Web Development Technology Trends to watch out for in 2017

There is always an ever increasing demand for web development technologies. Of late we use the web for almost everything be it searching for restaurants, paying our bills or booking tours and the list goes on and on. With this demand in high, let’s have a peek into the latest and upcoming technological trends of 2017. 

AI (Artificial Intelligence)  

We would have definitely come across this term a million times all these years. A few attributes of AI are that it makes the consumer process easy; it is more faster and evolving like ever before. The year 2016 witnessed the tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon introducing new AI technologies that can be used by public.AlphaGo is a program built by Google DeepMind and it became the first program to beat a professional Go player.Similar to Google Brain, tech companies Facebook and Twitter have created internal groups. 

Let’s see what other companies follow this bandwagon in incorporating new AI technologies into their consumer products. 

Static site generators

“Speed” maybe considered a very important aspect, atleast when it comes to websites. Developers, bloggers, agencies are looking towards static websites over dynamic websites. These apart from offering high speed and security also ensures low cost. The web pages run on the server and do not require complex database. A few of the Static Website Generators are Hugo, Jekyll, Hexo, etc. 

Rails 5

This version was introduced in late June 2016 and is expected to grow by the end of this year. Some of the interesting features like improved Turbolinks and Action Cable can make the web development workflow better. Due to web page reloads apps may tend to be slow. Turbolinks come to rescue in such cases and just reloads the contents of the body from the server rather than refreshing the entire page. To put it in a nutshell, developers can create Single Page like Apps directly from the Rails stacks.

We all receive Push notifications from different companies. These are developed using WebSockets. While most client browsers have started adapting this feature there is still a need for a server to send notifications to subscribers and send signals appropriately. Action Cable is a new way to facilitate the process easily. 

JavaScript in 2017

ES6, Builtin methods, Classes, Closures, Node and Express, Rail, etc are some of the fundamental concepts that developers need to to know. JavaScript’s immense popularity has led to a vibrant ecosystem of technologies, frameworks and libraries. The three advantages of using this are efficiency, safety and cost. Few of the frameworks to look for this year are Angular.js (also called Model-View-Whatever) framework is great for startups and mid-sized companies; REDUX which offers transactional, deterministic state management for the applications; Vue.js that is useful for quick development of cross-platform solutions; Ember.js, Meteor.js, etc are among the others to watch out for! 

Motion UI

Motion UI may be defined as a Sass library for creating CSS transitions and animations. It has a bundle of pre-made effects as CSS classes including transition, effects to hinge, slide, spin, scale and some built-in animations. The updated version has robust transition options, flexible CSS patterns and an animation queuing system.    

These are only a few of the advancements to happen this year and we have to wait and watch this space for more!

Top 5 best practices to improve app engagement

When it comes to sustaining the growth of a newly launched mobile application which has been “all the geeks have been talking about”, the name of the game is - customer engagement. With mobile technology being a burgeoning market, it makes sense to invest time in carefully considering and planning your marketing strategies, so as to capitalize on your app’s early success, thus prolonging it into much more than just a “short-time sensation”. Listed below are a few tips and tricks you could follow to turn your app into a cultural phenomenon.

Top Tip 1: Deep Linking

The majority of industry experts agree that deep linking is one of the prime factors contributing to an increased level of customer engagement. Deep linking, to the typical technology dilettante can be described as “URL tagging for mobile applications”. In other words, it aids in transferring a user to another part or page of your website, by clicking on it. A lot of technology giants such as Google, Apple and a slew of other top-notch companies have realized the immense potential that lies in deep linking and are investing heavily in this sector.

Top Tip 2: Efficient Tracking 

Innovative methods of engaging customers are nothing without sufficient tracking of your efforts. Backing up your strategies to engage customer better, by tracking and measuring the successes of each of your efforts, will only help you in concentrating your efforts better at the right people, in future endeavors. Knowing which of your plans and strategies work and identifying those that don’t, is a major weapon in your marketing arsenal.

Top Tip 3: Paying attention to the demands of users

Users are more often than not, quite willing to voice their opinions about a web application, irrespective of whether they like it or not. Capitalizing on this will really help in putting you a step ahead of your competitors. Taking into cooperation the feedback of users and then acting on their suggestions can only aid in accentuating your brand’s image, making you a brand that “truly cares for its customers” - the hallmark of any organization.

Top Tip 4: Make “Sharing” the app easier

In an industry where word of mouth takes precedence over blatant advertising, getting people to share and tell their friends about your app more, will really prove beneficial in the long run. Creating an app well integrated with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others, paves the way for an easier “Sharing” experience for the user. Inviting people to share and like the app means that it gains a wider audience, proving to become a self-advertisement juggernaut that does all your work for you.

Top Tip 5: Periodic Updating of your app’s features

Running a successful mobile application means staying ahead of your competitors at every curve. Focusing on the innovation of new as well as better features and functionalities will help you in establishing a brand that customers find to be truly reliable and pertinent in their day-to-day lives.

Constantly improving and updating your app’s appearance also helps in maintaining a fresh and engaging brand image that user’s are less likely to get bored by.

Conclusion

Although blindly following the above tips is not a guarantee that your app will succeed, establishing your own marketing practices that are tailored made to the specifications and functions of your mobile app, on the basis of the above mentioned tips, will definitely put you a step closer to being in the leading of Android and iPhone Application Development Services.

Trends that will impact the mobile app development in the year of 2017

Technology has always impacted the lives of humans and has affected various aspects of our daily life, 2017 promises to be a big year for the mobile app industry technology boom. Last year Augmented reality technology got a huge boost with the launch of the hit game Pokemon Go which was available for android and iOS platforms. The presence of virtual reality excited the audience and commercially this game was a huge success. Companies like samsung, apple and a number of Asian mobile companies have started producing wearable gear for the growing market.

However this year a lot of new developments are expected to shake the world of Mobile app industry. Artificial intelligence, chatbots and messaging apps are expected get a major revamp. Artificial intelligence has always captured the imagination of human mind and this year it is expected to be upgraded. Companies are capturing consumer’s behavior and patterns in order to provide personalized recommendations. This is exactly the point where artificial intelligence and mobile apps can join hand and provide a unique end user experience.

Previously smart assistants such as siri, iris, alexa helped users in doing easy tasks. But AI has taken a next step in the form of chatbots which linger inside and outside of messaging apps. There is a new wave of Artificial intelligence which is the internet of things where different products and different users come together and behave in accordance with the owner’s desires.

Some of the latest developments expected to take place in 2017 are listed below

Location Based technology will be upgraded

One of the areas Artificial intelligence haven’t tweaked it in terms of technology is the location based service apps. Over the past few years advancement of location based services has given rise to a number of apps similar to ola and Uber which are maximising their profits through their location based model. This year it shows no signs of slowing down especially in the healthcare and retail business.

Integration of smartphone technology

Mobile apps are nowadays developed to be cross disciplinary. The presence of smart  Tvs, fridge and even washing machines have given rise to the smart home technology. Two companies which have revolutionized the smart home technology are Nest and ecobee. They developed apps that cater to IoT (Internet of things) and helped the users seamlessly integrate mobile platforms and other devices and backend infrastructure that can communicate and share data for an overall unified experience.

Web based progressive apps are slowly making an impact         

 
Progressive Web apps are gaining momentum in the market thanks to an increase in mobile  browser audience. Apps similar to offline map based services are perfect examples of Progressive Web based apps. These apps will let the consumers to use it without downloading it completely. In developing countries and third world countries where the users are still dependent on slow internet connections these progressive apps can be extremely useful. It makes use of the mobile app’s core characteristics which results in increased user retention without the hassles of maintaining a mobile app. Custom web development practices also has played its part in providing a better stance for developers in building mobile  apps.

Cloud based mobile apps will be on the rise

From businessmen, to IT professionals and students everyone are utilizing the cloud based apps in today’s world. Even simple game apps are allowing the users to save their checkpoints on cloud. This year users can expect apps which will take minimum space in the smartphone internal memory and can fetch data from the cloud storage. Google drive, dropbox and onedrive are just few examples. Cisco research has stated that by 2019 cloud apps will drive 90% of the total mobile traffic. Good times ahead.