Mobile apps trends in 2022

Thinking about creating a new mobile app? Or maybe you have already built one and you’re wondering how to make it more up-to-date and attractive? In this article you’ll find descriptions of some mobile app trends in 2022 and – maybe even more importantly – our insights on whether it’s worth implementing new features related to these trends in your app. 

The mobile app industry is so quickly evolving all over the world that it may be a little hard to keep up with all the trends. Luckily, it’s not like every mobile app should implement new trending features all the time. Nevertheless, based on the data from Statista:

• In 2020, global revenue from mobile apps increased to over 318 billion U.S. dollars (this was an increase of over 60 billion compared to 2019). 
• In 2021 the revenue reached more than 400 billion U.S. dollars.
• The Statista Digital Market Outlook estimates that revenue across most segments will increase over the next few years and overall will reach around 613 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Which basically means that it’s probably worth investing in mobile apps for businesses and implementing trends is often necessary. 

Who should be interested in mobile app development trends?

So who should get interested in mobile app development trends if it’s not necessary to take them into consideration in every app? Still, every app creator/owner. That’s because having a mobile app, you should at least know what’s new and trending to find out if that’s something you can profit from. For example, with the rise of foldable mobile devices, it doesn’t matter if you’re interested in them or not. Your app should be adjusted to these conditions because if it’s not, you’ll simply lose some users. 

Below you’ll also find our tips about which apps should probably be involved. 

E-commerce mobile apps

Internet sales have played an increasingly significant role in retailing. In 2021, e-commerce accounted for an estimated 19.6% of retail sales worldwide. Forecasts indicate that by 2025, the online segment would make up close to a quarter of total global retail sales.

As we buy more and more with mobile devices, through e-commerce apps and websites, and choose it above the traditional form of shopping, it’s also worth considering building a mobile app for your store. Buying your products will be much more convenient with a mobile app, as users won’t struggle with browser incompatibility etc. If you’d like to find out if you should consider creating a mobile app for your e-commerce business, jump to this article, where you’ll find lots of useful hints. 

Changing habits

The trend of moving activities into our homes has already started in 2020, for reasons that are well known, but interestingly enough it doesn’t really seem like certain new consumer behaviors will change. Well, it turns out that more and more people actually like working from home, as well as spend their free time there. We choose more often to spend time outside with nature, not among people in big city centers. We prefer to use food delivery apps instead of going to restaurants, we choose fitness apps to exercise at home instead of going to the gym and we also decide to subscribe to video streaming apps instead of going to the cinema. As mentioned above, we also enjoy shopping online through apps and websites instead of going to local stores. 

That’s why it’s so important to consider what new solutions would serve your customers in the best possible way and always adapt to their needs. Considering the above cases, for example every business in the restaurant and fitness industry should take creating a mobile app into account. Maybe your type of business also fits into this trend and it is worth transferring it to the online world in the form of a mobile app?

Video and voice chats

The time when texting was the most popular way of communication has passed and now we’re again kind of more into talking with our voice. To be specific, it’s not necessarily about phone calls. If you have a chat/social media app, you should definitely give your users the chance to take advantage of communicating through voice messages and video messages. 

Because texting is slow and standard phone calls are boring, video messages have become more attractive for users as they can use different modes and filters to talk with friends. That’s just fun!

Medium and Washington Post made it possible to listen to an article instead of reading, which, taking into account the high interest around podcasts, again proves that implementing voice features are highly important and valuable. 

Another area where video chats have become important is healthcare, due to the increasing popularity of telephone and video appointments with doctors. If a patient's case does not require an in-person consultation, more and more platforms provide the option of online consultations. The doctor can help the patient remotely, for example by prescribing a prescription or when the patient cannot leave home. 

Mobile apps involved

Which mobile apps creators should probably consider implementing the above in their app? In some sections we’ll leave a list of categories that in our opinion are relevant for this mobile app development trend. 

• Apps including chats
• Social media & network apps 
• Healthcare apps
• Apps with a lot of content and/or articles

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

You might think it’s only for games. That’s not true. More and more mobile apps contain AR and VR features and that’s a trend users enjoy very much on a daily basis. In 2022, as well as in the coming years, it’s pretty obvious it will become a growing mobile app development trend. Trying on clothes and make-up, fitting furniture and plants in the room, seeing real-size pets… that’s what AR is used for nowadays, so it’s also a great idea to implement it in e-commerce apps! 

AR is also broadly used in social media, like Snapchat and Instagram, to communicate with others in a way that is fun. Moreover, VR is becoming important in such industries as healthcare, manufacturing and broadly defined science, for example doctors can learn to perform difficult operations without touching a real person thanks to this solution. Apart from its entertaining capabilities, VR can be a real life-changer when it comes to scientific research and other aspects of everyday life. 

When it comes to everyday activities and entertainment, during the pandemic lots of companies have made it possible for their employees to meet in VR and have a live-like conference. You can also go to a concert in VR glasses, or for example watch the movements in space, even in real time. There are endless possibilities.

As you can see, AR is developing in so many areas of daily life, entertainment and science, that it will definitely continue to grow in 2022, as well as in the future. 

Mobile apps involved

• M-commerce apps
• Apps in medical industry and science-oriented
• Social apps
• Events apps 

If you’re interested, you can jump to Plants&Pots case study, where we implemented an AR module in the app, so that customers can see plants in real size at home before they make a purchase. 

Fast and easy mobile payments

Again, when it comes to e-commerce apps, fast and easy payments are a must-have nowadays. Customers may often give up on spontaneous purchases if payment is difficult, for example if the card number and other details have to be entered. It is therefore important to provide various ways of making quick and easy mobile payments, for example by providing payments with mobile wallets, credit cards, fast bank transfers and deferred payment, such as with Klarna app. Make sure users have a choice and can use the most convenient method every time they do their shopping. This also applies to wearable devices and apps made for them. 

See also: Top mobile commerce trends to watch in 2022, to find out more about trends for e-commerce apps. 

Mobile apps involved

• M-commerce apps
• Apps enabling payments through wearable devices

Foldable Devices

They are also becoming more and more popular in 2022. Folding a screen is no longer a problem! The occurrence of foldable mobile devices is definitely one of the things the world was waiting for, but although it happened a few years ago, we can still call it a growing trend.

It’s not like the market was hit by foldable devices so hard that now everybody has one. But still, nobody likes to be excluded because they bought a new device. So it won’t be nice if users’ favorite apps don’t work on them. That’s why, having mobile apps, you should take care of it so that it works properly on every device. 

Cross-platform solutions

From a more technical point of view, as mobile apps are basically expected to be built faster and faster, new solutions to quickly develop apps have appeared. Cross-platform development is one of them and it’s the most popular one nowadays. Thanks to Flutter, React Native and others, app developers can create apps for multiple platforms and devices with one code base. That’s why this time-saving solution is gaining more and more popularity.

At FiveDotTwelve we have already noticed this trend in previous years and we can predict that in 2022 most projects, especially startups, will be cross-platform apps as release time is becoming an increasingly important factor. 

If you’d like to learn more about cross-platform development, read this article.

Rise of 5G

5G is a fifth-generation mobile technology – a mobile network standard that is the successor to the 4G standard. Fifth generation mobile technology includes a system standard that must meet International Telecommunications Union (ITU) assumptions, designated IMT-2020. These assumptions include requirements for the performance parameters and applications that the fifth generation system must support.

The main advantage of the new networks is that they will have greater bandwidth, giving higher download speeds, eventually up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbit/s). So mobile apps simply perform better thanks to better connection.

Conclusion

It’s definitely always a good idea to follow the latest trends and check if any of them would simply fit in your app. Deciding about implementing new features that will bring joy or usefulness for your users will bring popularity to your app and be profitable for your business. Keep up to date and adapt to fast-paced changes in technology and it will pay off!