Native Android store application or mobile compatible site!?
Starting your business with mobile friendly websites or native Android store app is like answering the question which came first the chicken or the egg?!
Choosing in such a situation is really difficult and many factors affect this decision. In this article, I will review both modes and try to help you in the decision making process. In our opinion, it is better to start with a mobile-friendly website and build the site according to the needs of the audience's format flow.
In this way, relying on the information you get as a result of launching the site, you can create an exceptional native Android store application.
Before starting, we briefly mention the discussions that we discuss in this article.
The difference between websites compatible with mobile phones and native Android store applications
8 top advantages of mobile friendly websites
9 major reasons for launching a native Android store application
How to create a website and a native Android store application at the same time
Case study: How Zappos manages a website and a native Android store app at the same time
Differences between a mobile-friendly website and a native Android store application
Mobile-friendly websites are websites that the user can access using their mobile browser (Safari, Chrome).
The only difference between the desktop and mobile versions of this category of websites is: when the user tries to communicate using a mobile phone, the host recognizes that the person visited the site using a mobile phone and instead of loading the desktop version Mobile displays it.
The look and feel of the website has been optimized for use on mobile phones so that the user will have a good psychological interaction with the website. The images, content and navigation structures of the site are designed in such a way that the user can easily communicate with it.
The native Android store application is a program compatible with smart phones designed specifically for mobile operating systems (in C and Swift languages for iOS operating systems and Java for Android).
Because every native Android store application is made according to specific technical and experimental instructions, it not only performs faster but is exactly what it should be. Compatibility means compatibility and compatibility of the app's appearance and interaction with other apps on the device. The desire of users to interact and use the Android store application is much higher.
One of the advantages of the native Android store application is access to other mobile phone features and their use. Some of the uses of native applications in mobile phones.
In other words, the native Android store application is a program that is made specifically for the mobile operating system.
Top 8 Benefits of Mobile Friendly Websites
Your website is actually your business card.
Mobile friendly websites are very powerful tools. Each person spends almost 6 hours a day with different digital tools, of which 51% of time is spent on mobile phones, 42% on desktops/laptops, and 7% on tablets.
And since mobile users spend 80% of their time working with different programs, there is a chance that the first customer contact with you will happen through the website.
It is not necessary to optimize every website for mobile users, but the goal is to show the importance of this interaction because it increases the probability of cooperation with your company.
Look at your website like a business card. If this card is what it should be, the customer will be more willing to cooperate with you, and on the contrary, if you cannot persuade the customer to download your app, the probability that you will have a place on their mobile phone is zero.
Websites are easily accessible and can draw customers' attention to programs.
Websites are accessible easily and effortlessly. All you have to do is write the address in the browser and finally connect to the site. (Connection compatible with mobile phones). But on the other hand, programs must be downloaded and installed first to be available to people.
One of the tricks of the companies is to use the website to advertise the programs. Take Seeking Alpha as an example, this is a group of search platforms that encourage users to download their apps while maintaining an up-to-date website and providing content through a browser.
As you can see in the picture, this site has a box to advertise its native Android store application at the top of the site. This work is not only persuasive, but also shows the importance of their native Android store app to users.
In addition, this site allows users who have already downloaded the program to access the program directly from the website and vice versa. As you can see, the website is completely optimized for mobile phones.
It is easy to read the content on this page and the links are placed at a suitable distance from each other, making it easy to click. This site is a perfect example of managing a website and a native Android store app at the same time.
Updating the program does not require users' permission and is quickly available to people.
Because you are dealing with the website and not with the native Android store application, any changes made to the site will appear quickly on people's mobile phones.
But in the case of applications, especially those that are developed specifically for iOS, there are limitations for updating, some developers consider these limitations to be a nightmare.
In contrast, updating the website is completely at your disposal. You can choose the right time for this task (preferably at night) and test the codes after restarting and if there was a mistake. You can restore the settings to the previous state, but this process is much more complicated in the case of applications.
You may not need a native Android app store at all. In the following, we will see what advantages applications have over websites, and each time in this comparison, it is these applications that appear superior.
However, as others have pointed out, the website is for people who need to publish content quickly, while the app is geared towards those who expect collaboration from their users.
Do you need an app?
This choice comes back to the company's investments. Depending on the industry you are in, probably only having a website is enough for you. For example, last week when I was going to take care of my pet, I only needed the address and phone number of the nearest animal groomer. I just needed information and no need to download a special program. Google and related websites were enough to achieve this goal. Optimize the appearance of the website according to your needs.
With websites, you won't have to worry about platforms, experience and site control.
This feature is both an advantage and a disadvantage of websites. One of the biggest advantages of applications is the experience of people facing them. The native Android store application that is designed will be in accordance with the instructions of the target operating system.
For example, because my phone's operating system is Android, I will use the style, look and feel that fits Android. And I won't have such an experience with other websites.
In website design, you will have one design for all websites. In this case, you will not be limited to specific system codes and recipes, and you can easily choose the method that suits your work. And save money and time.
No special skills are required to design mobile friendly websites.
The developer who works with my team can design and launch both a website and a mobile-friendly website in HTML format, but unfortunately, he does not have the ability to design native iOS applications because it is not his specialty, not to Now he works with the Xcode platform and has not written code with the Swift language.
In a word, you need special abilities and resources to make a good native Android store application, unless you work with someone who is an expert in both fields, which is very rare. Moreover, you need specific resources to design an app for each platform. While on websites, you can reach your goal with one source.
Websites are much cheaper.
Websites are significantly cheaper compared to native Android store apps because you run both the website and the mobile compatible version with the same source code. In this way, every change on the web can be seen in the mobile version as well.
According to my experience, building a mobile-friendly website requires only 20% more effort compared to the website itself, while designing a mobile application, considering different platforms, programming languages, and application protocols, requires two or more efforts. It is equal to the need.
Responsive web site search engine optimization.
If you hope to attract customers to Google and try to increase this recognition by applying SEO techniques, your website has a long way to go.
If your company's policy is to use web optimization techniques to attract customers, having a good program is not your primary requirement, because programs are closed environments that are not listed in search engines. In this way, a website with a good SEO degree can be effective in attracting customers, but you definitely need a good program to continue.
As I mentioned, in my opinion, websites are like business cards. And the first acquaintances of the customer with you happen through these websites. So it is better to be as perfect as possible. But it has been seen many times that these applications have played a role in increasing the income of companies by creating a sense of experience, participation, etc.
When business owners and shareholders challenge my opinion, I refer them to the US report on mobile applications. As you can see, the time spent on websites is less compared to the time spent on mobile applications.
9 major reasons for building a native Android store application
More engagement with regular users is not possible through mobile websites.
As we have seen, applications are much more successful than websites in attracting user participation. Isn't this simple fact that users spend 18 times more time on apps than on websites? I will explain the reasons for the popularity of apps.
First of all, the program is installed on the device, which means that the user can access the program in the blink of an eye. This means less trouble and more convenience. On the other hand, accessing websites has its own algorithm: open the browser and enter the website address.
On the other hand, each native Android store application has its own use. Of course, everyone has their own way of managing content. But let's take my cell phone as an example.
Like all people of my generation, I also use separate folders to manage programs (53% of people who use folders to manage content are between 18-34 years old.)
As you can see, my programs are categorized according to the tasks they have. Each category represents the task that I have assigned to a specific program. If I want to communicate with someone, my mind goes to the folder of social programs and a specific program. is drawn .
If I want to pay a loan, banking programs and if I am looking for a specific program for payments, the e-commerce folder will be my destination. The point here is that each program has a specific task that I need. I deliberately excluded programs that I don't think serve a particular purpose.Has anyone ever worked with the Blockbuster program?
The ultimate goal of any company in building a native Android store application is to coordinate it with the customer's needs. Until now, every program has a goal that ends with user participation. On the other hand, when my work as a customer with the website is finished, my connection with the website will be terminated.
Programs talk, through notifications, the program reminds the customer to order a new product, or a certain game has changed, or someone has joined the social network in which he is present. Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Instagram are all social apps that do this.
In fact, reports show that programs that use notifications are 45% more successful than other programs in engaging users. But websites currently do not have such a possibility. Using notifications will increase your chances of engaging users by 45%.
They give the best experience to users.
The native Android store app is the pre-determined winner of this competition. To design a native Android store application, developers must use a set of control components and UIs that are specific to the relevant platform.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let us examine the environment of the Facebook mobile application on both iOS and Android platforms.
As you can see, the user experience of the two environments is specific and different, and the type of user interaction with each is specific to the environment itself. The search box, the status bar, the photo of the initial notifications of the news feeds, requests, messages and notifications are all placed in specific and different places on both platforms.
And thus, Facebook provides a familiar and good experience for users. Websites do not believe in the platform.
Experience the best performance with native apps.
Facebook is now a native app, but it hasn't been that way since the beginning. In fact, Facebook's first step towards mobile compatibility was the launch of a responsive website that allowed mobile phones to access the site despite The type of platform.
But Mark Zuckerberg admitted in the first interview after becoming the CEO of Facebook that the biggest mistake of the Facebook company was to launch this search-oriented website because it affected the performance and reliability of the program.
Native programs provide an experience according to the user's needs and in the shortest possible time. Pay attention to the comments of the developers about the applications:
It's simple, websites are not technically able to compete with applications. Applications are directly connected to the operating system, while websites are connected to the operating system through browsers, which makes them slower and more difficult than applications.
According to studies conducted in 2015, the performance of applications is the second major reason for their superiority over websites. Because the program is available with one click, while a browser is needed to access the web.
Hardware and software access to the device
Providing users' needs based on their place of residence in the last 5 years has been a growing trend, according to Google reports, buying tickets for various events has taken the largest share of internet purchases, and these events are all related to a person's place of residence. In previous articles, we explained that with the existence of mobile phones, collecting personal information has become much easier.
Location-based services have become one of the major needs of users, so that 75% of American consumers seek to benefit from offline location-based services using their smartphones.
Personalization of the winning card of native applications
There is a lot of talk about personalizing applications. Companies have started investing in resources to personalize the audience experience. The purpose behind this move is very simple if the customer installs the said company's app on their device.
The company can move the customer community in the direction it wants and target the customer it wants each time with a special notification. In this way, you can easily interact with a wide range of users. For example, consider Groupon's way of personalization.
Groupon has been successful in this by providing information and content related to the user experience. Personalization can also be experienced on websites, but this requires authentication of users (registration and login to the site).
On the other hand, before starting to work with the program, the user confirms his identity once and then uses the program with the same identity. In this article, we will see a list of studies that have been conducted on the importance of personalization on American users.
Considering the fact that the best kind of personalization happens in mobile applications. The importance of using this feature is evident in mobile phones.
73% of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use their personal information.
86% of consumers believe that personalization is effective in their purchases.
45 percent of online buyers prefer sites that allow them to personalize.
40% of consumers buy from sellers who use channels to personalize the shopping experience.
80% of the buyers like the e-mails they receive from the store and try to offer new products based on the person's previous purchases.
What I learned from the fight between Apple and the FBI was that smart phones are very secure, and as a result, the program that is installed on them is not without this security.
The reasons for the security of the native Android store application are more related to the behavior of users than to specific websites. For example, accessing different websites exposes users to phishing. Phishing is the process of accessing sensitive and personal information of people without their knowledge.
From a technical point of view, native Android store applications do not face this problem because they only connect to certain APIs. And because the laws related to cookies are not true for application cookies, as a result, cookies cannot be harmed by malicious programs.
In addition, certain improvements have been made in relation to the security of programs that are not similar for websites.
In addition, developers can be sure by encrypting the information that the secret information will not be stored on the device and will be deleted in the end. Although most websites try to implement similar conditions, browsers put any security solution at risk by making it possible to store information such as credit card numbers and passwords.
Recently, it has become possible to delete or exit users from their user accounts. (Although this feature is more active in enterprise programs, it can become widespread.). In general, the security mechanisms used in mobile applications have increased the security of applications, at least this is the case now.
Programs do not require login
The goal of the e-commerce and product management department is to increase customer satisfaction for more purchases, but unfortunately, 22% of buyers leave the site due to problems related to entering and registering on the site.
It doesn't matter how flexible you are in this matter - you have activated the possibility of checking as a guest or you have added the possibility of social login and registration to the site - there is rarely a change in this figure.
But the programs do not face this problem because if the user enters the program once, it will be enough.. and this makes everything easier, displaying personal content, referring them to continue shopping, showing progress, returning users. It is possible to access social platforms, games, etc. without the need to re-enter the user.
On the other hand, for security reasons, every site has a limit for users to enter, so that after logging in, if there is no activity on the site for an hour, it will automatically exit the site. This means that every time you convince 100 people to register on your site, 22 of them will leave the site because your system will automatically remove them.
Complex digital solutions are valued more in applications
Because software solutions are formed according to the public's taste, they may be very complex. This way may be the result of examining the demands of consumers and trying to adapt the performance of the site and mobile website, or trying to optimize the various flows of the web operator. This is the complexity.
For any reason, with the passage of time, the complexity of websites increases and no matter how expert your developers are, their efforts cause complexity, and this complexity prevents the success of m-webs or hybrid applications.
Personally, I have gone through the process of building hybrid applications and websites many times (especially applications such as native Android store applications, WordPress applications, and WooCommerce applications).
I have faced this problem, and each time I have lost part of the work by solving this problem because the stack technology does not allow me to solve the problem without affecting the performance of the website or mobile application.
On the other hand, because the code of native programs is optimized according to their performance, you can expand your business solutions without worrying about returning settings. Considering the basic differences between programs and websites, these are the programs that always appear technically superior.
In simple words, programs are always at the top of operating systems and directly interact with them. While the intermediaries between websites and operating systems are browsers (Mozilla, Chrome, Safari), which means that websites must pass an additional barrier to perform their tasks.
And because the more complex your mobile solution is, the percentage of frustration and fatigue of users will increase for various reasons.
Launching the website and the application at the same time
One of the reasons for launching a website and a mobile application one after the other is the distance between business time and available resources and abilities. The existence of both together is not correct, but the existence of one after the other is necessary. The best way to choose between these two is to evaluate the goals and the target community.
Your need for websites is limited to self-introduction, capabilities and services and offers. In addition, your website should clearly convey the value of people's participation with your company, and in other words, it should be able to introduce the why and what of the company well. In addition, the advantages of the website directly depend on the SEO of the site.
Especially if you are a popular company that needs people's participation in sharing products through virtual and social spaces. So far you have not been able to publish the native page on social media.
We have already shown that native programs are the best choice in terms of participation metrics and inducing specific experiences. One of the differences between the website and native Android store application is the difference in their audience.
Websites are prepared according to the needs of the end consumers and the expansion of business (marketing), while the purpose of the native Android store application is to meet the needs of current consumers. Considering the different goals that these two pursue, it may seem very logical to launch both at the same time instead of prioritizing the needs of one group of users over the other.
How Zappos manages its website and mobile app.
First of all, they pay attention to the needs of future users - or those users who have not installed their application - that is, the need to search. As you can see, the search section occupies more than 50% of the site and is displayed in two ways:
There is a search tool at the top of the site, and by moving towards the end of the site, you will see an adjuster that optimizes the search results. So, if the user chooses the shoes, the site asks him the gender, and after choosing the gender, he chooses the size to get the result he wants.
As you can see, before the person starts interacting with the site, Zappos offers the person to download the program in a separate layer.
The rest of the page is dedicated to introducing content that suits the needs of future users. The goal is to direct users to the target products. Their primary goal is to refer women to the spring essential products page and the special "Ask Zappos" section. In this section, the site asks customers if they are looking for a specific product.
They can wait for a response from Zappos by sending an email or uploading a picture of the product. That is, if you like someone's clothes, you take a picture, send it to Zappos, and Zappos does the dirty work of searching for clothes online for you.
And finally, Zappos is known for its consumer support in America. As you can see, unlike other companies, Zappos has placed its contact numbers at the top of the page.
Summary
Native Android store websites and applications each have advantages and disadvantages. I deliberately mentioned competitive features that can be effective in convincing companies. Because I believe that in today's mobile ecosystem, companies need both a website and a mobile application to attract the attention of customers.
Your website always plays the role of a business card and provides information to users that initiates interaction between your company and customers. Websites try to present your offers to customers through search engine optimization and search results.
In addition, websites are very effective in collecting essential information such as the type of operating system of users. And by using this information, you can choose the platform on which you are going to implement the mobile application.
But when it comes to inducing an optimal customer experience, these are the applications that will get you to your goal. According to Mobile Business Factors, apps are the keys to the business of the future.
Applications inspire users with the best participation experience, give them the best experience, have the best security and performance. Applications allow you to launch your own business campaign.
Because they give you access to specific functions of mobile phones that websites do not have access to (geographical location, camera, calendar, etc.)
If you are still undecided, the answer is simple: first launch an efficient mobile-friendly website and then consider launching a mobile app to increase the final interaction with customers. Check the store website for the website or store, and you can make a mobile application Apchar samples Check out
