7 Reasons Why Your App is Being Abandoned

Failures are a part of your mobile app development journey. You cannot expect to nail it every time and that is okay. There are several apps that meet a bad end even before launch rendering all development and design efforts utterly useless. The mistakes made could be at any stage and by any one; from business owners having unrealistic expectations, developers missing out on important details, poor market research, to inadequate marketing attempts; or perhaps a combination of multiple mistakes.

App abandonment has become a regular occurrence, where according to Statista, 25% of the apps that are downloaded are only used once. While the graph below shows app abandonment rates until 2019.

So, why do apps lead to failure? What are the possible issues that can be avoided to curb the loss of high app development cost, time, and other resources invested? To fully understand this, you would need to learn about the major reasons that are behind app failures.

Reasons Behind Mobile App Failures

One of the best ways to find the answer to why apps get abandoned or discarded is to get to the root of the problem. So, we created a list of reasons you and your team can learn from.

1) Your App Fails to Address Real Problems

Mobile app solutions are meant to resolve certain problems of their target audience. If your app isn’t providing anything of substance that is of value, then there are already many competitors they can easily gravitate towards to achieve their goals. Hence, your app should be original and not just another version of an existing application.

Remember, there is already a saturation of mobile apps within the app market. So, you need to make sure your app has that edge in user experience, powerful innovative features, and long-term potential. Just make sure you are not only fixated at raking massive profits from your mobile app. Such goals are bound to place your mobile app development process on the wrong path.

2) Target Audience Who?

One of the surest ways to place your app for failure is having no specific target audience in sight. If you are not aware of the audience you are building your app for, then you wouldn’t know what their issues and preferences are. This way, your app might be solving a problem that is not required in the first place, leading to zero app downloads or purchases.

So, to remedy this, you should invest in target audience research. Find out what problems they are facing, what would they like in your app, their preferences, and much more. Then once you have the necessary data – you can place that against your own ideas and make the necessary changes.

3) App is Too Complicated

Mobile apps exist to make things easier for its users. So, if you have an app with complicated features and confusing navigation – chances are people will get frustrated and leave your app. You need to understand that user experience can make or break your mobile app. Which is why, you need to create a simplified and user-friendly mobile app that makes their experience pleasant enticing them to return.

4) Too Many Features or Lack Thereof

Another misconception that many businesses take with them in their mobile app planning is that the more features their app contains the better it will perform. Which isn’t necessarily how it works. On the other hand, apps lack the necessary or ‘enough’ features to really be of any use.

All in all, there is a need to make sure you strike a balance with the amount of features you would want your app to have. Moreover, depending on your business model for your app (like Freemium, paid or other), you can add features periodically as planned.

5) Wrong Platform?

You cannot just randomly choose a platform and decide your app would be for Android because of its large market or for Apple users. If the majority of your audience is Apple users, then you need to choose iOS as your main platform. Otherwise, you would be targeting Android market and wondering why your app has failed.

Yes, your budget is definitely of importance here. And if you have enough then you can invest in cross-platform app development that would not only cost you less than individual native apps for iOS and Android – but also, you will be targeting both platforms simultaneously.

6) Ignoring User Feedback

Another major point contributing to your app’s abandonment is not valuing user feedback. Or worse, not giving them a way to contact their issues regarding your app. This indifference towards end-users makes them feel unimportant and they find it hard to take your app seriously.

This is why, it is always stressed to take user-feedback serious and listen to their issues. If they find a bug or a missing functionality that could improve your app – then immediately address those issues and follow-up. This instills user trust in your app and the improved experience enhances customer retention/user retention rate. So, it is a win-win situation!

7) Poor Testing

No software solution is complete without adequate testing. Similar is the case with mobile app development. The goal is to identify as many bugs, loopholes, missing functionalities, or entirely wrong features before the app is launched.

If your app isn’t tested thoroughly, it will be brimming with bugs that won’t appeal to the end-user one bit leading to app abandonment.

Remember, you are already tapping into a market space that is heavily crowded with competitors and tech-savvy users. Your poor testing will do you no good in making your app stand out in the crowd. With so many apps available, users won’t take a few minutes rejecting your app upon meeting a bug or error.

This is why, it is important for the testing team to test the app since the beginning of its life cycle to ensure that it is market-ready and heading in the right direction. A mobile app development company for example would heavily focus on testing as it will on its development.