As 2016 goes we enter an interesting era, as various observations of application development trends clearly show the steady increase of mobile browsing, meaning that smartphones are changing the landscape of business and are rapidly becoming the most popular devices for the Internet access.

According to the SimilarWeb’s report, 56% of consumer traffic, sales and app launches in 2015 account for mobile devices. Add another billion of Internet users predicted to come online in China and Indonesia by 2018. So today mobile application development trends is a hot topic for any farseeing entrepreneur.

Trends in Application Development

We’ll list the top 10 trends in application development for 2016-2017 basing on our own experience and leading analysts.

Check also: Top 5 hottest IT trends for 2016

The Internet of Things Is Upon Us

We’ve entered the era of wearables with Apple Watch and similar gadgets that can complement (and maybe replace) many of today’s appliances, including smartphones in some aspects. The IoT relies on huge quantities of various devices, equipped with sensors and are able to transmit multiple kinds of data via Wi-Fi. This industry rocketed to billions of pure profit and will surely double or triple the numbers in the years to come. Many app developers already work on creating apps for the IoT.

Cloud Driven Apps Begin to Lead the Race

Many entrepreneurs discovered and accepted the fact that cloud infrastructures give their apps much-needed scalability and versatility ensuring that they are accessible from various devices and locations. With mobile devices forming 40% to 50% of today’s Internet traffic and because more than 75% of users prefer browsing and using apps on their phones said apps MUST be cloud-driven to ensure reliable accessibility and scalability. While more and more brick-and-mortar enterprises go for cloud storages and hosting with their mission-critical processes, enterprise application development trends have the utmost importance.

Cross-Platform App Development

With the Big Data era coming, we cannot say for sure that all devices in our home will run on iOS or on Android. Most likely, we will have a mix of both, meaning that developers should make each app cross-platform, so it runs and looks the same regardless of the device you run it on. This is the vision mobile app developers should have – the app should run smoothly and look nice on any device and platform. This can only benefit both the developers and the users in the end.

Security Concerns Should Be Addressed

With mobile interactions and purchases growing in popularity, users discovered an unpleasant fact that mobile apps are more prone to hacking and have fewer security tools in place. At the same time, mobile phones provide more options for user verification – beginning with a built-in camera and voice recognition system and up to a fingerprint checker tool. Therefore, different companies put their effort in providing more security to the mobile experience. One of the trends in mobile application development should be improving your app security architecture.

Developers Should Provide Better In-App Marketing and Ads

Users prefer free apps to paid ones, yet developers also want to earn their money. The balance is hard to find, as mobile browsing is much more fickle – people just omit to view ads on their phones. At the same time, background ads rarely draw attention and result in hits and purchases. Keeping users agitated yet not making us frustrated is the key here. Multiple methods of efficient in-app advertising already exist, and more are expected to hit the market this year.

App Satisfaction and User Experience Analysis

One of the most concerning mobile app trends is that mobile applications are much easier to load, yet they are much easier to quit. In other words, we tend to quit whatever we are doing whenever we find the experience unpleasant. App development should be done with user experience in mind so that developers can analyze user decisions in order to determine and remove the source of their frustration. This way of actions allows creating a user-friendly design and environment in any app, remaining focused on user satisfaction and audience support for the mobile application. The customer is always right, yes?

Check also: Mobile website vs Mobile app – find better for your business

Diffused Background for Mobile Apps

Twitter was the origin of a particularly interesting mobile application trend last year. Somebody combined a diffused background with a clearly visible call to action buttons and it was a great hit. Huge numbers of websites across the web use this design now, as well as multiple mobile applications. It helps people see important information without drawing too much attention to the background.

Enterprise App Development Trends

With more and more behemoths from the brick-and-mortar era switching for the cloud, they need enterprise apps to use among their employees. While some prefer using in-house developers for the job, many companies just outsource tasks to the company that follows the latest trends in mobile apps and offers a solid quality product. As some experts predict the number of enterprise apps to quadruple in 2016 – this industry can sell like hot cakes. Any company should concentrate their efforts on delivering a unique, high-quality product and following the latest trends in mobile application development if they want to succeed.

Mobile Payments and M-Commerce

One of the most steadily growing mobile application trends is providing mobile payments and doing m-commerce. Having your payment tool in your pocket and being able to order anything anywhere is incredibly convenient, obviously. If the app helps me shop quicker, cheaper and more securely – the developers are surely following the right trends in mobile development and I, as a customer, will be satisfied.

Choose the Apps with Simple Navigation and Bold Fonts

Several research articles on new trends in mobile apps design suggest that people prefer simple navigation, easy scrolling, and bold fonts. It’s easily understandable, as despite becoming larger each year, phone screens are much smaller than a tablet or a laptop screen, meaning that having complex menus or small fonts deteriorates user experience greatly. That is why recent years showed a steady shift to navigation simplicity and ease of reading as one of the major trends in mobile apps.

This is our top 10 of trends in mobile tool and app development. What are your thoughts on the latest mobile app trends and the ways the industry develops? Please share your ideas in the comments below, we are always open for discussion!