Top 20 Mobile App Development Trends to Watch Out in 2024

• Mobile
• December 7, 2023

by Mehul Rajput

Things have enhanced beyond our imagination with the rise of smartphone technology. Very easily, smartphones have become our quintessential items.

Alongside smartphones, numerous technologies have become a necessity in our lives. And you can’t ignore that mobile app development has given increased revenue also. By 2025, there will be a projected 7.49 billion mobile users globally.

Henceforth, mobile app development trends started growing and materializing. Both app developers and users are responsible for this evolution. Nonetheless, these trends have simplified our lives in different ways.

The emergence of COVID gave rise to many challenges in technology but it remodeled the mobile app development industry in the coming years. And with the rise of smartphones, businesses globally are getting new opportunities now with a strong user base.

Since mobile has the power to boost the visibility of a brand, every business owner is trying to reap its advantages.

Moreover, the future of mobile applications also appears shinier than before. Thereby, let us find out which mobile app development trends will dominate the year 2024!

Ruling Mobile App Development Trends in 2024

The mobile app sector keeps on remodeling every day. To maintain the never-ending client demands, you should bring the needed changes in the procedure. Thereby, only applying the right app development strategies will not assure you complete success.

All you need is to include the latest mobile app trends. And to accomplish the utmost success, you also require a team of expert app developers.

Here is a list of the top mobile app development trends that will rule the year 2024:

1. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is already a known phenomenon. It is predicted that by the year 2025, the market for Artificial Intelligence will be at $190 Billion. Henceforth, more industries are seeking to combine the system with human intelligence.

By now, the manufacturing and medical sectors have shown amazing efforts for promoting efficiency through artificial intelligence. This has been possible due to the high precision and capacity of capturing real-time events.

The integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence is very helpful in crucial activities like mobile app development. Whether it is iOS app development or Android app development, it can learn the procedure of app building from earlier data, identify issues, and troubleshoot them in real time.

Moreover, it can learn complete user activities and behaviors through their daily usage patterns and apply required actions with no guidelines. 

With the combination of IoT and AI, you don’t require tapping your fingers to get tasks done. You can relax and simultaneously AI controls your devices, houses, automobiles, etc. itself.

Some future AI trends are the following:

• Predicting user behaviors
• Integration of AI with IoT
• AI-enabled face unlock
• AIOps for automating IT functions
• Smart camera with subject identification
• Adaptive battery for more battery lifespan
• High app reliability for cyber security
• Language and voice translations

2. Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics makes future event predictions by measuring the present data. It uses strategies from modeling, statistics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining.

Tech biggies like Facebook, Google, and Apple have already improved user journeys across the UX/UI by AI integration for using predictive analytics.

Big Data analytics for the healthcare industry is expected to reach $79.23 billion by 2028. Currently, there are over 44 zettabytes of data in the entire digital universe. 70% of the world’s data is user-generated. Cloud computing end-user spending totals around $500 billion yearly.

The flows of more computing strength, more storage, and more data fuel its prominence further. And it will be one of the most sought-after mobile app development trends to follow.

3. UI UX is the prime focus

A simplistic design approach is highly in demand over the last couple of years. As the dramatic progress of the mobile app development industry has been witnessed; the vitality of UI and UX has also been twigged.

Mobile app design is quite a lot about a minimalistic approach for the users to get the hang of navigation easily and content can help users perceive the niche of the app. If we refer to popular applications like Google Pay, Amazon, Microsoft Teams, and many others.

So, UI/UX is the most important element for the audience of late; 2023 is about simplistic UI and effective UX.

4. Camera-focused applications are rocking in 2024

After the detrimental situation that COVID brought with itself, humans continued to work and we should be proud of ourselves for that. The concept of digitization was adopted and it is still relevant as many organizations find it easy to work with this pattern.

Moreover, the concept of virtual working/work from home that arose during the pandemic is now widely accepted. Thus, many camera-focused apps like Zoom and Google Meet have launched for employees to make their lives easier.

In 2023, more camera-focused applications are bound to be seen, like you would have noticed that gradually every social media app has been updated with video calling features by now.

5. 5G technology

As time passes by, technology also progresses alongside. 5G technology is one of those when we mention innovative technology. With a 5G network, the data is delivered with great speed and efficiency.

However, 5G technology has been in existence for a while, but in 2024, it is going to be a buzzword as it is estimated that businesses are going to adopt it actively at full scale.

What makes 5G different from 4G?- A few points:

• Speed is the key difference; 5G technology’s speed is 10 times faster than the 4G network.
• 5G will provide a lot more opportunities for AR and VR. Integrating AR and VR into an app is not a big deal with 5G.
• Data transfer between the devices will be a lot more rapid and smooth.
• Virtual payments are going to be pretty secure, safe, and seamless as the process of biometric data for identification is going to be conducted quickly due to the 5G network.

Read also: The Impact of 5G on Mobile App Development

6. Super apps will be majorly created in 2024

Well, super apps are the term some of us might have heard of earlier as well. But to make it clear, it’s an ecosystem of applications that people use frequently due to its seamless integration.

Well, Gartner says: A super app is an application that helps its end users (customers, partners, or employees) with a set of core features along with access to independently created mini-apps.

The trend of super applications in the year 2024 is bound to rock as it expedites the process due to its seamless integration. And users love and appreciate the technology that offers them end-to-end convenience.

Read also: Developing a Super App – The Complete Guide

7.  Mobile commerce

By the year 2024, the mobile commerce sector will represent 42.9% of eCommerce sales. As the concept of digitization has been promoted and how after the pandemic, we all have started relying more on mobile applications.

Moreover, we also cannot disagree with the fact that the concept of online shopping has started taking over the businesses of the offline market; online shopping is found convenient for the users.

Looking at the scenario of mobile commerce, it’s safe to say that this trend is going to be with us forever.

Since payments with online shopping are quite easy, popular eCommerce platforms like Amazon have seen a massive rise in their sales. Customers find it quite feasible to shop through digital wallets as they don’t have to mention the details every time they shop, once it’s done, it’s done.

8. Voice search

Every technology is meant to offer convenience in its own way, but certain technologies just make users addicted. And voice search is one of them. So, it is not a surprise that the market of voice search is projected to rise to $27.16 billion U.S. by 2026.

Having seen the importance of voice search in the market over the last few years, businesses from different industries have been actively working on integrating the same in their apps to offer a desirable user experience.

9. Mobile applications for wearable devices

Wearable devices have been a part of advanced and modern technologies for quite a long time. People love wearing smartwatches and fitness bands for managing some of their stuff that used to be done on cell phones earlier.

Looking at the tendency of people to use wearable devices, this mobile app development trend is still here in the year 2024.

After the launch of Apple’s smartwatch, the brand witnessed skyrocketing sales of the product as if this was something users were eagerly waiting for. Many brands came up with awesome wearable devices seeing the mammoth success of Apple’s smartwatch.

So, the market of wearable devices is expanding and how, and it is still probably going to be prevalent in the coming years.

10. Gamification

Users are consistently looking for interesting features in the applications; seeing the gigantic engagement of the game PUBG: one thing is for sure, games are a major part of users’ life.

The in-game advertising market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.08% during the forecast period to reach US$221.511 billion by 2027.

Apart from this, there are many mobile applications like Duolingo that have certain gamification features integrated:

Choice of difficulty

Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. You can choose the level of playing the game as per your expertise and knowledge about the topic.

Battles

Users need to pass small tests before moving further to the next level. This makes users feel a sense of accomplishment.

Victory badges

After successfully completing the level, users are given victory badges, which boosts users’ confidence to the next level.

11. Motion design is key

Even though the features of your applications are on point, sometimes users just do not live to engage with apps because of the standard UI designs. In such cases, motion graphic designs come into play.

Adding motion design adds life and enhances the UI design to a great extent. You can understand the visual hierarchy of the elements and add the desired motion effect as per the importance of the element.

Motion design entails users with highly boosted engagement. Experts say you can almost double the value of design just by smartly adding effective motion into the same and making the standard design look nothing less than an artistic piece.

12. Touchless UI

Touchless UI is quite a smart concept, users find it quite impressive as it has taken a level of convenience one level up.

Well, many of us might not be familiar with the concept of touchless UI, let’s clear it out. Touchless UI is something that captures your gesture for authentication and allows you to access the app. To put it simply, unlike earlier standard biometrics systems, touchless UI identifies the users through their faces.

This concept proved to be pretty useful during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic as this concept is very hygienic and smart as we mentioned earlier. So, the trend of touchless UI is intact in 2024 and in the coming years as well.

13. Cross-platform app development

Cross-platform app development is the type of process wherein you can create an app using a single codebase that can work on multiple operating systems like Android and iOS.

As cross-platform app development is quite feasible and cost-effective if compared with native app development. Many startups do use it for their MVP launch and simple app development. This lets them save a lot of time, effort, and, of course, money.

Read also: Why Should Startups Opt for Cross-platform App Development?

14. Internet of Things

Have you ever thought that the internet would be so necessary in our lives? If you think that the internet cannot control everything in our lives, you should just opt for the Internet of Things.

Suppose you are outside and you just forgot to lock your home. Rather than going back to your house, you can lock your home from the location where you are currently. You just require installing an IoT app on your smartphone, an IoT powered lock system and an active internet connection.

So, not just your house or workspace, but in the future, you can control nearly everything with the use of IoT systems.

IoT items like August smart lock, August doorbell cam, Philips lighting system, and Amazon dash button have already won millions’ hearts.

Many companies are already making a transition to IoT app development. According to Statista, forecasts suggest that by 2030 around 29.42 billion of IoT connected devices will be in use worldwide.

Some expected IoT trends are the following:

• IoT in healthcare
• AI-enabled IoT devices
• Self-driving and smart automobiles
• Smart homes and cities

15. Applications for Foldable Devices

The very first foldable smartphone was launched by Samsung in the US back in 2019. After that, unsurprisingly brands launched foldable devices seeing the kind of attention the Samsung Galaxy was getting.

Having seen the surge of engagement, foldable devices are getting impeccable appreciation. Customized apps for foldable devices are a major demand and a great opportunity for the developers and businesses out there.

As the factor of responsiveness in applications has been considered on a prior note, businesses are optimizing their apps for foldable devices already. So, this is one of the powerful mobile app development trends of 2024.

16. Extended reality

Extended reality (XR) is a versatile term inclusive to immersive learning technologies virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Virtual Reality-VR training develops a simulated learning environment through which learners can perform realistic interactions with objects and people.

Besides that, Augmented and Virtual Reality are already found quite useful as the revamped marketing strategy for businesses. This makes it quite feasible for new product owners to present and improve their services using XR for utmost attention, user engagement, and conversion.

According to Statista’s forecast, the market for extended reality might generate up to $52 billion in revenue by 2027.

17. P2P mobile apps

These days, all online transactions are taking place at a high scale;  we barely see a traditional transaction taking place as each day P2P applications are becoming safer, personalized, easy to use, and reliable.

So, their market is bound to expand more in the future.

18. On-demand Apps

Things will become more interesting as the app world is going to launch more on-demand apps in 2024. Let’s accept that yesterday’s luxury is today’s demand. And there are innumerable on-demand apps now.

Smartphones have become a major requirement since they meet all our demands fast through mobile apps. You just need to place a request in the specific app and you will get the service in your preferred area.

On-demand apps have different categories like food delivery apps, taxi apps, grocery delivery apps, and so forth. Presently there are biggies like Taxify and Uber that have acquired lots of popularity due to the on-demand apps.

On-demand apps are easy to use for users. Furthermore, According to research, about 86.5 million Americans are widely using on-demand services, whereas around 45 million Americans are offering on-demand services.

Now nearly every organization has moved its focus to on-demand apps. And as per tech analysts, the year has just begun; 2024 will be a great year for the trend of on-demand apps.

A few future trends in on-demand apps incorporate:

• Domestic helper apps
• Laundry service apps
• Beauty & Salon apps
• Grocery & food delivery apps
• Babysitting apps

19. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Many mobile apps have already shifted to Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and these apps do not only belong to the gaming or entertainment arena.

Now businesses in different sectors are also including real-world experience in apps. Henceforth, the App Store and Google Play Store are full of VR and AR apps. Pokémon Go is the best instance of an AR app.

Moreover, it has almost 5 million active users all over the world. Brands like Sephora and IKEA have included augmented reality in their applications to boost and enhance user experience and increase conversion rates.

Although VR technology is still developing, slowly it will become mainstream. Apps like Google Cardboard and Tilt Brush offer a 360 experience. There is Google’s Daydream VR that just supports the latest Android smartphones like Motorola Moto Z, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, etc.

20. Cloud-integrated Mobile Apps

Cloud technology has a lot of possibilities and perks. Once it began as a hosting service and gradually developed over its initial applications. This is the most trustworthy platform to store and access your data more securely, quickly, and smoothly.

However, cloud technology hasn’t entered the mobile app development process to a great extent.

Cloud-integrated apps directly run on the cloud. This is how it lights out the internal memory of your smartphone. Hence, you don’t require worrying about your mobile crashing while using these apps.

Both users and app developers equally reap the benefits of cloud integration. It makes app development quicker and simpler, alongside cost savings. Moreover, users can access the apps smoothly without installing them.

Future cloud technology applications include:

• Hybrid cloud solutions
• Multi-cloud platforms
• Cloud quantum computing

Winding Up

All the aforementioned mobile app development trends will certainly grow the app industry rapidly. The competition among mobile app developers will increase in 2024. Thereby, you should watch out for every trend before working on your app.

Every new mobile app-building innovation has some pros and cons. If you are a newbie in this industry, you might find it difficult. Nevertheless, with industry experts, you can always find out the best mobile app development trend for your app.

Now that you know how to succeed in 2024, remember to implement the above-discussed mobile app development trends while creating an app.

FAQs on Mobile App Development