Is it better to use an app or the website ?

The numbers of mobile users today is greater than the number of desktop users.

 

As a result, businesses have become aware of the need to use mobile channels effectively to attract customers. They started new operations (or scaled) through mobile websites and mobile apps. The choice between mobile apps and websites depends on the cost, usability, functionality, and audience they serve.

 

Users prefer mobile apps more than mobile websites. This is a good reason to have mobile apps to reach potential (and existing) customers.

 

In addition, there are ot her reasons that make mobile apps better than mobile websites.


Mobile apps offer better customization


Customization is about providing personalized communication to users based on their interests, location, usage behavior, and more. With mobile apps it is easy to treat users with a personalized experience.

 

Mobile apps allow users to set preferences from the start, based on users who can benefit from personalized content. Applications can also track and observe the user’s engagement and use it to provide personalized recommendations and updates to users. In addition, they can also identify users’ location in real time to provide geography-specific content.

 

However, improving the user experience is not the only goal of customization. It can also help improve the conversion rate of applications:

 

When users are pampered with personalized content, they are more likely to convert.


Ease of sending notifications


In the last two decades, email has been the most used business communication tool. Companies have widely used e-mail (some have almost abused it) to reach their users. As a result, email has lost the efficiency it once had; its open rates and click-through rates have steadily declined.

 

Well, there is no reason to worry.

 

Enter the notifications for the mobile app.

 

Notifications are of two types: push and in-app notifications. They are both interesting alternatives to communicate with users of the application in a less intrusive way.

 

In-app notifications are notifications that users can only receive when they open an app.

 

On the other hand, push notifications are notifications that users can receive regardless of any activity they perform on their mobile device.

 

PushCrew, for example, is one of the new service providers that allows websites to send push notifications to desktop and mobile computers.


Using the features of the mobile device


Mobile applications have the advantage of using the features of a mobile device such as a camera, contact list, GPS, phone calls, accelerometer, compass, etc.

 

Such features, when used in an application, can make the user experience interactive and fun.

 

In addition, these features can also reduce the effort that users would have to do otherwise. For example, users who fill out a form on a banking application may need to submit their photo for completion of the process. The app can allow users to take the help of the camera from their mobile device to capture and submit a photo.

 

The features of the device can dramatically shorten the time that users take to perform certain tasks in an app, and even increase conversions.


Ability to work offline


This is probably the most fundamental difference between a mobile website and an app.

 

Although applications may also need Internet connectivity to perform most of their tasks, they can still offer basic content and features to offline users.

 

Take the example of the banking application again.

 

The application can provide features such as the calculation of taxes, the calculation of down payments and the determination of the loan limit. These features can work even without using an internet connection.


Freedom in Designing


Even with all the technological advances in website design, mobile websites have to rely heavily on browsers to perform the most basic functions. Mobile websites depend on browser features such as “back button”, “refresh button” and “address bar” to work.

 

Mobile apps have none of these restrictions. A mobile application can be designed with many advanced features, based on advanced gestures such as “tapping”, “sweeping”, “dragging”, “pinching”, “holding”, and more.

 

Applications can use these gestures to provide innovative features that can help users better perform a task. For example, an application may allow users to move to a next or previous step using the swipe gesture.


Users Spend More Time on Apps


Mobile users spend 86% of their time on mobile apps and only 14% of the time on mobile websites.

 

One point to consider here is that users spend the majority of their time on gaming applications and social media applications.


Brand Presence


Users spend a lot of their time on mobile devices. It is safe to say that many users encounter the applications they have installed on their devices almost every day. This regular meeting can be considered as a branding opportunity for applications.

 

Even when users do not actively use a mobile app, they are always reminded of the brand associated with the app. The app icon acts as a mini-advertisement for the brand.


Apps Can Work Faster Than Websites


A well-designed mobile app can perform actions much faster than a mobile website.

 

Applications typically store their data locally on mobile devices, unlike websites that typically use web servers. For this reason, data recovery is happening fast in mobile applications.

 

Apps can also save users time by storing their preferences and using them to take proactive action on behalf of users.

 

There is also a technical rationale for why mobile apps can run faster. Mobile websites use javascript code to perform most of their functions. And the framework that mobile apps use can run almost five times faster than a javascript code!

 

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