The mobile applications are essential tools of our lives to ensure day-to-day task execution and smoother communication.

When it comes to choosing between iOS and Android, the latter is my favorite because of its open-source nature that allows me to tweak the application and achieve maximum portability and scalability through my smartphone. I enjoy using Android apps.

Speaking of which, applications have much ground to cover to provide effective user experience to the end-user.

Out of all the other aspects, make people feel in control while using an Android app is the most important thing. People must be able to navigate through the app conveniently and must allow controlling the app’s accessibility to their phones.

One way to do that is to get the runtime permission message.

We all have experienced these dialogue boxes asking for access to our phone’s location, storage, camera, contacts, and every other minute detail required to use the app to its fullest potential.

For example, whenever you download a camera application, it would ask you to access the hardware of your camera to click the pictures. Similarly, all the applications that capture something would ask to grant access to camera hardware.

Apps like Uber or Google Maps would ask to grant access to the location of your device to provide a customized user experience.

However, for the sake of asking permission, developers sometimes go overboard and may frustrate users.

Therefore, it is incredibly crucial to understand why, how, when, and where they must ask users to grant permission.

That’s why we have come up with runtime permissions’ best practices.

We will discuss how to ask your application users gracefully.

Without further ADO, let’s dive straight in.

1. Don’t Ask Too Much

For example, you have downloaded a social media app that shares a photo, audio, and location to your followers.

Now, when you open the application and log in to your account for the first time, you come across a string of permission requests from the app.

I am sure many of us will quit the application if there are too many application access requests to be granted to the app.

Therefore, it is incredibly crucial to be mindful of maintaining the number of permissions. The best practice is to ask for permission whenever you need them.

In the above example, ask for access to storage or camera only when required. Otherwise, users would have to allow access, which may never be utilized by the app.

2. Be Clear

While asking for permission through a dialogue box on an app, you already have a small place and, therefore, make sure you are asking for what you want.

If you try to explain too much, users might not read everything. They might reject the request that would impact your app’s performance.

So, try to be clear for a couple of words. Clear communication would not only work like a charm but enables trust among users.

Now, it does not mean that you ask for something without any explanation. Sometimes, you might need to ask why you need specific services and hardware assistance of the user’s phone.

For example, a navigation app asking for location is okay. But if the app also requests to ask contacts and camera, then users might expect a reasonable explanation. At that time, try to be as transparent as possible without confusing the users.

3. Be Concise

A concise message will save a lot of time for users. Therefore, try to deliver your message with the least amount of words so that users can quickly decide whether to grant access or not and move on.

Otherwise, users would quit the app and may never return.

4. Use Plain Language

In this step, copywriting plays a vital role because you need to use inclusive language for users.

A complex message with too many technical jargons may turn people off.

Being a developer, if you try to explain technicalities during runtime, users will not engage with the app because not everyone has the technical knowledge about how Android works.

Therefore, the usage of plain English is highly recommended while asking for runtime permissions.

If you are targeting a local audience, then using the local language is also an active mode of communication for getting quick responses.

5. Pause The Media While Asking

For some apps, there would be an introductory video or any other multimedia content that auto-play when users access the app. At that time, if the app needs to ask for any permission, make sure the multimedia is paused.

Otherwise, when the video or audio keeps on playing at the background while users are forced to respond to the requests.

This would not result in good user experience because users have to either rewind or rewatch the content entirely just to catch the information which is missed while granting the permissions.

Therefore, it is recommended to keep this user UX in mind and make sure that the multimedia pauses immediately as the dialogue box appears in the application.

6. Don’t Be Annoying

Don’t ask users the same permissions multiple times. Supposedly, your application requires camera access, and the users have granted access for the first time.

For the sake of good user experience, you again asked them, and they rejected it.

Note this response and avoid asking for the camera access one more time unless it is essential.

If you keep asking multiple times, users would have frustrating and slugging user experience.

You can also encourage users to check the box “Don’t show this again” to not get the message every time.

7. Be Upfront

While asking users to grant permission about particular services and hardware, make sure you are always educating them about how to revoke the access.

Usually, in Android, users can go to settings and select the application from the list and uncheck the hardware access to revoke.

But not everyone knows that, so you can tell them that they are in control to revoke these rights if they feel so.

8. Focus on The Intent

You can use intent to let other application and does the runtime permissions for your application.

It will be super helpful if your application seldom asks for a particular type of permissions like location, camera, and so on.

Android’s default system would ask for the permissions and implement accordingly.

9. Get The Idea of The Device

Sometimes, an application would have specific device preferences for a different type of runtime requests.

And that’s why it is essential to identify which device is being used to enable custom user experience.

Device IMEI is one such identifier that can help you identify which device the user has.

10. Leverage The Power of Unique Identifier

For the sake of advertising and analytics, having a unique identifier can help you acquire priceless information about users.

You can collaborate with developers and create advertising identifiers that can help you create smart retargeting ads.

These custom identifiers would track user behavior and provide comprehensive data that you can use for your marketing activities.

So, make sure to add these identifiers to engage users in the future and provide them unparalleled user experience and enable personalized digital communication.

Conclusion

I’m excited to know what your thoughts are about these 10 best practices to set runtime permission in Android.

Drop your views below and let me know what you think about them and which methods you are going to implement for your Android app.

Author Bio:- Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz Technologies, an Android App Development Company.

The Google play store and the App store are loaded with thousands of mobile apps. From expert app development companies to ‘not so professional’ companies. Finding the right company is becoming difficult every passing day and ‘reviews’ are one way of figuring out whether a company is worth your time. I have developed a habit of checking the reviews and ratings of anything that I’m about to purchase online. Honestly, I have to read the reviews of everything. This habit has extended to other areas of my everyday tasks as well, such as installing mobile apps. But, you can never really tell the difference between authentic and fake app reviews.

I’m pretty sure that the majority of you do the same. But, sometimes it happens that I come across an app that isn’t as good as stated in the reviews. Or, the app is amazing, but it has a shocking number of negative reviews. If you consider the fact that majority of the users will go to your reviews before installing your app, just imagine how negative reviews can impact the app conversions. Just have a quick look at the statistics below (source: Apptentive).

If 79% of the visitors you get, read the negative reviews on your app, then your app downloads will have a drastic downfall. This is exactly what happened with the CNN mobile app, it suffered countless 1-star ratings from Trump supporters that were hellbent on tanking the mobile app. These negative review attacks can negatively impact a company’s reputation. Furthermore, if you look at it from an SEO and ASO perspective, online reviews are an important ranking factor to a search engine’s algorithm.

Taking all this into consideration, it’s pretty obvious why your competitors can coordinate negative review attacks on your mobile apps.

Below I’ve rounded up the consequences that mobile app companies have to suffer because of negative reviews.

Lower Search Engine Ranking

The search engines are well aware of the fact that your star ratings have an immediate effect on how users perceive your mobile app. As a result, both Google, as well as app store search engines, will rank your products according your app ratings.
Your app’s average rating determines whether it will start ranking on search results or not. If you have fewer or lower app ratings, then the chances are that you’ll have less visibility and search ranking. If your competitors have higher ratings as compared to your 1-star ratings, the app stores will indefinitely choose to give more visibility to the well-rated mobile app.
On the other hand, greater number of good reviews and ratings will boost your app’s ranking and popularity.

Another important thing to remember is that the keywords in your app reviews also have a massive impact on your app store ranking. You might have noticed that you start ranking for keywords that you’re not targeting, app reviews are one of the reasons why you start ranking for them.

Reputational Risk

Do you remember David Caroll’s Guitar scandal with united airlines? If you don’t then let me fill you in.
The United Airlines had damaged David’s guitar and they refused to pay for the damage. So David Caroll wrote the song ‘United Breaks Guitars’. It became a worldwide sensation with millions of views. As result of this one video, United Airlines lost around $108 million.
With a bad company image, it’s nearly impossible to conduct any business. Negative customer reviews are a strong indicator of a bad company reputation. Where a single 1-star rating can result in a nine times increase in revenue, a single negative review can have the opposite impact. Nobody will want to take their business to a company with a bad reputation.

Difficult to Fix

In a world that is run by the Internet. Online reviews can either drive users to or away from your company. Having fewer reviews or an ‘abundance of negative reviews’ can make it very difficult to build your company’s reputation. It can be hard to gain customer trust and as result your conversions continue to decline.

How can I Combat Fake Review Attacks?

Before I move on to explaining how you can fight against fake app reviews, it’s essential that you learn how to spot a fake. Watch out for the following factors:

• Vicious language:
  Even a genuine negative review doesn’t use a vicious language. Watch out for the tone of your reviewers.
• Very Generic Criticism:
  Authentic reviews contain specific information about the problem that the user has faced. If the review fails to highlight any specific problems, then it’s probably fake.
• Overly Positive Reviews for Your Competitors:
  The negative reviewer leaves overly positive reviews for your competitors. This could be a major ploy.
• Multiple Reviews in a Small Time Span:
  Bogus reviewers tend to leave multiple reviews in a small time span. Watch out for these reviewers.

After you have analyzed your reviews and you’re sure that they are fake. Here are some steps you can follow to combat them:

Verify Your Transactions:

Whether you’ve launched a paid or a free app, keep track of the users that have downloaded your app or have made transactions. Furthermore, you can also ask users to fill in a form asking for their information while they install your app. When you have your app installs and transactions tied to your ratings and reviews, the chances of fake app reviews will decrease. You can easily spot out the fake reviewer, in fact, you can even let them know that you only entertain authentic reviews.
This is very helpful for preventing automated reviews by bots and for blocking fake app reviews by your competitors.

Leave Feedback:

Don’t try to get in an argument with the user. Keep your emotions and your tone in check. Provide your feedback about the user’s concern, take the conflict-resolution approach. If the review appears to be generic, ask for more clarity.

Report The Reviewer:

The best approach to take is to report the reviewer. Figure out how the reviewer is violating the platform’s guidelines and reach out to them asking for help. It is definitely a tedious process, but, it is worth it struggle.

Be Transparent:

The best way to preserve your company’s reputation is to be transparent about it. Share the problem you’re facing with your followers on multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit). After you share your experience you will not only be bringing more exposure to your brand, you might even get some positive reviews. Be open about the dilemma that you’re facing, your honesty will help you develop positive publicity.

Use Multiple Marketplaces:

Expand your reach and try to provide your services on multiple platforms. The more marketplaces you’re available on, the more visibility you gain.

It’s A Wrap:

I’m hoping you found this article. Mobile app developers and app development companies have to be aware of fake app reviews. A single negative review has drastic consequences on your sales and conversions.

I’m really interested in learning about your experiences. Have you ever experienced a fake review attack? If you have, tell us all about it.

Author Bio: Khloe Hunter is a Digital Marketing Executive for a mobile app development company in Dallas. Her expert writing skills enable her to convert complex information, into content that anyone can read. Her technical educational background, combined with the know-how of content marketing, gives her an edge over others in a variety of blog posts.

Mobile phones have become an integral element and owing to its omnipresence, it has come far off to aid us in induce productivity in our daily life. What’s more essential is the types of smartphone applications you install and use from application marketplaces like Google Play Store and Apple Store. 

Several mobile app development firms are launching productivity apps that skyrocket the efficiency of the day to day tasks we perform. These smartphone productivity apps do not only make our daily chores easy to manage but also provide ways to enhance productivity at work. No wonder, every business owner seeks to get more work done from the staff every single day. Owning and operating a business is no different from a monumental task that demands to shoulder challenging responsibilities and managing resources efficiently.

But a question that lingers is – How and which mobile applications can help to boost business productivity? While one cannot add more work hours to a day and thus, the only alternative is to ensure that each hour is more productive. The applications you employ for your business play a vital role in ascertaining your team productivity. There is a multitude of free and premium productivity apps available in the marketplace to enable you to enhance your business productivity. 

But choosing the right set of applications for productivity is a daunting task. It is imperative to understand which applications are right for your business and how will they help in accomplishing your tasks faster. 

Before plunging into exploring and experimenting with wide-ranging productivity apps, analyze how your business and the employees’ function, the processes and policies you have implemented, and identify the roadblocks. Every business is distinct to the other and so are its processes and productivity requirements.

There isn’t any one solution that fits all to boost productivity for all kinds of businesses. The right choice of application will maximize productivity and optimum resource utilization. It will enable you to break down and simplify a plethora of the routine tasks and objectives a business must achieve.

By evaluating the fundamental needs of your employees and business, you will be able to make a precise choice of productivity tools for your business. In this article, we have outlined a list of best productivity mobile applications for different business activities such as team communication & collaboration, file management, time management, project management, and more. 

Slack:

Slack is one of the most popular applications out there for team collaboration and communication. It is a simple yet powerful team communication tool primarily aimed towards small & large enterprise businesses. Right from its inception, business users have lauded the way Slack makes remote working and collaborating with teams easier, reduces the frequency of back n forth emails, & modernizing the way co-workers converse & collaborate.

It offers some stellar features such as cross-functional communication, real-time team chats, and timely notifications. Slack is highly efficient when it comes to receiving all your vital notifications in once place and getting real-time responses & views on the work the team members share.

Evernote:

Evernote is one of the best tools in the market to track down your notes. There’s nothing better than jotting down your best ideas quickly and having them handy every time you need it. This application lets you note both your work-specific as well as personal drafts on your mobile phone.

You can keep as many notes, drafts, and to-do lists as you want on Evernote. These notes can be further kept as long as you want to and without fretting about losing even single information stored within this comprehensive note-taking app.

Dropbox:

Dropbox is a renowned smartphone tool among business application consumers. The app offers numerous benefits to small and large businesses through its file-sharing capabilities.

Dropbox allows you to easily sync work documents across several devices and view, access, and edit them seamlessly from anywhere. If document storing and sharing is what you need for your business, then Dropbox should have a special place in your collection. It not only makes collaboration easy but also lets you create shared folders and provide team members access to confidential links or folders, as need be.

DocuSign:

Do you know that with DocuSign one does not have to be physically present on the spot to sign a very important document? All it takes to sign a document is to click a link in your email to access the document, follow the signing instructions and lastly, click on “confirm signature”.

Once you have clicked “confirm signature”, you receive a notification about signing the document along with everyone else involved in the activity. Isn’t signing documents without moving an inch from your desk breezy with DocuSign?

Trello:

Trello is another popular team communication and project management application every app development company recommends. It makes collaboration swifter and more effective. Business teams can get the work done in no time. Trello is easy to customize to suit business requirements. It comes with easy to create boards, lists, and cards that let you organize your tasks on the move.

The best part about this productivity application is that it eliminates the need for email to collaborate within teams while keeping everyone updated on the progress of the project. Moreover, it also allows share notes with other team members and distributes tasks to employees over your very own Trello application.

Camscanner:

Camscanner is one of the ideal examples of the productivity application done right. This tool helps with creating PDF documents on the go. You can use Camscanner to scan, store, sync and share files or a variety of content across mobile phones, iPads, tablets, and personal computers.

Cam-scanner also aids with optimizing the file quality, extract text from images, and more importantly, smart editing. It offers a premium subscription for a monthly charge of $ 4.99 and $ 49.99 for a year to business users.

Toggl:

Want to keep distractions at bay and monitor your work time effectively? Well, think of it and Toggl does it. This is one powerful time management application with features such as simple time tracking, monitoring, and reporting on the time required to accomplish important tasks & sharing time logs or time sheets with your leads.

Besides, it also has a few advanced features including automated time sheets, actionable business intelligence insights, and swift reporting which enables you to make the most of your time. Keep a track of and evaluate the time spend on the activities and utilize it to better prioritize your routine by having a bird’s eye of view with Toggl.

Which one is your favorite business productivity mobile application? Did it aid in boosting the productivity of your employees and business? Share it with us using the comments area below.

Author Bio :- Nasrullah Patel Co-founder Peerbits, one of the leading Top mobile app development company the USA, in 2011 which provides Blockchain app development services. His visionary leadership and flamboyant management style have yield fruitful results for the company. He believes in sharing his strong knowledge base with a learned concentration on entrepreneurship and business.

In 1996, Chex made a surprising announcement. Inspired by a classic video game called Doom, the cereal company launched its own video game called Chex Quest. Any doubts about Chex’s bold move were quickly resolved when sales climbed by 248%.

Today, companies and gaming studios alike aim to replicate Chex’s success. According to Pew Research, more than 5 billion people around the world have smartphones, presenting companies with an unprecedented opportunity to supply entertaining mobile games.

One of the first decisions, game developers must make is what platform and methodology to prioritize. Four key considerations include:

1. Strategic advergaming
2. Evaluating the pool of potential users
3. Marketing in the app store
4. Preventing and resolving mobile gaming bugs

You can use this article to learn more about the benefits that make open-source Android development a clear choice for mobile game development.

Develop a Strategic Plan for Advergaming

Today, companies are investing more in advertising campaigns that are less effective.

In fact, ad fatigue has been named the “silent killer of ad performance.” Customers are so inundated by ads that they are simply learning to tune them out.

Mobile games provide a clever solution to this persistent challenge. In advergaming, ads are transformed into mobile games that expose players to a company’s messages in a highly engaging format.

Games earn users’ sustained attention by deploying compelling levels, point systems, and opportunities to engage with in-game community features. The numerous benefits include increased brand awareness and long-term ROI.

For example, in 2015, Chipotle released an arcade-inspired game called “The Scarecrow.” In addition to supplying addictive gameplay, the app directed users back to Chipotle by allowing players to unlock coupons for meals.

In the age of ad fatigue, advergaming shows real promise. It’s even more impactful when your business targets the broadest possible base of users.

Evaluate the Pool of Potential Users

Apple made headlines earlier this year when the company announced that 1.4 billion users rely on iOS smartphones. As impressive as that might seem, Android surpassed 2 billion monthly users back in 2017.

Android’s appeal lies in the wide variety of devices that support it. iOS smartphones are often viewed as luxury products that come at a high cost.

By comparison, competition between companies that produce Android devices drives down prices without sacrificing quality.

Additionally, Digital Trends notes that Android “has been deliberately optimized to run on low-end hardware.” This means your mobile game will run just as well on a budget-friendly Android smartphone as it would on a more sophisticated one.

Android provides more options at a wider variety of price points. As a result, it’s managed to capture a larger percentage of the market.

If you want to build gaming apps for the widest possible cross-section of users, you should prioritize developing for Android.

Marketing Mobile Games in App Stores

In a crowded marketplace, mobile game developers face the same core challenge: How to convince users to give their mobile games a shot?

In Apple’s app store, users have the opportunity to peruse user reviews, game descriptions, and video trailers to evaluate mobile games before downloading them.

Android users can take their research a step farther. In 2017, Google launched a new feature called “playables” that allows developers to upload an interactive demo to the app store.

This allows Android users to explore how a game’s functionalities feel, an important factor that impacts user satisfaction.

By allowing Android users to test gameplay, Google helps game developers earn more qualified downloads. When users download a game they already enjoy, mobile games cultivate a more engaged following.

Businesses should invest in resources that help them understand what type of marketing their clients would best respond to in the app store amongst the hundreds of other gaming apps.

Reducing and Resolving Bugs in Mobile Gaming

Even the best mobile games encounter bugs that can frustrate users. Open source methodology allows game developers to receive feedback on their code, reducing the likelihood of launching a buggy game and helping developers fix bugs faster.

Open source methodology was famously summarized by Linux creator Linus Torvald, who said, “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”

In other words, when publicly shared code receives feedback, developers are more likely to resolve bugs before they negatively impact a mobile game’s success.

Open source methodology also naturally complements Android development. “Android may not be fully open source, but the example is still a perfect illustration of what’s known as ‘Linus’ Law,” writes PC World.

In addition to publicly sharing code for their mobile games, developers can rely on countless lines of open source code that have already been thoroughly vetted and iterated upon.

This means open-source games run more smoothly, supporting happier users.

Open-Source Android Development Supports Successful Mobile Games

As mobile games gain importance for marketing and advertising, game developers have to think strategically to achieve their goals.

iPhone users will continue to make up a significant portion of any business’s target audience, and game developers must consider this when choosing their methodology and platform of focus.

However, research suggests that game developers would be remiss to ignore the evidence that Android has captured an even greater market share.

Finally, open-source methodology dovetails perfectly with Android game development, providing reliable games users will crave.

Emily Clark leads app development and marketing topics for The Manifest, a business news and how-to resource based in Washington, D.C.

Android is the largest and most used mobile operating system in the world with about 2.7 million application on Play store. Almost everyday 1250 new applications are added to the play store, making android developers the most wanted developers in the IT industry. 

Well, if you are an owner of a business, a recruiter of a company or firm and looking for developers providing custom app development, android game development or any other form of android app development then we would advise you to check out the online recruitment firms, sites and platform like LinkedIn. 

Like we said android developers are the most wanted developers in the industry. However, it’s not easy to become an android developer and catch up with the latest technology and requirements of the market. To stay alive in the market you need to be up with your skills as an android developer.

To help you out with that here we bring to you the top 10 Tips and Tricks for Android App Developers in 2019

Simplicity Is The Key

Nobody likes a complex application that is difficult to understand and hard to operate. So you need to make sure that your application has a simple and easy to use interface. The users of your application should be able to figure out, how to use your application in one go. Also, a complex application is not just bad from the user point of view but also from the performance POV. Most of the applications that have a complex interface show slow performance and problems like lag, glitches, hanging, etc. So its better to keep your app simple as fast. 

Test Thoroughly

Before you launch your application its important that you spend a considerable amount of time to test the application for bugs and errors. Never launch your app in a hurry as this way you will end up with nothing but bad reviews and a lot of bugs. 

MVP(Minimum Viable Product)

Like we said its important to remove bugs and the best way to do this is through your customer’s review. So we would highly recommend you to go for a minimum viable product before launching the actual complete product. An MVP is like an incomplete version of your application having enough features for so that your users can run, test and provide feedback. This way most of the bugs can be removed from the source code and also test your application compatibility and need in the market.  

Budget

Most of the new developers don’t seem to care about their budget at first. However, they soon realize that making a complete android application is not just difficult but also a costly task. As all the work cannot be done by a single developer. If you are a programmer then you can easily write the code, but you will need a professional designer for the frontend work. So before you start working on your application make sure that you specify a budget for yourself. 

Hire Developers

Well if you are a businessman or even a professional developer yourself, you will need a developer in order to complete your application. Especially if you are planning for something big such as android game development or any other thing then you will need a good developer by your side. So make sure to hire a skilled and talented developer than can ease things for you. 

Believe What In Your Idea

Most of the developers don’t even try to implement their idea to the real world, just because they don’t think it’s good enough. Well as they say the second you doubt yourself it’s over. So the most important thing for a developer is to believe in the product he building or else all this is for nothing. You can simply ask yourself the following question in case you are having doubts –

1. What is the purpose of your app?
2. How does it impact the life of the people using it?
3. How efficient and effective can it become?

If you are able to answer all these questions then there is nothing to worry about, you all set to go. 

Learn SQL

If you are not satisfied with just a normal application, then we recommend you to learn SQL. This is a database management system that can help you built a more unique, robust and bug-free application. Currently android uses SQLite as its storage system, so it’s natural for an android developer to be familiar with this database management system. 

Use Only Necessary Tools

There are tools that are necessary for developing an android application such as ADT Plugin, Eclipse, and Android SDK. However, new developers tend to make use of application and software that are not necessary. Well, they do come in handy, however, we suggest that avoid using this software as they restrict you from learning. 

Target Audience

As steve jobs once if you are here to impress everyone then you at the wrong place. And it’s damn true for the IT industry as well. Making an application for everyone is not possible, however, you can make an application for a specific group of people. 

Security

If you are creating an application that requires user information, then you better make sure that your application is secure. Security is a question of trust and if you can’t provide your users with a secure environment then you will for sure lose their trust.