“Mobile apps are the future” is one of the most common slogans which is seen all along. But for mobile apps to rule the internet and e-commerce certain constraints are hindering. Memory space is one of the major constraints among them.
So Google came up with the instant apps so solve the biggest ever constraint mobile apps are facing. Instant apps work on the basis that you will get a link to access a particular portion of the app. You can access the particular part without installing the whole app. After using the users can dive deep into the app and decide if it is useful to install or not. The instant apps are at the beta stage and Google might make it available to all users by this year.
The instant apps can be seen from the business perspective and user’s perspective. From a business perspective, this serves as the biggest advantage. Even for a great app that has been developed by a company, giving a chance to make a user try it is really tough. By the introduction of instant apps, all they have to do is give them a link and so a part of the app that is necessary can be accessed.
App owners have a number of parameters for framing a business strategy. Key KPIs are app installs, time spent on the app and other usage are tracked to form the strategies. To bring the visibility an app deserves, a lot has to be done. By the introduction of Instant apps, the perspective and the metrics that has been used so far will be changed. With just sharing a single link the technology is giving the users to try out the app without installing it on the device.
Google as of now is now working with a few set of partners and other developers like BuzzFeed, B&H Photo, Medium, Hotel Tonight, Zumper and Disney. The biggest hindrance is in the form to marketeers. It will be tough for the marketeers to retarget their audience as cookies are not available through instant apps.
although the mobile app users account only a tiny portion of the business, reaching the wider base of the audience will be easier for them. This process might make the new users easy to acquire, which is tougher now.
“A 2015 study indicated that consumers spend 85 percent of their time on smartphones using apps, but only use a small handful of third-party apps on a regular basis. This shift in consumer behavior means that it’s difficult for developers to get their app onto users’ devices – something that Instant apps could help to address”(Posted May 18, 2016, by Frederic Lardinois, Sarah Perez, on Techcrunch)
By adapting to the instant apps, there might be a huge shift the way the business is done with the apps. When there is only an occasional usage of any app, they can easily use this tech and make the most out of it.
From the perspective of users, The biggest fear of storage space is negated. This tech supports for the android version above 4.1 and majority of the phones are updated with that. By this, a user can access a large number of apps and at the same time not worry about the loss in space or data consumption. This supports to a user to try out as many as possible and make them explore many other apps.This tech is the greatest advantage for a user to explore as much as possible and have the choice to choose the best app.
Similar to this Apple has also come up with a tech called App Thinning. This was introduced in iOS 9, it includes features such as app slicing and on-demand resources. App slicing downloads only the assets when the app requires. As far as on demand resources are concerned, the user will download only a portion of the app that needed to run. The complete portion will not be downloaded as the other parts are downloaded once the need arises.
It is clearly evident that both the giants are developing the technology to deal with the issue of internal space and memory. Addressing this practical problem in a simplified and convenient way for the users is a welcoming move. Now it is in the hands of the developers to adapt the future apps to comply with these features. We at Mallow technologies are experimenting with this feature on a couple of our apps. In future adapting the existing apps to the new feature might play a major role and opens up many opportunities for the businesses.
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Business Analyst Team,
Mallow Technologies.