As per the stats, there were around 6 billion mobile app users in 2018-19. With increased demand for mobile apps, the number of mobile users has increased exponentially as compared to last years. Hence, it becomes necessary for every mobile app development company to follow some best app development practices in order to deliver the best mobility solution their users.

When we talk about best app development practices, it doesn't mean to leave the traditional approaches and start with new strategies. Actually, it requires to rely on the best old practices using modern app development tools and technologies. Before discussing in the technical terms, we first look at some best app development methodologies to come with a perfect mobile app in this competitive era.

Let's have a quick look:

-> Come up with a comprehensible app idea

Your mobile application should be easy for users to understand. You can build apps in any specific domain viz. Education apps, healthcare app, social apps etc.

Also be sure to include clear instructions whenever necessary. Keep a balance of text and images and provide concise instructions.Includes text to accompany the graphics. Avoid making the common mistake of relying only on images to tell the story. If your application has too many graphics, users may not be able to discover the real purpose of the application.

-> Shift focus on core app development

First, develop the main application. Focus on creating the most important features that will form the core of your application. Additional functionality may be available later in the form of add-ons, which users can purchase when necessary. This ensures that your application is light.

-> Take care of target audience

Before creating an application, it is important to know your target audience. Who are you creating the application for? How will they use this application? Is there any particular feature that can generate more appeal than the others? It is important and beneficial to answer these questions in advance.

-> Choose a right design methodology

Designing the correct design methodology is the key to developing a successful mobile application. You can list the full functionality and future components of your application on a sheet of paper and eliminate any problems that may arise at this stage. It is also a good idea to involve potential users in the design process. Your comments will help you improve the design in a way that is well accepted by the end user.

-> Induce security features

Mobile devices are vulnerable to multiple threats, since they upload and download data wirelessly in a potentially insecure environment. Therefore, when developing an application, you not only need to incorporate the inherent security capabilities of the platform, but also use tools such as encryption to protect sensitive data. Cleaning data remotely from a lost device is essential. Having an automatic backup mechanism also helps users not have to worry about data backup.

-> Proper testing required

Testing your application before launch is crucial. Although it is recommended to test the application at each stage of development, it is equally important to test the final product. And be sure to do this not with one but with several different users. In case there are problems, correct them and try the application again.

---

Android app development best practices

The great popularity of android has increased the demand for android applications. It is the responsibility of all mobile app development companies to ensure high user experience always. For this, developers need to follow some best practices for android app development:

Lets understand this with various coding examples:

-> Use strings.xml

Adding text as String resources can be useful when support for new languages that are need to be added.

-> Avoid deep levels in layouts

For having a deep hierarchy of Views actually makes the UI slow, in order to manage layout.

Using the correct ViewGroup, deep hierarchies can mostly be avoided

However, it can be created in either of the following ways:

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="horizontal">

 <ImageView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:src="@drawable/magnifying_glass" />

 <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="vertical">

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="top text" />

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="bottom text" />
    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>

There is a second way which can be preferred since it has a single level hierarchy.

<RelativeLayout
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/image"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:src="@drawable/magnifying_glass" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/top_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/image"
        android:text="top text" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/bottom_text"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_below="@id/top_text"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/image"
        android:text="bottom text" />
</RelativeLayout>

-> Use an AsyncTaskLoader instead of an AsyncTask

A simple AsyncTaskLoader can be created like below:

class SyncLoader extends AsyncTaskLoader<String> {

    public SyncLoader(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public String loadInBackground() {
        String result = null;
   
        return result;
    }
}

Ios app development best practices

Xcode is the IDE of choice for most iOS developers, and the only one officially compatible with Apple. There are some alternatives, of which AppCode is possibly the most famous, but unless you are already a person with iOS experience, choose Xcode. Despite its flaws, it is actually quite usable today!

-> Adding CocoaPods

If you're planning to include external dependencies for example third-party libraries in your project, CocoaPods provides easy and fast integration. You can install like below:

sudo gem install cocoapods

To start, run the below code:

pod init

This will create a Podfile holding all your dependencies in one place. After adding your dependencies to the Podfile, you can run

pod install

-> Controllers

Use dependency injection meaning passing any required objects in as parameters, instead of keeping all state around in singletons. The latter is fine only if the state really is global.

To code in Swift:

let fooView_Controller = FooView_Controller(withView_Model: fooView_Model)

To code in Objective-C:

FooView_Controller *fooView_Controller = [[FooView_Controller alloc] initWithView_Model:fooView_Model];

Try to avoid swelling your sight controllers with logic that can reside safely in other places. Soroush Khanlou has a good description of how to achieve this, and architectures like MVVM treat view controllers as views, which greatly reduces their complexity.

->Include analytics framework

It is strongly recommended to include an analysis framework in your application, as it allows you to obtain information on how people actually use it. A good practice is to create a thin auxiliary class, e.g. AnalyticsHelper, which handles the translation of internal application models and data formats (FooModel, NSTimeInterval, ...) to the data layer based primarily on strings:

func pushAddItem_Event(with item: Item, editMode: EditMode) {
    let editModeString = name(for: editMode)

    pushToDataLayer([
        "event": "addItem",
        "itemIdentifier": item.identifier,
        "editMode": editModeString
    ])
}

This has the additional advantage of allowing you to swap out the entire Analytics framework behind the scenes if needed, without the rest of the app noticing.

-> Debug provisioning

Sometimes you need to debug a provisioning problem. For example, Xcode may refuse to install the compilation on a connected device, because the latter is not in the list of devices in the profile (development or ad-hoc). In those cases, you can use Craig Hockenberry's excellent provisioning add-on by browsing to ~ / Library / MobileDevice / Provisioning Profiles, selecting a .mobileprovision file and pressing the spacebar to start the Finder quick search function. It will show you a lot of information, such as devices, rights, certificates and the application ID.

When it is an existing application file (.ipa), you can inspect your provisioning profile in a similar way: simply rename * .ipa to * .zip, unzip it and look for the .app package inside. In the Finder context menu, choose «Show package content» to see a file called embedded.mobileprovision that you can examine with the previous method.

After developing an app, you need to perform the following checks:

Authenticity: It implies that the receipt comes from Apple
App match: It says that the app bundle ID in the receipt matches your app’s bundle identifier
Product match: That the product ID in the receipt matches your expected product identifier
Integrity: It says that the receipt has not been tampered with
Freshness: You haven’t seen the same receipt ID before.

Ending Notes

Mobile application development implies strategic thinking using the appropriate mobile application development technology. Taking these best practices into account will help you create a highly functional mobile application without much hassle.

Do you plan to build a mobile application? Do you want to know an estimated cost of mobile application development? Talk to our mobile application development experts to find out how much it costs to build a mobile application.