Smartphones have become a magic wand in the hand of people. They can do almost anything they wish anywhere anytime on the go. There are over 5 billion online mobile subscribers that count to about 77% of the total world population. Android smartphones have touched our lives in a positive way and we are surprised by its applications. Android OS was induced by Google on 5 November 2007. Still, the Android operating system looks new and is maintained by frequent updates and modifications. Android is based on Linux and is an open source operating system software. Android was designed for touchscreen smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices.
The Android smartphones bought with themselves some goodies for the users in the form of Android Apps. Android apps are basically internet applications that are designed to run in the smartphones and other mobile devices. Android apps help users to connect to the internet services that are commonly accessed by the desktops and laptops. Android apps are relatively faster, can predict user behaviour if incorporated with Android Apps and act as a great marketing tool for the businesses intelligence services.
Users have become more impatient and demanding than ever. We do not want to turn on our laptops and desktops and wait for booting process, access internet and so on. How good it be if there is no need to use desktops and most of the things can be done with the help of our smartphones. This will speed up the process and will save a lot of time. Android apps were developed keeping in mind this concept.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages that are based on the personal user experience. You will definitely relate to what we are discussing in the article.
Advantages of Android Apps
- Better Personalization
For providing better user experience, mobile apps make use of personal data. Various applications like banking, finance, social media require personal information and this can be quite invasive if the data gets leaked and goes into the wrong hands. However, most of the apps ask for our permission to get access to the personal data. It is up to us if we allow it or not.
Android apps provide better personalization. Mobile apps can tailor the data shown to the customer based on previous searches, likes, dislikes, geographical area, gender and many more using artificial intelligence recommendation systems. Personalization of the content is critical in providing the better user experience. Mobile apps allow the user to set the preference based on which it can serve the most related content. Mobile apps are not only helpful to the users but also to the businesses as apps have shown to improve the conversion rate.
- Sending Notifications
E-Mail marketing was one of the most effective tools in the hand of digital marketers. But the excessive use of E-mail marketing has led to lessening its effectiveness. The conversion rate and click through rate have considerably decreased in the past few years. The mobile app notification is a better alternative for sending the notifications. There are two types of notifications in android apps: push notifications and in-app notifications. Push notifications are independent of the app usage. They can be shown even if the user is not doing any activity on the mobile device. On the other hand, in-app notifications are shown when the user opens the app.
- Apps Make use of Mobile Features
Android phones come with a lot of features. Mobile apps can make use of features like camera, GPS, bar code reader, scanner, voice recorder and what not. These apps help to reduce the efforts in performing the tasks. For example, while filling a signup form, it may ask for the photograph of the user. So, instead of browsing and uploading the photograph, the user can click the image from camera and upload
- Apps can Work Offline
Yes, you heard it right! Android apps can perform the fundamental operation without an internet connection which is not possible for the web-based applications in SEO. For example, a banking app can perform functions like tax calculation, interest estimation, calculation of returns etc in the offline mode also.
- Google Support
The biggest advantage of the Android operating system is that it is developed by the technology giant Google. Google has a very good reputation in the digital platform and is most trusted brand over the internet. Google is constantly improving the Android and providing almost daily updates in Android apps. The daily improvements in the Android apps leverage the user experience.
Every coin has two sides. With advantages, there come several disadvantages too. Let us discuss them in brief.
Disadvantages of Mobile Apps
- Use of Personal Information
For providing better user experience using recommendation engine, mobile apps make use of personal data. Various applications like banking, finance, social media require personal information and this can be quite invasive if the data gets leaked and goes in the wrong hands. However, most of the apps ask for our permission to get access to the personal data. It is up to us if we allow it or not.
- Apps Drain battery and use Resources
Android apps have a bad reputation for draining the battery and using the useful resources of the Android device. Android apps keep running in the background and drain the battery of the device. However, the new app is made keeping in view the resource usage and optimizing the resources while the operation of the application.
- Marketing the Mobile Application
After the app is developed, it is necessary to market the app so as to get a place in the user’s device. There are a lot of apps that are already available in the market. Also, why would user like to stuff his phone with hell lot of apps? This is one big disadvantage of using the android apps. Businesses intelligence companies have to create the demand for the app and market the app through various channels.
Some other disadvantages are:
- They are expensive and add costs to the businesses.
- They are not easy to optimize as compared to the mobile websites.
- Apps need to be updated regularly both through app development point of view as well as fresh content point of view.
Conclusion
In this article, we studied various advantages and disadvantages of using the mobile apps. However, the benefits of using mobile apps outweigh the disadvantages by a great margin. But apps need to improve in certain areas for sure. Mobile apps have a lot of potentials to provide better user experience and better B2C services. Artificial intelligence applications in Android apps can help in leading the competition with a little bit of creative thinking and focusing on the target.
