Future of Mobile App Development - Trends 2021
Today, mobile app development is among the growing sectors in the global app market. In 2021, mobile app market revenue is expected to reach $693 billion. The number of smartphone users grew immensely these years and is roughly 7 billion worldwide. Needless to say, every mobile app development company is interested in releasing mobile apps for these tech-savvy users. Besides that, businesses continue pushing boundaries with mobile app innovations and development. According to the research, 42% of small businesses have built a mobile app to offer their services, and 30% plan to develop a mobile app in the future. Mobile app development offers benefits for a business: going digital and competitive, showing the presence on the market, attracting more customers, etc.

So what are mobile application development future trends going to be?

Artificial Intelligence
AI will play an important role and remains a mobile app development trend in 2021 and further. We believe this technology can bring more personalized app experiences that respond to users' needs. Worldwide revenue from the AI market is forecasted to reach $125 billion by 2023. In the future, most AI apps will be developed using technologies such as machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics. This will allow mobile app developers to deliver a more personalized experience in their applications, and apps will be able to learn from a user's previous actions and usage patterns allowing AI to implement necessary actions without being told to do so. For instance, AI features that can be included in a mobile app are:

Face detection
Image recognition
Speech recognition
Predictive maintenance
Text and image classification
We believe it's not a limit and we will hear about new features soon

AR and VR in the Mobile App Industry
Augmented reality is a modified reality version created with the help of computer-generated elements on a real image. To make this possible AR apps use QR codes, geolocation data, or the object recognition feature. Virtual reality is a technology where users wear a headset and are fully engaged in computer-generated reality.

According to the report, the AR market size is predicted to increase to more than $198 billion by 2025. Known before as a player in the entertainment arena, AR/VR will expand its reach in other sectors as shown in the picture

Future of Mobile App Development - Trends 2021

Implementing AR and VR technologies into app design in any industry gives developers an opportunity to create a more personalized and immersive user experience.

Trends of VR & AR:

AR-based virtual user manual
Learning processes
Virtual training simulations
Exploration activities
Live concerts
Destination navigator
Augmented and Virtual reality became important tools during a year of pandemic. We believe these technologies will evolve more and make an impact on more industries.

Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT is an internet-connected network of globally-used digital devices that share and transfer all the needed data to users. Internet of Things market is expected to reach $318 billion by 2023, worldwide. $161 billion of that estimate will come from software, like mobile apps. According to Statista, IoT is also predicted to be one of the top trending software development technologies with $1.6 trillion by 2025. Examples of IoT are virtual assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant. They form an interactive bridge between the IoT progressive tools and the tech-savvy end-users of these life-changing devices. Also, IoT technology is seen in:

smart homes (connected lights, smart refrigerator, smart kettle, doors, windows, thermostat, etc.)
Learning processes
wearable technologies (smart glass, activity trackers)
traffic and waste management
city safety monitoring
water distribution (garden irrigation systems and others)
Future of Mobile App Development - Trends 2021

Cross-Platform Development
Depending on your business needs, the technology for your mobile app can differ. If you want to get a market-ready application quickly and there are not too many complex features to implement, then it's better to prefer cross-platform application development. The future mobile apps trend will be developing on cross platforms which means the apps can be used on different mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows, etc)

A survey on mobile operating systems states that Android is a leading mobile OS holding 74.6% of the market share, while iOS takes 24.82%. The most popular cross-platform mobile frameworks to build apps are React Native and Flutter.

React Native
React Native was released by the Facebook team in 2015. Today it is used for building cross-platform mobile applications with client-oriented UI/UX. Advantages of React Native:

Offers platform-specific UI that feels like a native
Simple and seamless UX
Allows cross-platform apps to run on the web too
Optimal performance
Live and hot reload function
Cost and time-efficient
Well-developed ecosystem
Large, mature community
Some of the well-known cross-platform apps built with React Native: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest.

Flutter
Flutter, developed by Google, is a mobile software development kit. Flutter allows one developer to build for iOS and Android simultaneously from a single code base. Implemented in dart language it is a perfectly fast and high performative tool. Advantages Of Flutter:

Mobile UI-centered framework
Reusable custom widgets
Apt for animations of different complexity
Fast code development time
High performance
Hot reload to view changes immediately
Single code-base for iOS and Android
Light learning curve
Offers user experience similar to native
Great documentation
Rapidly growing community
Some of the cross-platform mobile apps built with Flutter are Reflectly, Google Ads app, Hamilton app.

Future of Mobile App Development - Trends 2021

Wearables
Wearable applications can be run on your devices and synchronized with an accessory such as smartwatches, smart jewelry, display devices, body sensors. This technology is giving new opportunities for app developers. As per Statista, the number of connected wearable devices reached 453 million in 2017 and is expected to reach 929 million this year. According to a survey, about one in three Americans stated that at some point they used a fitness tracker, smartwatch (34%), or have tracked their health statistics on application (32%).

What concerns the future, wearables will interact with mobile apps to provide a variety of services in areas such as fitness, healthcare, fashion different hobbies, and so on. That's why we believe it will make an impact on the next generation of mobile application development strategies.

Mobile payments
As the economies of different countries are turning digital and society becomes cashless, the level of popularity of various payment methods (contactless payments, online payments, e-wallets), financial literacy, and people's awareness of all kinds of fintech products have increased. Users prefer to make the payment through the in-built mobile wallet for fast transactions. According to a report, there was $8.9 billion worth of transactions from mobile wallets in 2020. This is expected to reach nearly $14 billion by 2022.

By integrating payment methods with mobile wallets this process becomes convenient for both buyers and sellers. A customer can quickly pay for a product and a seller receives payment directly to the account, no matter what the distance between them. Payment apps help companies to improve customer service and allow them to save on fees and international transactions.

Categories Of Mobile Payment Apps are:

Bank-based apps.
Mobile OS systems such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Samsung Pay.
eCommerce Platforms (Shopify, EKM, BigCommerce)
Most of these apps you know and have been using many times. We believe they will evolve as a trend in the future.

Future of Mobile App Development - Trends 2021

Focus on Security
Data security and privacy protection is an important topic in 2021. Everyone wants to use applications where personal data is secured and an app doesn't collect more information than it needs, especially when it comes to sensitive information in financial and medical applications. With the ongoing progress in fintech, cyberhackers are coming up with new methods of cyber fraud. Hence, security should not be underestimated. To ensure users' data protection it is mandatory for software developers to control their implementations for mobile applications and adjust them to the requirements of legislation such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Final words
Mobile app development market is growing rapidly. With the appearance of new smart devices, AI development, VR/AR capacity the app industry has a chance to become the first in terms of investment. To stay competitive, not only big-tech companies but small businesses consider launching their own mobile applications that are customer-oriented and follow the latest market trends.

If you want to launch a mobile application, and are wondering about the prices, use the App Cost Calculator which shows you a price depending on the operating system, architecture, and features you want to have. We deliver cutting-edge mobility solutions for your unique business requirements.