January 2021

In-built animations in mobile applications have become a vital element to ensure a captivating navigation channel for users.

There are over 7 Million apps combined on Apple and Google Play Store, and most of them use animation to make their mobile apps look more presentable. Animation not only makes navigation easier but also enhances the user experience.

The ZURB foundation quotes “We’re no longer just designing static screens. We’re designing for how the user gets from those screens to actually view [the] content.”

In this article, we will talk in detail about various types of mobile animations and the basic principles to follow in order to achieve a smooth mobile app design.
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Objectives of Mobile Animations

1. User engagement:
Every application should have features that help users engage on the platform. Many social media apps have now become a selling space for businesses, and an effective user engagement insight helps them in assessing their performance among targeted customers.
Take the example of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, users can react to posts, which boosts social interactions.

2. User experience:
95% of mobile apps get abandoned in their first month of usage as a result of bad user experience.
In-built animation plays a vital role in enhancing the experience of the users on the application. It is the face of the application and directly connects the users with the functionality of the platform.

3. User response:
When a person performs any action on an application, it must respond to the step taken and show the relevant results.
An efficient motion design will help the user in proper navigation by making them understand the connections between all the interface elements. It provides a systematic display of options to make the app attractive.

Types of animations

1. Structure & Navigation: Most mobile apps have a very structured framework that is made easy through animation. It simplifies the process of navigation for the users and helps them in finding elements that are hidden in the structure.
If you notice Spotify, it works on a very structured framework that allows users to access all the options through its in-built animations. 

2. Visual feedback: Users expect applications to respond to their actions through visual or audible feedback. It offers them a feeling of control and also indicates that the app is working fine.
Like when you click on the “Add to cart” option on a shopping app, it instantly notifies you that the action has been processed.
On the other hand, users can get extremely irritated if they do not receive such notification as feedback. It leads to a bad user experience and even deteriorates the application’s image before the users.

3. Fun animation: These motion designs are unique and basically made to captivate the users. The animation can be anything from drag and drop or 3-D design that instantly makes the user more connected and creates a fun environment on the platform.
However, the designers must ensure that the important features of the mobile app are not hidden due to extensive animation.

4. Function change animation: Every mobile app has multiple icons that perform a specific purpose. All these small elements contain function animation that responds when a user clicks on it.
You must have noticed that many app icons change colour or design when you take action. It is done by the designers intentionally to make the application more interactive.

5. System state animation: Whenever an action is being processed at the backend of your application, it must inform users about the ongoing process. It will ensure that the mobile app is running smoothly and not frozen.
For example, if you are recording audio in WhatsApp, the app will show you a wave indicating that the data is being recorded and will process as soon as you click on the send button.

6. Hierarchical Animation: Every icon present in your application is a stepping stone for the next option. This means all the elements need to be properly connected to ensure smooth animation.
So, if a person clicks on an icon, the next option should arise from its side and not abruptly from anywhere on the interface. The animation should possess a system hierarchy of the elements.

7. Visual prompt: Some animations can drop clues as to how a user can interact with certain elements. It becomes essential if your app design has some unpredictable patterns that not all users can understand in one go.
Hence, if you create a visual prompt to guide your users into taking an action, user experience elevates.

Major principles of Motion Design

1. Ease in / Ease out: When an object moves from one pointer to another, it takes a negligible step back and moves with a certain velocity to reach the other stop.
In the same way, you cannot establish a movement in your animation without giving it some extra time for acceleration and deceleration. It will ensure a smooth swing without making it look unreal.

2. Anticipation: Most apps do this for new users who might know the features of a platform. As the term suggests, ‘anticipation’ means prediction. The in-built animation will suggest some prompts actions that the users can take to move forward.
For example, the UNO mobile app helps the user understand the game by predicting future steps.

3. Timing: It is one of the major principles to align all your animation in appropriate places to make it look real.
The animation that you create must be inspired by the principles used in real life. All the objects in this world do not move in linear motion, so you can create a curve to make your animation look natural.

4. Movement trajectory: You must have a specific movement trajectory of your animation. This pattern should be followed throughout the mobile application to ensure all your animations are in sync with each other.
Real objects have a very flexible trajectory, whereas mechanical objects are mostly less flexible. You can decide on a single type of movement that your animation will possess throughout the application.

5. Focus animation: It is used to draw user attention to a particular spot. Many mobile apps use this principle to highlight any major point that the user might miss in the pool of information.

6. Exaggeration: It is similar to the above point. This principle is also used to attract users to acknowledge certain details on the interface by enlarging it.

7. Overlapping and follow-through: In the real world, objects take time between the movement made to reach from one point to another. You need to keep this in mind and design an animation that looks natural.
You can do it through the follow-through method, which is adopted by many famous mobile applications. The movement of your animation should overlap with each other to ensure there is no open end visible to the users.

Major pointers to consider before enabling in-app animation

1. Target audience: You must be well aware of the needs and expectations of your target audience. The animation must bridge the gap between the users and the interface.
For example, if your target audience is kids, then fun animation can be implemented to make the platform look more exciting.

2. Only when necessary: The animation used in the application must solve a purpose. It should be in sync with all the other animations. Do not just split out animation anywhere.
It will only distract the user from the app and deteriorate their user experience. It should make the process of navigation simpler by providing a captivating interface.

3. Be natural: All the animation used in your application must look natural and work on the theories of real life. Unreal animation does not attract users and pull off their minds from the application.

4. Consult experts: Building a mobile app is hard and implementing animation is harder. Your mobile application will be a platform where all your target audience comes together.
So, if you are stuck somewhere, take help from experts to enable animation that is smooth and works on real-world concepts.

Conclusion
The use of animation in mobile apps has become popular, and this sector will continue to boost in the years to come.
Building a platform that contains user-friendly animations can boost user experience immensely. It will make the navigation process much simpler without a doubt.
Thus, incorporate animations in your mobile apps that can resonate well with your audience and keep them more engaged.
​​Contact the App-Scoop Vancouver Mobile App Developers for further details.

​Cloud migration has become a new trend with businesses shifting their data on the platform.
According to a survey, 83% of businesses have shifted to the cloud platform by the end of 2020.

Cloud migration can be done by all kinds of businesses, regardless of their size. It offers a reliable, secure, and scalable platform to an enterprise.

The following article is a step-by-step guide that will help your business migrate from on-premise to a cloud platform.
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But,

​Why should you switch to a cloud platform?

• Secure: Cloud is more secure than all other traditional platforms.
  In a survey conducted by Microsoft Office 365, it was concluded that 94% of SMBs found the cloud as a secure online space to store all their business data.
  Most cloud service providers keep user security as their primary goal.
• Scalability: The Cloud platform allows you to scale-up and down according to your business requirement. You can adapt to new market changes without feeling chained with your network assets.
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• Cost-effective: Switching to a cloud platform will help you reduce all your extra operational costs. In the cloud, you only pay for the services your business consumes.
  Another survey done by Microsoft Office 365 quotes that 82% of SMBs felt a reduction in their cost, and 70% have re-invested that money into the business.

Step-by-step Guide on how to Migrate on the Cloud

1. Define the horizon of your cloud migration

Your first step towards a successful migration is evaluating your application. You must bifurcate the application into the valuable and non-valuable pile.
The software used in the application should comply with the cloud platform. If all this feels overwhelming, you can use the TIME quadrant.

Here is how it works:

• Tolerate: This quadrant includes all those apps that neither provide value to your business, nor you can move them into an online space.
• Invest: Put all those apps that offer high value to your business but require some adjustment to produce maximum output.
• Migrate: Some apps are valuable to the business and do not require any extensive changes.
• Eliminate: Ditch all apps that do not add any value to your business nor produce output even with high investment.

Make sure all these applications are not negatively connected. For instance, migrating an app must not affect the functionality of any other application.

2. Set parameters to define cloud migration success

Before actually migrating to the cloud platform, you must set definite and measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

These are some of the parameters your business has to achieve after successfully migrating to the cloud. The KPIs will help you identify all the shortcomings and establish a definite plan to work on.

These are some of the KPIs you can set for your business:

• Overall uptime is the total percentage of time your application was accessible to the end-users.
• Average Response Time is the time taken by the server to give a response to the action made by a user on the application.
• Peak Response Time is the longest time the server takes to respond at a specific time or occasion
• Hardware cost
• Error rates and types
• Memory and CPU usage
• Network latency is the delay made to a user’s request by the server
• Monthly billing
• Staffing cost
• External cost for storage, electricity, etc., and many more

3. Choose between Multi-cloud or Single cloud environment

This is the most important step that will set up the base for your cloud-based business. You can either choose between multi-cloud or a single cloud platform.

A multi-cloud platform is setting up applications on different cloud providers, whereas a single cloud is purely dedicated to a single provider.

Select a type after carefully analyzing both the platforms. The next step is to ask your developers to integrate all your applications with the chosen cloud API.

But, make sure you select the most appropriate cloud type because once all these changes are made, it will be very time-consuming for an application to switch to another platform.

The multi-cloud platform is of three types:

• Separate cloud for different applications
• Splitting up your application and running in varied clouds
• Using multiple cloud platforms simultaneously

4. Select the most suitable cloud provider

After you have selected a suitable cloud type, your next step is to choose a cloud service provider that complies efficiently with your business.

You can go with any of the three mentioned below:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS): It is a market leader that offers expertise services, including networking, storage, content delivery, machine learning, and analytics.
  The platform is easy to use and simplifies the process of migration. AWS is trustful, reliable, secure, and scalable; all the basic things you need.
• Microsoft Azure: The platform offers an uptime of 99.95% and ensures maximum security. But you need expert IT professionals to manage the cloud system efficiently.
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP): It is a cost-effective platform that offers high performance and stores data needlessly. You can perform live migration without worrying about downtime.

5. Identify the extent of cloud integration

When you migrate your applications on the cloud platform, there can be two levels of integration.

• Shallow cloud integration: It is also known as “lift and shift”. This is when you migrate an on-premise application to the selected cloud platform without making any changes. You do not exploit any extra features offered by the cloud provider.
• Deep cloud integration: In this, the developers not only migrate applications online but also make use of all the services offered by the platform. Again, you need IT experts to perform this operation.

6. Establish a performance baseline for your application

Migrating your application is itself a complicated process. Hence, you need proper guidelines to measure the performance of your decision.
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It becomes a necessity to set performance baselines for all the KPIs mentioned above. It will help you analyze the post-migration performance and identify the areas which need improvement.

You must also decide the duration of your measurement. If you go for a short period (like a day), you will be able to conclude faster, but the data might differ from reality. To get accurate results, you must collect data for a significant period and then analyze results accordingly.

7. Come-up with a structured data migration plan

It is difficult to sync cloud platform with on-premise application majorly because of these problems:

• When you have moved your application to the cloud, but the data-access is still available on-premise
• Or, maybe the service access is on the cloud, but your application isn’t.

What can you do now?

• Shift all the data of your consumers on the cloud platform,
• Cut-off all the connections with the on-premise platform eventually
• Allow your data consumers to only connect to the cloud data, and
• When the situation is under control, you can disable the on-premise version.

8. Automate migration

Migration is not an easy process; you need to perform heavy data transfers that require expert guidance. Multiple tools help an organization increase the speed of migration, lower migration costs, and reduce all kinds of migration risk.

Using an advanced migration tool increases the success rate of migration. You can choose any of the service providers mentioned above, keeping in mind your business requirement. It will replace a lot of manual work and allow your IT professionals to manage the cloud environment easily.

9. Test your cloud migration strategy

Before migrating all your data to the cloud, you must test and analyze the performance of your application. It will highlight all the difficulties your cloud platform might be facing.
To conduct a test migration:

• Establish your cloud platform
• Identify the data or app that you want to transfer
• Migrate the selected data to the cloud
• Measures the performance
• Make all the changes required and check the insights
• You are now ready to migrate

10. Migrate

After all the above-mentioned steps are complete, you can now migrate all your heavy loaded data into your cloud platform. Make sure you evaluate all the KPI parameters and ask your IT experts to keep an eye on the cloud environment.

Conclusion
Cloud migration can be your first step towards adopting a technology that is secure and cost-effective. It is surely a complex procedure, but you can easily switch all your data by following all the step-by-step guidelines correctly as mentioned above.
​Contact the App-Scoop Vancouver Mobile App Developers for further details.

The revenue generated by mobile apps crossed over $581 billion in 2020 and will continue to grow in the coming years.
Mobile apps have become an integral part of our lifestyle with 90% of people use their internet only for browsing multiple apps. Developers are more inclined towards developing applications that match the current trend of the market.
In total, the developers release over 1.3 Lakhs apps on both Android and Apple play store.

Here is the list of some of the major trends that will hit users in 2021.

1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence is a part of computer science that mimics human actions but has the ability to perform complex artificial intelligence.
Some of the most common applications that will popup are Siri, Replica, Google Assistant, etc. But with the enhancement of new technologies, AI will now be available in cameras, user predictions, or voice translation.
The collaboration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning helps in identifying user behaviour and suggesting products, keeping in mind the previous searches. Big applications like Netflix and YouTube use AI to predict future shows that a particular user will want to watch after analyzing their previous choices.
Many apps are now ready to launch AI build Chatbot that will provide a human conversational experience and help them in case of any issue. 

2. 5G implementation

Major mobile selling companies like Motorola, Samsung, and LG have already launched devices that can support 5G technology. In October 2020, Apple came up with iPhone 12, 12 Pro, and 12 pro max that support 5G connectivity.
If you thought, 4G was fast, then think again because 5G is fastest. 4G was able to deliver an average of 100+ Megabits per second (MPS) and 5G stands out at delivering 10 Gigabits per second (GPS) which is 100x faster than 4G.
Due to this advancement in technology, developers can build games that are 3D integrated along with pre-installed Augmented Reality. The app development industry will evolve with building apps that will give users a platform where they can launch an app that can run in 4K format.

3. M-commerce

M-commerce or Mobile commerce is estimated to reach $3.5 trillion in 2021 and these stats will only grow in the coming years. The pandemic has forced people to depend on online platforms to purchase items and 72.9% of the global sales are made by mobiles.
So, this year the business owners should focus on building apps that will enhance their audience reach and eventually improve their sales. But if you don’t have enough funds to launch your own mobile app then you can build a website that is mobile responsive.
It will allow your business to be accessible on both desktop and mobile phones. After you have grabbed a good market size, there will always be a scope for your business to get its personal mobile apps.

4. Wearables

Wearables can include smartwatches, fitness bracelets, and healthcare monitors. For the longest time, Apple was one of the best wearables offering companies in the market but in the last years, the game has totally changed.
The company sales dropped up to 10% in 2020 because of some very affordable wearable options launched by Samsung, Huawei, and Garmin. But the trend of wearables has increased alone in the US by 15%.
Due to covid, people are now more inclined towards health bands that can give them real-time changes occurring in the body.
Research conducted by ReportLinker said that the market for wearables reached 16.12 billion in 2020. The audience requires more advanced technology integrated bands that can detect specific problems in time.

5. Internet of Things (IoT)

If you are unaware of IoT, it is a platform that connects everything to the internet. You can either receive and send information or do both. Some of the major IoT devices are FitBits, smartwatches, Home security, AR glasses, Activity tracker, and many more.
The market for IoT platforms is about to reach $1.6 Trillion by 2025. With the advancement of technology, people are connecting more and more household items to IoT platforms. Major smart home devices like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa are installing more advanced sensors to allow the user to perform tasks at their fingertips.
Research shows significant development in the medical sector that will allow patients to connect with doctors without being able to be physically present.

6. Event streaming

The pandemic has forced people to avoid all physical gatherings and shift all our meetings and events online. Due to which the market of the live streaming industry has splendidly grown by 99% in 2019 as compared to 2018.
Many companies are conducting their meetings online on various live streaming platforms like Kinesis, confluent, Apache Kafka, confluent, and many more. Through these applications, you can easily be part of all your favourite public events.
All of them come with some exceptional functionalities such as allowing people to interact between the events through the ChatBox, speakers can change turns smoothly, you will also be able to ask questions directly to the panellist.
The covid situation is here to stay for a while and these options can fill the gap between things that you are not able to do because of the pandemic.

7. Instant apps

One out of every four users abandons the apps with the first use. It can be because of various reasons like low storage, security issues or if they don’t like the app. The instant app is presently available only at Google Play Store.
When you search for an app, the store will show you either to install or try it. So, if you use the latter, the application will open in your phone in its beta versions helping you in understanding whether to install or not.
Many enterprises have launched their try-on apps to reach their target audience and make them appreciate their value. These demo apps are in trend right now and will mostly grow in the coming future.

8. Cloud Native

Cloud-Native is a platform where the code of an application is written without the developers needing a server to host their apps. Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS are some of the major Cloud-native solution providers.
One of the biggest advantages that cloud-native has against these servers is giving developers the freedom to scale upwards or downwards according to the traffic received. With the launch of 5G technology and in presence of advanced IoT platforms, the market is filled with the opportunity to exploit the advantage of cloud-native.
Research shows that 32% of enterprise applications will be built on cloud-native platforms in 2020. This is because of the flexibility and scalability option cloud-native provides to its developers.

9. Beacon technology

Beacons can be classified under transmitting gadgets that send notifications to other gadgets in its range. The Beacon technology can be easily integrated with your enterprise apps. It helps businesses send messages to people who are nearby, informing about their offers and discounts.
This technology is now becoming a need with 40 Billion Android users asking queries about Beacon-content from Google every year. It is a small device that is made up of batteries, radios, and CPU.
A beacon continuously sends signals to reach a prospective device and when it connects, the device starts sending messages that are inbuilt in its memory.
Marketers spend billions on online marketing platforms like Google ads but it is essential to put an equal amount of effort into technologies that will grab and make customers walk your store. Beacons can be your out-of-store marketing platform to send messages that market your store and also satisfy your customers’ needs.

Conclusion
The need for Mobile Apps is never-ending and will always grow. But if you are a developer, it is essential to keep track of these trends to produce applications that will be beneficial for your targeted audience. These trends are about to give tough competition to the existing technology, and will eventually lead to launching apps that are advanced and more efficient. 
Contact the App-Scoop Vancouver Mobile App Developers for further details.

The world has slipped into pandemic and health centres are overcrowded with patients.

It gives rise to the need for building a mobile health app for your hospital. There are already 3.18 lakhs of mobile health apps (or mHealth apps) available in all significant app stores with its market expected to reach 132.2 Billion in 2023.

mHealth apps help you in connecting with doctors virtually and prescribing medicines without having to physically reach the hospital.

The stats show that 93% of doctors feel mHealth apps improve a person’s health over time. If you own a hospital then the following article will help you decide the importance of mHealth.
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Advantages of building a mobile app for your hospital

1. Hassle-free Online booking

Building a hospital’s app will help patients to easily book their appointment with the doctors. The app can bifurcate appointment booking procedure into multiple departments or based on the availability of the doctors.
Every doctor will examine a fixed number of patients every day and slots will close down as the count reaches the limit.
Whereas in the offline method, there is always confusion about the status of the doctor. Launching a mobile app will immensely reduce the burden on the receptionists and allow them to focus their time on other productive works.

2. Improved efficiency

In a mobile app, all the information is systematically placed which allows doctors to easily analyze the patient’s health conditions.
Not only this, the apps must contain a user id which is a compilation of all the lab tests, prescriptions, detailed info about the disease, doctor’s emergency number, and many more to help patients in case of emergency.
This makes a synchronized relation between the doctor and the patient. You can also build a dedicated mobile app only for the hospital’s staff to ensure proper communication. It should contain a texting feature so that the nurses are not wasting time looking for doctors. The app can also include an unavailability list so that all the staff is aware of each other’s timings.

3. Better audience reach

Developing a health app is the best way to attract audiences from regions who don’t even know your hospital or the services you provide. A mobile app can be downloaded by anyone and if it provides quality features to the user, there are high chances that they might physically want to visit your hospital.
People living in remote areas find it very difficult to reach hospitals for their routine check-ups but the hospital’s app can offer them a smooth video calling experience with the doctor, avoiding unnecessary travelling. Small features like this can make a lot of difference and attract a wider audience towards your hospital.

4. Handy Bill payments

Waiting in long queues just to pay bills is a tedious task both for the patient and the office staff. It becomes difficult for big hospitals to manually keep track of all payments without doing an error.
The bill payments structure has evolved and it now requires a lot of documentation, including health insurance or any previous benefits bagged from the hospital is necessary to be mentioned in payment forms. Maintaining all this paperwork is very time-consuming.
When developing a mobile app, you can ask the developer to integrate a smooth channel for the timely payment of bills. It will release pressure on the finance handling staff and allow them into other essential tasks.

5. All-time support

A mobile app allows patients to be connected with the hospital 24*7 and ask for help whenever required. It must contain multiple functionalities that allow patients to book appointments, see doctor’s schedule, bill payment, video calling with doctors, emergency call, and many more.
Consider having a combination of both free and paid version inside the app so that your hospital benefits with the revenue generated.
Your aim should be to simplify each process for the patient even before physically visiting the hospital. The easier your app is for the public, the more interaction you will receive.

6. Keep track of your patient’s health

Your health app should contain a patient column where they can log in with the user id provided by the hospital. It will give them a brief about their health condition and mention daily tips to improve it.
The doctors can keep track of their patients whether they are following all the directions or not. You can integrate specific alert alarms when the patient misses their medicine time or a check-up video call with the doctor.
These things show that hospitals care about the patients’ health and aim to provide faster recovery. This, in turn, increases customer loyalty.

7. Self-promote your hospital

If you provide some extraordinary features like the ones mentioned above, there is no way that your patient won’t be happy with your services. They will speak good things about your hospital and improve its brand value in the market.
Customers’ testimonials are the best way to gain trust in the audience. Your app should contain a column where the patients can give their valuable feedback. It will help you identify any shortcomings and give you a direction where people are facing problems. Genuine, constructive comments are as important as any good feedback.

8. Educate people to reduce unnecessary pressure on the hospital

A hospital is a very crowded place but is mostly filled with hyper-active patients who reach the hospital now and then due to a lack of minimum education about their health.
Your health app can mention some common diseases with their symptoms so that a person can understand whether to reach the hospital or not.
It will eventually reduce pressure on the hospitals and allow doctors to focus on patients that require immediate medical assistance. You should keep updating your app to educate more and more people about multiple health problems.

Case Study of some successful Mobile Health apps in the market

1. Aetna, iTriage

iTriage is launched by Aetna – a health insurance company. It helps patients find detailed information about their health conditions and therefore gives them a step-by-step guide on how they can treat it efficiently. iTriage identifies health complications at an early age and tells when to visit a doctor.

2. Cerner, CareAware Connect

It is an application that allows proper communication between clinical staff and ensures that all the relevant information reaches the right person in the shortest time.
The device contains multiple functionalities like staff assignment, on-call schedules, nurse calls, automated health records, secure messaging, and voice communication.
The website claims that CareAware Connect reduced nurse walking steps by 50%, hence allowing them to take better care of the patients rather than running to find the doctor.

3. Patients Safe, Patient Touch System

Patient Safe helps clinical staff to enable smooth communication between their team members. It allows patients’ information to be sent to the doctor through the texting platform. Along with this, there are various features like SMS paging, nurse alerts, voice calls, and lab results.
For enterprises, it becomes easy to transfer roles and integrate user information with Active Directory (AD).

4. Epocrates

Epocrates is a great application for the normal public to get clinical support and maintain a strong virtual relation with physicians. It provides detailed information about most of the diseases along with some instant treatments you can give to the patient.
The application also offers a list of alternative medicine a patient can intake in the unavailability of the prescribed one. Epocrates has been used by over a million people and all its content is made by experts.

5. Isabel

Isabel is mostly used by doctors to match symptoms with diseases. The website claims to provide 96% of accurate matching and contains information about 4000 causative drugs and over 6000 diseases.
Isabel is continuously updated to include the latest diseases, which will help doctors get the perfect match.

Conclusion
Mobile health or mHealth apps have become very popular among people as everyone has now started to recognize the importance of keeping themselves healthy.
So, having an app allows you to adopt new technology that will result in reducing unnecessary crowds and enhance your hospital’s efficiency, management, workflow, as well as customer loyalty.
​​Contact the App-Scoop Vancouver Mobile App Developers for further details.