Month: May 2018

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Apparently, Android is one of the popular and preferred operating systems for people across the globe. Still, there are other big players in the market like iOS, and Android is nowhere near to becoming the only mobile operating system. So, if you want to reach a wider audience then you certainly have to make your mobile app available on other platforms as well.

Now, porting your Android mobile application to iOS takes a lot of time and resources. But what if you can reduce your mobile app development time by building a single application which can seamlessly run across platforms. How wonderful would that be, isn’t?

This is where Google Flutter comes into the picture. A user interface toolkit which claims to do the exact same thing, by providing you a way to build UIs for Android and iOS from just one codebase.

By the time you finish reading this post, you will know what Google Flutter is, its features, and how you can use it to your benefit.

The Core Features of Google Flutter

  • To start with, the earlier version of Flutter only supported Android platform and was known as the Sky. But its latest version will be of a great help to both Android and iOS mobile app developers.
  • The new version of Flutter has an impeccable feature and that is Hot Reload. Using this feature, mobile app developers can easily get an access to a comprehensive range of widgets along with working on the powerful user interface.
  • With the help of Flutter, the app developers will be able to integrate flutter into their mobile applications on WebView component as this will make it simpler for your users to see the web content within the app. In addition, navigating and stabilizing the application becomes much easier.
  • Google Flutter now include support for, formatting the images, the inline videos, etc. thus, making apps more fun and better than before.
  • With an added feature in Flutter, app developers can now localize their applications as well as use it for international purpose.
  • Google Flutter will now support the latest versions of Apple operating system ie., iOS 11 and iPhone X.

Why Should You use Google Flutter?

Unlike Android’s other versions which are based on Kotlin and Java, in order to use Google Flutter, you will have to learn Dart. Of course, the thought of learning a new programming language itself could be off-putting but there are some driving reasons for why you should give it a try.

Cross-Platform:

Google Flutter will help you in creating a single user interface to run on both iOS and Android by utilizing the same framework, libraries, and renderer. To make sure your app runs effortlessly on both the platforms, Flutter offers widgets designed according to Material Design (Android) and Cupertino (iOS) specifications.

Hot Reload:

It is normal for app developers to work on the specific app’s code when the app is running on an Android-powered smart phone to test the changes as you make them. But it takes a really long time for the Android Studio to publish each and every change to the running mobile app. So to help you in being more effective and productive, the new “Hot reload” feature of Google Flutter can easily integrate the updated source code into the Dart Virtual Machine so that app developers can instantly see the changes.

Compatible With Other Programming Languages:

Without having to rewrite the complete current app, Google Flutter seamlessly integrates with Java on Android and Swift and Objective-C on iOS.

Makes The App Development Faster and Better

Since Google Flutter will now be supporting both Android and iOS, it will make the cross-platform mobile app development easier for app developers. Regardless of the platform you choose, you can now have an app that runs effortlessly on both operating systems.

The reason for considering it for developing native application platforms is because it allows you to customize widgets and design an engaging and rich native interface. Without having to use WebView, you can easily draw widgets using Flutter’s extremely rendering engine.

Eye-Catching User Interface

An eye-catching and attractive user interface has always been an important part of the mobile app development. Now, by using Flutter, you can certainly anticipate getting a natural and breathtaking design for your mobile applications. With Material Design (Android) and Cupertino (iOS), developers can build highly responsive applications.

Accessible Native Features and SDKs

The Flutter makes the app development simpler and better via native codes, 3rd-party integrations, and platform APIs. In addition, you can get your hands on native features and SDKs on Android and iOS.

The Functional and Reactive Framework

In order to build creative UI designs, Flutter has an effective tool in the form of platform layouts. Not just that, app developers can also get extremely flexible APIs to use all their creativity to design in 2D and other animations. The functional and reactive framework lets app developers integrate their creativity and efficiency rightfully. Just like Java and Swift, the Dart programming language also offers benefits such as supporting a rich library.

Will Google Flutter Replace Java?

Google Flutter is very much native to iOS and Android, and its design language is just like Java. App developers cannot create the user interface based on templating language because there is none. It makes it extremely simpler to develop high-end applications.

But the intention of Google behind launching Flutter is certainly not to replace the current Android frameworks instead to make it much easier for app developers to build cross-platform, high-end mobile applications. The main purpose of the Google Flutter is to let app developers develop a platform that allows them to share minimum codebase between platforms.

Conclusion

Google has launched Flutter to make the app development process easier. So do the lives of app developers. The first and foremost purpose of this effective tool is to provide a native user interface look with native widgets and buttons.

Currently, this giant tech company is still working on an open-source mobile operating system, Fuchsia, which is written in Flutter. We will have to wait and watch whether it surpasses React native or not. Nonetheless, it can be said that Google has indeed launched a useful software development tool that will let developers create responsive and efficient user interfaces.

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Introduction

Game development is not just a profession limited to building games for PCs, consoles and other programmable hardware. Today, digital world is equipped with advanced gadgets and evolved technology that offer great portability, flexibility and engaging experience. Android is quite a famous operating system for mobile and is also used as OS for TVs, wristwatches, PC’s, digital cameras and consoles. Android game development became prominent when it was successfully integrated into many hardware platforms and the mobile game industry realized the importance of opting for Android over Symbian or Java. The reasons for the growth and success of Android development services are:

  • Flexible and efficient software ecosystem
  • Interactive features
  • Intuitive and smooth user interface
  • Customizable look and feel
  • Developer-friendly characteristics of hardware platform
  • Power to create more design elements

Because of these pros, Android game developers are thriving exponentially and developers go beyond the limitations to explore the wide spectrum of innovations based on Android OS.

Moreover, mobile games in Google Play store now claims 90% of profits. From simple and intermediate games to exceptional Android game apps, Google Store is crawling with thousands of big titles, and the numbers ceaselessly increase. So why do most game developers increasingly choose Android OS over other alternatives?

This guide covers many areas of Android Game development and focus on everything an Android game developer should know. People with existing background in Android or willing to learn about Android games will be able to imbibe a lot from this guide.

Android Game Development

Features:

Some of the significant trademark features supported by Android platform are:

a) Familiarity of programming languages

Android app development consists of most common programming languages like Java and C++ which are widely recognized throughout the entire world. Since Android SDK and NDK are built using known languages most developers are familiar with, developing Android games look much easier and swift.

b) Direct manipulation

Android is perhaps better worshipped for its unique interface that offers direct manipulation. This supreme feature makes it possible to interact with users by means of objects of interest, dynamic real-time action and feedback. Users can perform real-time gestures using touch interface such as swiping, tapping, dragging and also multi-touch actions. These are of great essence when it comes to crafting user-friendly and highly interactive Android game apps.

c) Sublime support

Another attribute that makes Android development a popular domain is its ability to provide excellent support for multimedia operations. Using multimedia supports, Android developers can gain freedom to use multimedia objects inside the game to enhance gaming experience for users especially those with live and sharable elements.

d) Updates and services

Google has tendency to always serve customers innovative updates that do something amazing to users. After its version 2.2 called Froyo, Google has cultivated an integrated, closed-system service known as Google Play Services. It a unique API service provider that has emerged quite useful for Android game development.

e) Ease of Game-making

Android is fertile with a gamut of third-party tools which further help make the job for game developers easy and agile. Some the tools that are illustrious in the world of Android development services are:

Apart from this, configuration procedure for Android device hardware easier for Android developers to understand and implement the steps quickly. When it comes to running game applications, the device hardware configuration offers minimum standard and feels less conditional.

f) Interaction with Device environment

What makes Android games special is that you can design different controls of a game by using a range of sensors available in Android mobile devices or tablets. Furthermore, Android offers solid connectivity via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LTE, GSM/CDMA/EDGE, IDEN and more. Due to such incredible support on various networks, game developers build a multiplayer game with uninterrupted gameplay.

g) Minimum-barrier ecosystem

Android ecosystem is generous in offering Android developers utmost liberty to explore the best features and tools to build sterling game design with vibrant characters and themes. Android relieves from the pressure of restrictive conditions for app distribution compared to other platforms.

h) Effortless submission/distribution process

The timeframe involved in the app submission process in the online Android market is leaner than other platforms because Android allows developers just one-time charges to submit the app. hence, developers can launch their apps effortlessly, engaging an enormous user base across the globe without spending huge. Another gem of Android app development is that developers can enjoy the incredible facility to distribute the app from their personal active channels or website, which eliminates the need to submit the app to Google app store and wait for approval and review.

i) User experience

Android games have a vibrant impression of providing a memorable user experience through incredible game controls and real-time interactions with gravity and GPS sensors based on the game theme, which is an added advantage. Due to dynamic gesture control and OpenGL enabled for better graphic visual quality, Android game apps deliver exceptional user experience. Android also supports Virtual Reality through Cardboard SDK to develop VR-based games.

Challenges:

Developing game apps using Android platform involves certain challenges such as:

a) Efficient use of available features

Utilizing the absolute power of Android’s available features in developing games would be the primary challenge for any Android app development services provider. Every game built on Android platform have to offer the best of features and engaging elements by seamlessly interacting device’s local functionality and environment.

b) Targeting the range of device configurations

Since Android hardware configurations have a wide range, games must be designed with the focus on targeting most of them to achieve maximum reach and touch the broad spectrum of users. Building games for specific hardware configurations like Tegra or Snapdragon, or for specific devices is common for Android games developers However, the challenge is that most smartphones, esp LTE handsets, don’t support Tegra and are migrating to Snapdragon, which provokes the questions of attaining consistent performance across various graphic processors.

c) Imagining a fascinating Story

When we are speaking about setting up a good story in mobile game development, we are referring to its story line ? or to the game’s dynamics in the absence of such story line. Creating a captivating story will always better when it comes to retaining users.

Believe it or not, creating Android games with a good and original story line is not easy. In fact, we could say “it’s all been done before” probably without failing to say the truth. There are hundreds of Android games that deal with war, fantasy, racing, etc.

d) Respecting User’s perspective

Another challenging part is making sure the game is simple, clear and user-friendly. This is not to say that the game has to be on basic or superficial level, but to say that it should feel and look intuitive and have easy-to-understand rules and levels even though it is strategic games you are building.

e) Design concepts and limitations

Without a proper, thoughtful design, an Android game does not really exist. A successful game design demands a lot of mature expertise about target devices including its interactive capability and support features. It is a challenge for designers and programmers alike to incorporate current trends and practices while crafting a spot-on structure of Android games along with common device-independent features.

Best Practices:

Building a user-oriented, highly engaging game with vibrant graphics and impeccable performance is as important as the idea of making it in the right way. It could be a real challenge for Android developers to enable the game design and components that not only look dazzling but also functions perfectly across most of Android devices. For this to happen, here are the best practices they can adopt:

a) The quality of concepts and creativity

Android game market is crammed with millions of games and more are introduced to Google Play store regularly. But not all of them deserve a chance to enjoy longest lifecycle on gamers’ device. Every Android developer must possess outstanding skills and creativity to leverage modern technology for building incredible games that can thrive on the competitive Android game development landscape.

b) Minimalist approach for User Interface

Long-form and prolonged UI could be a less pleasant design approach for today’s Android game development company and can repel impatient users. As opposed to hectic user interface, a modern and much typical practice should be a kind of interface that spends minimum time to take players to the core gameplay. Having minimalist and concise UI design ensures that the players will not have to pull more efforts to reach the real exciting part of Android games.

c) Supporting maximum devices & configurations

Many Android development services providers prefer to design games considering just one aspect: screen resolutions. However, this is not a good practice since Android comes with various configurations. Android developer should also filter target devices based on its configuration status.

d) Background activities

The subliminal part of game software continues to run in the background while the gamer is absorbed in the play. Such tasks known as asynchronous tasks are responsible for either fetching relevant information or processing large files. Asynchronous tasks also come into the picture when game is connected to internet, ensuring dynamic feedback without affecting the working of main thread.

Developers should utilize and harness  background service features in the Android games to ensure uninterrupted game sessions for users and maintain fruitful communication with users. This way, game makers receive information regarding user experience for further improvements and users get notified about latest updates.

e) Battery power consumption optimization

Since Android device hardware is running on limited power capacity and big part of battery is consumed by network connections, power saving is an essential requirement for gaming. Android games are admired for its power efficiency. By focusing on proper visuals and technical aspects of graphics, game developers can save a lot on power consumption. The good practice for optimizing battery power is to build game assets that do not trigger excessive processing in platform environment.

f) Ensuring uninterrupted gaming experience

Interruptions occurring during the ongoing game could tarnish the gaming experience. Handling those external or internal interruptions is a tricky mission for Android developers. In any case, the gamers must be able to remain engaged with the game without a friction or pause. In Android games, the game often restarts after a pause or the game activity is killed post the prolonged idle state. Such instances hurt the progress of users.

The best approach is to save progress frequently to prevent the data loss. Hence, it is developer’s job to identify the moment when data or progress is saved without diluting gaming experience. The best way to handle it is to control pause/resume of running threads to ensure the game loop remains consistent after interruption.

g) Providing better visual quality

Apart from configuring games for different device screen sizes, Android game development should also essentially focus on supporting multiple resolutions for enhanced gaming experience. The available standard Android devices follow are:

  • QVGA
  • WQVGA
  • HVGA
  • WVGA
  • SVGA
  • VGA

Graphics of Android game apps can be shaped using this standard in order to achieve highest possible visual quality on assorted Android devices.

h) Social networking and multiplayer trends

The modern game development practices should incorporate social components with custom profiles for gamers. Some real-time multiplayer games online also support the concept of more than one user having the same game stats and interactions. The trend is more pronounced in board games such as Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Chess, Monopoly and many more. Google Nearby of Google Play services offers multiplayer support and has launched a feature to enable close proximity among players on a single platform.

Introduction to Different Android Platforms

With HTC Dream, Android was first commercially launched in 2008. Being a Linux-based operating system, Android was used by immense number of Android developers ever since and became the most popular among other mobile operating systems. The major success of Android was attributed to its ability to offer smart new-generation technology that was unusual, user-friendly, light in weight and comparatively affordable.

Android device platforms have achieved greatest momentum which is clear from the record-breaking 76% of the digital market share in the first quarter of 2016. Since Android OS has sprawled from mobile to other hardware platforms (Tablets, Watches, Televisions, and consoles), games are not just restricted to PCs and consoles. Therefore, game developers need to understand different platforms and hardware in order to develop games

Here we are going to explore each platform insightfully, focusing on the Android game development aspect.

1) Android Mobiles

Introducing most competitive versions and updates over years, Android has brought glorious revolutions in its operating system and attained an unstoppable drive. Android has excelled in both software and hardware, leading the digital market with a significant margin.

More leverage, more polish

Having potential for constant, user-oriented innovations, Android devices are capable of giving rugged competition to its closest rival iPhone. This is why Android offers tremendous leverage to Android developers and game development companies.

Ever since Android 2.3 was released, Android reached the finest juncture. Many devices and cross-platform gaming engines support Android 2.3. From minimum initial specification of 32MB RAM, 32MB of disk space and 200 MHz processor, current Android devices specifications have drastically progressed to 1 GB RAM, 4 GB of disk space with 1 GHz processor.

Game portability

Ideally, it is important that the game built by Android developers should run consistently across multiple Android devices and configurations. However, a single game build can’t perform consistently across all devices. The game designed for Micromax Bolt A24 is likely to underperform on Samsung Galaxy S6 with poor quality. Hence, it is important to ensure game portability for all Android devices involved.

General Points to consider

Developers need to nurture decent knowledge of Android for game design and development. The following points will enhance your general awareness:

  • Android is an expansive, ever-growing market
  • Thousands of game apps are launched everyday on online stores
  • The design and development is getting intense and trickier.
  • Device configuration and price help determine the target audience
  • Targeting maximum devices is a great practice to deliver best gaming experience

Technical features & points to remember

Getting technical about Android game development system is quite important for modern developers. Here are certain features & points:

  • The variety of mobile display & resolutions
  • A wide range of Pixel density
  • A wide range of RAM capacity
  • Multi-touch Interface and full-screen experience
  • Sensor support for GPS location, compass, ambient light, accelerometer, etc
  • Different Types of processors, speeds and performance
  • Network connectivity strength
  • Instances of interruption
  • Battery life

Essential pros behind Android’s success

Due to its unrivalled profitability, Android devices sweep through the mobile gaming market, creating better opportunities compared to other mobile OS. Android platform is the primary choice for today’s developers for building Android games because of:

  • Incredibly vast user base
  • Constantly improving development ecosystem
  • Best advertising platform for advertisers
  • Liberal game publishing terms and conditions
  • Extremely intuitive and user-friendly UI
  • Ease of transactions on popular ecommerce stores
  • Ease of cross-promotion of games and apps

2) Android Tablets

Started as a device for experiencing an enhanced view of objects, Tablets have come a long way ever since its inception and became a daily lifestyle device for better digital gaming and entertainment experience. Through tablets, Android helped redefine an all-new category of user-oriented devices in the digital hardware market, evolving year after year. Here is what Android developers need to know about Android tablets.

Fact files of Android tablets

  • What differentiates Android tablets from Android mobile devices is its physical screen size and resolution.
  • Usually, Android tablets are bigger, slightly heavier and less compact than smartphones.
  • Android tablet has a lower PPI than a mobile and requires minimum specifications of 200 MHz processor, 32 MB RAM, and 32 MB disk space to work.
  • Due to good battery capacity, tablet-specific games need to be energy-efficient.
  • Latest android version 4 requires advanced ARM v7 though initial-stage tablets had low-grade hardware system with humble configurations.
  • Modern tablets are getting better and emulate smartphones as smartphone size is growing bigger and more enhanced.
  • Nowadays, tablets support most smartphone features, opening new doors for Android development services However, the use of tablet as a phone is gradually diminishing.

Tablet Evolution

Tablets have interestingly grown from the perception of tablet computer to smartphone equivalent with inclusion of smart features like camera, touchscreen display, speaker, microphone, GPS and native apps, reader-friendly interface and dedicated physical buttons.

Surprisingly enough, 2013 saw Android tablet sales growing to 62% which accounted for over 121 million devices globally. Amazon Kindle Fire devices sale touched 7 million as well. Owing to so much demand for Android tablets and Android game development, the configurations have also improved.

3) Android Televisions and STBs

Inspired by the emerging market of smart TVs, Android saw Television platforms as a next big thing especially after hitting great success with mobiles and tablets. Google made Television set an interactive experience and to make it more enhanced it launched additional accessories to go with Android televisions.

Breakthrough Names in Android televisions

  • Nexus Player was the first Android television launched for consumers on November 3, 2014.
  • Forge TV was announced by Razor in January 2015 and had impressive hardware specs.
  • Shield Android TV was announced by NVIDIA in March, 2015 and has everything that can overshadow 8th gen consoles. Its hardware is equipped with an NVIDIA-branded game controller.
  • Arcadyan Bouygtel TV is from a French Telecom company and was announced in June 2015. It comes with an integrated STB code-named as “Miami” based on Android TV.

4) Android Consoles

Console set is made of an adapter and a device dedicated to control the adapter which is connected to a TV set. Android game consoles thrive on two major benefits:

  • Cost-effective, economical operating system
  • Easy and simple integration with any mobile hardware platform

Points of consideration

Being exclusively dedicated to enhancing user’s gaming experience, Android consoles fulfil the objective quite satisfactorily. Above examples of different console specifications are enough to signify the improvements and advancements introduced over the years in Android game hardware.

Android developers should:

  • Target specific device for consoles
  • Portable games should be compatible with console quality
  • Focus on excellent game performance
  • Build games that engage wide user base

Being an Android developer, it is good to explore the entire range of modern-age gaming platforms instead of just opting for conventional ones like Tablets and mobiles. In this time of rapid changes, developers should update their technical expertise.

Game consoles at present

Recently, the gaming market is flooded with glorious game makers like Amazon, Google and other top names giving tough competition to supposedly dominant platforms for console games such as PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Wii U.

Leaders like Amazon and Google are all emerging successful in the Android game development arena, creating competitive console hardware to give gamers of all kinds an affordable way to play their favourite games with utmost comfort.

The future road for Android gaming consoles

Because of ongoing evolution in Android-based gaming console platforms, the future market for Android games are all set to perform well. Users are increasing and so is the number of games on Android platform.

It is evident that in near future, Android is likely to be the confident choice for the vast base of console players. Android will grow bigger in console game market, opening a new era of opportunities for Android developers who are ready to shift to Android consoles now.

5)Android Smart Watches

The wave of smart technology entered wristwatches as well, digitalizing the analog world of watches to make it smarter, interactive and purely computerized. The flexibility of open source Android platform offers gigantic opportunities and options for building sophisticated, user-friendly smartwatches.

Smartwatches for game development

The trend of playing games on Android watches started from its early days, which encouraged enhanced capabilities in Android game development domain. These tiny devices are no less advanced than computers with integrated features like internet connectivity, sensors, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, card slots, real-time notifications and GPS and much more.

Smartwatch replicates computer in many ways such as:

  • Collecting information from internal/external sensors
  • Retrieval of data from other devices or instruments
  • Displaying real-time push notifications or messages
  • Support for location-based alerts, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
  • Interactive control of data with other digital instruments

The latest in the Smartwatches

As the latest smartwatches have advanced, it offers more class features mentioned below:

  • Finding directions by voice from phone
  • Selection of a transport mode for journey
  • Tactile interaction to indicate turns
  • The use of smartwatch for controlling the smartphone
  • Better control and management of personal requests

Thus, users can travel without looking at their watch screen or phone. They can even have Android smartwatch control their phone.

Android wearable makers constantly upgrade their devices to integrate latest standards and technology trends in their hardware. Hence, while crafting Android games for smart watches, developers should consider specific configurations of the device.

We have realized that Android game development landscape has gone through great changes and boost when it comes to hardware and software upgrades. This turns the equation for the Android gaming market as well as application development methods.

Android Game Makers

The domain of Android game development is blooming with many development tools. You will require the right set of tools to make a successful Android game. There are plenty of popular game makers and engines, each with different capability to the other. From our industry-wide experience, we have composed a list of hand-picked tools to help you build your dream Android game.

Based on their calibre and complexity level, we have divided the list in 3 major categories where Expert level Android game makers are being the most illustrious engines equipped with maximum amount of power, Mid-Level makers are aimed for Android developers with intermediate experience whereas Entry level ones are for those who are beginners embarking on building their first ever mobile game.

To help your game development journey shine, here is the list of tools:

Entry Level Android Game Makers:

1. GiderosMobile

GiderosMobile is a highly customizable and productive game development engine that has recently been made open-source for Android developers. Great for entry-level game developers, it is based on C/C++ and OpenGL and has excellent power to make give your app the run speed of native apps.

It has enormous market of third-party plug-ins and the IDE offers everything you need to build outstanding game elements. Its forums exhibit quite a dynamic, thriving and cooperative community. GiderosMobile offers easy learning curve, speed in testing apps and reliable OOP support for leading platforms like iOS, Android and Windows.

The tool has created impressive games such as Miner Z and Galactic Blaster.

2. Fusion 2.5

Fusion 2.5 is an amazing scripting tool that would be the appropriate choice for building simple 2D games. It is especially helpful if you wish to create Android games with side scrolling shooters and point-and-click themes. It offers basic and developer version with a modular price plan for building Android or iOS games. Developer version is meant to give you more power with monetization features and in-app s.

It is available on Steam and provides luxury of visual programming, fast-and-easy learning curve. It comes with a free version. Additionally, you can pay only for what you want in the game though extra modules cost you more money.

Several successful Fusion 2.5 games include Dead of Day, Lost Jelly, and Megacity.

3. Engine001

Released in 2006, Engine001 was relaunched on Steam in 2015 and is packed with both graphical and text scripting tools. Graphical scripting works well for Android developers with limited or no coding experience whereas text scripting is best for those with some level of experience in coding. Typically supporting retro-type Android games, Engine001 can be used for Android, iOS and Windows and building 3D games as well.

It also offers free version. The best pros are its relatively affordable cost compared to other game makers on the list and its great environment for programming.

Its prominent real-time examples are The Soul Master 1 and Solitary.

4. GameSalad

Considered as quite an intuitive platform, it enriches Android game development experience with drag-and-drop interface. With GameSalad, developers are sure to learn different game creation concepts. Though it does not support full 3D feature and has limited graphics, it nonetheless supports major known platforms without a need for additional coding.

It is simple to use and has good prototyping. Its in-app testing tool facilitates incredible game testing, which is a boon to any Android development company since you can see the performance of your app across each platform. GameSalad also relishes reputation of developing games that make it to top 100 games in the App Store.

It has a free version, too. The top example of GameSalad is Volty.

5. Stencyl

Stencyl is a quite a suitable choice for beginners in game development since it is a cross-platform game engine that supports behaviour-based programming. It is packed with impressive visual tools including textures and sprite creators. To explore its various features (like drag-and-drop interface) and other tools, Stencyl offers Android developers a free web publishing version.

It has good pricing plans for publishing on Android. Stencyl has a “high level Lego block” style of development though it allows you to change the code for visuals. The downside is, it only supports tile-based 2D games and has little collaboration support and no offline documentation.

Some of the games built using Stencyl are Ghost Song and Mibibli’s Quest.

Mid-Level Android Game Makers

1. GameMaker Studio

Released in 1999, GameMaker Studio is one fantastic Android game development tool that has been featured in the Humble Bundle many a time. It uses the GML language and the library of pre-set events to create games and develop in-game actions. It affords an intuitive game development experience to users especially to those who have some knowledge in the domain.

Simple to use, GameMaker Studio also has a wide support community and has a free trial version. It supports Android 2.3 and onwards, and it clear from the level of complexity that it might not be a good choice for a complete novice.

The tool has created remarkable hits like Tiamat X, Hotline Miami, Default Dan, Spelunky, and Savant – Ascent.

2. GameBuilder Studio

GameBuilder Studio has multi-layered editor along with drag-and-drop interface. It has extensive assets store on its website and experienced developers can build games by adding custom code. The platform includes great support especially for Ouya Android console and has Spine Pro integrated to enable users to create modern 2D animated characters through procedural bone manipulation.

It has free version available for Android developers. However, its pricing plans are pretty relaxing with one-time payment though its multiplayer support has quite a high price.

3. Appypie

Appypie is a relatively new in the domain of game creation and aims to provide tools for non-coders to build Android game apps. Greatly flexible in its price plans, Appypie offers variety of options for aspiring and emerging developers. Like several game creators in the list, this one also provides drag-and-drop UI along with ready-made templates.

It contains out-of-the-box templates and is quite easy to use. It has its own marketplace so that developers can publish directly to it. However, job of publishing or submitting to App Store or Google Play is manual. Its free version has 24 hr trial. Its fresh arrival also means lesser user reviews.

4. Moai

It is quite a straightforward game maker that comes free and open-source. It has ability to create games for almost every platform available in the digital market. It is based on Lua and uses C++ for programming. It effectively works with Linux and Mac and Windows. Android developers are sure to find it easy to write games in clean code using Moai platform.

The main flexibility of Moai lies in instructing developers about how to do things. However, as a beginner, you may struggle getting on with game design without necessary coding. Also, documentation is not enough in Moai.

Best examples of Moai-made games are Freedom Falls, Invisible Inc., Lost in Paradise.

5. Corona

Created by Corona Labs, Corona is a famous Android game development tool. Extremely polished, it offers free version along with three price plans. The pro is that it comes with extensive API documentation. It supports cross-platform development for iOS, Android and Kindle. The games built using Corona impress with great visual appeal and simple monetization options.

Since it lacks visual scripting tool, Corona is suited for those with some level of exposure in game programming. Developers can easily get started with Lua on which the tool is based. Corona has strong community support and better emulators for testing with “right once, run anywhere” facility. However, it has limited plug-ins and certain add-ons are paid.

Corona game examples are Streetfood Tycoon, Gravity Maze.

Expert Level Android Game Makers

1. Unity 3D

Unity 3D is on the top of the business and offers full support for 3D game development. It is by far the most exquisite, sophisticated tool admired for the crème-de-la-crème of features. Along with its incredible development suite, it provides a great range of tools for monetization tools. Unity 3D is free as long as your game revenue does not cross $100,000 per year.

The platform is graced with massive community and support network and has been used to create the most singular titles in Android game apps. However, the expenses increase with extra features, add-ons and access to the source code.

Some of Unity 3D big hits are Monument Valley, N.O.V.A, ChronoBlade.

2. Unreal Engine 4

After Unity 3D, Unreal Engine 4 is an eminent name in the world of Android game development and a superhit tool as well. It has a highly sophisticated set of tools and offers a full 3D support. It gives you complete access to its C++ source code. It has a free version, and its pricing plan follows a royalty-based system in which the services remain free until certain limit of game revenues. Then it demands 5% of royalties.

However, you also have a choice of one-time payment. It equips users with visual scripting, reliable UI and has extremely active community along with ample resources, including tutorials videos and documentation. The downside is that it comes with few extensions and offers poor collaboration and workflows creation.

Unreal Engine 4 game examples are Shadow: Deadzone, Epic Citadel, and Wild Blood.

3. Marmalade

Marmalade has been acquired by GMO but its SDK is still available. It is considered to be a high-end cross-platform development solution and it is agile in developing Android games. Due to its low-level language, one can experience rapid pace while running the app. Moreover, its significant pro is the facility of “write once, run anywhere.” The engine has got great support for physics and building 3D games.

It requires no Mac for iOS code compilation and delivers brilliant performance for an Android development services provider. However, Marmalade is not for beginners since it requires extension making and involves good amount of coding in place of visual scripting.

Some of Marmalade games are Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled Blitz.

The Android Game Development Process

The quality of Android games is directly related to the game development practices, tools and innovative approach taken to create it. The development process has to be clean, modern and full of creative components. The entire cavalcade of designers, project managers, developers, thought leaders and testers must form a unique, synchronized structure that complies with best industry practices to ultimately give a shape to a stunning Android game app.

Usually, based on latest standards and general Android game development practices, the development process should cover the following segments with utmost precision:

1) Project Estimation

Project estimation is the first and foremost part from where the game development process actually commences. Based on the game specification sketch communicated and conceived by the client, the estimation is prepared by the Android development company. The estimate includes major and most influential components of games along with the general cost of their development. After estimate is approved by the client, the next phase to consider is Requirement Analysis.

2) Analysis

There are four significant slices of game analysis we need to penetrate before going further down the process line.

Requirements:

The head of project management analyzes different aspects of Android game and assesses its various features to be included. The person in charge studies precisely the client’s requirements and expectations and scours through the available resources needed to build specific components of Android games. Based on software requirements, the designer composes a script or a storyboard.

Resources:

Resource analysis determines the availability of staff, their skill level, potential, technical tools and software, testing hardware and other material required to fulfil the entire process. After the complete analysis of resources, they can be more accurate about estimating project size, development cost estimate and timeframe involved.

Scope:

Android game apps must have predefined scope with certain limits. The scope of game design is a technical subject that focuses on minimum required configuration, project-specific configuration, recommended features and target device configuration to build game with flawless performance.

Risks:

Risks analysis is quite mandatory for it helps developers find the solution as the time of problems and technical incidents. For instance, during the Android game development process, there might be the need to address the changes in technical requirements, game design or external outsourcing partners. It all depends on the expected game quality. While calculating the risks, the main project flow should not be affected.

3) Game Design Aspects

The game design phase entails the game essentials such as UI flow and game play mechanic development. This is where concept art also takes the shape. The Android development company put together the design documents like:

  • Architectural design structure
  • Database design
  • Class design
  • UI flow
  • Gameplay mechanics

Once prepared by the team, the game design documents along with UI flow and gameplay are eventually forwarded to the client for review and approval. The reviews and feedbacks from the client on game design are further considered by the project leader and team members during the successive meetings.

Concept Art design

At this stage, creative team of artists and designers gear up for creating different characters and core assets of the game and prepare concept art of the project in its raw, unpolished form. Android games designers prepare and send the concept art document along with 2D images of characters closely matching client’s requirements. The client then suggests desired changes in the concept art model, which, after the approval, leads to the Art development phase.

Art Development

Here different game elements and assets are mulled over and developed, which necessarily includes graphics, 2D and 3D models followed by the concept art. The art development has many segments such as modelling, texturing, unwrapping, animation, visual effects. For this, designers leverage software resources such as Blender, Maya, Adobe Photoshop, ZBrush or others to finish developing the game art.

4) The Core Game Development

The crucial phase of Android game development now takes off. Developers garner and use most suitable game engines and tools to bring the concept to reality. The game builds are often share with customers during the process to make sure feedback are implemented to adjust the look and feel of the game to user satisfaction. Developers work on code reviews, testing and bug fixing to refine the game. It is better to choose game engine that enables multiplatform support across iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Web, Consoles and TV.

5) Polishing Android games

The final polish speaks a lot about the Android games and their personality. Since polished game has better visibility, performance, and user experience, it is better to improve certain aspects of the game to ensure the best user experience. Android developers should dedicate time to polish the game elements before it is ready for release since it demands substantial amount of time and is important to retain maximum happy users. Under the directions of product manager, the whole team of designers, artists and developers come together to achieve target polish.

The three major areas for game polishing are:

Development polishing:

It goes deep into the technical and engineering aspects of the game development to enhance the playability of the game. The main parameters addressed in development polishing are memory optimization, code refinement, performance optimization and portability.

Art polishing:

The target area of art polishing is to ensure much better visual quality to users by polishing the game art. Game art can write the fate of the Android games especially for Android where varieties in device visual quality are ample. Art polishing mainly touches on UI, animation and graphics.

Design polishing:

Despite the fact that the design comes during the production phase, it is critical to polish the design post development to achieve improved quality in the final game app. It emphasizes user-specific areas such as the game flow, meta game improvement, UX design, game difficulty adjustment and game economy.

6) Quality Assurance & Testing

Android basically is the most diversified platform with numerous devices having varied screen sizes. This is why the QA testing team needs to test Android games precisely to optimize its performance across multiple devices. They must make sure all the game functionalities work smoothly on different environments. Testing is done using detailed testing plans and different combinations of use cases.

The game should be checked for its performance, gameplay consistency, device compatibility and user experience. Beta testing phase is also conducive to adjusting game difficulties and controls to the preferences of the target audience. For this the game is released to a preferred external user group.

7) Launch

This is the conclusive phase of Android game development. After implementing the client’s feedback for enhancing the game features and functionality, it is appreciable to think of user acceptance testing before it is finally released to the respective app stores marketplace. After the evaluation and approval from the client, it is time to publish the app in the Google Play store.

8) Maintenance and Support

Ideal game development process should extend beyond the launch of the game since the Android game needs to be updated from time to time. Developers must prepare for additional support and maintenance long after the game is launched to the market so that it can enhance the chance for client’s games to perform the best in the competitive domain.

To create a high-quality Android game, you will need to partner with a reliable and versatile Android development company who is committed to deliver all the latest technologies, industry-grade experience, updated knowledge and creativity and support needed to build your dream Android game.

Cost of Developing an Android Game App

If you are thinking of developing an Android game, you must know that the entire process from concept and planning to execution and to making your game live on Google Play is both overwhelming and painstaking. It requires a lot of specialized expertise to build perfect Android game apps with incredible user experience. However, a lot of game-constructing depends on the budget, which is a crucial factor in justifying the number of challenges and resources invested in the game.

Mainly, when it comes to Android game development, the developers calculate the cost with enormous focus on:

  • Desired features and UI flow
  • Project level and class
  • Gameplay mechanics
  • Technological resources
  • Expectations about User Experience
  • Allotted Timeline
  • Post-development involvement

In order to achieve the perfect balance between desired results and expected budget, the team of Android developers and the client must synchronize together on various game aspects including game idea, economy and availability of resources and time constraints.

A Glance at Major Cost Drivers

  • Concept:

The major part of the budget possibilities receives clarity when the game is in its conceptual stage. If you want to clone an existing Android game app or already have a tested model on paper, a good chunk of your investment will be saved and can be used for more significant activities later.

  • Story Development:

If you lack a powerful game story, characters, graphic vision, background music and UX perspective, the integration of all such essentials into Android games will cost you a bit more.

  • Level & Scale:

If the game you want to build has simple design and straight arcade structure, you will get more relaxed around cost constraints. Simple the design, more easy the UI would be, which further shrinks down the investment considerably. On the contrary, as the levels and contents of the game grow complex, your budget should be enough to accommodate changing requirements.

  • Outsourcing model:

Mid-level and high-level Android game apps with outstanding features and graphics require sharp skills and experience often found in outsourcing partners. In many cases, recruiting dedicated designers and developers for outsourcing the game creation helps optimize the Android game development.

1) Mini Game ($5k to $25k)

A simple mini game with basic features and theme is going to cost you around $5000 to $25000. Here the idea of small game consists of 2D appearance, simple visual style and graphics, plain characters and straightforward gameplay with single level like Flappy Bird.

If it is a clone or re-skin of existing Android games like Pac-Man, you can have it built in less than the mentioned price bracket. However, note that grand-scale expectations rarely go hand in hand with limited budget and may see you ending up with mediocre product.

2) Basic standard Game ($25k to $70k)

Basic games bracket includes a range of medium-budget adventure or Indie type games. If you are looking for paid games with great value for users, you will realize that you should be willing to invest justifiable amount of money for your game development project. When you approach an Android development company for estimate, the usual price estimate for basic game quote you will hear sits between $25k and $70k.

3) Medium Game ($70k to $100k)

The games with more depth of content and detailed mechanics fall in the category of medium scale games. Many independent games that have more layers of levels, exciting storyline and interesting characters join this price bucket. Due to its mature design and replayable material, such games successfully capture the wider audience. Temple Run, Angry Birds (early version) and Cut the Rope belong to this bracket.

4) Large complicated Game ($100k – $250k)

Android games of this calibre are hit titles of grand scale and demand great attention and investment. Often they are funded by publisher or investment partners especially when a small team of Android developers take on the ambitious game development project. In this category, it is most likely that the game has both free-to-play and premium versions requiring small transactions to support monetization within the app. Here the content complexity and gameplay go even larger and deeper.

5) Very High-Quality Game (Over $250k+)

This is where things go biggest and expectations touch the highest bar. Very large, high-end games will involve the streamlined job from veteran developers, large studios and intrepid publishers. The scope of this kind of Android game apps is quite enormous with rich graphics, powerful features and engaging gameplay. The cost of development may touch even 7 figures in some cases. Famous Titles like Clash of Clans and other paid hits like Infinity Blade 3 fits into this bracket.

Summary

Here you learned about various facets of Android game development cycle that can help developers make right decisions to achieve success. There is no doubt that Android dominates the global smartphone market with increasing number of users across all demographics contributing to the success of Android-based games. Such splendid influence of Android OS opens immense opportunities for Android developers to craft brilliant, high-quality games.

Making a good game with excellent graphics and design requires a lot of efforts and agility from today’s developers and designers. You surely need a perfect combination of a right publisher, experienced Android development company and target audience down the road.

At Redbytes, we understand the precise requirements and specifications of the client and have worked on wide range of games including arcade, puzzle, action, adventures, strategy, education, social, RPG, MMO and board games and more. If you have a game plan to discuss, you may contact us to build a solid game development strategy.

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The world of mobile app developers is struck with more intense challenges because of constant advancements in technologies, mobile app development trends and fickle nature of customers. Users are not willing to compromise on performance and quality, which means developers of modern era must consider users’ demand for high performance.

Not all the mobile apps become hit when they are launched. Some of them are never recognized. A study from digital trends confirms that merely 16% of mobile users think of using the mobile app again once they are dissatisfied. Optimal mobile app quality is therefore seen as a driving force for app success.

This blog will delve in how mobile app quality is critical for ratings, revenues and brand reputation followed by the tips to improve its performance.

How to perceive mobile app quality and performance?

Mobile application development is in a way a broad term that includes addressing a range of modern user requirements, technical challenges, resources management, testing and deployment, user experience, marketing and successive updates releases.

The success of the mobile app development process depends on whether or not your mobile app behaves to users’ satisfaction and fulfils all their needs. People who actually install and use it and navigate its different features will ultimately be the deciders of the quality of your mobile app. Hence, performance is key to deciding the measure of app quality.

Mobile app performance is subject to various components such as:

  • The server
  • Network quality
  • Integration of APIs
  • Interactions with device environment
  • Coding methods

Sometimes users may experience abrupt app crash incidents or slow loading of content especially at the time of high rush in user activity during festive season or promotions. This implies poor experience for which app itself may not be entirely responsible. Hence, for anybody working in the domain of mobile app development, it is necessary to define a great app.

What is a best mobile app?

The great mobile app is the one that remains consistent in its performance even in inconvenient situations, face challenges of time, satisfies customers needs, loads faster and has pleasant user interface, impressive visuals and exciting features.

An ideal mobile app might be focused on single functionality, but it should do it exceedingly well.

How mobile app quality impacts on its success

Users are evolving in their expectations though young demographics are growing more demanding when it comes to exploring mobile apps, which adds challenges to the job of mobile app development. In one survey run by Dimensional Research, more than 90% users responded that app performance is quite critically important. A good performance can even compensate for the price concerns of an app.

Today’s users can’t tolerate even 3 seconds of delay before they see an app fully loaded on their screen. The optimal response time taken by the app to load usually comes down to 2 seconds.

A mobile app survey by Akamai says 47% of customers want web pages to load within just two seconds whereas 20% of them expect mobile apps to open instantly. This goes to say how important is it for mobile app development specialists to ensure optimal performance and quality of mobile apps.

Volatile nature of modern users

While many apps are joining the list of top grossing apps in popular App stores, apps that fail to engage users are losing on interest and revenue as well. Users are openly judgemental and are prepared to abandon your app the moment they realize your mobile app performance doesn’t go with their expectations.

The question of App ratings/reviews

App store ratings are quite an important part of ensuring your mobile app offers everything users want to buy. If your app doesn’t have quality enough to impress users or has minor errors or crash issues, they will leave unpleasant reviews and ratings and all the efforts invested in mobile app development will go in vain. Low ratings means less number of downloads, too. Even the slightest of drop in ratings affects the download rates to a great extent.

Benefits of commendable app performance

No doubt, users expect great returns for each penny they spend. If you app’s performance is flawless and smooth, you will gain more loyalty and spending from them.

Therefore, mobile app development veterans should know how performance directly impacts customer acquisition and revenue. For example, a case study by SOASTA revealed that even one-second drop in average page load time results in a 27% boost in conversion rate.

Another example goes to claim that after President Obama’s fundraising site increased its page load speed by 60% in 2011, it could raise $34 million more for the campaign.

This indicates how performance and app quality should be the primary concerns of any mobile app development company. Performance testing is an integral part of quality assurance and offers mobile apps a competitive strength.

How to improve Mobile App Performance

We have reached the part in our discussion where we should check the important actions needed to improve your mobile app quality and performance.

The app security

App security is the top priority for maintaining the highest quality of the app and keeping the download numbers up. In case of Android, the risks of your app being subject to cyber threats are likely. Personal information especially regarding payment is sensitive for users. Therefore, to ensure your app is appreciated by them, you should protect their private data with robust password layers and SSL certificate.

Personalization

Users adore personalized elements in the app if it is used in suitable places. Mobile app development should emphasize the important of personalizing settings, fonts, size, colours as it gives app users ability to interact with your app in their own style, which inspires engagement among users.

Compress the size of images

Compressing the image to resize it without lowering its quality is the best mobile app development practice to increase the app performance and cut down the load time. Choose the adequate size of the image for compressing it. compressor.io is one of the reliable image compression providers you can opt for.

Load the data economically

This factor is unknown to many emerging mobile app development firms. If your app contains a lot of data, try to load it as per the need. Users hate waiting to explore a tiny part of the app. Break down the content components and try to pre-fetch data so that when users want it, they get it without excessive load time.

Also, bring down the number of HTTP requests for page resources. It will not burden your app and let users enjoy quick loading.

Turn on the offline mode

If the network connection of user’s device drops during any action inside the app, it is a good practise to inform them the reason of incomplete action. Allow them to save the data for later so that they can start off where they left off after securing strong network. This approach helps sooth customers and win/ their loyalty.

Test frequently and proactively

Testing is a crucial part of mobile app development process. Make sure there is no compromise made when it comes to maturely testing the mobile apps. Your app must fulfil variety of tests to ensure it works consistently across all devices, platforms and networks and performs well without crash incidents.

Test the app for usability often during the development. It saves time and money and offers ease of fixing bugs when the app is tested through the development process.

The use of APM system

If you have a mobile app, you must understand the vitality of having an application performance monitoring (APM) system that helps buoy up the app quality by sensing and diagnosing performance issues for your app. Such performance management tools is dedicated to keeping your mobile app development on the right track while ensuring users enjoy uninterrupted service and your app serves computing functions healthily.

Some of the companies that offer APM tools are New Relic, AppDynamics, HockeyApp and Flurry.

Concluding notes

The quality and performance of your mobile app act as oxygen to your mobile app development phase. It decides user retention, ratings, number of downloads, conversion, and ultimately, revenue. Since users have become smart in their choices, you must maintain the app quality to observe more traffic to your mobile app. If you create a high-quality app that satisfies user’s expectations, users will rush to your app more often, elevating your brand reputation.

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Mobile has evolved a lot over years and has risen up to a great platform that has greater potential to reach the audience all over the world. These days’ people tend to gravitate to platforms that are more reliable and accessible. As Android is becoming a popular platform to play games, many of us prefer these devices to play games on Android.

The Google Play Store is now loaded with a variety of games that fall into various categories like adventure, puzzles, shooters, racers, runners, fantasy quizzes, board games, word games, education based games, casino based games, sports games and much more. With the integration of AR and VR to smart phones, many of the gamers are jumping from PC to Android devices to enjoy much better gaming experiences.

Now if you are interested to know about a verdict about the top-rated Android games of 2018, then take a look at this info graphic.

Android App Info-graphics

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The industrial world is going through a digital revolution and IoT is making a remarkable change over the past few decades. All kind of services in various industries are getting smarter with sensors as well as intelligent controls. Using the advanced technologies, the data is being used in a better way to improve operations, minimize expense, enhance productivity and importantly offering a safer workplace.

The idea behind the use of IoT is to establish a good connection between independent entities such as robots, machines, and humans to get the best of all. Even when more or less all the industries are witnessing some positive changes with IoT, certain sectors such as education, hospitality, advertising, automobiles as well as manufacturing is undergoing some serious changes.

Let us have a look at the impact that is made by IoT in the main industry platforms:

Manufacturing Industry:

With IoT, the typical machines are now getting replaced with innovative systems that offer unparalleled performance with sensors and intelligent controls. Data is easily transferred between the machines and storage and retrieval of data is taking place easily over the internet.

Here are some key changes in the manufacturing industry with IoT:

  • The time of service of a machine is predicted in advance avoiding an unexpected breakdown.
  • The intelligent power solutions are helping to get things done in minimal time and effort and saves the power for future
  • Data from the machines is used wisely and circulated among the team to find solutions in a quick mode
  • IT-optimized smart manufacturing helps to use the staff in a more productive way.

Automotive Industry:

This particular industry is witnessing an absolute revolution with connected vehicles. The artificial intelligence and sensors are in fact taking the driver’s seat and the touch of a button is giving you everything you need inside a car. Here are a few IoT trends in automotive sector:

  • Connected vehicles: Traffic congestion is eased off to a great extent with vehicles connecting each other
  • Innovative sensors: The car’s operation is regularly monitored and alerts are provided to assure safety and security
  • Driverless cars: Last but not the least, cars without drivers are in the market now where artificial intelligence is replacing humans

Healthcare Industry:

Unlike any other industry, IoT has a remarkable value when it comes to health care industry. The right mix of IoT features and medical devices can help get the best of science advantages while saving lives of many people. The IoT apps help with preventive interventions and constant monitoring and providing personalized care which is the most important.

Some key benefits of IoT on healthcare include:

  • Wearable devices: The instant feedback with such devices helps to prevent emergencies
  • Remote healthcare: The healthcare apps helps patients with real time data access and analysis and timely notifications on check ups
  • Patient centric care: Services are offered depending on the specific care needed for the patient

Education Sector:

With availability of affordable IoT enabled devices, teachers, students as well as school administrators are getting the better out of today’s technology. This is causing serious changes in the way boring classroom sessions are slowly changing into interactive classrooms where students are craving for more learning.

Here are some key areas where IoT helps educational sector:

  • Safe learning environment: The options such as sensors and empowered cameras monitor and secure students within the premises.
  • Engaged learning: The advanced options such as interactive whiteboards keeps students engaged for a long time
  • Support for special need students: IoT enabled classrooms helps to overcome their physical and cognitive limitations
  • Quality school administration: Practical solutions with quick data storage, tracking and analysis saves space and time while improving overall efficiency

Retail World:

We saw that online shopping trend is taking over the retail shopping and IoT is gradually changing this trend with the benefits of both in a single mode. The augmented and virtual reality headsets are going to be the key to help the customers to make their selection from variety of choices. In the case of outfits, you can simply try hundreds of outfits in a few minutes and go for the one that suits you the best. The selection can be made from larger catalogues unlike the retail shops but getting the feel of actual retail shopping.

Construction Industry:

Smart buildings are the best sign that internet of things is making a drastic impact on the construction industry. In addition to impressive occupant comfort, they are helping to save costs and offer unprecedented energy. The improved physical security is the highlighted benefit of smart buildings equipped with IoT apps. The protection of buildings can be established in real time with sensor cameras that works round the clock. The official buildings are making use of these features to avoid the possible potential security breach that can cause them huge.

Here are a few benefits for construction and real estate industry with the influence of IoT:

  • Efficient building operations
  • Improved margins for building developers
  • Good tenant relationships
  • Innovative revenue generation opportunities

Hospitality Industry:

The experience of people abroad and on air is witnessing a drastic change with the influence of IoT. Custom meals with their personal preferences can be made well in advance before they fall hungry. The facial recognition features at the place of stay helps managers to identify the person and treat them with all honour. Personalization is the key when IoT takes over as guests can be provided with automated temperature and light settings of their preference upon arrival.

Here are some key benefits of IoT in hospitality:

  • Guestroom automation
  • Location based suggestions
  • Key-less entry with mobile apps
  • Predictive maintenance

Advertising Industry:

With an increase in the wearable devices with IoT, advertisers are finding it really easy to improve the reach of their customers. The product or service promotions can be circulated among the potential users at a comparatively faster rate. The advertising professionals are considering the smart products as a better screen or channel to convey their information.

As smart devices can easily monitor a person’s behaviour pattern and areas of interest, a wise professional can grab the opportunity at the right time. Moreover, the advertising can be tailored to encourage conversions. Effective ad campaigns are built over the IoT platforms in the global digital space.

Engineering Industry:

IoT creates a lot of opportunities in the engineering industry and the professionals are turning more creative and facing new challenges each day. As more and more connected devices are in demand every day, the professionals get chance to explore what they have learned in the span or think out of the box to come up with even more exciting solutions.

According to IDC research, IoT market is expected to hit $1.7 trillion by the year 2020. In order to give a good competition in your industry, it would be a wise idea to go for IoT apps. It may seem optional now but if you set back now, it would be too late for you when IoT becomes an integral part to survive. IoT app development is not much of a big deal now as there are lots of enthusiasts around who can handle the job for you with ease. Go for an mobile app development company who can provide high quality end products within the stipulated time frame.

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Now is the age of “look-alike” apps that are aptly named Progressive Web Apps (PWA). A PWA is driven by modern web features, enabling business users to experience an app-like visibility and functionality. You have a choice to either deploy it as a Progressive Web Apps or a Native app so that your business can make the most of both the channels of interface.

These Progressive Web Apps can be deployed to servers which are indexed by search engines and are accessible via URLs. Not calling for any complex installation, these apps can handhold businesses in more ways than one.

Before we look into the advantages of PWAs, let us now delve deep into what makes these apps stand out from others which offer the regular web-based experiences.

Features of PWAs

  • The Concept of Progressiveness

Speaking of the word “progressive” that comes with these modern apps, this name makes it possible for every user to derive the best out of PWAs irrespective of the choice of browser.

It is though their core principle of progressive enhancement that make these apps a class above the rest. They can seamlessly fit into any device including mobiles, tablets or even a desktop.

  • Ease of Operation

Once you enter a website that can be used as a PWA, you will be asked to pin the PWA to your mobile phone screen.

This feature will help you retain the apps that you find are beneficial to you on the home screen of your mobile. This will not only save the app but will also allow you to start using it whenever you want.

  • The Offline Support

As with normal websites which run on internet connectivity at all times, this is not the case with PWAs. It uses cache memory that enable you stay connected via the offline mode.

This means that, all PWAs are independent of net connectivity, allowing you to either work offline or on slow-speed networks.

  • The Luxury of Staying Abreast With New Content

Another striking feature of PWAs is linked to their ability to work in the background. These apps, through push notifications help you stay abreast with the latest content.

This way, you can benefit through the app which will not only synch your data but will also send it to the user despite being inactive.

  • The Safety Feature

All these PWAs come with the HTPPS protocol. That means, these apps are safe, always securing your content from misuse or tampering.

After understanding the benefits of PWAs, now is the time to unveil the advantages of PWAs to businesses.

1. Ease of Implementation

If you are looking to understand everything that makes PWAs an attractive solution to businesses, the first amongst them is their ease of implementation.

All the PWAs come with JavaScript as the standard front-end language. PWAs hence do not call for any change in the scripting language. Simply apply the expertise of your in-house or outsourced JavaScript developers and you are all covered.

To sum it all, you can ensure a hassle-free implementation of your PWA without any additional resources, manpower or technologies.

2. Benefits to Users With Regard to Simplified Implementation of PWAs

After discussing the ease to implement a PWA from an operational perspective, let us now move on to the advantages your customers will enjoy.

PWAs do not need you to download and install them from either the App Store or Windows Store. On the other hand, as soon as you start using a PWA, you will be prompted to pin the app to your smartphone’s home screen.

Read also : How To Create an App For Your Small Business

Once this is done, you will be able to use it without any hassles through the PWA icon. This procedure not only enables your app to come live in a jiffy but will also spare you the review process that comes with either a Play Store or an App Store.

3. It’s All About Speed Loading

PWAs load faster even while working offline. Statistics state that about 53% of mobile users abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. This is a serious problem that can affect businesses and their bottom-line.

Through PWAs, you can safeguard your online business presence. Your customers can simply navigate to the site on either a Chrome or Safari browser and get going. Thus, PWAs come as awesome tools for marketers to promote their products and services to the world of shoppers and clients.

4. Revenue Conversions

PWAs guarantee a reliable and effective online mobile shopping or transactional experience. This assurance, which is not linked to location, time or network availability constraints will help you rake in rewards.

When your business starts addressing the needs of your target audience, you will be able to provide the luxury of mobility to the world at large with a commitment to offer smooth and quick responses. These responses come in the form of push notifications which will help your customers to get informed about reminders and marketing offers.

5. The Cross-Platform Functionality

As with regular websites, you will be able to make use of PWAs on multiple platforms. As you already know that iOS does not support important Application Program Interfaces (APIs), you have a solution coming in the form of Adobe PhoneGap or Apache Cordova.

It is through this software plug-in that you can empower your PWA to interact with different platforms alongside program a host of graphical user interface (GUI) components.

6. Experience the Supremacy of Google

Here is another huge advantage in favor of PWAs. The fact that these apps are backed by one of the largest global software companies named Google, you can surely imagine what’s in store for these apps.

Backed by a strong intent from Google to churn out many websites offering “app-like” experiences to end users, the time is ripe for PWAs to be tagged as the perfect companions to native mobile apps.

7. The Native Apps v/s PWAs

Native apps which are developed for a particular service or platform are best suited to engage brand loyalists. Allowing loyal customers to install your app, you can ensure that you gain visibility. On the flip side, Progressive Web Apps can be used to reach out to new users.

Once they start interacting with your PWA, there will come a time when they can eventually download your native app. That means, you don’t have to replace native apps with PWAs but can enable both of them to work hand-in-hand.

The fact that PWAs offer the same engaging and responsive feel matching a native app stands in favor of the “best of both the worlds” maxim. Your customers will not only find your PWA interactive and engaging but will also enjoy better mobile browsing experience.

8. Brand Visibility Enhanced Through Push Notifications

User-engagement is a promising feature for any online business to thrive. PWAs come with an in-built ability to send real-time alerts to your customers as part of your user-engagement strategy.

It is through push notifications that your business will stand to gain even when the app is not running. Through this mobile app feature, you will be able to attract the attention of users towards your brand.

9. Low on Data Usage

Another fine detail that makes PWAs a star attraction to businesses is linked to data usage. All thanks to the way in which PWAs are built, they do not call for high data usage once it is installed. Repeat visitors to the app can get away with decreased loads.

Closing Thoughts

Keeping in mind all the above-explained advantages of PWAs to your app development business, you will be poised to create a strong mobile presence in more ways than you can imagine.

The keywords are increased conversion, interaction rate and customer engagement along with decreased loading times and data usage. These are all the star attractions of PWAs that can be employed by businesses to scale new heights.

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Within a short time span, AI has already become one of most discussed technology among science and tech-based organizations and more companies are showing an interest in Artificial Intelligence than ever before. Google’s prime invest of $400 billion itself is a known factor that AI apps are becoming a mainstream. Having a personal assistant to do your entire task brings more users to try this, which in turn increases the potential of apps.

And now with Google I/O annual developers’ conference event, the company has brought Google AI to spotlight with many additional features that could make a great impact in the world of mobile app technology.

In this article let’s check out how the tech giant is going to use AI on its products:

1) Google Duplex:

Google Duplex

This is one of the main features that stole the show at the 2018 Google I/O, the Google Duplex which is company’s new experimental technology. The highlighted advantage of this feature is that it lets AI-powered bots to make a call for your personal needs. I know it sounds quite crazy but this is now real…

Google Duplex is a neural network that can be trained for highly specialized tasks which use Google’s automatic speech recognition technology. It enables the AI to relieve you from tiring tasks, like making a restaurant reservation or a hair salon appointment. And the best part is that the person talking would have no idea they are talking to a machine, because it’s that real.

For example, the AI would suggest the name of the salon or the timing you wish to book an appointment or make an online booking service using a phone call. Google Assistant will also check the working hours, and make the booking according to the time you want to. Duplex is designed to respond in a natural manner and adapt to responses in real time and the feature will be rolling out in the coming weeks in the US.

2) Google Maps makes Navigation Easier:

Navigation

To make navigation easier, Google has introduced Visual Guidance and Visual Positioning System in Google Maps Navigation. Google aims at navigating Street view and Maps by combining AI with camera features. Within this, you can use your camera while walking through streets/roads and follow the animation that is been displayed on the screen. The exact reflection of your camera is shown on the screen with the complete route navigation map of to which direction you are approaching.

To make this feature more amazing and more fun to use, Google has also incorporated a guide companion in the form of an animated character- ‘a fox’. Your guide companion will run in front of you on the screen towards the direction you need to go.

Along with these features, the Explore tab on Map has also been re-designed to show recommendation based on the area the user search. Any options for dining, events and other activities available around your area will be displayed. Each result displayed, will be according to the reviews given by local experts, trusted publishers and Google’s Algorithm.

3) Google sets “Pretty Please” feature for Kids:

Pretty Please

No more yelling at your Google Assistant or home smart speaker because Google has set this new feature on request from many parents & families. The main aim of this feature is to teach children to speak polite language when interacting with the Assistant and in return, the AI will say thanks to kids.

While using this feature, the voice assistant will respond to children with some positive reinforcement at the same time also performs the requested task.

4) New AI-powered Feature Can Write Emails for You:

Google Photos Gets Exciting New Features

Google has revealed a new feature that will power a new Gmail technology for users that can write and send emails on behalf of yours. An add-on feature named Smart Compose lets you quickly create or compose emails by suggesting words or phrases that you might use, just like an advanced version of auto-correct. This feature not only saves time but also reduces grammatical and spelling mistakes.

5) Google Photos Gets Exciting New Features:

At the Google conference, new features have been incorporated that budding smart phone photographers would be desperate to use. Photo sharing is made easy and the facial recognition feature lets grouping of same people photos, creating their albums and also quick sharing.

Other feature for photos that can suggest photo editing improvements like contrast, brightness, colorization and selective desaturation. AI algorithms also have the ability to suggest who to share pictures with based on faces on the photo.

6) A Revamp of Google News Features:

Revamp of Google News Features

Google News will have the feature Google Material Theme based on AI that make accessing much faster and easier for users. From now, the relevant top 5 stories will be listed first according to the user preferences.

The most interesting feature in this section is ‘Full Coverage’ which lines up the various perspective of news based on data from opinions, related tweets, analyses and much more. According to Google, this is going to be an unbiased way to approach complex stories, for getting the full scope of the story relying on AI.

Conclusion:

From all these features, its certainly understood that Google has completely adapted to the changing world and technology in meaningful and productive ways which can earn tangible benefits to their users.  Google is already the biggest search engine that brings in any information at your fingertips in no time. With incorporating AI, Google has proved that it can go a long way with technology to achieve remarkable goals in future as well.

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The Emergence of cross platform ecosystem in mobile app development

Until recently, mobile app development specialists had to follow a stringent slot of either iOS, Android or Windows. Due to differing ecosystem, language constraints and style, the process of software development on each platform was entirely different. It was therefore extremely challenging for developers to build separate mobile apps for these platforms.

However, Xamarin came to transform the process and altered the course of the situation through enabling unique facility known as cross platform development. Xamarin allows developers to build application for iOS and Android with C# and .NET libraries. To establish the performance and feel of native apps, Xamarin mobile development enables developers to leverage full range of native APIs and UI controls available from the OS and hardware of the respective devices.

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin offers unique ability to iOS and Android developers to work their way towards writing mobile applications in C# and then run them on any desired mobile platform or OS.

Earlier, native languages like Objective-C, Swift and Java were the only limited choices for creating iOS and Android applications. In a past few years, Xamarin has bred novel ecosystem of platforms for cross platform mobile application development. It offers single language (C#) and runtime that seamlessly functions across iOS, Android and Windows and compiles native apps.

Why to choose Xamarin?

Each platform has its own discipline of features and methods of writing native applications where native code interoperates and interacts smoothly with underlying Java base. Some platforms support apps written in HTML and JavaScript whereas some allow C/C++ code. In such traditional setting, there should be separate codebases for each device or your app run via web browser, which imposes major concerns of maintenance and cost.


In Xamarin mobile development, developers eliminate typical issues as faced in native app development. For instance, web browser apps do not run natively as its UI is not familiar to device ecosystem and its performance is also compromised due to the absence of native code.

Xamarin’s cross platform capability is superior because:

  • It consists of native features: UI, API access and performance
  • Native UI of each device makes your app user-friendly
  • You can perform the same coding results as achieved using Objective-C, Java and Swift
  • Due to access to device’s individual APIs, you can experience native performance
  • Enjoy shared codebase across all devices
  • Cross platform apps offer same-day support for each new OS releases

Xamarin products

Xamarin offers:

  • iOS
  • Xamarin Android
  • forms

Specialities of Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android

Developers can leverage the power of UI toolkits Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android in order to create an app using each platform’s APIs .NET framework. While developing apps with these two products, you can relish customizations for UI for each platform.

In both UI toolkits, you will have the benefit of separate UI approach. Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android comes with shared code base in C# which is shared across platforms with separate UI for each.

Xamarin mobile development with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android seems suitable for:

  • Apps where native-like behaviour and interactions are expected
  • Development of apps with platform-specific native APIs
  • Mobile apps with UI customization scope

Specialities of Xamarin.forms

The best part about using Xamarin.forms is that while building an app with this UI kit, developers will need to write code only once. At the moment of runtime, this written code is translated to platform’s native environment.

Another speciality of Xamarin.forms is that you can enjoy the benefit of the maximum code sharing which is as much as 90% with this UI kit.

Hence, Xamarin.Forms is suitable when:

  • You don’t require platform-specific functionality for apps
  • Code sharing is more crucial than custom UI

Xamarin components

With the launch of Xamarin 2.0 in March 2013, the Component Store was introduced to help developers save time and accelerate Xamarin application development process and enjoy potential features. The store contains the stunning catalog of UI controls, charts, themes, cloud services and other great features that you can integrate in your app in matter of a few clicks.

To speed up the process of adding Xamarin components to your app, the Store is integrated into both Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio. To get detailed insight into how exactly you can create, bundle, test and submit your components to the Xamarin Store, refer to the full Xamarin Component Store Guide.

Here is the quick overview to Xamarin components and submission.

Submission Overview

After component creation and packaging and testing, you will need to submit your components and Xamarin plugins to Xamarin component store. Before you proceed, it is believed that you have some experience with yaml and building a component. If you are not aware of how to produce a component, start going through its insightful Xamarin Component Store guide.

Once you have finished building a component and are happy with it, you can submit your creation to Xamarin Store where it will be reviewed and approved.

You will need to set up your own Xamarin Account in case you don’t have one. To proceed for creating the Xamarin account, visit Xamarin Home page and click “Sign In” at the top right corner. Follow the instructions there after clicking on “Create a new account”.

If you are not willing to keep it open source, you can place the specific charge for the use of any of Xamarin components submit by you on the Store. To officially set up the charge for each component and Xamarin plug-ins you create, you will need to provide your account details. The sales will be credited to your account provided that 30% of the revenue is deducted as commission towards Xamarin Store.

To understand the process of updating the existing component – which is different from creating a new one – you should study the guide on Xamarin store website.

Approval Process

After you have submitted the new or updated component, you wait for Xamarin Store to review it on the basis of Component Review Guidelines. If they discover any issues or errors, you will be contacted with the details of needed fixes and improvements.

If there is not issue found in your component or Xamarin plug-ins, it will receive the final approval and be made available officially on the component store where people can explore and download when required.

Major Xamarin components

Major Xamarin components

Some of the most powerful Xamarin components you may find on its online library for Xamarin application development are:

  • SNMP library: Solid easy to use, open source SNMP library for iOS and Android
  • AchartEngine: Charting library for Android applications
  • ActionTray: A dockable customizable slide-out, tray view controller for iOS and Android
  • Advance Colour Picker: An open-source colour picker component for Xamarin.iOS
  • Alliance Calendar: Beautiful Android calendar control with elegant features
  • BubbleTree: Represent tree structures in mobile apps. Search an element in bug tree structure in an easy and intuitive way.
  • Built.io: Mobile and web back-end and app development platform by raw engineering
  • Card.io for Android and iOS: Credit card scanning for mobile apps for both platforms
  • Dolby Audio Component: Leverage the power of Dolby audio in your Android and Games
  • Download Manager: Handles the downloading of files from the internet using either HTTP or FTP protocols
  • Eggs-To-Go: Cross-platform mobile library for implementing Easter Egg gestures
  • Google App indexing for iOS: Get your app found in Google Search
  • Google Cardboard: It enables VR on your smartphone for experiencing virtual reality in simple, fun and affordable way

Features of Xamarin

Features of Xamarin

Xamarin’s unique quality is that it combines most quintessential power of native platforms with its own set of comprehensive features to enable Xamarin application development. Some of its great features include:

1. Leverage the full potential with the underlying SDKs

For iOS and Android developers, Xamarin binds the whole underlying platform’s SDK to establish native experience in its full capacity. In both the platforms, these bindings work effectively and are strongly-typed. They are easy to use and navigate and offer robust compile-time type checking during the development process, which translates into minimum runtime errors and high-quality mobile apps.

2. Integration of Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries

Xamarin application development allows you to directly take advantage of existing iOS and Android libraries written in Objective-C, Java or C/C++. This facility gives you the freedom and power to integrate a wide variety of 3rd party code already created in this library. Also, using declarative syntax, developers can easily bind native Objective-C and Java libraries.

3. Sophisticated Language Constructs

Xamarin applications are all written in C# which is much more sophisticated and improved language than its previous predecessors Objective-C and Java. Its potential improvements are Dynamic language features, Functional Constructs (Lambdas), LINQ, Parallel programming features, modern Generics, etc.

4. Massively feature-rich Base Class Library (BCL)

Xamarin applications benefit greatly from .NET BCL, which is a massive collections classes that contain comprehensive and much powerful features such as Database, XML, Serialization, IO, Networking support, String and much more. Moreover, by compiling existing C# code in an application, you can gain access to enormous number of libraries that allow you to perform more actions that BCL basically offers.

5. Modern (IDE)

The inimitable quality of Xamarin is that it uses Visual Studio on Mac OS X and on Windows. The Visual Studio for both platforms have modern IDEs with features such as a sophisticated Project and Solution management system, code auto completion, integrated source control, a comprehensive project template library, and more.

6. Mobile Cross Platform Support

To facilitate frictionless Xamarin application development for leading mobile platforms (iOS, Android and Windows), Xamarin offers sophisticated cross-platform support. Xamarin. Mobile library has a unified API to avail common resources across these platforms. You can write Applications with up to 90% of shared code. Xamarin’s cross-platform support saves substantial amount of cost and time needed to market products for three popular platforms.

These are some of Xamarin’s incredibly powerful and compelling features that contributing to enhancing the Xamarin application development.  It is due to this powerful feature set that application developers can now fill the void experienced during the development process. They can finally capitalize on the strength of modern language and comprehensive platform to develop cross-platform mobile applications.

Xamarin App Development Tools

Xamarin App Development Tools

Xamarin is one of unstoppable buzzwords among developers who avidly gravitate towards cross-platform frameworks to build cross-platform applications across major platforms (Android, Windows, iOS, OS X) with native UI, experience and performance. Hence, if you are looking for highly productive tools to ease your Xamarin development process, this section will walk you through all the essential development tools used for creating Xamarin apps.

1) Visual Studio

Visual Studio is Microsoft’s advanced and widely used sophisticated IDE. Known best for its features for mobile, desktop and web application creation, it supports mobile development of:

  • .NET (Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS)
  • Mac desktop apps
  • .NET Core applications
  • NET Core Web application
  • Cross-platform Unity games

Some if its significant features include debugger, rich editor, integrated source control and native platform integration with iOS, Mac and Android. The latest Visual Studio for Mac incorporates a range of features including cloud, web development and potential improvements in cross-platform mobile development.

2) Xcode

Dedicated to Apple’s various OS platforms, Xcode IDE facilitates the entire Apple development ecosystem. It creates immensely productive environment for developers to build apps for Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch OS and Apple TV. Even though you can use Xamarin to develop iOS apps on Visual Studio running in a Window system, you can’t deny the role of Mac computer because you will also require an access to Mac system to perform the remote actions of compilation and debugging.

3) NuGet

NuGet is another essential tool that enables mechanism for modern developers to create, share and consume reusable code. NuGet is a main repository of over 100,000 code packages produced by .NET developers. You can also host packages in the private cloud or network or on your local storage system. This way, code bundles will be accessible to developers who have permission to the host, maintaining in place the limited, user-specific availability.

4) Xamarin Inspector

When it is time to run and test apps for bugs, Xamarin Workbooks and Inspector offers an interactive C# console. The Xamarin Inspector integrates with the app debugger of your IDE so that users can capitalize on its tools to diagnose, inspect and debug the app elements smoothly.

5) Prism:

Prism is a framework used to build testable XAML applications in WPF, Windows 10 and Xamarin Forms. Basically Prism offers implementation of design patterns for writing well-structured and maintainable XAML apps. It includes MVVM, commands, dependency injection, EventAggregator, etc. Prism provides shared code base in a Portable Class Library which targets these core platforms while enabling integration of these design patterns with the target platform.

6) MFractor

In order to make Xamarin application development easier and more simplified, MFractor offers XAML IntelliSense, 100+ XAML inspections and re-factorings, image tooling and more. It also contains an enhanced XAML editor that boosts your Xamarin. Forms development by increasing the speed of discovering code issues and ultimately fixing them in a few clicks.

MFractor also helps you with missing essentials such as:

  • Image importing wizard
  • Localization assistance
  • Handy mobile navigation short-cuts
  • Code snippet support
  • Configuration engine
  • Project-specific customization options

7) MVVM Frameworks

MVVM, which is also known as Model-View-View-Model, is a reliable technique tailored for XAML-based environments in order to architect an application. It does so by separating UI from the underlying code used to integrate business logic. You can use MVVM frameworks in your Xamarin Forms while opting for Xamarin application development. Some of them are:

  • MvvmCross:https://github.com/MvvmCross/MvvmCross
  • Mvvm Light:http://www.mvvmlight.net/
  • Fresh MVVM:https://github.com/rid00z/FreshMvvm

8) ReSharper

If you are looking for an accurate on-the-fly code quality analysis in different languages, ReSharper is a Visual Studio extension you may consider. Designed for .NET developers, ReSharper supports .NET MVC, C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET, XAML, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and XML. Based on its analytical capability, developers can determine whether or not their code needs further improvement.

  • You can be warned of any problem in your code
  • You can take advantage of hundreds of quick fixes to automatically resolve the issue
  • Leverage variety of quick fix options to pick and choose the best from

It is also equipped with many code editing helpers such as:

  • Extended IntelliSense
  • Instant code transformations
  • Auto-importing namespaces
  • Code rearrangement
  • Documentation display

9) Sketch

Sketch is a vector-based, powerful design tool for Mac and its focus is mainly on screen design. Developers and designers can leverage Sketch for creating website structures, icons, and UI for both desktop and mobile devices. Sketch is handy and powerful to both beginners and established professionals who wish to specialize in one domain – which is design.

Thick with lots of pros, Sketch is tailored to address the needs of digital artists who expect to build spectacular applications. Due to its alluring feature set, Sketch as a design tool has become a widely popular choice among dedicated design companies and start-ups today.

10) Balsamiq

Balsamiq is another design aid that helps designers get faster, better and smarter in their design building experience. For once, it uses computer to reproduce the experience of sketching on a whiteboard and making wireframes faster. This ultimately helps creative designers generate more ideas and think of the best solutions possible. Here in Balsamiq, one can just drag and drop to elements for resizing, make fast changes and bring clarity to their work.

11) Adobe XD

Providing all-in-one UX/UI solutions for website and mobile apps designs, Adobe XD enables faster concept-to-prototype journey. Adobe XD offers the following major benefits:

  • Helps designers achieve maximum precision, performance and task efficiency
  • Best complements the effortlessness of UX/UI designers
  • Its intuitive tools are built to suit exact needs of designers
  • It is equipped with speed boosting features such as Repeat Grid and flexible artboards
  • Developers can create fully interactive prototypes in shortest of time
  • Switch from static layouts to interactive prototypes in a single click
  • Edit your design, view prototype updates automatically without syncing
  • One can review and share prototypes with transitions on iOS and Android devices

12) Visual studio Unit Testing Framework

The Visual Studio Unit Testing Framework is Microsoft’s unit testing tools suite that comes integrated into Visual Studio versions. Developers and QA testers familiar with Visual Studio can easily apply their experience in testing apps with the unit tests created in the framework and execute the same in Visual Studio. It is defined in Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll.

13) xUnit.net

Written by the creator of NUnit v2, xUnit.net is the latest technology in testing tools. It is an open-source and community-focused unit testing tool working in the .NET framework. It supports unit testing for multiple languages including C#, F#, VB.NET, and other languages of .NET family. xUnit.net complies with the code of conduct of .NET foundation and works well with ReSharper, CodeRush, TestDriven.NET, and Xamarin.

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android

Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android

Apps built using Xamarin cross-platform development framework are unique for individual device platforms (Android and iOS) as Xamarin understands features for each platform quite well. Here is what Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin. Android offers to cross-platform mobile application developers:

100% API access for each platform

It enables developers to create an app using independent APIs that belong to each underlying device platform. Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS offer 100% API access with all the merits of .NET APIs, which implies that you have sheer power to do anything you wish in Android or iOS with Xamarin in C#.

This is an added advantage of building apps using Xamarin cross-platform technology, which means it is easy to deliver exceptional native experience for mobile applications built with Xamarin.

Smart separate UI approach

Developers can leverage the approach of having separate UI design toolkits known as Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android. This indicates that you can capitalize on the power of shared code base in C# with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android, resulting in a controlled structure where common business logic is conveniently shared across multiple platforms with separate UIs. Thus the two products help Xamarin developers tailor-build UI designs for each platform involved.

Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS unleashes the complete potential of Android SDK to .NET developers in order to craft perfectly native Android apps in C# in Visual Studio.

Suitability

While developing cross-platform mobile application using Xamarin technology, if you are confused as to where Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android are most suitable, here is where both the tools come handy:

  • Building apps with native-like behaviour and interactions
  • Developing apps with platform-specific native APIs
  • Mobile apps with custom UI development

Windows

As long as Windows applications go, the Windows is already built in C# and supports C# for development along with native APIs.

Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin.forms is another UI toolkit that allows cross-platform developers to write code only once and then share application UI across all platforms. At the time of running the mobile application, the written code blends into platform’s native structure.

Xamarin.Forms also sets free a complete UI toolkit for .NET developers to build fully native Android, iOS, and Windows apps in Visual Studio.

Another pro of using Xamarin.forms is that developers can relish the luxury of sharing maximum code (which is up to 90%) with this UI kit.

With Xamarin.forms, all it takes is the strength of single team of Xamarin developers to build apps for multiple platforms.

Xamarin.Forms is equipped with:

  • UI building blocks (pages, layouts, and controls)
  • Complete set of UI controls defined in XAML
  • Data binding
  • Custom renderers
  • Navigation
  • Animation API
  • Dependency Service
  • Messaging Centre

Advantages of Xamarin.Forms

  • Native app feel
  • Shared Business Logic
  • Shared UI
  • More efficiency & less development time

Suitability

During cross-platform mobile app development, Xamarin.Forms seems suitable in situations like:

  • Building apps where platform-specific functionality is not compulsory
  • Cross-platform projects where code sharing is more emphasized than custom UI

Steps to Create a Mobile App Using Xamarin

Steps to Create a Mobile App Using Xamarin

Xamarin is one of unstoppable buzzwords among developers who avidly gravitate towards cross-platform frameworks to build cross-platform applications across major platforms (Android, Windows, iOS, OS X) with native UI, experience and performance.  Hence, if you are looking for highly productive tools to ease your Xamarin development process, this post will walk you through all the essential development tools used for creating Xamarin apps.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is Microsoft’s advanced and widely used sophisticated IDE. Known best for its features for mobile, desktop and web application creation, it supports mobile development of:

  • .NET (Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS)
  • Mac desktop apps
  • .NET Core applications
  • NET Core Web application
  • Cross-platform Unity games

Some if its significant features include debugger, rich editor, integrated source control and native platform integration with iOS, Mac and Android. The latest Visual Studio for Mac incorporates a range of features including cloud, web development and potential improvements in cross-platform mobile development.

XCode

Dedicated to Apple’s various OS platforms, XCode IDE facilitates the entire Apple development ecosystem. It creates immensely productive environment for developers to build apps for Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch OS and Apple TV. Even though you can use Xamarin to develop iOS apps on Visual Studio running in a Window system, you can’t deny the role of Mac computer because you will also require an access to Mac system to perform the remote actions of compilation and debugging.

NuGet

NuGet is another essential tool that enables mechanism for modern developers to create, share and consume reusable code. NuGet is a main repository of over 100,000 code packages produced by .NET developers. You can also host packages in the private cloud or network or on your local storage system. This way, code bundles will be accessible to developers who have permission to the host, maintaining in place the limited, user-specific availability.

Xamarin Inspector

When it is time to run and test apps for bugs, Xamarin Workbooks and Inspector offers an interactive C# console. The Xamarin Inspector integrates with the app debugger of your IDE so that users can capitalize on its tools to diagnose, inspect and debug the app elements smoothly.

Prism

Prism is a framework used to build testable XAML applications in WPF, Windows 10 and Xamarin Forms. Basically Prism offers implementation of design patterns for writing well-structured and maintainable XAML apps. It includes MVVM, commands, dependency injection, EventAggregator, etc. Prism provides shared code base in a Portable Class Library which targets these core platforms while enabling integration of these design patterns with the target platform.

MFractor

In order to make Xamarin application development easier and more simplified, MFractor offers XAML IntelliSense, 100+ XAML inspections and refactorings, image tooling and more. It also contains an enhanced XAML editor that boosts your Xamarin.Forms development by increasing the speed of discovering code issues and ultimately fixing them in a few clicks.

MFractor also helps you with missing essentials such as:

  • Image importing wizard
  • Localization assistance
  • Handy mobile navigation shortcuts
  • Code snippet support
  • Configuration engine
  • Project-specific customization options

MVVM Frameworks

MVVM, which is also known as Model-View-View-Model, is a reliable technique tailored for XAML-based environments in order to architect an application. It does so by separating UI from the underlying code used to integrate business logic. You can use MVVM frameworks in your Xamarin Forms while opting for Xamarin application development. Some of them are:

  • MvvmCross : https://github.com/MvvmCross/MvvmCross
  • Mvvm Light : http://www.mvvmlight.net/
  • Fresh MVVM : https://github.com/rid00z/FreshMvvm

ReSharper

If you are looking for an accurate on-the-fly code quality analysis in different languages, ReSharper is a Visual Studio extension you may consider. Designed for .NET developers, ReSharper supports .NET MVC, C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET, XAML, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and XML. Based on its analytical capability, developers can determine whether or not their code needs further improvement.

  • You can be warned of any problem in your code
  • You can take advantage of hundreds of quick fixes to automatically resolve the issue
  • Leverage variety of quick fix options to pick and choose the best from

It is also equipped with many code editing helpers such as:

  • Extended IntelliSense
  • Instant code transformations
  • Auto-importing namespaces
  • Code rearrangement
  • Documentation display

Sketch

Sketch is a vector-based, powerful design tool for Mac and its focus is mainly on screen design. Developers and designers can leverage Sketch for creating website structures, icons, and UI for both desktop and mobile devices. Sketch is handy and powerful to both beginners and established professionals who wish to specialize in one domain – which is design.

Thick with lots of pros, Sketch is tailored to address the needs of digital artists who expect to build spectacular applications. Due to its alluring feature set, Sketch as a design tool has become a widely popular choice among dedicated design companies and start-ups today.

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is another design aid that helps designers get faster, better and smarter in their design building experience. For once, it uses computer to reproduce the experience of sketching on a whiteboard and making wireframes faster. This ultimately helps creative designers generate more ideas and think of the best solutions possible. Here in Balsamiq, one can just drag and drop to elements for resizing, make fast changes and bring clarity to their work.

Adobe XD

Providing all-in-one UX/UI solutions for website and mobile apps designs, Adobe XD enables faster concept-to-prototype journey. Adobe XD offers the following major benefits:

  • Helps designers achieve maximum precision, performance and task efficiency
  • Best complements the effortlessness of UX/UI designers
  • Its intuitive tools are built to suit exact needs of designers
  • It is equipped with speed boosting features such as Repeat Grid and flexible artboards
  • Developers can create fully interactive prototypes in shortest of time
  • Switch from static layouts to interactive prototypes in a single click
  • Edit your design, view prototype updates automatically without syncing
  • One can review and share prototypes with transitions on iOS and Android devices

Visual studio Unit Testing Framework

The Visual Studio Unit Testing Framework is Microsoft’s unit testing tools suite that comes integrated into Visual Studio versions. Developers and QA testers familiar with Visual Studio can easily apply their experience in testing apps with the unit tests created in the framework and execute the same in Visual Studio. It is defined in Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll.

xUnit.net

Written by the creator of NUnit v2, xUnit.net is the latest technology in testing tools. It is an open-source and community-focused unit testing tool working in the .NET framework. It supports unit testing for multiple languages including C#, F#, VB.NET, and other languages of .NET family. xUnit.net complies with the code of conduct of .NET foundation and works well with ReSharper, CodeRush, TestDriven.NET, and Xamarin.

How Xamarin Benefits Cross-platform App Development

How Xamarin Benefits Cross-platform App Development

As Microsoft resolutely states, “Apps built using Xamarin look and feel native, because they are native indeed!” Let’s start with this one as we go to describe all the incredible benefits delivered by Xamarin for cross-platform app development.

All things Native

With Xamarin application development, you are confident that any app built using this platform will reflect native-like qualities, such as:

1) Native UI: Xamarin cross-platform IDE is built with high priority shown to app performance and UI quality. Hence, Xamarin-built apps have native UI controls and look and behaviour that end users truly expect.

2) Native API Access: Since Xamarin application development provides access to device-specific functionalities and platform-specific capabilities (ARKit and Android Multi-Window mode), developers can foster unique ability to emulate native app technologies used universally.

3) Native Performance: Apps built using Xamarin technology is enriched with platform-specific speed and are designed to generate organic native performance. This is because during runtime UI components are converted into device-specific elements, avoiding the code interpretation, eventually producing native experience.

4) Fast pace of development cycle : One of the main attractions of Xamarin for cross-platform app development is that its code can be reused and recycled. As up to 90% portion of code can be reused across different platforms, developers find it easy to economize on both time and vigour which they can invest later in other innovations. Thus the simplified code sharing significantly impacts the pace of development cycle.

5) Extract great value from C#: Having spent much of time in mobile application development, developers might be familiar enough to use programming languages from the  C family. C# which is  a much sophisticated, general-purpose language that offers type-friendly comfort for Windows platform. It has object-oriented coding and contains all the improvements and advancements of C++.

6) Shared app code: With Xamarin cross-platform app development, it is possible for developers to share app code across multiple mobile platforms and OS. Xamarin has unique edge since its major UI logics such as input validation, database interactions, web service calls, back-end API integrations are written in one language only which is C#. So you can use the same APIs for 75+% of app code across all mobile development platforms.

7) Outstanding flexibility: Xamarin gifts you outstanding flexibility when it comes to using the same APIs and UI controls as used for development of Android, iOS and Mac applications. You can develop apps easily across these platforms without changing much since Xamarin supports platform-specific programming languages viz Java, Objective-C, and Swift. Due to this allowance, users can have new features installed as soon as they are launched for the respective device.

8) Agility and economy: This particular benefit appeals to both enterprise-grade businesses and developers equally. The reason why Xamarin cross-platform mobile application development contributes to business growth is its Rapid Mobile App Development (RMAD) capability. All credit goes to Xamarin UI form libraries that enable simplified, swift and frictionless development. It provides developers with an added advantage of agility they need to expedite the process, and businesses, too, benefit from Xamarin’s low-cost development model.

9) Great hardware compatibility: Since Xamarin cross-platform development gives you full access to its powerful components and APIs, your app will conduct native interactions with the device OS. This ultimately lowers any compatibility issues you face earlier in the app development. Xamarin gives developers an opportunity to capitalize on and connect with applications’ common device functionalities for various platforms on a larger scale.

10) Enhanced accuracy: Xamarin contains quintessential type-safety feature which is beneficial to developers who want to spend minimum time correcting the errors they face while writing the applications. This rich feature in Xamarin application development allows you to avoid possible type-specific syntax errors and inaccuracies. Developers can simply avoid the involvement of boilerplate or verbose type annotations, thus augmenting convenience and speed, and eliminating occurrences of flaws.

11) Incredible customization: It is advantageous for any mobile app developers to be able to tweak and add custom feature to applications. Xamarin cross-platform app development tool enables facility for you to use and work on native libraries so that you can create applications with incredible customization.

From above discussion, it is crystal-clear that Xamarin is super-beneficial to both developers and businesses bodies. Not only Xamarin mobile applications offer competitive advantage to enterprise structures, but it also equip developers who wish to work on intuitive, sophisticated and time-tested cross-platform development tools.

Summary

Xamarin mobile application development is a considerable cross-platform solution that offers simplified coding and native user experience across multiple device platforms. The robust cross-platform tool helps developers build a single app, reuse code for common business logic and optimize the speed of app development cycle.

Due to rapid app development capability, hardware compatibility and API flexibility, Xamarin is a platform of choice for modern developers who seek real-time value while building, testing and deploying apps with just one tool. Finally, we can firmly say that a wide community of talented Xamarin professionals and the use of advanced C# definitely make Xamarin a comprehensive application development platform for both business enterprises and developers.

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Your iPhone and iPad device wouldn’t be as interesting without having cool and handy apps. To extract the best out of your device, it is crucial to embellish your iOS device with a range of user-friendly apps. We have shortlisted the top 9 iPhone and iPad apps for App store 2018. From music, task management, finance to weather and payment, these apps are the result of creative iOS app development skills and can touch gamut of areas of your daily life and make your iOS device a fulfilling experience for you.

Top 9 iPhone Apps

1. Google Photos

This is another attention-worthy app from Google for your iPhone. Since Apple is still away from building a finest photo organization app, Google Photos works as an intelligent photo management app that stores and organizes all your photos on cloud in a way that is frictionless, simple and quite convenient.

2. Lyft

There is always a need for cab in your life especially when you go out unplanned. Lyft helps you save time and bother by finding you the quick ride in no time. Whenever (and wherever) you need, Lyft will pick you up. Usually, it operates in major cities at a price that is more affordable than taxi in most cases. Rides can be overprices at the time of demand surge, though.

3. Snapchat

Appealing to almost entire spectrum of demographics, the widely celebrated Snapchat is a great option for people to share with their friends. Recently, Snapchat has also become great platform for publications for fresh updates, news and events and virtual hangout spot. Users can either send individual messages or create their own storyboard with array of posts.

4. Evernote

Evernote is a thoughtful product of iOS app development as it acts as a virtual notebook allowing you to note down anything rolling in your mind anywhere. With Evernote, you can make notes, save images and content from the web, upload content and track your tasks. It lets you manage audio files and you can search Evernote notes easily and quickly anytime you wish.

5. Dark Sky

A reliable companion to spontaneous walkers and joggers, Dark Sky is a weather prediction app that helps you determine whether or not you should go out. The app predicts local weather of your precise location and contains elegant maps that encourage users to be weather-conscious.

6. Spotify

Great for personalized music-on-demand lovers, Spotify allows users to listen to their favourite tracks and explore radio option for them find new tunes, playlists etc. you can even sync music files to your phone for offline listening experience. To make your trip more fun, tap into Spotify and download catchy playlists over Wi-Fi which you can enjoy later without a concern for data charges.

7. Enlight

Enlight is a powerful and versatile photo-editing tool that offers premium control on mobile devices. Acclaimed for its impressive photo editing features, Enlight has colours and tone controls, filters, masking features and more to create various effects. It has photo correction and photo mixing tools to enhance many qualities of photos. Reflecting the maturity of iOS app development, Enlight could be your ultimate resort for a complete photo editor.

8. AnyDo

To always remember and manage daily chores and tasks, AnyDo can help you createthe to-do-list, reminders and notes. It also gives you ability to share or assign the task to other app users. With voice-entry feature, you can speak to add items to the list. You can sync your tasks and attachments between phone, desktop and tablet and integrate calendar. Its premium version contains advanced features.

9. Mint

Are you looking for ways to control your overspending, better manage loan/debt or save for next birthday party or holiday trips? Mint is there for you. Mint brings all your account activities in one place including banks, credit, investments, etc. It optimizes your budget and offers you tools to set saving goals and bill reminders, and categorically breaks down your spending structure.

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Top 9 iPad Apps

1. Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is a perfectly example of the creative infinity of iOS app development for iPad devices. This is a pro-level photo editing tool that works best on iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro, allowing you to explore its impressive range of features like RAW shooting/processing support, the ability to add fonts, layer isolation, etc. Its has live filters and liquify tools that enable editing in real time. You can grab pleasant experience with a finger or Pencil.

2. Noted

A great integration of audio recorder and notepad, Noted comes with a rich text editor that provides a simplified version of pages. Notes have predefined styles for lists and headings, means to add images and an attention-drawing highlighter. The combination of text and audio is unique for iPad apps and Noted makes the task of recording meeting or lectures smarter and more contextual.

3. Concepts

If you are prepared to experience a creative sketching and design, Concepts could be just what you need. It embodies intelligent iOS app development as this modern vector-based sketching app offers editable strokes with great flexibility, varied grids, and user-definable gestures. With the use of Pencil, Concepts version 5 has new design standards and appears smooth and natural in use.

4. Human Anatomy Atlas

Human Anatomy Atlas encourages AR-driven education and takes digital textbook to next level by turning your device into an anatomy lab. With this app, you can dig into virtual corpse and examine cross-sections, full deep anatomy including bones, eyes and muscle action. Due to AR element, what you do with Human Anatomy Atlas and virtual cadaver is always so fascinating and intriguing.

5. Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is your phone’s productivity app that gives organized access to your local files, images and folders. Kaleidoscope is designed with contemporary standards of iOS app development and it utilizes the new iOS 11 functionality on latest iPads. The app compares various contents of folders and enables drag and drop from Apple’s Files app and contains coloured overlays to highlight the difference between text docs. It offers great flexibility in image viewing as well.

6. Toca Life: Farm

Aimed at engaging kids and little ones, Toca Life: Farm is a wonderful, ambitious and thoughtful iPad app that offers children to explore richness of country life and create their own stories. They can interact with rich elements (crops, ingredients, food and animals) of barn, field, house and store. Even young ones can find it fun while making noises and colourful characters. With so much lively components in this game-like app, Toca Life: Farm is definitely attributed to mature iOS app development.

7. MaxCurve

If you seek a professional Photoshop experience with nice control on images on your iPad, MaxCurve high-quality photo editor is there to entice you. The app enables users to adjust curves and make subtle tweaks to colours and exposure settings easily. Any iOS app development company will have to chase the highest standard while competing with this smart app. MaxCurve’s edits are stored as virtual layers, and photo enhancements tools are truly impressive.

8. The Brainstormer

Designed for all the aspiring storytellers, Brainstormer can help you develop a story if you are out of ideas. By default, you can spin the three wheels for a haphazard set of plots, themes, settings and subject. You can fiddle with them all you want. The scalable iPad app gives you a little kick while inventing a fantasy world or unique drama. Wheels are editable and can be customized from scratch to fits users’ taste.

9. Waterlogue

Waterlogue is a unique, photo transformation app on iPad that converts the photo you enter into luminous watercolours. This app represents the creatively aesthetic aspect of iOS app development. It comes with 14 pre-styles you can choose from. Just open a photo and Waterlogue will add paint to your photo, making it look authentically creative and spectacular. It offers good control and tweaks along with adjustment for brush size, colour intensity and borders.

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Last words

We just explored the list top 11 iPhone and iPad apps on App store in 2018. There are still plenty of options in Apple’s App store for latest iPhone and iPad holders since iOS app development technology’s evolving constantly. In future, you are likely to discover more exciting wonders for any iOS app development company would strive to exceed imagination of users. Till then, we have these apps to enliven our living.

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Nowadays adopting a healthy lifestyle has become a common trend, especially among youngsters. They are in fact trying really hard to spend enough time to take care of their health in between their tight job schedules. And that is one of the reasons why health and fitness apps are taking a key role in today’s society. It helps them to keep an eye on their health despite whatever busy things come in their life.

Considering the increase in demands, many enthusiasts are developing novel health and fitness app with improvisations. Here are a few among the key features to be included when you develop such a comprehensive app to maintain health and fitness.

1. Simple user interface:

The user interface should be simple enough for even a new user with limited technical knowledge to use. A user should find it really simple to explore the possibilities of the app without any hassle. The sections within the app should be neatly categorized and navigation needs to be made simple. The interface has to be good enough to engage the users and welcoming them to use it freely.

2. Personal information account:

The app needs options to set up personal information such as name, age, gender, weight, height, areas of interests and more. This would be really helpful when setting up customized health and workout plans for the user. Also there should be provision to retrieve the information in case they change their devices in future.

3. Login account:

You can set up an option for login account to welcome user to be a part of the app community. The option can be set as either login through mobile number or email id or both. An option for setting a password to enter the app helps them to keep the app data private. To make the login simple, options can be set such as to join through social media platforms such as Facebook where the user might already have an account.

4. Steps tracking:

The most basic activity of a wellness program is to go for walking. And that is why ‘steps tracking’ is one of the key features included in many health apps. The app gives you a target of number of steps to be walked everyday which depends on your other activities too. It then tracks the number of steps you cover each day and revise you the targets and keeps you motivated.

5. Customized diet plans:

After taking into account your height and ideal weight, the app calculates the calories you can eat every day. After having a check on your eating interests such as vegetarian or non vegetarian, the app suggests a customized diet plan that works the best for you. Make sure that the feature calculates the ideal calories and make necessary changes in the diet plan for each day and include varieties to avoid boredom.

6. Workout programs:

The app can include present workout programs and also customized plans according to the user’s interest. An ideal logical workout plan that is feasible need to be included to help them reach their ideal weight and be healthy. Consider including muscle building exercises if the person is a body building freak.

7. Track daily activity:

It is not just the actual exercise time that counts but every small activity matters at the end of the day. Include a feature to track the daily activity such as walking, running, bathing, washing, cooking, playing, driving and more. A sensor to track the heart rate or pulse rate can do the trick to track even the minute activities.

 8. Calories tracker:

A balance of the calories intake and the calories you burn everyday matters when you are looking to reach your ideal body weight. A calories tracker feature can help you know the calories you are taking with particular foods every day and how much you burn it with each activity. Knowing this helps you to make necessary changes in your eating and activity schedule to balance the calories.

 9. Barcode scanner:

The basic feature of the app to count calories work with the help of pre stored data such as ‘x’ calories for a loaf of bread, ‘x’ calories for a scoop of ice cream and so on. But there can be complex food items the user gets from super market that may not be in the pre-list. Then a bar code scanner can help to track the calories from the food packet. However, the food logging feature should be made very simple to help them enter any of their eatables with the support of a good data base.

10. Activity reminders:

In order to maintain an active schedule, you can set the activities to be done on different times of the day. The activity reminder feature helps you with alerts to do certain activities in case you miss any of them. Similarly, a basic feature can be included to know if the person is idle or in some activity. The app can alert to move if the person is idle for a longer time. However, make sure that it is not annoying for the users and give them the permission to set it on their interest.

11. Geo-location integration:

This feature helps user to link his activity to the location where he was in. This is good to track the position, build walking routes or even record workouts. Such real time data with map integration makes the overall stuff interesting and this motivates users to use the app regularly.

Vital Features To Include While Developing Health and Fitness Apps-ad banner

12. Targets and achievements:

If users are looking to lose some pounds of the excess body weight, such features can really work wonders. The users can be allowed to set targets for each day or week and track his goals. You can give reward points for the targets achieved which keeps them motivated. You can also add options to do a comparison of their statistics over a period to help them know how they are progressing.

13. Live streaming:

In addition to the present workouts and diet plans, an advanced live streaming feature can help users to communicate with workout experts or nutritionists to learn more from them. A live guidance from a trainer can really motivate the person and help them to improve their diet and workout programs.

14. Gamification:

Adding this feature can invite a lot of fun to the workout and diet programs. Healthy competitions can be arranged among the app members where they get points or rewards for the tasks completed. If you are planning a big budget venture, you can even arrange annual programs where you can give prizes to the winners of the contests. This is also another way to work for a cause or charity by raising funds.

 15. Flexible settings:

The settings need to be comprehensive that includes all the possibilities of such an app. It should be convenient and flexible enough for the user to easily navigate through it and explore it. You can include options to help users to customize the app to meet their requirements and make it a comfortable space for them.

16. Integrate Wearables: 

You can allow your app to easily integrate with other wearables to make the usage more convenient for the app users. To help with the storage of additional data, an option can be set to link with Apple or Google kits. Also set option to link the app to watches or similar gadgets to make the whole stuff interesting for the users.

 17. Linking Services:

You can add a feature to link the application to other services such as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Users can share the experience with the app with their friends and followers and at the same time your app gets more popular among the public. Similarly, the feature can be set to connect with other health care applications to help users to make a collaborative effort on their health and fitness from a single place.

These are just a few among the many features that you can include in a health and fitness app. If you are planning to develop an app for a particular society, then you may go for polls or campaigns to learn about their actual areas of interest and what they are actually expecting out of a health app. Or you may develop a basic app and let the people experience it and come out with feedbacks. You can have a detailed study about the relevant feedbacks and make additions in the future updates. After all, a healthy society is an asset of the nation and it can really impact the way the next generations grow up.