all cyberattacks were carried out by insiders and more than 27% of businesses worldwide got affected with mobile devices related threats. Financial apps and mobile banking malware crossed 50% in the first half of 2019. Below are some of the best practices that can be used to secure a financial app:
It is about time that app managers and developers pay a lot of heed towards the overall user-friendliness of a financial app. According to a report in 2018, 75% percent of adults in the U.S. used internet or mobile banking, which is expected to reach 77.6 percent by 2022.
With such increasing numbers, it is needless to say that app design will play a vital role in how a financial app performs with its competitors. As far as financial services organizations are concerned, here is a survey conducted by the Financial Brand in terms of top priorities for major brands:
Image Source: The Financial Brand
According to the TFB, the order of the top three priorities remained the same as it was the year before that (2017), with ‘enhancing digital experience’ being the top strategic priority with 72% of brands having the same priority level.
UX (user experience) is all about the functionalities and processes of a mobile app. A good UX means the digital product is easy to use. On the other hand, UI (user interface) covers all the visual parameters that a user will see on his or her mobile device. A good UI means a decent theme from one screen to another, graphics, animations, layout, format, font, etc.
Gone are the days when banking applications would just be about basic banking products and services to its users. In today’s tech-savvy digital era, the concept of open APIs (accelerated programming interfaces) has gained a strong foothold that, eventually, benefits the customers of almost every business model. According to Insider Intelligence predictions, the revenue potential in the UK via Open Banking APIs could reach around $2 billion by the year 2024. This is a 25% compound annual growth rate.
Today, banks offer services and enhancements either by working on their own, or collaborating with financial technology service providers – possible only due to the existence of APIs. These platforms enable efficient, secure and advanced sharing of data between two or more independent systems. Using third-party services or in-house technology, developers and app managers are able to constantly improve their financial apps as per the needs of the online banking industry.
Famous actor Johnny Depp once said in one of his movies, ‘the one who falls behind, is left behind.’ That is how quickly an organization, even a large-scale bank, can go out of business within no time. According to a Juniper research in 2018, iOS and Android banking apps users will grow with a 14% YOY rate, while the traditional online banking clients will only have 6% users. At present, around half of the digital banking users interact with their banks using their banking apps.
Here is a readiness index for digital transformation for major banks:
Image Source: Diceus
In the modern-day world, an individual’s mobile phone knows a lot more about him or her than their own family members or friends. Using the right channels and permissions in accordance with the provided guidelines in terms of user’s privacy, financial apps can offer greater value than they ever did till date. Big data is tipped to be a huge alley of the banking and finance industry in the future. Not just for baking and finance apps.
One of the main ways in which big data can helping banking and finance apps, is by helping executives to make data-backed decisions about their users. Secondly, it offers an opportunity to offer a more tailored, personalised experience to the banking end user, through acquiring knowledge of those users through big data. According to Oracle, “84% of the surveyed executives agree that customers are looking for a more individualized, tailored experience”. Thus, we think big data will make a huge impact in coming years, and is a deserving inclusion in this list of the top 10 banking and finance app engagement statistics.
In recent times, a lot of businesses have introduced chatbots in order to achieve service excellence at minimal costs. It’s becoming rare for organizations to hire human resource for tasks that can be efficiently carried out by AI-based chatbot.
In 2017, a PWC research found that 30% of large financial corporations and institutions plan to invest in AI and chatbots. In addition to this, AI-focused fintech business startups have gained higher investments with an average of $1 billion in investments in the preceding two years.
Financial apps have seen similar trends. Chatbots are usually integrated with apps and provide a communication channel between a user and the institution. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, bots can be trained on thousands of data sets and queries that can be used by digital marketers, app developers and sales team to drive organizational growth via predictive analysis and forecasts.
The frequency at which financial apps are used comes in third behind social media and weather apps – in 2019, consumers accessed financial and banking apps over one trillion times. However, financial institutions, app managers and developers find it quite hard to achieve good retention rates.
Leanplum and Liftoff reported that after a day of signing up for a financial app, only 34.8% of users stay. After one week, this number dropped to 14.9%% and after 90 days, it is only 3.4%. If we compare it with the general retention rate of 5%, it is quite evident that retaining users over financial apps is by no means an easy task. Keeping all the aforementioned stats and trends into consideration, it is about time that app developers and product developers bring in all their expertise and experience to full effect in order to achieve noticeable prominence in the world of finance apps – a world that generated more than $3 billion in venture funding in the first three quarters of 2019 alone.
Ever since the pandemic struck the world, it reshaped the global app industry. Although mobile apps worldwide witnessed a spike in terms of usage, global mobile advertising budgets shrunk to a great extent – the CPM steeply dropped by 14.8%. A lot has been going on in the mobile apps arena the past couple of months, let us have a look at some of the major news, stories, and events during the month of May:
Source: 9to5Mac
On May 20, 2020, Apple rolled out its stable version of iOS 13.5. The most prominent highlight of this iOS version is that it comes with features to curb the spread of COVID-19.
If you are wearing a face mask, you will be able to unlock an iPhone using Face ID much faster than before. This is one of the core elements of the iOS 13.5 update, particularly for those who are part of the healthcare system and working tirelessly to save lives.
The all-new COVID Exposure Notification is another highlight of the iOS 13.5 update. It works by informing the people you came into contact with the past 14 days, should you test positive for the COVID-19. Similarly, it informs the same to you as well if someone you came into contact with tested positive. However, it requires a public health authority or a government-approved application to be installed before you can turn on this feature on your iPhone.
In addition to the above core changes, this update also includes features such as Medical ID that lets you record your medical data and history in case of emergency. This also allows you to share your medical record with a 911 dispatcher. Also, there are bug fixes and modifications made to Group FaceTime, security problems, black screen issue while playing streaming videos, etc.
In light of the recent events and the challenging times that we all are collectively going through, Google cancelled the Google I/O this year. Having said that, it’s not all bad news for the developers. On May 6, 2020, Google announced the launch of Flutter’s first stable update, the cross-platform app development framework by Google. It did take a little longer as the organization has been revisiting its infrastructure for a new launching process. In addition to this, Google also launched its Dart Programming language version 2.8. You can read more about what value these updates bring for the developers here.
Whether effective or not, there are multiple apps being designed and some of them have been launched already to detect your COVID-19 exposure. Various healthcare sectors and government officials require data that can assist them in limiting the spread of the COVID-19. You can view the top 25 Covid-19 tracking apps from around the world on this source.
Source: Yahoo. An example of the type of influencer collaboration Alibaba is seeking.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, a lot of businesses have refocused on their social media platforms and digital outlets, which they might not have been using to full effect previously. The Chinese giant, Alibaba Group, joined in the race, too.
It recently announced that it will collaborate with 100,000 influencers and content creators across platforms like Instagram and TikTok in order to boost online business revenues. This will be part of the AliExpress Connect platform that connects social media influencers with small and large brands for campaigns.
Source: App Samurai. App Samurai has collated some of the impacts of COVID-19 on various app verticals. The conclusion: not all news is bad news!
Global lockdowns haven’t been bad news for everyone – TikTok, the short-form video app company saw a massive surge when it hit the 2 billion mark in terms of app downloads. April revenues stood at $78 million. YouTube stood at second position when it comes to app revenues – recording a whopping $76 million in gross revenues. This was a 57% year-on-year increase recorded by the video-sharing giant.
Ever since the world has been instructed to stay home and give up their social interactions due to the coronavirus, the mobile games app industry saw an upward trend in terms of app downloads and in-app purchases. In comparison with January this year, the mobile app downloads witnessed a 35% increase in the month of March. The Gaming Spotlight 2020 Review Report talks about the impact of COVID-19 on the global mobile app industry.
Also, mixed user behavior was observed as far as banner ads, in-game video ads and rewarded video ads were concerned. The ones who played for 15 hours or more a week were more ‘okay’ with banner ads, as compared to those who played less. On the other hand, one in ten gamers stated that they preferred in-game video ads – that was 23% of the total number surveyed. 18% said they liked in-game ads.
The programmatic ad company that specializes in non-intrusive ads in video games recently announced a $500k investment to scale the capabilities of its platform. The company provides various tools to game developers that they can use to integrate display ads in the gaming arena.
Source: Business of Apps.
Ever since the lockdowns came into effect around the world, dating apps experienced a steep increase in terms of downloads, usage, session durations, etc. According to AppAnnie, a mobile data and analytics platform, renowned dating app Bumble experienced an increase in messages and video call sessions among its users. During March and April, user sessions went up by 40% in the US as compared to the January weekly average.
It was recently reported that over 35% of consumers prefer targeted mobile ads based on their purchase history, 34% preferred browsing history while 33% went with the website they were actively browsing. This is one of the important metrics in modern-day digital advertising since billions of dollars are spent each year in mobile ads.
Source: Techcrunch
Facebook recently announced the launch of Venue, a platform to engage fans during live events. With this app, the internal team at Facebook that focuses on new concepts within social networking, aims to offer a platform for fans and followers to participate, comment, engage and share their views during live events, mainly sports.
This will greatly challenge Twitter, which is currently the ‘second screen’ used by millions of users worldwide during live events. The usage of ‘hashtags’ on Twitter lets the fans to comment on their favorite events while engaging with other fans as well that share similar interests towards a live event.
Reducing app battery drainage is actually quite simple. Get started with 6+ easy tips you can implement in your app today to increase user engagement in your app.
Instagram, the app giant famous for promoting aspirational social media goals and in-app stories, has recently begun testing and re-testing new revenue streams.
The social media behemoth, this week has launched new tools that enable Instagram creators to earn money, through the mechanism of Instagram badges and IGTV ads. Both launches are a test, as Instagram is offering limited features during this phase. in a press release statement, Instagram stated:
“Badges will give viewers a way to support their favorite creators while also standing out in the comments, similar to efforts on other live video platforms, like YouTube and Twitch. There will be different “heart” badges viewers can choose from, offered at price points of $0.99 for one heart, $1.99 for two hearts, or $4.99 for three hearts. Viewers can only buy one badge during a live video.”
Once being bought, the badges will appear alongside to the badge owners’ name during a live video whilst they comment, enabling helps them to stand out. This assists creators to easily see which fans are supporting them and possibly give them a shout-out or interact further with their supporters. Additionally, creators can see a list of all their badge holders.
Instagram has been on the rise for years and has recently become the most popular social media platform. Instagram itself was bought by Facebook in 2012 for 760 million euros. It currently has over 1 billion users worldwide – including over 17 million monthly users in Germany alone.
The addition of the IGTV video ads comes after criticism of their video upload length. Until recently, this was a mere 60 seconds. However, this has changed with the new “IGTV” feature, earlier this year. Although this was launched to a rocky start, due to Covid-19 and the increase in demand for content, IGTV has seen a slight resurgence.
IGTV? Yes, you read that correctly! You may have noticed a new little icon in your Instagram app recently. This is Instagram’s new video function, which finally lets you post videos that are longer than 60 seconds.
Tik Tok, which is the non-Chinese version of the original Chinese app Douyin (抖音), also has similar virtual gifts that can be purchased in-app and given to streamers.
Instagram’s badges will be live next month with a small group of Instagram chosen creators to launch to feature to a few select markets including Germany, Spain, Brazil, the U.K., France, Italy, Turkey, and Mexico, with eventual plans to become available in the U.S.
Instagram is not taking a share of the revenue profit during this testing phase. Later, this will change however, as Instagram is set to take an undisclosed portion of the advertising revenue, should this become a permanent feature.
Whilst this might seem like numerous social media apps are jumping on the fan-funded bandwagon, this is actually a trend that existed long before it was introduced to companies such as Facebook and Instagram. The trend originally was exported from Asia, with company’s such as Bili Bili and Douyin allowing their user’s to buy their favorite live streamers virtual ‘gifts’.
Live streamers on BiliBili reportedly make up to 1 million RMB per month.
Jumping back to the second part of this Instagram news story – IGTV.
Instagram is already everyone’s favorite photo app, that’s for sure. Now, with the launch of IGTV, it may also become the most popular video app. Similar to YouTube, IGTV is a video portal on which users can create their own channels if they want to distribute videos themselves.
Access is possible in two ways: via the app provided, or via the button in the Instagram feed.
The videos on IGTV, like normal posts, can be given a title and description. The main difference to Instagram videos in the feed is the (maximum) length.
Clips can be up to 10 minutes long on IGTV! So far, the maximum length was 60 seconds. A huge step forward! Verified accounts are even available for an hour.
In its early days, shortly after the launch of the video platform integrated in Instagram, IGTV did not meet expectations. Neither that of Instagram itself nor that of the users on the platform.
Although videos are becoming increasingly important in social media marketing, some factors, such as the limitation to vertical videos, were a hurdle that content creators were largely unwilling to overcome.
In the meantime, this sluggish seems to have been overcome. An important reason for this is two innovations in the recent past:
Instagram now allows you to post a preview of IGTV videos in the feed. This preview clip can be up to a minute long. Then users can decide whether they want to continue watching the clip on IGTV. This integrates IGTV much more into the feed and allows users to become aware of the clips in an “organic” way.
In addition to vertical, horizontal videos are now also permitted. This means that content creators no longer have to produce vertical videos specifically for Instagram TV.
The innovations mentioned are probably only to be seen as the beginning! If the popularity of the video offers continues to increase, IGTV could soon, similar to other video portals like YouTube, introduce opportunities to make money with the clips.
This would further strengthen IGTV’s standing and perhaps even lead some influencers to focus entirely on IGTV. Why be active on other platforms when your own target group is already on IGTV anyway? Now IGTV is supporting ads, that add an additional revenue stream for the content posters. This is a test, however.
Think your company, app or brand is onto something big? We search in answer of the question: how to know if you got the next big thing?
How to drive user engagement in your app? With this app engagement 101 guide, we will answer just this!
A few years ago, Gartner predicted that in 2018, less than 0.01 percent of consumer mobile apps will be considered economically successful.
However, most companies don’t sell their products and brands on the motto of ‘we’re just another average unsuccessful app’. Most brands, products, and companies claim to be the next big thing (check any job description, SaaS homepage, or investment round). Every app is the next app to rock the food and beverage world, every newly designed advertising platform will supposedly revolutionize digital advertising and every newly coded development tool will change the development community. Whatever your persuasion, there is a company, app, brand, or product touting their imminent dominance in the market. But how do you know it is true? I’m actually (and I mean actually) going to attempt to answer this question. Wish me luck!
In this article/
We take a look into Tomas Goetz’ observations about what the next big thing usually looks like
I decided that finding out what the experts think of this matter, was probably the best way to start. Tomas Goetz is the Executive Editor of WIRED, wrote an article on CNBC titled “Seven Ways to Spot the Next Big Thing”. There he details the following common themes he has observed over watching two decades of successful businesses that have changed the world. He mentions:
This talks about the power of cross-disciplinary ideas and theories, as well as products, theories, ideas, and brands that can affect multiple categories and sectors. It makes sense.
In this tip, he describes exponentials in a very broad way, as something with almost limitless possibilities, applications, and use. He references various dropbox packages with endless data storage or Moore’s law of limitless iteration and the limitless potential of YouTube + broadband. Whatever your interpretation of ‘exponentials’, Tomas believes that numerous big movers in our industry have had an element of this, somehow.
“bringing liquidity to locked-up assets.” – Reid Hoffman, the philosopher-investor. Here, Tomas has quoted the philosopher as having summed up this point. Numerous successful companies have brought plenty to places where there was none. Have liberated locked-up assets and taken advantage of idle or underused resources. Here Tomas references Uber and AirBnB as taking stock of an under-used housing and transport inventory. There are other successful parallels one can draw, such as Google Display Network (taking up unused website space), Etsy (unused talent and time of freelancers) or gofundme.com (unused money). A lot of companies that follow such principles often fall under the peer-to-peer model, which has been popularized in the 21st century.
Here, Tomas makes an invaluable point. That if you want the next revolutionary app or business, it needs to solve a big problem. A parking meter app will remain just this – a parking meter app. Unless of course, it’s framework can be applied to solve bigger, more common problems.
This point discusses more about working and organizational culture as well as some successful mindsets. One positive workplace characteristic mentioned is to have a workplace with people having “shared goals” that works towards a company’s objectives. Makes sense. He also discussed flexibility instead of hierarchy and short-term instead of long-term gains prioritization.
This point is simple: good design matters. Good design is important. Good design is not easy.
I have interpreted this last point to be to follow ideas and products that are built upon passion. Ask yourself, what activities are people willingly wasting their time on? Whatever those talented people are willingly doing for hours on a Friday night with their free time – use those skills. Whatever your employees are happily using in their free breaks, consider a product around that tool or item.
There has been a lot of research into the correlation between one’s face and personality. Some of this research has supported the idea that some faces are perceived to be more ‘successful’ than others. One study in this branch of research surveyed 100 participants on 50 CEOs (taken from the top 25 and lowest 25 Fortune 1000 companies).
The participants were shown a photo of each one of these CEOs (with no further information) and asked to rate their perceived ability to run a company, along with various other traits associated with positive leadership (dominance, competence, likability, trustworthiness, etc). Results found that student’s perceptions of the CEO’s leadership abilities were positively correlated to the CEO’s company’s financial performance and success.
Thus, it begs the question – is there such a thing as a successful face?
You might retort that this is merely a coincidence. It is not, the mere existence of a correlational relationship negates this. So what does this mean? Whilst you might jump to the conclusion that somebody’s face, will forever pave their destiny for future success, this may and may not be true. On the one hand, some people have inherent traits correlated to success and those traits might affect how they look (e.g. dominance can affect one’s success, and dominance is also caused by testosterone that also affects the formation of the face when growing up).
On the other hand, this could be explained by social psychology. People are perceived as successful, therefore are treated as successful, which causes them to be successful and so on and so forth. Whilst a correlational study is not the same as a causational study, it does indicate a relationship between one’s face and success. Or at least, a perceived relationship.
Therefore, there is something to be said for the leaders of a company, having a bigger impact than just their work performance. Perhaps even societal perception, which is completely outside of their control, could impact a company’s success as well. Thus, perhaps if you want to know if the company you work for, the app you’ve just created, or the brand you are promoting will be the next big thing – perhaps take a closer look at your leaders! Crazy thought, isn’t it.
Apps are, in my opinion, the great economic and societal equalizer. Their low barrier to entry, relatively low cost of development, and market accessibility makes it the perfect inclusive product for consumers and businesses. Thus, I love the app industry, as I believe it offers billions of people cost-effective tools, whilst also giving people from less developed economies the chance to pursue their dreams.
So, what happens if you want to be the next big app that will forever change the app industry? So, we’ve heard thought leaders’ qualitative opinions about the matter. However, is there any quantitative evidence on the subject? Well, I’m glad you asked! I refer to the following studies:
In the study, ‘The determinants of Mobile Apps Success: Evidence from the App Store’, the paper details the following correlations to app success, sustainability, and survival:
“We find that broadening App offerings across multiple categories is a key determinant that contributes to a higher probability of survival in the top charts. App-level attributes such as free App offers, high initial ranks, investment in less popular (less competitive) categories, continuous quality updates, and high volume and high user review scores have positive impacts on Apps’ sustainability. In general, each diversification decision across a category results in approximately a 15% increase in the presence of an App in the top charts. Survival rates for free Apps are up to two times more than that for paid Apps. Quality (feature) updates to Apps can contribute up to a three-fold improvement in survival rate as well.”
Most of what is said is common sense. However, this is the nature of peer-reviewed research papers. They seek to illuminate and falsify the facts, so people can make evidence-based decisions. However, obviously app ‘sustainability’ and being the ‘next big thing’ are certainly two very different concepts. However, it is not possible to be the next best thing, if you have not survived. So, this is again, another good starting point.
Let’s unpack the above-loaded quote. Quality updates, and reviews are correlated to app sustainability – makes sense. This could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Apps that have high-quality updates are in a position to do so because they are successful. This does not mean that if you’re a terrible app, with quality updates, you’re bound to succeed. No.
Or maybe yes? Who knows!
The diversification really interests me. It makes sense, the more markets you open your app to, the more potential users. However, I’m sure this comes with a ‘but’. Obviously, you must still deliver on your app’s promises. No use branching your ‘baby and mums’ app out into the ‘gaming’ category with one flimsy in-app game feature. But, I’m sure you didn’t need me to say that.
Moving on, what does ‘Star Apps: App originality and interdependence as predictors of app success’ say? I was actually surprised by the results. Their test of 1000 android app’s source code was measured for numerous variables (complexity, originality etc). They were tested for their ‘success’ which was measured by app reviews and downloads. These are their results:
“App originality was found to have a negative association with user reviews, and a negative association moderated by app complexity with the number of downloads. App interdependence was found to have a positive association with highly downloaded apps compared against low-downloaded apps.”
Certainly, not the kind of results I would have expected. However, the full report is here, if you’d like to unpack it.
In the study: “Customer Rating Reactions Can Be Predicted Purely Using App Features” it states that with their analysis of over 11,000 Android and Blackberry apps, that they were able to predict using a model-based purely off app features (as written in their respective app stores) the quality of future app reviews. This is interesting, as it could not only tell you what future features to release in your app but also how your app would fare upon release.
As this is such a broad and subjective topic, there is probably no right or wrong answer (duh). However, there are some interesting lines of inquiry. There is probably a whole surplus of tactics one could employ to be successful. However, I’m sure that all of the effort required to follow each one of these tactics would take away from the precious time required to actually produce a quality app, product, or brand.
Personally, I would recommend getting an overview of the above information (and further research), and understanding the mental, organizational and economic mechanisms that are often correlated to success. Then I would suggest implementing these ideas and frameworks into your existing frameworks. I suspect this would be a more successful strategy rather than adhering to strict ‘success’ rules and guidelines.
Stay tuned for part II – we take a retrospective look at some currently successful companies, and their earlier pitch decks, how you can possibly quantify success with artificial intelligence and Moore’s law.
Beacon technology and 5G? What about mobile wallets and increased mobile security. Check out the top trends we think will impact the mobile app development community in 2020 and beyond!
Congratulations app maker! You have successfully attained your first user from the app store. ‘Tis a day to rejoice! Though maker beware – bringing a user into your app is only half the ‘story’. If one is to aim their efforts at user acquisition only, they’ll find themselves with a high user turnover rate because the second part of the game is:
Not to be neglected, user engagement encompasses the part of the app’s user experience that is aimed at keeping users enthralled and thus retaining them. For instance, a game at its core is an application that is made up of finite possibilities and experiences, but in order to not make this experience a repetitive one, games use live events to keep users coming back for more, for instance, Live Raids in Raid Shadow Legends or Special Events in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. Each app category uses its own quirks or gimmicks to keep users engaged and retained, it’s a simple construct: Would you be inclined to use an online shopping app that has sales on its products or one that keeps static prices across the board? E-commerce apps tend to use discounts as an in-app engagement mechanism to keep their customers close and their wallets closer still. Though, as aforementioned, just having discounts or ‘better’ app content is only half the game, the question is: How do you present it to your users and that too, in a way that keeps them coming back?
Talking about the presentation, Instagram learned that users attached too much prestige to their ‘gram posts, it was all about the glamour and gloss of the photo: Which filter to use? Which hashtags to add? What caption goes with the picture? What time should one post in order to gain maximum likes? (If you really want to know, Tuesday mid-day is the best time and Saturday is the worst day, you’re welcome!) This leads us to the question: How can an app known for its lavish and high maintenance nature make itself more accessible for casual users to upload more content and (hence) engage with the app?
In October 2013, Snapchat brought user engagement to a whole new level when it introduced Stories to the mix; it was simple, casual, and social. Instagram shamelessly picked up on this model, seeing it as the answer to its “too posh for the masses” problem and perfected it for its audience (and now Instagram Stories is nearly twice as popular than all of Snapchat together in terms of daily active users). In addition to Stories, Instagram also resorted to hiding users like counts in order to allow them to focus more on their content and less on their like counts (but that’s a conversation for another time).
Users were uploading and creating their content for others to see and react to on a much more frequent basis, since that they would disappear after 24 hours and not as permanent as the normal posts you would see on Instagram.
Click once to forward, respond and/or move between Stories, swipe sideways to move between story groups and swipe up to view a link within the story; the minimal effort required in viewing a myriad of visual content made them into the fool-proof answer to the complicated question of how to make content presentable in a way that boosts in-app engagement.
The shorter intervals between users uploading stories means they get to know each other and learn what the people they follow are all about. Instagram is a social app after all, and through Stories, we ‘engage’ with the lifestyles of the accounts we follow. App creators quickly started to catch up with the fact that Stories were leading to a surge in in-app user activity.
Having introduced Instagram Stories in 2016, Instagram saw a sharp increase in their MAU (Monthly Active User) count by 400M within just a year!
With some 31% of Instagram users posting them every month and 47% of users viewing them every week, Stories became a new trendsetter as the leading in-app engagement tool for apps. Business accounts on Instagram also began to notice this trend, which brings us to our next point of discussion.
Businesses on Instagram learned that Stories are one of the best methods of promoting visual content within apps; they could promote their own content with context by presenting them in the same fashion and build their audiences and engagements.
Stories led to the birth of Carousel Ads, an interactive form of advertisement that combines images and videos in a more appealing way that blends right into the user experience of swiping through ads; it’s almost like you are swiping through the story of an account you would be following on Instagram. The more seamlessly integrated the ad – the more interactions users will have with it. Now with Stories really taking off as a bonafide in-app engagement technique, is it necessary for businesses to use Instagram, Snapchat, and/or Facebook just to put out their content?
Given Instagram and Snapchat’s success with Stories, one could argue that there are many new ways we can play with their functions. What if an app creator could use the same model to provide their own content to users to view with more ease in their own app?
Businesses are using Stories because it’s simply more easy and appealing for users to view. So much so, that an array of different Story-editing tools have arisen like VSCO or InShot just to make their content stand out. If this is a positive way of promoting engagement with your end-users, why not employ the same tactic within your app as well to show users your content? This is now possible with thanks to the geniuses behind Storyly.
Storyly is a very simple tool that brings the familiar Stories format that we all have come to cherish to every app that wants to create and publish their very own Stories in their apps.
With the help of a one-step integration process, developers can create and edit spectacular content into Story form and also integrate Stories they’ve already posted on other social media, like Instagram or Snapchat for instance, into their own app.
I suppose you’d like to know more about how Storyly is useful for different kinds of apps?
Thought you’d never ask! We’ve already gone over the correlation between stories and in-app engagement but let’s delve just a little deeper into specifics with some different kinds of apps so that you can get a better picture.
These are just some of the many different creative ways that app developers can make use of Stories within their apps to promote user engagement. If you’d like to learn more about how Storyly can suit your vertical, do check out the website for more information!
If you’d like to give Storyly a shot, it’s free for apps that have up to 25K Monthly Active Users, and for bigger apps there’s a free trial to test Storyly’s premium features. I’ll leave a link here in case you’d like to check out the integration page and then bring the joy of Stories to your app.
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Storyly brings the power of stories to your mobile app to deliver relevant and meaningful stories.
