1. PayPal

   PayPal is one of the most popular names on the list.  All you need is just download the app, sign-in using your PayPal account information or set up a new account, and tap “In Store” on the home screen.

   If you don’t already have a bank account, debit, or credit card linked to your PayPal account, you’ll need to take a few moments to add your preferred payment method via the app or the PayPal website. It’s very simple and takes just a minute or two. With an incredible acceptance of PayPal among users across domains and industries, its has now become a norm for business owners and entrepreneur to integrate Paypal gateway across their business solutions.

2. Google Wallet

   Google needs no introduction and explanation that how it influences our life. And with such intense integration with so many facets of our online experience, it’s no joke that they’re also part of this list. Google Wallet allows you send people money to their emails or phone numbers. Recipients get notified by e-mail and then go through a process to verify their identity to accept the money. If this sounds like your thing, give it a go, but the other apps seem like faster ways to pay with your smartphone.

3. Samsung Pay

   Likewise other mobile wallets, Samsung Pay allows users to execute common activities like load their credit, debit, gift and loyalty cards to the platform so that they may use their phones to pay in stores.
   The Magnetic Secure Transmission technology makes Samsung Pay stand out from other e-wallet apps and more accepted virtually everywhere.

   Samsung Pay essentially allows you to pay anywhere you would usually pay with a credit or debit card. This simply means that Samsung Pay does not require businesses to be participating merchants in order for users to use the app to make payments. However, availability of applications on only Android platform cuts out a significant portion of the consumer market.

4. Apple’s PassBook

   Introduced in iOS 6 and relies on scanning 2D barcodes, Apple’s Passbook helps you manage your movie, concert and airline tickets as well as loyalty cards and coupons for selected merchants. According you get time-based notifications when you’re near a cafe where you can use your loyalty card or when your airline, movie or concert ticket is nearing its due date.

5. Venmo

   “Venmo” has reached another degree of popularity among millennials as a verb status in the vernacular. You would hear college students say one of such things like “Venmo me 170 bucks for burgers,” or “I’ll Venmo you back later”. No wonder — we can easily rate it as one of the most popular mobile wallet apps. Not only is it super simple to use, but it’s got a social aspect to it.

   You can simply send money from the app to mobile numbers, email addresses, or Facebook accounts. And that too for the very manageable price of $0. That’s right, Venmo balance bank and debit card transfers are totally free of cost. You’ll only incur a fee if using a credit card.

6. Square Order

   Founded by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey, Square is a mobile payment service which offers to turn any smartphone into credit card reader. Also called as the golden child of mobile payments by Entrepreneurs and business owners. Square Register features ‘Google Analytics’ style data for all purchases made through the register, allowing owners access to all of their sales statistics right from the register app or online interface. It will also allow purchases via the new Square Card Case as well as the Square Card Reader.

7. Intuit GoPayment

   Multiple users function make Intuit GoPayment is an excellent choice for small businesses. Each account supports up to 50 users in the event that you have several people taking payments. This makes it easier for the company to manage their user content and subscription fees.

   Full refunds can also be made for the original transaction amount on-the-spot, but partial refunds have to be done through Intuit’s web interface. Funds are deposited into your bank account within 2-3 days as well.

8. TabbedOut

   TabbedOut allows users to pay with smartphones at any establishment that supports the app. The app is built specifically for the restaurant and bar crowd with a list of other smart features. You can see your tab in real time (great for avoiding that end-of-meal bill shock after one too many bottles of wine), add a tip, split the bill with fellow diners, and pay straight from the app.

   TabbedOut also lets you build a relationship with your favorite eateries. You can leave written feedback once you’ve paid your bill, and you may get vouchers back for next time.

9. Level Up

   Popular with restaurants and cafes, LevelUp uses a QR code to trigger a payment. When you open the app you’ll see your personal code prominently displayed, which you point at any LevelUp scanner to make a purchase. That code changes depending on how much of a tip you want to leave, which you pick at the bottom of the screen.
   Unlike PayPal, you don’t need to pick where you want to pay beforehand, but you do need to know if the merchant accepts that form of payment. You can either use the app to search for participating businesses near you, or just look out for the LevelUp scanner near the register.

   As an added bonus, LevelUp also has a loyalty program, where you can get free credits for being a repeat customer. The app also has coupons and deals that you can save and then use automatically when you check out. The downside here is that there aren’t many merchants using LevelUp, and you won’t find it at major retailers.

10. Bitcoin for Android

    If you have invested in Bitcoins, the chances are that you want to be able to send and receive Bitcoin payments on your smartphone. Bitcoin for Android is a mobile application which operates as a fully functional Bitcoin wallet and supports the scanning of QR codes to initiate transactions with other basic features. The main attraction of the app is payment processing without an Internet connection. The code for the app is completely open-source and has been posted to GitHub for users to be able to personally assess the code, so they aren’t the subject of a Bitcoin theft like other Bitcoin investors have experienced.

The question is, which app becomes a pet choice for your daily transaction? Several top e-wallet app development companies have launched mobile wallet products which have flopped badly in the market. Likewise, no company has emerged as a clear leader yet. But, the ongoing mayhem assures that in future, We may not need anything more than the basic iPhone to make almost all of our transactions.

Get in touch with our top mobile app developers to mould the best mobile payment solution for your business.

The post Top 10 Ways to Pay with Your SmartPhones appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.

Characteristics of Mobile Application Development

In contrast traditional desktop applications, mobile apps demand service every month to provide an immersive user experience to valuable customers. Here is a list of challenges posed for top mobile app development companies while using Agile approach:

• Short life cycles
• Short development cycles
• Limited hardware
• Frequently changing user demands
• Must be easily updateable
• Must download quickly

All of these characteristics collectively bring more tension for top mobile app developers to carefully choose an approach which can reduce wastage of labour & time while bringing a sign a relief for both clients and development agencies. But how it would be made possible to build high-quality mobile apps across such mayhem around development approaches? The answer is Agile development.

What is Agile?

Agile application development is the approach of developing a product where the whole process is divided into a series of development cycles. In fact, when using Agile for mobile app development, the entire array of tasks is divided into multiple sub-tasks, each of which is a separate mini-project for the development team.

Assignments are distributed to the concerned team of experts as well as teams are also divided to follow the agile methodology. Each assignment is a piece of job and treated as a unit of an independent project. Under the influence of the agile approach, companies successfully reduce the scope of development risks, including errors to a great extent.

Agile applications development also accounts for regular communication within and between groups; constant interaction, both in project development environment and between customer and contractor. This means that if a customer or project leader suddenly raises new demands to the product, it bears virtually no effect on the time spent and app marketing. Changes that are commanded, as a result, are further assigned to one of the teams which do not slow down the project as a whole.

Why use Agile?

When choosing a development approach, it is equally important to understand the advantages. With the Agile methodology, below are the following qualities :

• Constant supply of valuable client software;
• Ability to make changes to the project and to put forward new demands to it at any stage of development (even before the release);
• Constant close contact between the customer and developers at all stages of the project;
• Regular delivery of the project’s software elements;
• Comfortable working conditions for both developers and the customer;
• Priority information exchange method is a personal conversation, which gives opportunities for all participants of the project;
• The main indicator of Agile implementation success is the high-quality working application;
• Developers, customers and sponsors have the opportunity to control and maintain a constant pace of work;
• Constant contact and control gives possibilities for permanent improvement of the product at the design stage;
• Usage of self-organizing teams to minimize the extra work;
• Self-organizing teams performing particular tasks, often give better results than a large team dedicated to everything at once;
• The presence of individual units that perform individual tasks is a guarantee of rapid adaptation to any new conditions to the project.

Developed and formulated in 2001, Agile Approach has been in use for 15 years to the day, during which it proved to be functional, effective and relevant. The method was used in the development of many projects, including most successful and well-known. Today, the Agile method is the basis of productivity in many prosperous IT companies.

How we follow Agile?

When we begin a mobile app development project at BrainMobi, we break down functional requirements into user stories, which then become the foundation of our app development schedule. We usually work within the framework of two-week sprint sets and iterate continuously until we reach substantial milestones on the mobile app. Sometimes this includes an incredibly large number of business requirements. We’ve worked on projects with as many as 3,500 requirements. Agile development makes it possible to break down all these requirements into smaller, manageable chunks.

Don’t forget to share your experience while using Agile Paradigm across your project in the comment section below.

Request a quote for your next Agile based mobile app development project: sales@brainmobi.com

The post What Is Agile Development for Mobile Apps appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.

Before That we Will See, Why There is Actually a Need to Port iOS App to Android?

If we see the previous year statistics, we will find that there is a significant increase in the number of android users. More and more people are showing interest in Android devices, which resulted in huge investment in Android version of iOS apps. The owners of iOS apps are discovering that they are missing out on a large market, and it is must to port iOS app to android. It is better to focus more on freemium strategies and in-app purchases rather than making it a free app.

Android market is open to all and there is no restriction on what your app can do. This might affect how you want your android app to be designed. The app updates are almost instantaneous, which means there will be only a few users who are not satisfied with your app.

Things to Consider When Porting iOS to Android

You need significant adaption when porting iOS app to android. We recommend you not to use design tools that are intended for iOS. Most of the common app design tools provide iOS templates and you may think that they fit the android platform as well. However, one should know that porting iOS app to android will lead to conflicts between the ported app interface and design of the android device. There are many contradicting features between iOS and Android, such as – buttons, lists, tabs, date/time, widgets, navigation etc.

The next thing to consider is fragmentation that is derived from different screen resolutions. You should consider app’s data and graphics to be displayed both on small and large screens, considering vertical as well as horizontal layouts. Though you can ignore some of the older versions, you should consider 10% of screen resolution. Some of the popular versions of android system are – Ice-cream sandwich and android 2.X, KitKat, Jelly Bean, Lollipop and Marshmallow.

Android Design

Now, once you have decided to port an iOS app to android, you should consider thinking android design. The problem is that there are many iOS tools that have iOS templates and designers use them to design android apps. However, the designs conflict with the feel and look of the app. It will take a lot of effort and time to implement. Moreover, there are problem areas such as round buttons, tabs at the bottom, lists with right pointing arrows and so on.

To avoid these problems, the first thing you need to do is avoid using iOS design tools. Just use drawing tools such as Photoshop, Visio, Balamiq next etc. If you want to get a quick overview of android UI, you can check the official website of Android. Google also has created a page describing how to design for pure android app. 

Should you Adapt New UI?

With the changing algorithm of Google, it changes the way apps can be architected internally for smartphone and tablet layouts. Google provided compatibility library that allow the latest UI elements to run on new and old android devices without changing the look and feel of the app. When re-designing the app for android, you should focus on how the data and graphics will be displayed on screens of different sizes.

Google strongly recommends following the UI language known as “Material Design”. This will help android audience get familiarized with common UI. Material design has a few common UI elements that have better support for developers.

Read More: Mobile App Design Basics: Common UI/UX Mistakes to Avoid

How to Export Graphics?

Android has a different graphic asset and you need to adapt your app’s graphic assets for android. This means, you need to resize, export and name new files. It can be a bit easier than exporting assets for iOS. For instance, if you are exporting .png images, you should consider grouping the assets in different sizes 1X, 2X, 3X and 568h@2X. It would be a big headache to create precisely sized assets for each android device. Hence, the best solution is to scale assets to correct size for relevant device screen. This could be one of the reasons why graphic images on android are not as crisp and beautiful as they do in iOS.

Code Porting

The next thing to consider is the code porting, Check if it is possible to take objective-C or recompile it for android. The android apps use Java and if your iOS app uses Vanilla C, it is possible to reuse the same code for android. This is beneficial for porting complex libraries as well as to enhance the performance of the app.

Some mobile app developers make the mistake of sharingembedded UI designs into the app. Sometimes, the specificationsinclude UIs that gather information to be sent to social networking apps. There is no need of such sharing for android apps. Instead, mobile app developers should consider using action_send intends to other social networking apps.  This means users should be able to share to other apps and there is no need to write a separate code against server-side sharing APIs.

In short, it is essential to consider which characteristics of your product are time-sensitive and use the programming tactics accordingly.

How Long Does it Take to Port?

Since the app has already been developed for iOS, it will not take much time to port to android. Though porting seems to be a straight forward process, it is not quick. The time to complete the porting process will depend on the complexity of the app and selection of supporting devices. Device inconsistency will create surprise for the mobile app developer, and hence even a small change will mean additional time for porting. Different devices use different hardware components which causes your device to interact with OS and hardware in an unexpected way.

How to Submit the Ported App at Play Store?

Once the app is ported successfully to Android, it should be submitted to Play Store in the similar way it is submitted to iTunes. You need to provide screenshots, regions, ratings and other details about the app to the developer. Go through the guidelines of submitting the app to Play Store. Google will review your app and approve or reject it on the same day.

Conclusion

There are many mobile app developers who have huge experience of porting iOS app to android. To bring amazing results, the template for app porting should have – adaptation plan formula, UX testing, source app business logic analysis, proper coding & testing, etc.

At BrainMobi, we have ported several apps from iOS to android and have huge experience in android and iOS development. The porting process can be a smooth sailing, if you understand how to prepare the assets for Android before you start!!

The post How to Port a Mobile App from iOS to Android appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.

For instance, if placed in at an entryway a Beacon could be set to welcome your guests via phone apps. Altogether, BLE and Beacon technology have opened doors for a new method of interaction between people, places and computers.

Brands like Apple (iBeacon), Google (Eddystone), Kontakt, BlueSense, Gelo, Estimote and much more offer a new era of user experience through BLE and Beacon technology. With more modifications underway, Beacon technology offers opportunities to personalize and extend learning to new settings and to fully merge the division between the digital and physical worlds in which we live.

In the world of healthcare, beacons are a high-quality solution, which can help address demands for more personalized care, services and increased patient satisfaction. Large facilities can benefit immediately by using beacons to guide patients, relatives and guests through the building. Plus, if a waiting room begins to overflow, location-based messages can be sent out to inform patients about cafeteria options (Free coffee, anyone? Yes, please!) or even a promotional wellness classes to enjoy during the wait. The potential is enormous both for top beacon app development companies and different business class.

The first thing to note when considering how to benefit from beacons is what your unique end-users may want or need. Below are some examples that represent how beacon technology has been catching up with the world while offering immersive user experience.

Success Stories

Outside the retail sector, beacons technology has gained popularity among for real time customer interaction with businesses.

In the Netherlands, public transit operator Syntus used beacons to offer local discounts and points to travellers during off-peak times, reducing congestion and pressure. Other use cases could include real-time travel updates or contextual advertising, Marketing Land reported.

Stadiums are another example where beacon marketing technology could shine. Unacast’s Proxbook Report says that 93 percent of Major League Baseball stadiums use them currently, as noted in Marketing Land.

Users with the MLB.com app can opt in to be tracked by beacons at ballparks. When fans pass a beacon, they can receive coupons, team info or video highlights, the American Marketing Association reports.

Beacons are also proving their value at events and conferences. For instance, use of 1,000 beacons in and around hundreds of venues to help attendees stay connected at SXSW 2015, Skift Reports. The system worked because attendees would have downloaded the SXSW official app—making it seamless for them to receive the beacon notifications.

Uses of Beacon

Beacons are now being used across several niche and domains to promote the use of digital coupons and real time notification. Beacon marketing is a logical follow-up to traditional mobile marketing strategies employed by tech-savvy retailers.Promotions are one of the prominent sectors where beacons are considered for use in full swing. In order to distribute promotional content through beacons, business owners develop dedicated shopping apps or partner with a top app development company. Once a user who’s got the app installed on his smartphone happens to be within the range of the beacon signal. As soon as he enters the signal range he receives a notification (latest offerings, discounts, promo codes, etc.

• Promotions are one of the prominent sectors where beacons are considered for use in full swing. In order to distribute promotional content through beacons, business owners develop dedicated shopping apps or partner with a top app development company. Once a user who’s got the app installed on his smartphone happens to be within the range of the beacon signal. As soon as he enters the signal range he receives a notification (latest offerings, discounts, promo codes, etc.
• Customers who click on Beacon notifications and walk into a store receive more notifications including personal shopping tips based on their previous buying activities and in-store product/navigation data.
• Beacons track customers in the store, thus providing analytics similar to that of an e-commerce website. Marketers, in their turn, can leverage the data for crafting ads and promo content the way they do retarget.

But still, there is a lag in rising of the BLE technology. The reason behind much less user interaction with the BLE technology is the lack of awareness among entrepreneurs and business owners. Even If beacons are installed somewhere, we miss to notice them out of ignorance. Even as smartphone usage climbs upward, beacons are staying under the radar.

Looking Ahead

Beacons are now experiencing an increase in usage across many sectors. However, obstacles to their usage suggest that adoption will be slow. Like any other new technology, beacons require downloading an app before they can work. Still, in certain scenarios, beacon marketing technology is setting new trends across markets and raise the bar for user experience.

Beacons are definitely going to become an uprising star in location tracking. Although it might take time, more brands will surely be seen partnering up and using Beacons or other low-cost sensors to compliment location based services.

Bring us along to discuss your idea and empower it with an up roaring formula for success with BLE and beacon technology.

Share your idea in the comment section below and grab a chance for free consultation with our Beacon App Developers, write to sales@brainmobi.com

The post BLE and Beacons: The Future of Location-Based Tech for Mobile Apps appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.

While we have all heard the terms User Experience(UX) and User Interface(UI), we often see them written together like UI/UX. The two terms are most commonly used interchangeably. While it can be used interchangeably to a certain extent, they make up two different parts of the design. UX is a rather analytical and technical domain of the designing process, while UI is more about the graphic design and the overall look of the product. While on the surface, the definition just mentioned holds true, on a deeper inspection, you would see that it is a lot more complex than that. Let’s understand the difference between the two:

In analogous terms:
When the walls are to made, the first thing we do is lay down the bricks. Once the bricks are laid down, we apply plaster to it and then paint it or add wallpapers. The bricks form the skeletal structure of the wall while the paint and wallpapers define how the wall would look like. Now if we look at it with the context of UI and UX, the bricks make up the UX. They define how the walls would be like. The paint and the wallpapers, on the other hand, make up the UI. They define how the walls would look like.

In technical terms:
UX enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty by enhancing usability and ease of use that the user would face while interacting with the product. UI, on the other hand, takes care of what the product looks and feels like. On a first glance, it is the UI that attracts users to the products. But it is the UX that decides how useful the UI would be. It is the role of the UX designers to design user flows and wireframes which are then prototyped and tested. Once the tests are passed, it is the role of the UI designers to make them appealing. While the UI focuses on connecting with the users on an emotional level, the UX focuses on helping the users to accomplish various tasks within the product.

Broadly, the role of UI/UX designers includes:

For UI designers-

• Form (including buttons, graphic design, etc)
• Content (including text, reports, documents, etc)
• Behavior (including responses to clicks, drags, typing, etc)

For UX designers-

• Utility (they have to make sure that the product solves users’ problems, and gives useful content)
• Usability (they have to ensure the convenience, clarity and logical soundness of the product)
• Accessibility (they have to make sure that the product is convenient for use by different categories of the users)
• Desirability (they have to make sure that the product looks attractive and solves problems; this is the part where audience retention comes in)

While UI and UX are closely linked, as we have already seen, they both have major differences. Even with these differences, the roles are interchangeable since the ultimate goal is to retain the audience by giving them an experience that they would want to come back for. And that is difficult to do in isolation. Hence they are both really important.

BrainMobi has a team of expert UI/UX developers. We are a top mobile app development company and our team of UI/UX developers plays an important role in making us who we are. Connect with us at sales@brainmobi.com to know how our UI/UX developers can help make your product the best version of itself.

Is the difference clearer now? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Mobile App Design Basics: User Experience vs User Interface appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.

“Automated chat has been around for at least a decade or more and bots aren’t necessarily new as a technology concept, however, the bots we know today are much more sophisticated than they were just a couple of years ago,” says Evan Wray, co-founder and VP of Swyft Media.

Let’s look into some facts associated with chatbots:

• 80% of businesses want to integrate ChatBots by 2020.
• Juniper Research forecasts chatbots will be the reason for $8 billion in enterprise cost savings annually by 2022
• As AI enhances, Juniper says, there will be a leap from 12% to more than 75% of bot rate interaction within the half decade. It can go even higher to 90% in that same time frame.
• According to OpenMarket, 63% of financial services, 67% of retail and 57% of travel & hospitality mobile users say SMS conversations would be very useful.
• As of September, there were 30,000 chatbots on Facebook. Those chatbots have been used by millions of people in 200 countries.
• Thirty-seven percent of Americans say they are willing to make a purchase through a chatbot, according to DigitasLBi.
• According to PwC, this is the percentage of consumers who agreed that this is what their relationships with digital assistants are like today (and how the relationship will evolve in five years):
  

1. Adviser: 14 percent (17 percent)
2. Teacher: 7 percent (12 percent)
3. Friend: 6 percent (8 percent)
4. Stranger: 5 percent (2 percent)
5. Manager: 4 percent (7 percent)
6. Confidante: 3 percent (5 percent)
7. Coworker: 3 percent (7 percent)
8. Adversary: 2 percent (3 percent)
9. Acquaintance: 10 percent (7 percent)
10. Spouse/partner: 1 percent (1 percent)

At Brainmobi, our top chatbot developers mend different technologies together to build such surrogate companion for people to fall in love with.

ChatBots – Categories

In 1966, after the release of first chatbots, Elisza, the technology has enjoyed the round of success and popularity. After that release, top developer curated the concept to implement it across mobile apps to revolutionise the chosen categories.

Though the services offered by the technology is multiple in numbers but can be categorised under Messaging apps and Virtual Assistants. Let’s know more in detail:

• Messaging Apps
  
  Facebook released messaging chatbots in 2016 at the Facebook Annual event. Now, the messenger has outnumbered the users associated with its patent app.
• Virtual Assistants
  
  AI powered Virtual assistants are responsible for helping users with remembering, buying stuff and searching information. The technology also involves machine learning and Big data to curate and manage information. Some examples are Apple’s Siri, Google Assistance, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa.

ChatBots – Usage

As per above-mentioned stats, it’s definitely evident that Chatbots have become an imperative strategy to bring effective impact across industries to offer quick and refined customer service. Here are pinpoint details the technology offers benefits to the associated company:

Sell and buy products

A great example of this is H&M chatbot, that has gained popularity among fashion freaks. The chatbot is responsible for providing customised choices for shopping depending on set filtered. A chatbot is responsible for providing tailor made options.

Make payment easier

Chatbots are also implemented to revise payment options where an automated tool is responsible for processing a transaction. Retailers are opting this option to bring more easiness across payment methods. For example, You want to buy what I bought yesterday. An e-commerce bot will look at what you bought yesterday and buy them automatically.

Credit score coach

Credit checking service provider ClearScore has launched a chatbot designed to help people improve their credit score. This credit score ‘coaching’ service will be available for free and will provide three different types of credit rating help; ‘Build’ aimed at young people that lack credit history, ‘Repair’ designed to help people with poor credit history improve their score and ‘Shape Up’, for those just looking to maintain their healthy credit rating.

And much more that has been pushing the envelope for chatbots to make a big cut among other prevalent technologies.

How can BrainMobi help?

Current scenario promises a great future for AI based ChatBots to empower powerful user interaction and storm up the way we handle a meaningful conversation. At BrainMobi, our main focus is to infuse modern touch to justify the significance of AI chatbots integrated with other powerful technologies.

Bring us your development related concerns to get your idea evolved into a mobile app.

Write to us: sales@brainmobi.com

The post A Complete Guide to Chatbots appeared first on Mobile App Development | BrainMobi Blogs and News.