4 mobile app development challenges and how Zoho Creator can help

Mobile app development has undergone a sea change over the years. Gone are the days when your mobile phone's screen was cluttered with prebuilt apps developed by the phone's manufacturer. Today, apps of all types, developed by countless app developers, dominate your device's screen space.

On top of multiple operating systems, devices also come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from something that will fit in your pocket to tablets that are better suited for a bag. With such tremendous variation, the challenges that come in the process of developing apps for mobile platforms are many.

Let's take a look at some of the predominant challenges in mobile app development, and how developing mobile apps on a low-code platform like Zoho Creator can help.

Challenge 1: Building the same app for multiple platforms

Market share is split between Android and iOS in the smartphone universe. According to statcounter, 71.18% of smartphones run on the Android operating system, whereas 28.19% of smartphones run on Apple's iOS. This poses a challenge to mobile app developers, as their app has to be developed separately for each operating system.

So creating a mobile app involves double the effort if the publisher wishes to make the app universally available—which also doubles the app maker's expenditure.

How Zoho Creator solves the OS problem

Zoho Creator, a low-code application development platform, follows a "develop once, deploy anywhere" principle, when it comes to app development. Once an app is created on the platform, iOS and Android versions are also created, automatically. All that's required is to install the Creator app for the device running the respective operating system.

Creator also provides the option to deploy rebranded mobile apps. This saves developers from the hassle of creating the same app twice, from the ground up, for both Android and iOS. The organization also saves time and money with this deploy-anywhere philosophy.

Challenge 2: The need for separate design efforts

Conventional mobile app development houses have their own design and user experience teams. These teams are responsible for:

• Designing the look and feel of the app

• Defining the user interface of the app

• Deciding how the app will respond to user input

The design process is an engineering feat in itself, consuming months of labor, and demanding considerable investment from the app makers.

How Zoho Creator eliminates the need for a separate design team

Zoho Creator provides prebuilt components, called "Pages," for use in app dashboards. Pages are visually intuitive, allowing you to build them yourself by dragging and dropping the desired page elements.

Page elements include visual components, such as panels, charts, gauges, forms, reports, snippets, buttons, and widgets, which automatically represent your app's data in a visual format. All the app developers have to do is to drag and drop the desired elements, using the Page Builder, onto their pages.

Besides these prebuilt elements, app developers can also use HTML and JavaScript widgets to customize the UI based on their requirements. Striking pages with custom UIs can be easily built using Zoho Creator in this way. The layout for various devices is also automatically generated, so the platform essentially eliminates the need for a separate design team.

Challenge 3: The need to ensure app security

App security can be a major challenge for developers. Codebases are often contain security vulnerabilities, and security issues also arise due to device and OS fragmentation. These security vulnerabilities are then prone to exploitation by hackers, compromising sensitive user data. Such loss of sensitive information can have serious ramifications for any app developer or business.

How Zoho Creator addresses the security problem

Zoho Creator, as an app development platform, is subject to constant, stringent security testing to ensure that it doesn't contain any security vulnerabilities. The platform takes the tedious task of security testing off the hands of app developers. Apps developed on Zoho Creator guarantee a minimal possibility of security-related defects.

Challenge 4: The need to develop backend architecture

All mobile apps need a separate backend implementation for their database, to store and process information. This backend includes the app's database, which is implemented on a technology like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

The implementation of the database also requires the expertise of a dedicated database team, which costs time and a lot of money, as database developers and administrators are expensive.

How Zoho Creator cuts down on the need for backend development

Zoho Creator apps come with a preconfigured database called a mobile backend as a service (MBaaS). All that's required is to create the necessary forms, workflows, and pages for the apps. The database required for the apps built on the platform is automatically constructed and maintained by the platform itself. The whole process of developing and maintaining the backend is abstracted away from the hands of the app developers.

Overcoming the challenges in mobile app development

By developing apps for mobile platforms on Zoho Creator, you can circumvent the normal challenges inherent to the process. This saves your organization time and money. And what's more, it allows you to focus on what's essential—developing the apps—instead of worrying about the snags that might crop up in the process.

So, what are you waiting for? Leverage Zoho Creator for your mobile app development needs today, and reap the benefits faster!