What are some common app development challenges, and how do I solve them?

Mobile App Development Challenges and Solutions

The following are some of the common challenges you are most likely to face on your app development journey and some proven tips to solve them.

Challenge 1: App Security Concern

The app development industry is not only lucrative to developers. Attackers have also found it a great spot to perform their malicious duties. We live in a world where data breaches are so common. Mobile apps are at risk of several security threats. Some of the common security threats that are likely to hit your mobile app include the following:

• SQL injection vulnerabilities
• Cross-site scripting attacks
• Buffer overflow attacks
• Cross-site request forgery attacks
• Broken access control vulnerabilities

We will discuss these threats in our subsequent posts. For now, it is important to understand that these securities come with devastating repercussions. They can lead to reputational damages, financial ramifications due to reputational damages, a decline in client confidence, and mammoths of legal lawsuits that seek to bring your business to its knees.

It is also difficult to determine when the attackers will hit your app development project, which poses an extra problem.

Solutions

You can adopt several app development security measures to protect your app from security challenges. One of the finest solutions is to use a code signing certificate to protect your code against malicious code tampering. You will need an EV code signing certificate for utmost app security and the highest validation.

You can also use other mobile app security measures such as source code encryption, employing the latest cryptographic techniques, enabling high-level authentications, and minimizing the storage of sensitive data. As the best security measure, have multiple security solutions running in tandem to guarantee optimal security for your app.

Challenge 2: Communication Breakdown

Communication is one of the most important aspects of mobile app development. However, most people always overlook this aspect. Cases, where developers fail to obey the project owners’ requirements and specifications, are common.

The bad thing about such communication breakdowns is that their repercussions do not appear until too late. Usually, communication breakdowns extend the app’s release to the market and leave the project owners and other key project stakeholders unsatisfied.

Solution

Developers should constantly communicate with project stakeholders, such as UX/UI designers, researchers, and managers. Adopting communication tools such as slack and G-Suite to bring all stakeholders to a single platform and keep them informed about key project details such as deadlines, app requirements and specifications, and sudden changes.

Challenge 3: Compatibility Challenges

Mobile app developers face two compatibility issues- platform compatibility and device compatibility. Most developers (especially the newbies) find it hard to make their apps compatible with different platforms.

Creating an app that integrates with Android and iOS operating systems requires adeptness and experience. Similarly, developers must make the applications run on different devices and their form factors.

Previously, the aspect ratio for a standard android device screen was 16:9. Today, the aspect ratio stands at 20:9. Creating a perfect mobile app that fits all these factors might challenge developers.

Solution

Developers should leverage the cross-platform mobile app development framework to create an app compatible across multiple operating systems. Moreover, app developers should stay in the loop for changes in device aspects, such as screen aspect ratios.

Developers should stick to responsive, flexible, and adaptive app designs to adjust screens and other aspects and enhance user experience.

Challenge 4: Stiff Competition from Other App Developers

The mobile app development market is overcrowded. It, therefore, becomes hard for new talents to shine through. Come to think of it- over 2.65 million apps are on Google Playstore. Getting a spotlight in such a crowd is so challenging.

You will have to build your reputation from scratch, earn client confidence and build a reliable customer base. All these aspects might take months or years to achieve.

Solution

The question is: how can you beat your competitors in the app stores? The best strategy to adopt is to avoid impressing everyone. It does not work that way. Instead, it would be a great idea to define your target audience and focus your app development resources on developing an app that satisfies the needs of a specific group of people.

Secondly, you will need to market and promote your app. You must continually market the app through various platforms to drive app downloads.

Challenge 5: Development Technology Challenge

Currently, there is no unified approach to app development. Most developers seem to fall in love with cross-platform technology, while others still prefer native apps. Some developers still believe that the platform-specific approach guarantees the best results.

Such an absence of a unified app development approach creates a chaotic environment filled with mediocre apps that perform poorly on different platforms.

Solution

Before choosing an app development strategy, you need to consider your target audience. Determine your target clients' user interface and experience expectations and requirements. You must also determine the kind of operating systems your target audience prefers. Proceed to create an app that fulfills all user expectations and requirements.

Conclusion

You now know the five challenges you will likely encounter with your app development project and the best strategies to solve the challenges. You need to strategize and wade through the challenges while taking the appropriate measures to handle the associated risks.

You can then sit and watch your app rack up downloads in app stores and gain revenues for your business.