Category: Development

Flutter will dominate the Mobile App Market in 2022

Posted on by Shanth Babu

Overview

What is Flutter App Development

From apps to order restaurant food to apps for shopping online and catching a ride offline, mobile apps have become such an integral part of our everyday lives. According to a study, the average smartphone user has 40 apps installed on their smartphones. The study also states that 18 to 24-year-olds spent 66% of their media time on smartphone apps. For most businesses (especially B2C) having a mobile app is no longer a luxury but a necessity in order to stay relevant.

Are you looking to build a mobile application for your business and just exploring your options? Have been told that Flutter is the future and wondering if you should really choose this framework? Do you want to know if there are any alternatives for Flutter in the coming years?

In a word, yes. 

Flutter is the future – 2022 and beyond and you should consider using the framework to drastically increase your chances for success without incurring high development cost. Not convinced yet? Read on to be doubly sure that you are making the right decision. But first, let’s take a look at the basics.

What exactly is Flutter?

Flutter is an open source mobile app development framework by Google. Launched in 2017, the Flutter framework has been gaining popularity since then. The biggest reason is because it supports creation of cross-platform applications (a single app can run on both Android and iOS).  Flutter is also used for creating interactive apps that run on web pages or on the desktop.

The other reasons for Flutter’s popularity are:

Single code base for both Android and iOS

A single codebase is like a honeycomb wherein multiple developers contribute to a source code located in a single source control repository for both iOS and Android apps. This approach keeps this simpler and reduces development time, cost and the maintenance is also an easy task.

Hot reload feature

This feature allows developers and designers to see the changes as they code.

Open-source and by Google

Need we say more? Flutter is a popular choice among developers because of the huge community support.

Dart programming

Flutter uses an easy to learn and implement programming language called dart which is Google’s general purpose programming language.

5 most popular Flutter apps

Google Ads

Google Ads mobile application was developed using Flutter to allow users to manage Google ad campaigns on the go. The mobile version also allows users to see campaign statistics, update bids and budgets, keyword editing, and a lot more.

KlasterMe

KlasterMe is a popular content-sharing app in Android and iOS that is developed using Flutter. The app allows people to build their own page, add images, blogs and share the creations with others.

Xianyu by Alibaba

This popular shopping app by Alibaba has over 200 million registered users. The app is a great example of flutter’s robust ability and scalability.

Reflectly

This AI-powered journaling app created using Flutter has over 10 million active users. The app allows people to take mental health up a notch by combining cognitive behavioral therapy, meditation, and positive psychology.

Cryptograph

This Cryptograph app developed using Flutter allows monitoring and tracking the status of over 1600 global cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Ethereum in real-time.

Benefits of using Flutter Framework

Hot Reload and Widgets

Flutter’s Hot Reload feature allows creating user-interfaces and adding some features real quick. The feature allows developers and designers to instantly see the changes to the code without refreshing the application over and over again. Flutter also comes with many ready-made and custom widgets which significantly reduces development time.

Single Codebase

As Flutter is a cross-platform framework, the developers need not write code separately for Android and iOS. The single codebase feature cuts app development time by half. The single codebase ensures a uniform feel across all platforms, makes cloud integration and maintenance hassle-free.

Cost-Effective

From a business owner’s standpoint, Flutter makes sense for businesses, because of speedy development, synchronized experience and reduced development cost.

Animation

Flutter offers many built-in animations that simplify app designers’ efforts. From creating Liquid Swipe animation movements that give a water-like feel to fading circles and ripples and container transforms, Flutter let’s you jazz up and wow your app users with little effort.

Performance

As a cross-platform framework, Flutter offers unmatched performance when compared to the other rivals. Flutter compiles designs to the native code. Also, unlike React Native, Flutter renders widgets directly from the native library rather than uploading the libraries and components to the device before rendering them.

Security

Google has built the Flutter framework taking into consideration all the security challenges to modern apps. You can find trusted and well-tested plugins in Flutter to mitigate security risks such as user authentication loopholes, malicious code injections, and data leaks.

Potential Drawbacks of Flutter

Large File Sizes

As Flutter is still in its infancy, there’s still room for improvement. One big area that needs improvement is that apps developed using Flutter have predominantly a large file size. A phone storage space can be a major concern among your audience base,as not everyone upgrades to the latest smartphones often. You may need to consider the file size factor, depending on the audience that you are appealing to.

Dart – Learning Curve

As mentioned before, Flutter uses Dart programming language which while is easy, still has a learning curve. You may not find it difficult to find a flutter development team that transform your ideas into an app within a short span of time. At SolutionChamps, we’ve got the right team for the job, get in touch with us today for a free quote.

Scope of Flutter Mobile App Development in 2022 and Beyond

Flutter is the best  choice when you need a stunning Android and iOS app which offers seamless UX without incurring too much development costs. It is a great technology to adopt by startups looking to create a Minimum Viable Product(MVP) as well as for businesses that are looking to go quick to market with a mobile app. Without doubt, Flutter is here to stay and dominate the mobile app market in 2022.

Looking to build a mobile app using Flutter? At SolutionChamps we’ve helped businesses of all sizes and across industries adopt the latest technology. Get in touch with us for a free quote.

9 Top Trends in Web Development [2021 and Beyond]

Posted on by Shanth Babu

Overview

Web Development Trends

From Google docs and Amazon that helps us to get things done, to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to help us to stay on top of current trends, web applications are everywhere.

You may even be using  custom web applications to keep track of things on the go in your business.

With faster internet, the demand for web applications has grown exponentially over the years and this trend is all set to continue for many more years to come.

In this blog post, I’ll be sharing the top 9 future trends in web application development that you can leverage to help your business to stay ahead of your competitors. 

Let’s get started!

1. Progressive web applications (PWA)

The idea of PWA was first introduced by Google in 2015 . PWA are websites that look, feel and perform like feature-rich native mobile apps. 

Before PWA, businesses that wanted to target both desktop and mobile users had two options: to adapt a web page to mobile devices with limited functionalities or to develop a feature-rich mobile app from scratch. 

Thanks to PWA, businesses can now give their customers the experience of using an “app”, right on their browser, without the need to download and install anything from an app store. What’s more PWA can be implemented on desktop as well and they are cost-effective too! 

Benefits for Business Owners:

  • Cheaper development costs
  • Non-reliance on app distribution services like Google Play, App Store  
  • Push notifications
  • Enhanced Security
  • Quicker launch

End-user Benefits:

  • Seamless Offline Operation
  • Needs Lesser Disk space than native apps
  • Saves device power
  • Easier updates.

5 Popular Examples of PWA

  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Flipkart
  • MakeMyTrip
  • Uber

2. AI Powered Chatbots

Chatbots have gained popularity in recent years as they help businesses save money in lead generation, customer support and many other services 24/7.

But simple chatbots are very limited, they are keywords based and they do not understand the intent before a customer’s question. Their responses can be frustrating to the customers. 

AI powered chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) , Natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning (ML) to understand the user intent and fine-tune it’s responses to sound more natural, human-like. An AI powered chatbot can answer simple and complex questions, learn, collect and process data overtime.

Benefits for Business Owners:

  • Cost Efficiency
  • 24 hours support
  • Human-like customer service
  • Better Analytics

End-user Benefits:

  • Instant Support
  • Personalized Experience
  • Better Self-Service

5 Cool Chatbot Examples

  • HDFC Bank
  • Dominos
  • Fulfillment.com
  • 15five.com
  • Hubspot

3. Voice search

With virtual home assistants like Google Home, Alexa, and Siri becoming popular, gone are the days when people used text to make searches. According to stats, more and more people are using voice search even on their mobile phones. That is why, audio and speech interpretation has become one of the most rapidly adopted trends in web development.Companies are now keen on using voice search to gain a competitive advantage

4. Serverless architecture

Sometimes names can be misleading. Serverless architecture (a.ka. Serverless Computing) doesn’t really mean applications that run “without a server” instead it refers to a cloud computing execution model.

According to Cloudflare, serverless architecture is cloud computing on a pay-per-use basis. That is, businesses that opt for serverless architecture as backend service don’t need to worry about many aspects of server management as they are managed by the cloud provider. Businesses are charged based on the basis of usage and not for fixed bandwidth or number of servers.

For web developers, this means they can focus more on the coding logic rather than waste time thinking about server provisioning, configuring, and maintenance. For businesses, serverless architecture means reduce costs, quick and easy deployment, enhanced scalability.

Some popular serverless computing services providers are:

  • AWS Lambda
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Functions
  • IBM Cloud Functions
  • Cloudflare Workers 

5. Motion UI

According to research, you’ve got less than 8 seconds to grab the attention of a website visitor. When used in a non-distracting way, Animated UI elements can boost conversion rate. They grab visitors’ attention, help users navigate better, show hierarchy and can be used to demonstrate cause and effect.

Motion UI is a powerful open-source, front-end library of animated UI elements that has gained popularity. With Motion UI, you can develop attractive, customized CSS animations, and transitions. 

6. Single-Page Applications (SPA)

A Single-page application is a website or app that allows users to literally stay on the same page while reloading different parts of the same page based on the user’s actions. These applications are fast as they use java-scripts to dynamically update only specific parts of  the website.

Popular SWA:

  • Gmail
  • Google Drive
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

More businesses are switching to single-page web applications as these websites are not only responsive websites but they are suitable for mobile, tablet & desktop versions. Angular, React, Ember and Vue are some frameworks that web developers use to create SPAs. 2021 sees an uptick in  businesses choosing React frameworks for developing SPAs.

7. Dark Themes

Dark themes are here to stay – not just because they are easy on the eyes in the night-time or in low-light conditions, but they are also stylish and consume less battery in mobile devices.  More and more businesses want to enrich their user experience by providing the toggle feature.  Apart from reducing eye strain, dark-themed UI also gives the app or website a stylish UX.

With giants in the tech industry such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, Quora already adopting dark mode UI , more companies are likely to make an aesthetic upgrade for their websites in 2021 and beyond

8. Blockchain technology

You may argue that blockchain is for currency trading and what’s it got to do with web technologies. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum are driven-by Blockchain technology because they have a peer to peer architecture. 

Blockchain is known for its enhanced security features, transparency, decentralisation, and distributed ledger. These features are making waves in web development as they make a huge impact on enterprise systems. Also, blockchain contracts are tamper-proof. 

9. Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT and AI are clearly the most disruptive technologies of the 21st century. In layman terms, IoT is all about connecting home devices, appliances and wearables to the internet and making them smarter. 

When it comes to web technologies, IoT is setting a revolution by making the web architecture and UI more creative and interactive. The communication between website layouts and architectural models have also advanced.

Final words

There you go, our list of the top 9 trends in web development in 2021. Become an early adopter of the latest trends in web development and transform your business.Looking for a reliable custom software development partner to help you turn your product ideas into a reality? Our experts at SolutionChamps will be happy to discuss your project idea and bring it to life. Contact us now!

What is a Progressive Web App? Beginners Guide

Posted on by Shanth Babu

Let’s face it – today’s technology is almost impossible to catch up with. 

From artificial intelligence to the internet of things, to machine learning and everything in between – the tech industry is ever-changing, and businesses are constantly looking for the next big thing that can generate more revenue and improve the customer experience at lower development costs. 

With over 4.3 billion mobile device users in the world, it’s a huge challenge for businesses to balance costs while maintaining their web presence on different platforms (website, android, iOS). Enter Progressive Web Apps (PWA) – a relatively new technology that is revolutionizing the way people interact with websites.​ 

From push notifications to offline usability and access to device hardware – PWA can be used to do almost everything that was previously only possible on native apps.​​​

Let’s discuss in detail progressive web apps, their features, benefits, and more in this blog post.​​

Overview

What are Progressive Web Apps (PWA)?

In layman’s terms, progressive web apps are websites with native app-like features.

A more technical explanation would be – Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are light-weight web applications that are created using common web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with an incorporation of certain concepts to make it more feature-rich like a native mobile app (push notifications, offline updates, camera/microphone access, location access etc). These apps are a hybrid between normal web pages and mobile applications. 

What are the main features of a PWA?

  • App-like — They behave as if they were native apps, in terms of user interaction and navigation but do not require any download from the iOS or Play stores.
  • Progressive — PWAs are built with browser compatibility in mind. They work for every user, on every browser – even the ones that don’t support progressive improvement principles.
  • Responsive — Desktop, mobile, tablet, or dimensions  – they adapt to the screen sizes of all devices.
  • Updated — PWA uses service workers which are programmable network proxies that let developers control how network requests for a page are handled so that all information is updated on the website irrespective of the network.
  • Secure — PWA websites are safe as they are built to use HTTPS to transmit information.
  • Searchable — They are indexed by search engines and optimizing your PWA is just like you’d do on a website. 
  • Reactivable — With capabilities such as web notifications, PWAs are easy to reactivate.
  • Installable — Users can “bookmark or save” the apps on the home screen. 
  • Linkable — Need we say more? Having a PWA website allows user sharing.
  • Offline — It doesn’t matter if your user has a weak or no connection, some elements of PWAs can be programmed to still work for the user.

How can progressive web apps help businesses?

There is more than one reason for businesses to embrace progressive web apps. From a business point, some of the benefits of using PWAs are:

  • Faster page load speeds
  • Higher conversion rates
  • More user engagement
  • Lesser development and maintenance costs than native apps
  • Increased organic search traffic
  • Google endorses PWA with mobile-first indexing

From an end-user standpoint:

  • PWAs are much faster
  • Browsing when offline is possible
  • Less data consumption
  • Can save the website as an icon on your mobile phone’s home screen

Are there any drawbacks of going the PWA route?

One major drawback is PWAs are supported in iOS only from version 11.3 and onwards. Also when compared to native apps, PWAs consume more battery. 

What are the most used technologies for PWA?

Progressive Web Apps are built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with different characteristics. Some of the main characteristics are:

  • React – React is a powerful JavaScript library that is used for building dynamic and modern user interfaces.
  • Polymer – Polymer is a combination of tools, components, and models that are specifically designed to create PWA.
  • Angular – Angular is a vast JavaScript framework that is used specifically to create dynamic web applications with HTML as the template language.
  • Ionic – This JavaScript framework is used for creating applications that run on multiple platforms with a basic code.
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) – AMP is an open-source project to improve the performance of web pages and make them more mobile-friendly.

How to decide if you need a PWA or a Native app?  

While it’s perfectly okay to be curious about a trending technology, when it comes to finding the right solution for your project, you need a strong development team that can tell you what technology solutions and framework you need to adopt to reach your business goals. Here are some questions to ask yourself to know if you need to adopt PWA:

  • Do you need an app that must be easily distributed to several users across platforms?
  • Are you time-crunched? Do you need to go live in a short span?
  • Do you prefer to keep everything simple on a website? 
  • Does your website need to rank on search engines?
  • Are you looking for a low-budget solution?
  • Do you want to reduce future development and maintenance costs to a minimum?

If you’ve answered yes to all these questions, adopting PWA is a viable option for you.  

A native app is still the right way to go in the following cases:

  • Your business model is based on cost per download and/or IAP (In-App Purchase)
  • You need to use more hardware features of the mobile device
  • You need to  integrate the app with other third-party apps

Final words

Want to become an early adopter of progressive web apps? Looking for a reliable progressive web app development company to help you go live without hassle?  Contact our experts at SolutionChamps to discuss your project idea and we’ll be happy to provide a quote.