There is no doubt about the fact that with 3.96 billion active mobile app users worldwide, businesses are looking to get the same attention. Mobile apps constantly accelerate change in the marketplace, addressing customers and business operations. In fact, the demand and revenue for mobile applications in the business landscape is soon projected to reach 613 billion USD by the year 2025. Therefore, it’s high time to take a closer look at every possible factor that impacts a mobile app development process.
Usually enterprises and startups inquire about the app development process and the app development cost, but we are now moving to another significant factor: the timeline to create an app, the resources required and all the efforts involved. As soon as you learn the benefits of having a mobile application for their business, you are more likely to get on with it. Hence, the question for today’s discussion: how long does it take to develop an app and how to create your own app?
Now, usually, the average time to develop an app looks like the below image. But there is no definite time to create an app as it depends on person to person and company to company. But there is no definitive-ness. And thus this article.
Key Stages of The App Development Process
The mobile app development process has different stages and all of these stages require different time slots. From the planning process until the launch of the application, the entire process is interdependent on each other and requires proper attendance. It is quite obvious that apps with different sizes and different features have different app development time.
Each development stage is discussed below to answer the question ‘how much time does it take to build an app?’ In addition, we will also discuss how long does it take to build an iOS app and how long does it take to build an Android app?
Mobile app brief is one of the main documents that entrepreneurs and app developers often miss out on. Ideally, the better the brief the lesser time it would take to understand the software project and the requirements. In fact, this one step can have a HUGE impact on the time required to develop an app.
There are some things that you have to include in the brief which you are working with such as the company information such as a detailed understanding of the project and the mobile app development services you will have to deploy.
The outcome of this stage is usually : you have an analyzed document of the estimated app development process before you get to different design and development related phases. Let us first look into the time it takes to set the basis of all the design and development processes that follow.
- Project
- Project goals and the success metrics
- RFP
- NDA
- The budget range
- Delivery date
Stage 1: Forming ideas and research
The first step in the process of how to create an application is forming ideas and research. It’s easy to get great ideas but it’s not necessary that everyone will agree to it being great. The idea formation and research part very much affect how long it takes to build an app. This stage involves starting with an idea to make an app and then researching it for more improvements.
Another thing that this stage involves is targeting the right audience. It is in this initial stage that the right audience is targeted for the app. Defining the target audience not only helps in boosting the app after its launch but also in shaping the app in the right direction.
Different apps have different sizes and ages of the target audience. For instance, Facebook has all ages of people on its platform whereas Tinder has a younger target audience. Targeting has made these apps so successful therefore it is suggested that proper targeting and research should be done.
Analyzing the competitiveness of the market and the app is also necessary. During the research about the app, one should also gather information about the competitors and potential threats. This will prepare the app owners for any difficulties after the app launch.
The entire research takes several weeks. By the end of the research, you should know all the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors, the app strategies and defined target audience.
By the end of this stage, you should get these outcomes:
- Minimum Viable Product
- User Stories
- App Prototypes
Stage 2: Planning it all out
The next important stage to create an app is the planning stage. Once you know all about your market, it’s time to plan out the app development process. The planning stage involves decisions regarding the configuration of the app. These decisions include making a choice between iOS and Android, native or hybrid, cross-platform or not, web-based app or mobile app, etc.
Once these plans are made, it’s time to add on the features. Now the features of an app should be such that neither does it complicate the app nor slows it down. There are many basic features that an app should have such as search bar, social media sharing buttons, profile building, login option, etc. These features make a basic app much more convenient for users.
As the app size increases, the features are more and more directed towards the type of app. For instance, any e-commerce app will have the ‘Add to cart’ feature. Similarly, social media apps have the option of media sharing and various other features for engagement on the app.
So how long does it take to build an app? All this planning is quite complex and will require a month or so.
Stage 3: Design Sprints and Idea Validation
The next step in how to develop an app is design sprints. Design sprints processes are being used for testing different aspects of an application. It takes around a week to complete the whole design sprint. The idea of the stage is to test different aspects of the idea and get them validated by a pool of prospective users.
Design Sprint helps businesses understand if users value a feature, how they use it, when they would be using it, how easy or difficult they think it is to navigate the application, etc.
Stage 4: Development stage
In the development stage of how to create an application, there are three elements that need to be built: the UI, Front End and Back End. Once all the planning is done, the developers and designers will work their magic and start building the app. So how long does it take to build an app? Well, the development and designing stage takes about six weeks.
The UI of an app is taken care of by graphic designers. This gives the apps an appearance to enhance the user experience. UI is important for any app to flourish in the market because the users seem to like visually appealing apps more.
Evidence for this can be seen in our refined UI/UX strategy for Domino’s that helped increase its mobile app’s conversion rate by 23%.
The frontend and the backend are also very important components to create your own app. The frontend is what users see and how they act in an app but nothing will make sense until the backend is developed. The backend connects the UI with the system and allows the proper functioning of the app. So, how to make an app without either of these? Well, you cannot.
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