Features
An app’s feature list can be extremely long or extremely small. The quantity of features is a factor in the cost of developing an app. The complexity of those features will drive up the cost, as well as the newness/unknownness of such features. In our poll, we highlighted some characteristics that, if they are extremely complex, could be major factors.
Features of native devices
The median range is 4 to 29 hours, with a maximum value of 100 hours.
They known characteristics of the app software that interface with the device hardware as native device features. A higher number may suggest a more complicated feature or a new technology.
“Dialing, networking activities, location aware, and accelerometer were the native capabilities on a phone two years ago [in 2012].” A year ago, we introduced a gyroscope, increased the precision of location aware, and added a low-energy Bluetooth. We now have two accelerometers, a barometer, and many NFC [near field communication] chips built in. As a result, the native aspect of development becomes increasingly ambiguous. Because of the well-designed APIs, interacting with a native component is usually quite simple.
When a new feature, such as Apple Pay, is released and involves an NFC data chip, it suddenly becomes a new foundation for Apple. Developers haven’t built against it yet, so it’ll be fine-tuned over the next two years, and the API will evolve dramatically. As a result, estimating ambiguous native functionality without knowing exactly what it will perform is more difficult. If we say we’re going to do Apple Pay, it’s a bit of a gamble. However, if we want a location-aware app, we’ve been playing that game with Apple for four or five years, so we’re familiar with it.”
— App Developer in Chicago
“There are basic features like camera or location, as well as more advanced features like CoreAudio or AVFoundation.”
– Mobile App Developer from Belarus and the United States
User Participation (SMS, Email, Push, Social Media)
The median range is 5.5 to 30 hours, with a maximum value of 150 hours.
Email, SMS, push alerts, and social sharing are all examples of engagement mechanisms that can be found in consumer apps. Native features and common mechanisms are used in simpler solutions. More complicated features may require the use of a third-party API or the creation of new code. To simplify the solution and reduce development time, you can sometimes integrate cost-effective subscription services for these aspects.
“Depending on the functionality desired, sharing features can vary dramatically. Is the SMS requirement going to rely on the built-in messaging capabilities, or will it necessitate integration with a messaging service such as Twilio? When it comes to email, similar difficulties can arise. Facebook is a changing target when it comes to what API users and developers have access to, so social media may be problematic.”
— App Developer in Chicago
“The cost of development will rise due to multiple notifications, social network integrations, and automated logic-based notification systems.”
— Mobile App Developer in the Midwest of the United States
“They can use push message tools like Parse or Urban Airship as a basic solution.”
— App Developer in New York
Login to your account
The median range is 4.5 to 28 hours, with a maximum value of 70 hours.
Logging in as a user might be simple or complex. Additional features such as “remember me,” “lost password?,” and session expiration, according to the majority of respondents, raise the price. The social login option is also more difficult to use. Additional cost drivers include a more detailed visual design and specialised animation.
“This will be a lesser cost item if they solely did the login on the device and not backed up by a server.” This could fall into a mid-range estimate if an existing API support the login. If an API isn’t available for a mandatory online login and registration requirement, the higher end.”
— App Developer in Chicago
“When it comes to designing and providing the login feature, a variety of disciplines are brought to bear. When do we, for example, ask the user to log in? Do we want to keep the app’s entry barrier high? The answer is no; in general, we want users to come into an app and start using it straight away without being prompted to register, login, or become a user until they’ve gotten a sense of what it does. Too many apps make the mistake of requiring a login as the first step, and you don’t even know what the app does, so you’re turned off. So, even something as deceptively basic as user login has user experience considerations.
Then you have to figure out how you’re going to supply the interface. Do we use Facebook to log in or not? Is there any sort of back-end to that? Do they have an account with these people somewhere else, such as on the Internet? So, when it comes to a feature like login, there are UX, design, interface design, graphic design, and, of course, development considerations.”
— App Developer in New York
Use of Geographical Information
The median range is 5 to 24 hours, with a maximum value of 150 hours.
They mostly determined the cost of using location data in your app by the activated functionality once they received data. To put it another way, how will they use location data? Emerging technologies like geofencing and iBeacons, as well as any complicated visualisation or functionality, are all included in the higher-end costs.
“What is the purpose of the location data? Is it possible to map the current user? Is it possible to set off an event?”
— App Developer in Chicago
“They determined the cost by the functionality required: identifying a coordinate is straightforward, but geofencing is more difficult.”
— Mobile App Developer from the United States and Belarus
Source: mobile app