After you have launched the first versions of your app, where do you go from there? A good guess would be to support and maintain your app. App development is a continuous process and immediately after you have launched it you need to improve it according to the feedback you get from your testers and users. From this stage, your app takes a lean and continuous improvement approach.
Most popular applications in the app store get frequent updates, sometimes weekly, or twice per month. You can make smaller and larger updates if you get your release cycle right. In this guide, you will learn why you should update your app frequently, what to update in your app and some of the commonly used release cycles for updates.
Why Should You Update Your App?
App stores are fond of making new OS releases from time to time. To keep up, you need to update your app to align with the new changes. You can add attractive features or remove some from your app to enhance usability.
Your app users will be required to update the software on their phones so that these changes can reflect. Adding features requested by your app user builds a loyal following. Loyal users would be glad to share your apps with their friends and relatives since you have created value.
Launching your app does not guarantee that your product will run at the expected performance. Apps do get bugs that need to be fixed to restore their original functionalities. Besides keeping your app fresh and functioning, updating your application can make your app more safe and secure to use.
App updates are one of the best marketing tools you can use to re-engage your users and also give them a good user experience. When your app shows up in the update list, users will be reminded of the existence of the software on the phone. Regular updates will keep your app in the mind of the mobile user.
Updating your app allows you to communicate with your technically savvy through release notes. Therefore, you need to take good advantage of release notes and even include them in your list of app marketing tools.
Monthly Updates
On average, your app should be updated at least once in a month to keep your features looking new and fresh. The App store likes it when you update your app frequently. A good understanding of your market and reliable feedback or data should drive your updates. You can use crash reports and user reviews to determine what you need to tweak or improve on your app.
You need to create a good balance between your updates and the release cycle because you do not want to overdo it. Getting update notifications too frequently can be annoying and tiring to the app user. Therefore, you need to be in line with market trends when it comes to making app updates. All in all, you need to ensure that your app gets updated at least once or at most four times in a month.
App Feature Updates
The rate at which you update your features will depend on the type of the feature (large or small) and the amount required to add the feature in your app. The length time of a feature varies some may take weeks while others multiple months.
Best practice requires that you find a way to reduce the time length of adding features to your app to at most two weeks. A two-week development cycle for your features creates more time for testing and refining your app which still keeps you within the monthly update release cycle.
Independent developers and small team shops can commit to the two-week feature building cycle. Companies that work with teams can delegate app maintenance tasks with a group working on bugs and the other on app features.
App Bug-Fixing Updates
Updating your app can come with new features and fixed bugs. When you find that updating your feature may take more time, then you would go with fixing bugs as you work on the feature on the side. Bug fixing updates in applications are more common in more mature apps in the market.
When you have solid features in place the next best thing you can do is improving and stabilizing your app experiences. Bugs can be fixed with immediate effect, so it would still work if you adopt a weekly update release cycle.
Differentiating Update Sizes
According to the varying update release cycles for fixing bugs and improving features, it is easy to tell that the prior is a minor update and the later is a major update. These updates are indicated by their version numbers. For example, a feature update on the first version of the app will be indicated as v1.1, while a bug-fixing update will change the number to v1.1.1.
Version numbering is the best way you can understand whether the update is minor or major. Most app user may not understand this language but it helps a lot to those that are tech-savvy. The change in version numbers varies from one industry to another. The first update in most apps is usually fixing bugs to keep it stable as you gather more feedback and data.
Wrapping-up
Updating your app depends on various factors, but it can be tamed with a balanced update release cycle. You have to balance between your feature and bug fixing updates to maintain consistency. With the approach provide in this guide, you are in the best position of giving your users the best app experience.
About 5280 Software LLC:
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