Everyone has been dazzled by the AI powered voice assistant Google showed in its I/O 2018 conference. That said, for major app developers the Google I/O Conference 2016 brought a huge possibility – Google Instant Apps.
Many businesses have yet not explored the gamut of opportunities which come alongside Instant Apps for android app development. Instant Apps can help in user acquisition, user retention, better user experience, product testing, social media marketing and what not! Yet, many businesses are yet to tap into this feature.
What are Google Instant Apps?
The simplest way to define Instant Apps would be that they are small, fragmented and easily accessible versions of native apps. To a developer, a native app is also easily accessible; after all, a user only needs to go and download it. That in itself is the hassle for the user – downloading the app, burning through data and clearing memory on the device, all for one app? Many businesses are losing out on such lateral demands of their app because of a small impediment – they have to be downloaded. Hence the Instant Apps come into picture.
Instant Apps do not have to be downloaded. They are available on Play Store and as soon as the user clicks on it, the user is taken to a microsite which has limited functionality in comparison to the native app. How does this help the user? Well, the user gets to try the app for availing its specific utility and they don’t have to download it. What else, this provides with an added touchpoint for them to try the app before actually downloading or buying it.
Still thinking whether you need Instant Apps for your business? These reasons will definitely help you out in deciding:
1. Product Testing and Real-time Feedback: If you are an android app development company this is one of the most crucial aspects of your business. You can simply put up an Instant App version of your native app and let users come to use the best functions without even downloading the app. Mostly, developers deal with numerous KPIs to gauge the success of their app – downloads, time spent, etc. With Instant Apps, users give you real time feedback – they will download the full app, use only the Instant App or do nothing with the Instant App. In any ways, you get to see whether the app is working in its simplest terms or not.
2. User Acquisition and Retention: Users do not want to commit to one app. This is primarily the reason why the number of apps used on a daily basis for an average user has gone up from 7 to 27, according to an Economist Group research. With an Instant App, the user is not supposed to commit anything – no payments, no data usage, not even the blocked memory space on phone. For a company providing android app development services you can think of this as a test-drive of your apps.
This certainly helps in many industries such as gaming, media and entertainment or apps with occasional utility. Any app that offers in-app purchases for added content can now give an Instant App version to give an insider’s view. There are also apps which only have occasional usage – hotel booking, parking slot availability, so on and so forth. Users tend to avoid such apps because no one wants to have an app which will be used rarely but block the space in the phone permanently. Instant Apps enable companies providing mobile app development services for such apps with infrequent utility to tap into the larger user-base by offering a try before you download kind of option.
3. Added Marketing Channel: Sharing an app on social media is a hassle and typing an entire review is rare. That said, sending a link to a specific website is extremely lucid and makes Instant Apps an added channel to market the native app.