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Believe it or not – mobile apps are one of the most effective tools in modern businesses.
Look at the numbers, and you’ll be amazed to see the consistently soaring number of mobile apps in the market. And, there is a clear sign that this number will continue to grow in the future.
Creating a mobile app can give your business a competitive edge. But that’s not enough.
App users expect a seamless mobile experience, which is out of this world. Therefore, it’s important to keep your eye on the latest developments in the mobile app industry and update your applications accordingly.
In this guide, we take a look at 12 app development trends every app entrepreneur should weigh up, and say plainly which are worth building on now.
Let’s start.
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)
AI and ML technologies have been around for some time now. Many businesses are already leveraging the benefits of AI mobile apps.
AI and ML features now ship in apps across every category, and a great many existing apps are being retrofitted with them.
The image below shows some of the use cases driving AI adoption.
You will also see new apps that will be launched with AI-based cameras, voice translations, adaptive battery for more battery life, and user-behavior predictions.
Not only the AI apps will help you get new customers, they will also help you with many business activities. You can use these apps to launch a personalized marketing campaign, provide customized search results, process huge datasets, and provide data analytics.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)
Pokémon Go became a global gaming sensation and paved the way for AR in mobile gaming apps in 2016.
But today, the AR and VR technologies aren’t just used in gaming apps.
Statista tracks mobile AR users worldwide through 2028, and the direction of travel is up: AR has moved from a novelty to a feature people use in shopping, navigation and games.
These immersive technologies are taken up by the apps developed for many other industries.
Why?
The technologies have an exceptional potential to deliver a unique app experience by interacting with the physical environment.
VR/AR apps can do the unthinkable – doctors from different parts of the world can perform live surgeries, you can virtually swim under the deep sea, and teleport to a distant planet.
You can attempt to build apps with an AR-based virtual user manual, VR-based virtual training simulations, VR-based exploration activities, and VR-based live music festivals and concerts.
3. Blockchain Technology
Blockchain apps or decentralized applications (DApps) will have huge growth in the coming years.
As a technology, this is not new; we've seen it in the form of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts.
What is newer is that DApps have moved from experiments to live products in finance, gaming and supply chain.
Blockchain is gaining popularity in a broad spectrum of industries because of several reasons. It offers complete security for all the sensitive information exchange – be it our payment transactions or data exchanges. It’s difficult to manipulate the information in blockchain and therefore blockchain is considered the best cybersecurity solution.
Besides the advantage of being a decentralized system, blockchain offers many other unique features, such as a distributed digital ledger, peer-to-peer payment architecture, and keyless security infrastructure.
It will benefit the mobile app industry in multiple ways – building apps that are free from fraud, data leaks, and other security threats.
4. The 5G Technology
5G, the fifth generation of cellular networks, has reached the market.
So, what makes 5G stand out?
It is very fast!
Compared to its predecessors, 5G is super-fast, almost 100 times faster than 4G!
Now combine this high speed with low latency, higher bandwidth, and more stability. You will realize why everyone is rooting for it.
So, 5G will prove to be beneficial for the app development sector in unimaginable ways.
How?
5G is now standard on new mid-range and flagship handsets, so the network is no longer the limiting factor it once was.
The number of 5G connections will increase, and app users will have an enhanced experience with demanding content like streaming high-quality videos, 3D objects, heavy-data AR/VR shows, location accuracy, data security, and IoT devices.
5. Internet Of Things (IoT)
IoT is no longer a new concept.
It began with connected machines in the manufacturing sector to exchange information. The technology then entered into the consumer market with smartwatches, smartphones, and smart home devices.
By combining the IoT with smartphones, it is becoming possible for users to control their gadgets. It offers convenience to users by being location independent.
For example, you are in your office. You just realized that you have forgotten to lock your house. So, instead of returning home to lock the door, you can lock the house from your current location.
Yes, it is possible. All you need is an IoT supported lock system, an IoT app, and an internet connection.
IoT apps are now mainstream in the home, in vehicles and on factory floors.
6. Instant Experiences: App Clips, Not Instant Apps
Letting people use part of an app without installing it is still a good idea. The Android implementation of it is not.
Google Play Instant has been discontinued. From December 2025, Instant Apps can no longer be published through Google Play, the Play services Instant APIs stopped working, and Play no longer serves Instant Apps to users by any mechanism. Google's advice is to send people to your regular app and use deep links to drop them into the relevant screen.
On iOS, the equivalent idea is alive: App Clips let someone use a small part of your app from a link, a code or a place, without a full install.
So if you built for Instant Apps, that investment needs redirecting: deep links on Android, App Clips on iOS.
7. On-Demand Apps
On-demand apps are an established category rather than an emerging one, and the competition is correspondingly harder.
Since the last couple of years, on-demand apps have connected customers with different service providers and vice versa.
On-Demand apps cover many sectors, and consumers use them to get their hands on products and services they wish to purchase. These services range from grocery, laundry, food delivery, car rentals, personal beauty, and health services.
Consumers can now get their hands on many such services with just a few taps on their smartphones. Most online businesses are leveraging the benefit of On-Demand apps to flourish and build a reputation.
8. Folding Display
Many tech brands are launching newer folding display smartphones.
Folding displays are another trend worth designing for, though they remain a small share of devices.
Phone models like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X have been on the market for years, and more manufacturers have followed.
For the app developers, this will surely bring some more challenges.
With a foldable phone, you get a bigger workspace to run several apps at the same time. For example, you can chat with someone on WhatsApp while watching a video on YouTube and also search for some information on Google, all in different windows.
Yes, you could do this even on a standard phone. But it’s handier with a foldable phone thanks to its tablet-sized screen.
So, the apps will have to be altered to be compatible with this trend.
9. Cloud Integration
Cloud integration with apps development is no longer a futuristic trend.
Cloud back ends are now the default rather than a differentiator.
Cloud is allowing app developers to reach never-before-conceived levels of mobile app functionality.
There are multiple benefits in opting for cloud-based apps.
- Cost Reduction: You only have to develop one app for multiple platforms.
- Platform Compatibility: You can build a single app & launch it on cross-platforms like iOS & Android.
- No Requirement of app Storage Space in the Smartphone
- Scalability: it is easier to scale and extend the capacity of cloud-based apps at any stage.
Cloud integration can benefit both the users and app developers like never before. It makes it easy for app developers to create a mobile app much faster and at a lower cost.
And the users get to access these apps seamlessly without having to install them.
10. Security
All these years, as the demand and usage of mobile apps grew, sufficient priority was not given to app security.
It has turned hazardous in various forms – cyber threats, malicious attacks, leaking of confidential information, and phishing scams.
For example, in 2018, Facebook shares fell by 8.5% as it was found to be involved with Cambridge Analytica in users’ data breach. A #DeleteFacebook movement followed.
Digital security remains one of the few items on this list that is never optional, because it is tied directly to data protection and privacy law.
It is especially critical nowadays because of the popularity of trends like m-commerce and technologies like AI, AR, VR, and IoT that expose the data on a large scale.
Development teams still have to choose security algorithms and tooling deliberately, from VPNs and antivirus to mobile device management.
The near-term future of mobile app development looks busy. There are ample opportunities to improve user experience and benefit businesses. Creating an app has never been easier.
11. Beacon Technology
A Beacon is a small gadget that sends out notifications and information to smartphones and tablets located nearby.
Beacon technology can create magic when integrated with apps.
You might find this hard to believe, right?
Imagine you need to buy a list of dairy items, and you are in a hurry. You enter the store with your shopping list on your Smartphone. A beacon app will help you shop for the required items quickly.
How?
So, instead of stopping by to check the availability of the required items at different aisles of the store, you can quickly blaze through the store. You only stop and shop whenever you get a notification on your device about the desired product, price, and location in the store.
Beacon technology, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals, makes it possible.
When you enter a beacon zone in the store, the beacon device will immediately receive this signal and provide relevant notifications and guidance to you.
Beacon technology can track locations, items, and screens nearby and send location-based advertisements and messages. It enhances the app UX in several ways – It helps businesses send notifications regarding special offers, nearby stores and hotels, and more to their users.
Like entertainment, hotels, museums, retail, and healthcare, many industries have already installed beacons in their services.
Both iOS and Android apps have been using this technology for a few years now.
Beacons remain a niche, useful where indoor proximity matters and hard to justify elsewhere.
12. M-Commerce
M-Commerce is all about buying and selling through a mobile device – Smartphone or tablet. The whole idea behind using an m-commerce app is to deliver a better UX, have a wider reach, and become more accessible.
M-Commerce, or mobile commerce, has dominated app development since 2019 and continues to grow.
According to Statista, mobile made up 72.9% of worldwide retail e-commerce sales in 2021, the last year in that series.
With the increasing demand for online retail shopping and contactless payment options among tech-savvy customers, more businesses realize the potential of M-Commerce.
If you are a business owner contemplating an m-Commerce app, the question is no longer whether mobile matters but whether your checkout and payments are good enough to compete.
M-Commerce is evolving with many new and exciting features:
- One-click checkout buttons
- Buy buttons that let the buyers purchase without having to leave the platform.
- Voice shopping
- Omni-channel shopping
- And, many more
Build Now, or Wait?
A trend list is only useful if it tells you what to do about each item. Here is a blunt read on all twelve.
Table 1. Where Each Trend Stands
| Trend | Where it stands | Build now or wait |
|---|---|---|
| AI and ML | Mainstream, and now expected in most categories | Build, where it solves a real user problem rather than as a label |
| AR and VR | Established in retail, navigation and games | Build if your product has a spatial or try-before-you-buy use case |
| Blockchain | Live products exist, but most apps do not need a ledger | Wait unless decentralisation is the point of the product |
| 5G | Standard on new mid-range and flagship handsets | Assume it, do not design only for it; test on slower networks |
| IoT | Mainstream in home, vehicle and industrial settings | Build where you own or integrate the hardware |
| Instant experiences | Google Play Instant is gone; App Clips continue on iOS | Do not build Instant Apps. Use deep links on Android, App Clips on iOS |
| On-demand apps | Established category, crowded and competitive | Build only with a clear supply-side advantage |
| Folding displays | Shipping for years, still a small share of devices | Support responsive layouts; do not build folding-only features |
| Cloud integration | The default, not a differentiator | Build, and treat cost and data residency as design decisions |
| Security | Tied directly to privacy law, never optional | Build from day one; retrofitting is what gets expensive |
| Beacons | Niche, useful for indoor proximity | Wait unless you have a venue or retail floor to instrument |
| M-Commerce | Dominant and still growing | Build; the question is payments and checkout quality, not whether |
Develop A Stunning App with Imaginovation
Your business app needs to stand out in the crowd. That’s why you must stay abreast with the latest, developing trends and technologies.
If you want to leverage the trending technologies and build the most impressive and innovative app for your business, get in touch with us.
We can help you create the right app for your business.
We are an award-winning web and mobile app development company with vast experience in crafting remarkable digital success stories for diverse companies.
Let’s talk.
