Already more than a quarter of a year passed, 2021 is still scaring us with the return of the pandemic in many parts of the world. Last year, the emergency scenario helped to foster digital businesses and channels and helped them penetrate deeper than ever before. This year, as it seems, will not be any different. 

Well, with the mobile app development continuing to create new milestones for user engagement, certain technologies and development practices are increasingly getting outdated. Whether you are an Android or iPhone app development company in India, keeping a close watch on these outdated trends is necessary to stay relevant and useful. 

Here we are going to explain the most notable mobile app development trends that are soon going to be outdated. 

Fingerprint Security

These days, most of the leading smartphone brands in their devices have the fingerprint sensor inbuilt to help faster completion of transactions and smooth registration. But fingerprint works best with clean and dry hands, and repeated uses of sanitiser often make it difficult to authenticate with the fingerprint sensor. 

Unless you have a robust mobile app already up and running with active fingerprint security and authentication, you can avoid the technology altogether and instead can embrace face recognition for an easy and hands-free way of validation. Face recognition as one of the emerging iPhone and Android app development trends will help with more ease of use and thus will help you stay tuned to the modern standards of user experience. 

Rule-Based Chatbots

Apps are increasingly getting user-centric as demands for more convenience, quicker interaction, and satisfactory user experience are continuously increasing. Now for some years, chatbots used to offer great convenience by allowing meaningful interactions with quick help to app users. 

A chatbot can either be a rule-based system or a system powered by artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies. While the first is only capable of answering queries and making interactions based on fixed rules, the latter is more context-aware and personalized in nature. As intelligent chatbots capable of addressing user queries with specific data-driven inputs have become the mainstay, rule-based chatbots are getting obsolete. 

The chatbot conversations today are increasingly becoming context-aware and driven by data-driven inputs to personalize answers based on the user intent and previous interactions. Moreover, chatbots are now having digital personalities flaunting specific branding elements to make a clear impact on the users. In contrast, rule-based chatbots that just answer queries based upon an algorithm of combinations are getting obsolete. 

Touch & Type Input

Manual typing is still the most common action for data input across the vast majority of apps. Similarly, touch interactions coupled up with an array of gestures are the key interactive elements across the entire spectrum of smartphones. But both type and touch inputs are getting outdated with the emergence of voice input. Voice input offers us more convenience, ease of use, and sophistication for interacting with an app interface and getting things done. 

There can hardly be any wonder that the trending popularity of voice input has already forced Google, YouTube, and many popular platforms to embrace voice search and voice input for quite some time. All virtual assistants, leading search engines, smart home systems, IoT gadgets, and an increasing volume of mobile and web apps have embraced voice input. Naturally, with the rise of voice input, touch and type input is getting obsolete. 

Netbanking and Bank Cards for Digital Payment 

According to most industry estimates, the vast majority of smartphone users are already comfortable and versed with mobile wallets and mobile payment solutions. The rapidly increasing sales volume generated through mobile payment apps is a major testimony of this truth. In complete contrast, using net banking and bank cards for processing payment is losing popularity continuously. 

These days, customers of any e-commerce or other app while making purchases have an array of mobile wallet options at their disposal. Most interestingly, apart from the dedicated mobile payment apps like RazorPay or PayTM, many e-commerce giants and on-demand apps are offering their payment apps both for making their customers pay for services and products they sell and also for other payment needs. No wonder people, while purchasing at Amazon, prefer paying through AmazonPay, or Uber users prefer making payment through Uber Wallet. 

In the wake of such unprecedented popularity of e-wallet and mobile wallet solutions, so-called OTP-based transactions by using bank cards and net banking look obsolete. 

4G Network 

A few years ago, when 4G network technology first hit the market, the entire world was delighted to have faster network connectivity allowing unparalleled speed people could ever experience. But this seamless user experience and high-speed network down the line in just a couple of years became the new normal. Around that time, the upcoming 5G network started to create buzzes.   

At a time when real-time data streaming and live streaming became more popular, the limitations of 4G were laid bare, and we were all expecting the 5G network to become public and available. Naturally, we already look at 4G technology as something already standing at the exit gate. 

As the 5G network is already here, apps built for 4G connectivity have to be updated to embrace the latest lightning-fast 5G network. If you are into app business, you no longer can shun your eyes from the emergence of 5G connectivity. 

Conclusion

Since technology continues to change at a faster pace than in other worlds, making exit way for outdated technologies and paving the way for new upgrades, the app developers need to stay alert to the changing trends to remain relevant and useful for their audience.