App-Scoop

“Imagine if the line between the virtual and the real simply didn’t exist.
Your classroom could become the cosmos.
The past could be as vivid as the present.
And the familiar could look like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
Source: https://www.apple.com/in/ios/augmented-reality/
 
The expectation from the tech world has increased rapidly in the past few years. The millennial users want to experience the world by living within four walls. They want an experience that could get them to the edge of the seat while playing a game or take them into virtual worlds.

ARKit

Apple has recently released iOS 11 that gives the user the experience of augmented reality. Apple’s SDK – ARKit has moved beyond simple 2D camera overlays and moved on to 3D images that uses visual inertial odometry.
What does visual odometry do? It estimates the position of a moving camera in three dimensions relative to its starting position, i.e. it tracks a bunch of interest points (corner-like pixels in an image) across images in a video and uses 3D projective geometry to estimate their relative positions.
It is said that ARKit could give Google a run for their money and take Apple to the next level when it comes to giving the user an augmented reality experience on their phone. 

ARKit Features

Let’s take a look at the features that ARKit offers that are beneficial to the app developers:

• Used to improve individual elements of existing AR apps
• Used to scale objects
• Does not use the phone’s CPU (which means that it does not make the functions of the phone slow)
• Wider number of developers can track capabilities of iPhones and iPads
• Reduces development time
• Apple’s new machine learning framework can also help identify objects in a screen
• Apple’s advantage with ARKit is that it works with iOS, which has a less fragmented ecosystem than Android, as Apple controls both the hardware and software for all its devices. Post release of ARKit, independent software developers created incredible-looking experiences for the iPhone.

iOS Device that Works with ARKit
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iPhone

• iPhone XSiPhone ten s
• iPhone XS MaxiPhone ten s Max
• iPhone XRiPhone ten r
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone SE

iPad

• iPad Pro (all models)
• iPad (6th generation)
• iPad (5th generation)

Examples of ARKit App
There are various groups which make popular use of the ARKit app. Right from apps used for editing images, gaming apps, lifestyle/home décor apps, etc.
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Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly talked about groups, the augmented appearance application:
 
“Mirror mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?”
-Snow White (Fairytale, 19th Century)
As much as we would hate to admit it, we live in the ‘selfie’ age where pictures are not only taken and uploaded but are heavily filtered/edited as well. AR offers “lenses” or a variety of filters which can be added to the images. With the help of apps, we can alter the following:

• Add Stickers to our images
• Alter looks by using filters or stickers
• Change our appearance (skin colour, eye colour, make-up, hair colour, etc)
• Create an illusion of wearing make-up

Hence, it is no surprise when market leaders like ModiFace offer ARKit apps for the beauty industry along with something known as the “magic mirror” software. 

Practically everything can be done virtually nowadays. Thanks to the ARKit Apps, popular make-up brands, like Sephora, have caved into the benefits of technology; you no longer need to visit the store physically. You just need to take a selfie and then try on all the makeup that you wish to with just a click or a swipe!
Not only does this save your time but there is also no tedious clean-up involved before trying on different shades. This not only makes it beneficial for the brand where they save up on testers and makeup representatives but also the consumer (you) who can try endless numbers of combination and colours and be spoilt for choice.
The latest rendering of the augmented reality is seen in Apples latest creation of an app which takes a 3D photo. Virtual objects are in the background i.e. 2D camera image and the virtual content is made to appear as a 3D object.

Real-Estate and Home Décor Applications:

Everyone likes to make changes to their home now and again. Whether you are setting up a home for the first time, or its time to refurbish, you always know how you want your ideal home to look. But that’s not necessarily how things end up looking! For example, the couch looked perfect in the store, but at home it looks dull and much too big/small for the space or does not match with the rest of the furniture.
Real-estate, home design and décor apps help buyers see exactly how the products would look in their home. They can also re-design the entire look with just a few swipes and click.

Let’s take a look at some real-estate and home décor apps which use ARKit apps:

• TapMeasure uses augmented reality apps to be able to create 3D models with the room builder feature. Since this app can measure your interior space, the models created are exactly to the point. It also allows you to share your work via a simple url.

 

• PLNAR gives some useful tools for creating building plans. These tools can benefit home owners, as well as interior designers. This app measures the room, lets you mark doorways, flat surfaces and measure the distance and objects. Using these AR features makes it simple to customize projects and share the same with home owners, as well as designers.

 

• Housecraft is another app which helps customize projects and redesign homes digitally before actually making any changes. Using the ARKit features, it allows for fully rendered 3D models to be created with the help of convenient tools.

 

• IKEA has also created an ARKit app known as Ikea Place, which shows you how their furniture would look in your home. This app not only scans the room but also shares ideas about what Ikea furniture would be best for your home.

 

• Other companies like Mongoli Market, Overstock, and Houzz App have also created more AR experiences which show how their products would look in your home. You also have extensive design samples which can help you redesign your own home. It is a digital market place that shows you 3D models of what you can expect.

Educational Applications:

Everything is now digital, virtual or online. We now have new learning apps which help give you knowledge regarding everything from languages to even technical know-hows.
ARKit apps have gained popularity in making practical lessons which complement each other and aid as a teaching and educational tool. A wide range of subjects are covered by these apps like anatomy to math to language to coding in Swift. Thanks to the tools available via these apps, children as well as adults can learn about the world around us with a swipe.

Technical Design Skills with the Help of ARKit Apps

SketchAR – this app helps artists as the name suggests to practice their skills. It helps artists draw their pictures and also provides a library with various images of nature, wild life, food, etc.

Astronomy with ARKit Apps

• SkyORB:  For all the astronomy enthusiasts out there, this app has a 3D star map, planetarium and sun clock. The AR tools (with the help of GPS) allow users to get the names of stars and planets just by pointing to them. An added benefit is that it also alerts the observers for any astronomical events worth seeing such as, an eclipse.

 

• Augmented Reality Solar System App: This app focuses on the planets in our solar system, their distance from each other and their orbit radius on a realistic scale.

Conclusion
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If you are not an Apple user fear not on missing out the experience of an augmented reality app. Just like ARKit, ARCore software development kit has been previewed by Google. ARCore also adds the same functions of augmented reality to Android phones.  Currently, it works on Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel and soon will also be available to Android 7.0 Nougat users.
If you wish to know more about augmented reality, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html. 

Our economy today is made up of more multinational companies than ever before. However, due to the unsettled economic times facing us, one of the fundamental problems for a company has been how to sustain itself and grow. Most companies struggle with this i.e. how to ensure low production costs and high quality products and profits. 

Have you been mulling about outsourcing your company operations to other business providers? Usually this is very beneficial as it reduces the long term investment in infrastructure, thus reducing costs. However, it is very important to ensure strategic relationships are set up keeping in mind the state of affairs of both parent and partner companies. According to Forbes, there are approximately 300,000 jobs outsourced by the United States each year.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/07/17/the-pros-and-cons-of-outsourcing-and-the-effect-on-company-culture/#43effa7b562d

​Company executives and CEOs are sometimes under the impression that purely outsourcing the business to a company makes the business function the outsource providers responsibility. This is not entirely true. In order to form a successful outsource partnership, a thorough analysis is required of both parent and partner companies. If this is not done, the result can be disastrous.
In an unsuccessful alliance, depending on the function or functions being outsourced, companies can lose clients, good employees, as well as profits. Operations like production, accounting, HR, admin and sometimes even core operations can be outsourced. Companies like Apple, Nike, Wal-Mart, IBM, etc are some of the biggest outsourcing companies. A number of factors are looked at while outsourcing like a company’s goals, duration of alliance, clear details of decision making power (which company is in charge), companies culture, etc.

What is Organization Culture?

An organizations culture is made up of the following:

• Core values
• Beliefs
• Principles

This framework helps guides how an employee would act or react to any given incident at work. It is seen not only in social interactions but also business interactions between employees. It defines what is appropriate and acceptable i.e. it is learned behavior.

Importance of Culture

Every individual and company has its own culture. Some of the latest hiring techniques also make recruiters look at employees as being a cultural fit apart from other qualifying factors. Yet culture is often neglected or not given due diligence when it comes to outsourcing. In a lot of cases culture is the missing link between a successful and failed partnership.
Your employee’s behaviour affects every aspect of your business. Culture is the framework which guides your company or an individual’s behavior. It impacts happiness of your employees which in turn affects productivity. Ultimately it is your organization’s culture that dictates how your employees would work together.
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Culture and Outsourcing
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An employee’s behaviour is strongly influenced by culture, since “behavioural competence stems from our own individual attitudes and experiences.”
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309650396_Culture_and_the_Impact_on_Customer_Service_Considerations_for_Offshoring_to_India

While outsourcing, employees from different backgrounds get to work together. Usually the outsourcing takes place with company’s located in different countries. In such scenarios, the cultural differences play a pivotal role and can lead to misunderstandings and undesired results. Most executives do not understand that outsourcing is usually an alliance and a partnership, where both parties need to acknowledge and be aware of each other’s work, expectations and most importantly culture. 
It is safe to say that employees work best when they understand who they are working with and working for. While working with people from different organizations or countries they have to look at various aspects like:

1. Time difference
2. Difference in troubleshooting
3. Communication
4. Company goals (are they the same or different?)

For instance, either the companies might want a successful partnership or one company would want to increase profits while the other only wants to minimize costs.

1. Cultural similarities and differences

Pros and Cons of Choosing Companies with Similar Culture

Pros:

• When a parent company and partner company have similar cultures, it becomes easier to avoid issues.
• Interactions go a lot smoother as usually everyone is on the same page.
• Not many variables need to be monitored in this scenario. Communication styles are also similar. Training required in these cases would be minimal.

Cons

• A lot of issues can get over looked and lead to future problems.
• Executives do not look too closely to verify details as they assume they would be the same again jeopardizing the collaboration and work which needs to be done.

Pros and Cons of Choosing Companies with Different Culture

Pros:

• When a company is aware about the differences in their partners work ethos, they pay more attention to detail.
• This would help ensure less issues cropping up in the future. Interactions are a lot smoother because each side pays attention to how the other side behaves. Especially when applied to the global scenario.

Cons:

• If the company is extremely different from the parent company, it could lead to a lot of misunderstandings and friction.
• The time taken to understand the differences would lead to a delay in expected results. This is because executives would have to look at even minute details and wait to collect all data to avoid overlooking any critical factors. It is not possible to assume the details have been understood. These delays could lead to an increase in unforeseen costs.

Finding the Right Partners

While looking at outsourcing business, be it a small fraction/tactical support or a core business need, it is important to find the right partner! Companies have to keep in mind that these agreements are with partners and not vendors. The rise in outsourcing has also given rise to companies who help form alliances based on customised requirements.
An outsource service provider will always look at minute details of business required, as well as cultural fit when it comes to creating a partnership. This will ensure a smooth transition and help both companies understand the requirements and differences in culture.
This helps tremendously when the company is outsourcing to an offshore account where the possibilities of cultural differences is very high, thus, reducing time and cost needed during the initial phases.

To Sum It All Up

Since outsourcing means you are extending your company, a cultural fit is important. We have also seen the important role played by culture in a company and its employee’s growth. The informal culture is lot more telling in such scenarios. Communication styles play a huge role here as executives have to work with the partners.
For example, if the informal culture of a company rewards secrecy and division in the team, then assuming they encourage openness and teamwork would be a huge error. This can lead to a lot of future problems down the road. Also, people would only be working with selectively passed on information leading to errors and misgivings.
Since corporate culture has a direct impact on your business outcome, it is imperative to look at the prevailing cultures in both companies before partnering them. This not only makes the entire operation cost effective and productive but also helps in ensuring a successful outsourcing relationship.
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If you need to know how to make the right decision to outsource, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html.

Technology in Real Estate

Real estate is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and technology is helping its growth rate. In 2017, more than $5bn was invested in real estate technology (Forbes). This significant increase in investment was majorly driven by the use of technology in the industry, allowing apps like Airbnb to compete with some of the largest and most established real-estate companies and hotels. Now, the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) is also helping improve an average homeowners experience.

Augmented Reality in Real Estate
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The advantage of using AR is that information that is traditionally visualized in 2D can now be depicted in 3D for any user with a fair amount of intractability.
 
The first area AR can help in is finding actual listings for real-estate properties. Commercial Real Estate built an app that allows users to overlay listings for properties onto their camera, so they can see which properties are available in a crowded area such as downtown quite easily

​Another use case is to allow home builders to place and navigate through 3D models of houses. Users can find a potential place to build a house and overlay the 3D model of the house in that location to see how it would look. Then, the house can be increased in size, and the user can walk through it to see how it would look like from the inside. 

​A third use is for current homeowners who are looking to see how they can modify their house. The IKEA place app allows people to place 3D models of furniture in their house and scale it to their liking. This will allow them to see how furniture looks before they purchase it. 

Overall, while AR is still in its infancy, the AR market is expected to increase to $100bn by 2021, providing it will have a large impact in the real estate industry (PropertyMe).

Virtual Reality in Real Estate

Normally, real estate agents provide a lengthy list of properties to the client. Afterward come explanations, negotiations, and finally the real-life visits to houses and apartments. This workflow has remained the same for decades, but it’s inconvenient and time-consuming not only for realtors but for homebuyers as well.

VR is a game changer in this industry. The power of VR technology can help real estate agents grow their business, get more clients, and deliver top-level services. It’s particularly important to adopt this new technology today when 95% of clients search for properties on the internet (RubyGarage).
 
The first way VR can be used is for a virtual property showcase. There are guided visits using 360 cameras where the user can walk through a set tour of the house and look around using a VR headset. There are also interactive tours where a model of the house is uploaded in VR and the user can walk wherever they would like to and see any parts of the house. This is a new and efficient way to show properties. 

​The next case would be to help with virtual staging. Most new properties have little to no furniture, and renting furniture to stage can be quite expensive, and often does not appeal to everyone. Virtual staging allows an empty house to look appealing as virtual models of furniture are staged into the house, providing a full experience of a furnished house. Not only is this significantly faster and cheaper, it also adds a touch of personalization to the house. 

VR can also be used for Architectural Visualization. Marketing a property that isn’t constructed yet has always been a challenge for real estate developers and agents. Most companies build large 3D models of the property, but it is often tough to gauge how it will look when it is build. For the interiors, real estate agents create large showrooms with full-scale models of apartments. Needless to say, these marketing methods require considerable investment. Virtual reality can effectively solve this problem and allow potential homebuyers to carefully check out both the exterior and interior of future properties.
 
Thanks to VR, architectural visualization has become much cheaper and a lot more immersive. Real estate agents can use VR technology to show both the exterior and interior of properties that aren’t built yet so that clients can get a clear look at what’s being offered.
VR and AR also provide the opportunity to up and cross sell.
For example, let’s say a homebuyer is taking a 3D real estate tour but wants to make changes to the interior. They could go to an online store, choose a different piece of furniture, and add it to their three-dimensional tour. By making these changes, they can style a property according to their preferences.

Moreover, even if clients make no changes to the interior of a property, they might be interested in buying pieces of furniture, curtains, and other items that are showcased in the virtual tour. In this case, they can immediately visit a virtual store and order them.

Key Benefits

Saves Time

Most people who buy homes like to look at multiple properties and are usually busy with other items as well. AR and VR saves time for both clients and realtors. Thanks to them, there’s no need to travel from one property to another and sit in traffic jams. Instead, clients can simply put on headsets or devices and enjoy immersive tours of the house. For real estate managers, they do not need to physically be at the property any more. They can work from their office where clients come in to view multiple properties virtually.
 
Builds Personal Connections

Virtual tours of houses and apartments help your clients visualize each property. Traditional tours often have other buyers and generic furniture, making it difficult to emotionally see yourself in the house. AR and VR allow the house to be completely customized from inside and out and seen from all angles, ensuring the buyer is connected to the product.
 
Saves Money
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Developing feature-rich 3D virtual tours may seem expensive but think of the investment in traditional real estate marketing. Not only do agents need to stage properties, they also need to provide photos of the property and a lot of print material like brochures and posters.
 
Conclusion

VR/AR technology has already started to transform the real estate industry. However, it has not been adopted by majority of companies yet. More real estate companies are likely to use the benefits of VR/AR to make their work more efficient in the near future.
 
The simplest forms of virtual home tours are accessible to any realtor. As for more immersive and sophisticated AR experiences, there are lots of companies that can help real estate agents create them. These technologies will play a large part in the future of the industry, and it is best to invest in them now.
 

The most important check before rolling out a product in the market is testing the quality of the product. Testing the capabilities and functionalities of the product help us understand its performance, scalability and maintenance before launching it in the market. The different levels of testing the software helps us reduce the bugs before releasing the product.
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So how do you go about testing a product? The best way to do that is by testing functionalities individually, i.e. unit testing. Let’s understand what unit testing is, why it is necessary and its benefits. 

Unit Testing
Unit testing involves testing the smallest piece of codes (functions) individually. For instance, a unit can be a class, a line of code or a method. If you want to test your code performance, the best way is to check smaller units. Also, the smaller the units, the faster you can run your tests. If you do find any defects while testing a unit, it is easy to locate and also easy to fix.
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Steps Post Unit Testing
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Post testing all the units, the second step is integration testing. This test is done after integrating these units together – this is to check if each isolated unit works as expected when integrated. These tests validate complex scenarios and hence, they require web servers and databases to be tested.
The next step is system checking. This is to check if all the integrated units are working together flawlessly. System checks are done in real-life environment keeping real life situations in mind. Functional, technical and business requirements are verified during this process.
The last step is acceptance testing. By applying predefined test scenarios and test cases, the quality assurance team tests the application. This will help you determine if the system complies with the business requirement.

Necessity of Unit Testing
So, why is unit testing necessary?

• Your web application is a bunch of small units working together.
• Each small piece of code depends on the other small pieces.
• If you change one unit, something else can break as a consequence.
• Unit tests can automatically detect problematic parts of your code so you know where the problem is and how to rectify the behaviour.

Unit Testing Methods
There are three phases of unit testing method that help to verify the small pieces of the test application are: AAA. This acronym stands for Arrange, Act and Assert.

• Arranging the test for a particular piece of application, which is also called system under test.
• The act of performing the actual testing, i.e. interacting with the system under test.
• Observing the results in the behaviour of the software and asserting if the expectations have been met.

After the phases of unit testing, if the resulting behaviour is in line with the expectations, the unit test is marked as passed; and if not then the system needs to be fixed.
Now, that we’ve determined the necessity of unit testing, let’s understand the benefits of unit testing.
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Benefits of Unit Testing
There are a lot of arguments in the market that unit testing is not essentially, as automatic testing can detect errors in the system. But that’s not true! Automatic testing is mainly useful to check complex commands of the system. It doesn’t really check the quality of the smaller components in the system which can get problematic after the release of the product. So how does unit testing help?

Early Bug Fixing

Unit tests help you to find bugs before the product is sent for the system testing stage. This helps the developers to fix the problem at an early stage and it also saves the cost of debugging at a later stage or after the release of the product. The location of the failure and debugging the code becomes easy, once unit tests become a part of the continuous integration process.

Easy Refactoring if Code Changes

When the developer needs to change the working code without changing the way the app behaves, it is called refactoring. When the code based becomes larger, it becomes important to refactor the code. While unit testing, you get immediate feedback when you break the code making it easy to refactor it safely.

Useful Documentation

Unit tests are a working example to how to use a library and hence, they are like a working documentation of the code. They become a useful form of documentation as the history shows the programmers what the code was being used for initially. Unit testing also makes it easy for developers to work with the team or handover a project to another developer (this is possible only if the developers know how to write unit tests clearly and document them.

Enhance the Quality of Code

By identifying the defects in the code before the integration testing stage helps improve the quality of the code. Hence, writing the tests before coding makes you think harder on the problem which in turn helps you write better code by exposing the edge cases.

Create Better Design
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Writing the test in the beginning makes you think through your design and what it might accomplish before you write the code. It helps you keep focus and create better designs. If you are able to define the responsibility of the code while testing it, then it is considered to be well-defined and hence, has high cohesion.

Automation Frameworks for Unit Testing

Developers use unit testing frameworks to write unit tests quickly and easily since most programming languages don’t support unit testing with the built-in compiler. There are different frameworks to deal with unit testing.

• Jasmine is a behaviour-driven development framework for testing JavaScript code. It’s generally used for websites, Node.js projects, or anywhere that JavaScript is used. Jasmine doesn’t rely on browsers and JavaScript frameworks. The main benefit of Jasmine is that it’s browser, framework, and platform independent.

 

• Jest was built by Facebook and based on Jasmine. It’s used by Instagram, Airbnb, Facebook, and many other companies. It is known for its speed and simplicity and the fact that it makes the whole test suite run fasts as it runs tests simultaneously.

 

• Mocha is a feature-rich JavaScript testing framework that runs on Node.js and a browser. Mocha can be used with Chai assertion library, which works well for JavaScript code used for data models, business logic and utilities.

 

• RSpec is a BDD library for testing Ruby code. With RSpec, you can test an entire application’s behaviour rather than only specific methods. When writing your code in RSpec, you create highly readable blocks of code that can be useful documentation if done right. The simplicity of the RSpec syntax makes it one of the most popular testing tools for Ruby applications.

 
This determines that unit testing is the path to excellence before releasing the product. Unit tests help your product perform better and write clean codes that can be used for documentation purposes. If you wish to further inquire about unit testing for web applications, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html
 

There are various product ideas that can be developed to create a mobile app. After going through a plethora of ideas, the next step is to choose a mobile product idea that can define the vision of the next promising mobile app that you wish to launch in the market.
The first step towards creating a successful mobile app is to create a Product Requirements Document (PRD). This document contains a detailed project management plan stating the logic behind creating the app, the technical requirements and the responsibilities of stakeholders at each stage.

This is essential to avoid scope creep – that is the tendency for projects to go above and beyond its set limitations in terms of functionality, project duration, etc. In the initial stages of planning a PRD everything might seem like a haze but it will definitely help you think about all the aspects about the product. 
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Let’s take a look at a few requirements that will help you manage scope creep from taking over your project:

​Managing Business Requirements Constraints

While creating the business app, it is important to understand the organizational objective that you are trying to reach with the app. The main purpose of this app should be to solve the issues faced by the end user.
For instance, is your mobile app going to use a backend system from another application or is the app going to be coded from scratch. If the mobile app is going to introduce a completely new process, then you need to consider:

• The timeframe of the project
• The number of features that need to be added
• The resources required to complete the project on time

Here, the Product Requirements Document will help you gain more insight on what is feasible and what is not.

“De-scope” Your App
The only reasons that you would need to ‘de-scope’ your app would be:

New Idea/Untested Market: Making an app that is absolutely new to the market means that you need to go slow and get as much feedback and user data as possible. For example, when Uber launched it was a fairly simple app that allowed the user to book a cab over the phone. Over time new features like ‘Rentals’ and ‘Out station’ (fairly recent) were introduced in the app.

Meeting Deadlines: If you have a deadline that you can’t miss, you need to limit your app instead of overloading it with features that are faulty. Features that have bugs have more of a downside than not offering the feature at all.

Budget: Budgeting plays a huge role in designing an app. You don’t want to overshoot the budget and land in a soup, would you? Hence, scoping intelligently and improving it step-by-step would ensure that you don’t overstep your budget.

Managing Technical Requirements Constraints
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The next decision that you need to make is to make a strategic choice about the technical requirements – that is choose the platform, hosting and the backend design. The backend design of the mobile app is one of the most important factors as that is the backbone of the functionality of your mobile app.
The architecture of the mobile app is a blueprint for the entire system – a solid architecture should be able to have space for accommodating changes and user feedback if necessary. If you have created condusive mobile app architecture then it becomes easier to manage if there is a scope creep.

Making the Right Product Decisions
While creating an initial design plan for the mobile app, you must ensure that the core features of the app are not confined and compromised on while building the app. The team must sit together and ensure that there is minimal compromise.
Therefore, this process is all about making decisions to work towards a realistic and attainable goal of building a product that has a defined project scope, timeline and cost. There are a set of questions that we can put down before moving forward.

Duration of the Project
The date for the roll out of the project is important as this helps us to curb on the scope creep. We must determine the time it will take to build the features for the app, and thereby decide the duration of the project.

Reason to Build the App
As mentioned before, we need to determine the reason for building the app. We need to determine the features that are of utmost importance to building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

App Alternatives
We need to find out if the same type of app is available in the market. Then we need to fish out that one core feature that differentiates our app and highlight that to the user base.
Also, we need to determine if there is an alternative way to make the app features that would take less time and deliver the user experience that we wish.

Get to Market Quicker with a Product Requirements Document
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A Product Requirements Document helps you manage the following:

• Costly product decisions
• Initial planning stages of development with a PRD protects your product from inflating beyond your project constraints
• Achieves a quicker time to market
• Compromise is inevitable, but with clear requirements on paper, the decision-making process is simplified

In the end, it all boils down to delivering a high quality application adds value to users, meets your objectives and that aligns with the budget and timeline kept in mind. Ensuring that you scope the project intelligently with logical milestones based on user feedback will help your application excel and widely used.
If you wish to get more information on balancing product ideas and avoiding scope creep, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html

​In the early days, mobile development was focussed on either creating a mobile website that adapted to different mobile devices or by creating a native application using the tools available on iOS or Android or other mobile options. In the earlier times, native apps used programs such as Objective C for iOS, Java for Android, or C# for Windows Phone. Now, hybrid apps are developed using web technology such as JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS for mobile websites. 

Even though there are several factors that impact the cost of the app – the technology that the app is based on makes the most impact as it decides the:

• Platform
• Back-end services
• Type of app development firm
• After development costs

Let’s take a look at the development costs for both, native and hybrid apps along with their advantages and disadvantages.
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Native App Developments

As of 2018, there are an estimated 6.5 million apps available for download in the world’s leading app stores.

• 58% – Google Play Store
• 30% – the App Store
• 10% – the Windows Store

Source: Statistica
Native apps are known for their speed and responsiveness which make them interactive, intuitive and offer a better overall user experience.
Native could get expensive while developing because you will need to use two platforms (iOS and Android) and use different codebases for both. But these are easier to maintain because you are not depending on a cross platform tool such as Xamarin or Cordova – this also means fewer bugs and less post maintenance cost.

Native App Advantages

• Ace performance and apps are fast
• Better configured
• Better access to device features
• Most hardware features and services are directly accessible via well-documented API’s
• Easy to collect data from internal hardware as well as provide differing features based on what hardware and services are available
• Great tools for development and debugging – the native IDE’s (whether XCode, Android Studio, Eclipse, or Visual Studio) offer powerful tools for debugging, profiling, and quick access to documentation directly inside the IDE
• Compiled code, which forces a developer to write terser, generally better code than what might be acceptable in an interpreted language like JavaScript

Native App Disadvantages

• Cost of development increases as they need to be coded on two different platforms
• Need specific developer skills to write codes
• Objective C / Swift, Java, and C# and all of the accompanying knowledge of both IDE’s and API’s makes developing these types of applications nontrivial for those who don’t have much past experience with them
• App development time increases since you need to find different developers or one developer who knows how to code on both platforms
• Requires that you focus on one platform at a time or have many programmers available to develop each app in parallel

​Hybrid Apps

Hybrid app development can essentially do everything HTML5 does, except it also incorporates native app features. A wrapper acts as a bridge between platforms to access the native features. A hybrid app consists of two parts:

• Back-end code built using languages such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript
• Native shell that is downloadable and loads the code using Webview.

Developing only one app across all platforms makes it a cheaper option plus, you can roll it out in the market quicker. One of the issues you face is that you cannot customise the app and if you do then the cost of development becomes more expensive than a native app.
Hybrid apps are slower in comparison because they access the hardware through a bridge which could disappoint the user.

​Hybrid App Advantages
There are many appealing advantages to hybrid app development. You can target a huge number of potential users with one code base that is shared between your website and your app.
This also means most of the code can be written by web developers rather than dedicated mobile developers—which means this is often one of your cheapest options for developing an app.
Most of the tools necessary for hybrid development are also open source and free. Also, one shared code base means that your code is easier to maintain, and you can quickly prototype for many platforms at once.

​Hybrid App Disadvantages

• Look and feel of the app will be consistent among all platforms
• Apps might not look like pure Android or iOS app as they are not made for that particular platform. They will not perform as well as native apps.
• Do not have good documentation
• Post development cost is higher

Conclusion
While deciding which type of app you wish to make, you need to keep in mind your user base and their demands. There are upsides and downsides of developments costs for hybrid and native apps. Native apps are costlier for early development whereas, hybrid apps have more post maintenance cost. Here are different scenarios for building apps in hybrid or native:
Hybrid Apps:

• For limited budget, hybrid app may be a better choice.
• If there is a need to quickly develop the app, hybrid app is a better choice.
• If the app is simple, does not have large animations, does not have lots of clicks and does not require lots of native user interaction, hybrid will be a better choice.

Native Apps:

• If the requirement is to create the best user experience, native development is a better choice.
• For companies with sufficient allocated budget that are planning to build and maintain large app projects and do not want to worry about limitations for implementing new technologies and support, native is a better choice.

If you need more information on native or hybrid applications, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html

​​Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made a path breaking entry into the technological world. Not only is it trying to make lives for humans easier, it is also trying to revolutionize the tech industry. AI has been around us for a long time but it is just recently that people have started incorporating them in all types of technological equipments. One of the most popular AI in the olden times and even now is the answering machine. Whereas, new AI technology includes Alexa, the Smart TV, the refrigerator, the AC, etc. 

It is safe to say that Artificial Intelligence has made a mark in the field of marketing and on marketers. For most companies, there has been a drastic progress in the way that AI is used for marketing apps.
Let’s take a look at how we can use AI to improve marketplace apps.

Chatbots

Chatbots are computer generated messages to solve customer issues on a website. They are used for customer service, i.e. to analyse their queries, needs and preferences. Chatbots are programmed to gather knowledge from customers and put them together to determine patterns and issues that are faced by them.
Most businesses realise customer feedback is what help makes their apps better and more user friendly. Hence, chatbots are great way to derive data straight from the horse’s mouth.

Finding Quality Leads
Potential leads are the key for any marketer to make new deals or to enter a new market. It would take a person ages to aggregate this data manually, and even if done, the statistics would change with every passing day. But with the help of AI, the system can keep producing live data of new markets emerging and potential buyers for a particular product.
This type of data is gathered by computers through social media channels and CRM. Advanced systems like Node and Einstein can gather potential data and CRM details respectively and use them as strategies to close a potential marketing deal. For instance, a clothing e-commerce app can target customers of a certain age group or a geographical area to market their product.

Data-driven Forecasting
Gathering sensitive data can make or break a company. Using traditional tools to gather data might lead to finding inconsistent or wrong data. Instead, opting for AI allows you to filter a huge amount of data and make you aware of current statistics and market needs for your product.
This can also save a lot of human effort which in turn can be used to make an effective marketing strategy instead. Numbers, data and facts are influxes of data that come from various sources and the AI technology can convert it into useful information that can be used in marketplace apps for potential sales.
​
Advertising
Did you know that every time a marketing agency buys Google AdWords they are doing that with the help of AI? Automated buying and selling of advertisement inventory goes through the AI technology which basically constitutes the whole process of programmatic advertising.
AI can be used to understand the market space and understand new potential advertising channels that otherwise would remain undisclosed to the market. It helps you to optimise targeting. For instance, if your app sells travel bags, you can advertise your content on any site that has to do with travel. This will help you find your target audience and open new avenues never thought before. 

Personalising Marketing
Getting a generalised email that is sent to thousands of other customers would annoy the customers, let alone read them. With the advent of AI, these emails can be personalised with the person’s name and other information gathered through AI data systems.
Artificial Intelligence allows the marketers to target potential buyers on the basis of their search words and recent searches. Marketing automation can be greatly improved by predictive analysis, semantic analysis and cognitive filtering.

Inventory Management and Sales Forecasting 
Creating milestones and targets in a meeting is easy to do, but what data is it based on? AI can help you calculate and forecast more appropriately the sales of a particular product. This information is based on:

• Identifying the most and least popular products during an exact period of time 
• Suggesting products that can be successfully promoted on a given date
• Predicting how upcoming sports and cultural events impact sales
• Calculating probability of a purchase to give short-term views on turnover

This information is based on historical data about past purchases on the application which helps the sales and marketing departments to drive to conclusions.

Curbing Fake Reviews
Customer reviews play a huge role in affecting the sales of a particular product. Sometimes a product that is not as good has been given 5-star ratings, whereas, a better product is rated poorly. This happens due to fake reviews given by peers or other marketing agencies. AI is capable of analysing large volumes of user-generated content by learning algorithms to analyse reviews and weed out the fake ones from the real ones.
For instance, in 2015 Amazon changed their rating system. They ensured that the rating system is an aggregate of all the reviews about a particular product. Hence, a single negative review can change the rating of the product. AI also makes sure that these users are verified for authenticity which brings reliable reviews in the front.

Wrapping It Up
Artificial Intelligence is a great technology to improve marketplace applications. They are based on actual data that is aggregated through the customer interaction, decision empowering data, predicting recommendations and providing unique customized experience to each and every client.
If you wish to get more information on integrating AI technology in your marketplace app, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html
 

​The banking industry has grown leaps and bounds in terms of making their services digitally available. This not only makes the banking process efficient but also very convenient for their customers. Along with all these benefits, there are also times when the banks face threats such as online banking fraud. But due to the increased demand in mobile apps for banking facilities, there are ways in which mobile apps are being more flexible and proactive in their customer’s life.  

Digitalized banking services are no longer an option but an essential function of the bank. It is a revenue generator, cost saver and a productive play. Let’s take a look at how the rise of mobile banking is shaping the banking industry.

Rise of Mobile Banking in Canada
​
Mobile banking started a long time ago, but the customers started to use mobile banking gradually. For instance, in Canada except their financial providers to deliver the customer experience value at the same time as other mobile app services. Even though their expectations are really high, all the banks are trying their best to satisfy their customers by offering the bank’s digital experience.
Let’s take a look at the statistics of mobile banking users in Canada; as per the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA):

• 398 million mobile banking transactions were recorded in the top six Canadian banks in 2017.
• 90% of Canadians believe that digital banking or mobile banking is more convenient and efficient.
• There is a 26% rise in mobile banking in Canada.
• 17% of customers claim to be ‘digital-only’ customers, i.e. they do not visit the branch in person at all.

Source: https://www.cba.ca/fast-facts-the-canadian-banking-system
Some more statistics offered by the Canadian retail bank are as follows:

​Advantages of Mobile Banking

Mobile Payments are more important than ever. The number of banking app transactions is going up by 57% with more than 30 customer transactions every second.
There are more tasks performed by customers with time. They now have access to savings, credit cards and mortgage/investment accounts.
The number of times the customer visits the bank branches have reduced to almost half since the rise of mobile banking services.

Setbacks of Mobile Banking
​
One of the greatest setbacks of mobile banking is the security breach. Customers who wish to adopt mobile banking are a little wary because a breach in data or software could lead to a leak of their financial data in the wrong hands. Due to this reason, many customers do not find safe inputting their bank details on their smartphones.
This setback is being handled by all banks. They are ensuring that the best security system has been updated. They are vigilant about their customer’s account 24*7. They have invested more than 80 million dollars towards security systems.
Aside from the security setback, the customers should be able to access their bank details on various platforms, i.e. the iOS, Android and Microsoft. This will give mobile banking true flexibility and deliver optimum customer experience.
Further, mobile banking has to keep in trend of the different digital innovations and platforms. One of them includes, Blockchain. 
Even though customers are able to check their account balances, book FDs, perform transfers, receive notification, etc., mobile banking needs to create a more hyper personalised customer journeys. 

​
Ways to Improve Mobile Banking
Banks need to constantly come up with mobile banking strategies to promote it and encourage customers to use it. They need to level with the current trends, and step up the game or they will be lost in the current market competition.

Plan the future: Now that most of the banking systems have invested in security, it is time that they look into the future of banking. They need to look at a long term vision and embrace new technologies and platforms like Blockchain and integrate them in mobile banking.

Customer-focused solutions: FinTech start-ups are successful because they find the customer’s pain point and eliminate it. The ‘digital customers’ expect the bank to stay in sync with the current trends and continue to evolve with the growing market. The key to customer-focus solutions is personalization, i.e. targeting offerings.

Partnering and Collaborating: If Banks needs to keep in line with the technological advances in the market, they need to rethink their processes, partnership and collaboration. Keeping mutually beneficial partnerships and other forms of investment with FinTech companies could be largely beneficial for mobile banking.
The best strategy that they can adopt is to partner with experts in the mobile app development space to help transform organizational thinking and get products to market as internal operations transition.

A few key points to keep in mind are:

• Addressing customers’ financial needs rather than focusing on product profits and loss.
• Finding ways to solve the customer’s problems and eliminating them.
• Placing the customer in the centre of all the operations that need to be conducted
• Ensuring that the customer benefits as much as the bank by introducing mobile banking services

Ideally speaking, the bank’s business model should be based on principles of customer centricity, transparency, fairness and ease of use.
To create a mobile app or strategies for mobile banking, you can contact the App Scoop mobile app developers: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html
 

​Once you have thought of an idea for your app, the next thing that pops up in your head is, “What is it going to cost me to develop this app?” The cost of your app is going to be dependent on the project size and its technical complexity. 

Project Scope

There are generally three categories of apps: small, medium and large apps.
​
Small Apps are typically:

• Built for a single platform
• Have limited functionality
• Have fewer screens

They ideally do not require a login or a user authentication. For example, a weather application comes under the category of small apps. 

Medium Apps are typically:

• Either a single platform with more features and user flows or
• Two platforms with less complex functionalities

For example, Netflix would be a medium app.

Large Apps are typically:  

• Complex
• Require a lot of backend development
• Offer more features

For example, e-commerce platforms such as Uber, an app that require separate interfaces for employees and customers.

Platform
The two most commonly used platforms to make apps are iOS and Android. If you wish to increase the app’s popularity, the best advice is to make it available on both these platforms. But with that choice, the cost of building the app also increases.
Tip: The most cost effective method is to build a multi-platform app that only requires minimum changes to get adapted on either platform.

Device
It may not strike you as a huge factor affecting the cost, but devices also play a huge role while budgeting for an app. For instance, if you need to make an app for old devices with older operating systems, then the time to develop will increase, thereby increasing the cost of production and resources. On the other hand, if you are building apps for smart devices such as smart phones, smart TVs, tablets, etc. it will be much cheaper and faster.
​
Backend Infrastructure
Backend infrastructure includes things like user authentication, business integrations such as booking appointments, any notifications, messages, etc. There are two options when it comes to building a backend infrastructure for an application:

1. Purchase an existing app infrastructure and modify it to suit your app.
2. Build a backend infrastructure from scratch.

If you are going to purchase an existing backend infrastructure, and only modify it according to your needs, then the costs to build your app will be much cheaper. The only drawback is that the modifications will be limited. You will not have the authority to make any kind of changes and if any changes are required, you will need to depend upon the original app developers to make them.
The second option, i.e. building a backend infrastructure from scratch will definitely cost more, in terms of cost and resources. But the advantage here is that the system will be completely under your control. Any changes that need to be done as per the market demand can be handled by the backend team. This also makes it an exclusive app in the market, thereby, increasing its probability to scaling new heights in the app world. 

Content Management System
The most important costing that you must consider for your app has to be the Content Management Systems (CMS). This includes content for app settings, menu details, images and text content. 

Marketing Your App
Marketing is what makes or breaks your app. In today’s competitive world, it is imperative to invest in marketing the application correctly. If your end user, isn’t aware of your app, its functions or its USPs then the app is not going to be a success.
Some other reasons that the app could fail include lack of product definition or market viability, a lack of a clear business, monetization, or marketing strategy, or simply because there isn’t a strong product release plan set in place.
Running an awareness of the app is necessary from the time the app is in progress. This includes sending out teasers, early pages to sign up, press kits, marketing on social media channels, paid advertising, through website or landing pages and blog content.
Marketing is also an on-going project; hence, you must consider the same in costing. A yearly marketing strategy would help you gauge the costing for marketing on your app. Some of the factors that you need to consider are marketing for driving downloads, user acquisition and keeping the user retention rate high.

Post Maintenance Cost
Once the app has been rolled out in the market, you must consider the post maintenance cost of the app – i.e. supporting and sustaining the app. For this, you will need to invest in business functions such as IT, engineering, marketing and sales.
IT and engineering play an important role while budgeting the post maintenance cost. The backend needs to be constantly updated and the app needs to go through upgrades to add more features and fix issues/bugs that are logged by the users. If you have purchased a third party app, even then you will need resources to be involved and also pay them the post maintenance cost.
A long-term product vision that accounts for user demands, roll out product improvements or new features, and remain relevant in an increasingly competitive market are things that you need to remember even while developing an app. Many companies don’t account for this in their initial budgeting plans; however, it’s critical that you forecast the six month, 1-year, and even 2-year costs associated with maintaining and improving your product.

Conclusion
A long term strategy with a product roadmap and a phase-wise approach will give you an idea of the resources required pre, during and post the application is developed. The following checklist should help you budget your app correctly:

• Knowing the right distinction between the apps and websites and understanding the requirements of an app correctly
• Paying attention to the costs involved in backend development and infrastructure needs
• Ensuring that you consider the cross department involvement that is required for delivery and on-going success
• Taking into account the marketing budget to promote and educate customers about the mobile application
• Updating the app as per user feedback and post launch of the app

​To understand the costs involved while getting your app developed, you can contact the App Scoop development team: https://app-scoop.com/contact-us.html

The new features on the iPhone are supported with the new iOS 12 software. iOS 12 is designed to make the iPhone and iPad experience even faster, more responsive and more delightful.
​
Performance
 
iOS has been enhanced for a faster and more responsive experience all around. Common features, like launching Camera and typing with the keyboard happen faster than ever. And there are even more significant improvements when multiple apps are being used together.

Face Time & Camera Effects
 
FaceTime now supports video calls with up to 32 people. This is a feature iPhone’s have been missing for a long time, and have lead to popular substitute app’s to be created.
Amongst businesses, Skype, Slack and Google Hangouts are used. For more casual conversations, apps like HouseParty have been created.
Now with the support for multi-person FaceTime conversation, these apps are at risk of becoming replaced. 

Memoji allows users to create their own personalized characters, much like the popular app BitMoji.
There are new Animoji animals as well as support for more intricate face actions like winking.
iMessage now supports the quick use of features like Animoji, Memoji, stickers, snapshots from camera, and text effects. ​

Augmented Reality for iOS
 
With the new A12 bionic chips, Augmented Reality is going to be more popular than ever. Apple has been promoting their AR Kit for development purposes to produce more applications that iPhone users can benefit from. 

Work

GE has developed an application that enables service workers to visualize industrial equipment and repair it with greater efficiency

​Home

AR helps with the use of placing furniture to allow users to visualize how furniture looks in their house without actually purchasing it.

Navigation

American Airlines has created an app that overlays real-time information on an iPhone surroundings at airport terminals using the camera. It helps users effortlessly find coffee, restrooms, restaurants, shops, and the departing gate.

Education

Children can see a detailed breakdown of bodies, animals, and other objects to see how they look in three dimensions right in front of their eyes.
They can also model real life geographical models to explore new areas and see them as if they were standing right there. 

Games
 
The mobile gaming industry is growing at an extremely fast rate, and with improvements in the iPhone processor and iOS, playing with AR is now easier than ever. One major issue with AR has always been that the as take up a lot of battery percentage, however, with the development of ARKit2, apps are now more efficient and use phone energy more efficiently. Apple also allows AR games to be played in multiplayer, allowing two different devices to see the same view of the game from different perspectives. 

Shortcuts

With mobile assistants like Siri becoming more popular each day, it is important to keep them easy to use while also ensuring they perform complex tasks with simple commands. Apple has managed to achieve exactly this with the creation of the shortcuts application on iOS 12. Users can see suggested custom shortcuts such as “play my pop playlist on Spotify” or they can create completely custom ones such as “provide me with transit directions home”. The actions followed can be set by the user, and can span across multiple applications, allowing you to perform complex tasks like creating multiple calendar invites and messaging and emailing each participant. After the specific actions are set, a custom voice action can be recorded in the users voice, letting Siri know when to activate that action. This adds another layer of customization and personalization to the application.
This is a large step in the right direction for Apple as people want to be more mindful about how long they spend on their devices, and also enforce strict quotas when required.

Screen Time
 
As mobile devices have more functionality, the amount of time each person uses them will increase.
Parents and other adults are worried about how much time they or their children spend on these devices, as it takes away from other real-life experiences.
Apple has is trying to solve this with the release of Screen Time, where users can see detailed statistics of how long they can use an application.
There are also limits that can be set for specific applications of categories, allowing users to limit their usage of their device.
 
Conclusion
​
Apple’s new software update provides a variety of new updates to iPhone users. While some of the features like CoreML and improved performance may not be directly noticeable, features like screen time and shortcuts will definitely help iOS users. Developers are also more inclined to use these new technologies in apps as devices are now more optimized.