Your App Failed Because People Forgot about It

Originally published at: http://www.sitepoint.com/app-failed-people-forgot/

Your amazing app idea is finally a reality. Your plan has been executed flawlessly, resulting in a beautiful, functional app. The marketing plan includes a thorough ASO (App Store Optimization) strategy, and a series of viral and promotional tactics to spread the word.

Fast forward a couple months. A good number of people have installed the app and reviews are positive. You’ve received some press coverage but your revenue model of in-app purchases is lackluster. Your stats reveal the app’s engagement level is low. What happened?

Users forgot your app existed.

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This just highlights the problem with most apps out there, which is that there is no need for those apps. The time taken to find, install and learn how to use them outweighs the time saved by using them compared to a regular website … even assuming that they do save any time compared to a regular website.

If I have an immediate need for a service, the chances are that I am not going to want to download an app for it, even assuming that I find one, because that takes time and often a large chunk of data, and I might not be on wi-fi when I want it. Google is far more readily available, and a regular website will work on all platforms. If you’re worried that people will forget about your app because they aren’t using it very often, maybe that’s a clue that there is no real market for your app in the first place.

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I guess many must have an “Oh apps are hot! I want an app too” mentality

I’m amazed every time I see a description of an “app” that is no more than a surrogate browser.

IMHO an app should be something different than only a way to get to a site.

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Exactly @Mittineague I like ‘apps’, not wrappers. That’s not to say that something that is a web wrapper can’t be an app (a la Cordova), it’s more about the process behind the app.

This couldn’t be more true. I’ve advised at least a couple of clients in my freelancing time very, very strongly against building apps - we discussed mobile friendly or responsive websites and they came to the conclusion that this is what they really wanted.

I found out later that one of them ran off advertising about their mobile “app” (website) later anyway. So attached to the buzzwords. lol.

Edit: Not that the right approach can’t be an app - definitely can be. Just not for the people who are really looking for a mobile friendly… website interface, and don’t know it themselves.

Great article. I think it’s time to seriously invest in customers.

However, if they lack relevancy or are delivered too often, you risk the chance of users uninstalling your app, the opposite of your intent. Tailor push notifications to what you know about the user before and at the time of sending.

I thought that was funny and great advice. Usually if I get an unsolicited Notification, my reaction is:

“Hey, thanks for letting me know I still have this app installed. Let me fix that.”

But there have been a few that have been relevant and I’ve started using the app again.

I literally just installed Tapatalk, which I installed for the old vBulletins here. I really felt like that is a pretty good example of an app that does not need to exist. It’s limited and just down right bad. Using the website on mobile browser is a far better experience.

Not everything needs and app and not everything needs a mobile version (responsive design aside). Mobile Phones and Tablets have browsers and they work pretty freaking well.

However, I can’t say I agree with this either though. Wrappers are pretty great for the people who need an app for everything or just want a quick link to the site. Or if they need some sort of basic notification functionality built in.

Now if you go to a site and they have one of those terrible “download our app!” popups and it turns out to just be a Wrapper, then well… that’s something different. lol Sadly, I’ve seen this happen more often than not with those alerts.

completely agree with you Mittineague an app should not be substituted for any browser, are supposed to help in specific cases for specific things

thank you very much for the information, and greetings

Thanks Eric!

Thanks for the insightful comments. I agree simply re-purposing a mobile web experience should be avoided and has no purpose (and Apple has definitely cracked down on this in the last year or so). Where there might be merit however is looking at a website, its content, its community, its purpose and asking, how could this be leveraged, built upon and augmented so that an app could be created that offers value—utility or entertainment to an audience? Is there something here that taps into the unique advantages apps offer? I think exploring that challenge is a worthwhile exercise when a client approaches you and says, “I need an app!” Maybe the outcome is, “you don’t need an app, let’s continue to invest in your mobile web presence” or maybe a wonderful new idea emerges…

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