Process of App Maintenance: Your Ultimate Stepwise List

Confused about the process of app maintenance?

App maintenance can be a headache sometimes. And finding out what should be attempted first can be cumbersome.

The secret of successful app maintenance lies in the process you attempt. If you miss one step, you will end up falling down.

Want to know the right process to maintain an app?

Here you will find all your answers. We will discuss the concept, reasons behind app maintenance, a step-by-step guideline to maintain an app, and the cost of maintaining it along with certain factors.

Shall we proceed with the same?

What is App Maintenance?

Before you proceed with why maintain an app, let’s find out what app maintenance is, for those who are unaware of it.

App Maintenance refers to a continuous process of updating, modifying, re-evaluating, and analyzing the present software applications. This process ensures optimal performance, security, and user satisfaction related to your app.

Now that you understand the concept, here’s why you should maintain it.

Importance of Mobile App Maintenance

Would you prefer to download an app that has not been updated for months after it was launched?

No, right! So, how can you expect your customers to download your mobile app that has not been updated?

If you have a mobile business application, then you should consider the maintenance of the app aspect. Nowadays, users keep their eye on the latest updates on the app store.

The frequency of the app depends on the features that the app contains. To make your mobile app successful, its maintenance is crucial.

Here are some reasons why maintenance of mobile apps is crucial.

1. Updating the User Interface

A user has the tendency to shift to another platform if you do not provide a valid and attractive interface that fulfills their needs.

It is vital to keep the user interface updated. In order to continue interacting with the device’s app content, functions, and features, your mobile app should remain updated.

The user interface of the mobile application can also impact the rating of the user and their experience while using the app.

The users have the tendency to abandon software applications that are not responsive to their activities.

2. Engaging the User

It’s a very difficult task to engage your users, isn’t it? To keep them on your app for longer intervals and to ensure that your mobile phones contain the app is a challenging step. To engage your core user, you need to first identify what your user demands.

User also expects apps to run smoothly without finding any glitches. Continuous maintenance of the apps helps the app owner to fix bugs that further result in increasing the performance of the app.

Also, updating the current app with the features can result in retaining the users and creating a new customer base successfully.

3. Improves Survival on the App Store

Different app stores contain diversified practices and policies. Hence, to ensure that your app is compatible to be downloaded from any of the app stores, you need to know the guidelines of the app stores.

There are diverse guidelines for different app stores, and they continuously keep on changing. Thus, it is important to keep updating the features of the mobile app in order to stay on different app stores.

You also need to monitor the major releases on the App Store and should upgrade the app accordingly. You can also hire mobile app developers to comply with the app store’s needs.

4. Important for Security Updates

Think about apps that do not provide security for your data. Would you ever like to download them? Now, take this case for your app.

With the evolving threats of cybersecurity, hacking mobile apps has become easier. Maintenance also involves regularly updating the features of the app to protect the user data and prevent unauthorized access.

The regular updates of the app ensure that the app is protected against current security threats. Mobile app security plays an important role in increasing your customer interest in the app.

5. Maintaining Goodwill

None of the users will like to visit your app if the app does not possess compatibility traits. Do you want your users to stay longer on your app?

Then provide them a platform to do that, maintaining the app’s goodwill through initiating the compatibility feature in your mobile app.

To sustain in the competitive environment, it is essential for the business to regularly update the app based on different operating systems.

This depends on your choice between upgrading the app on the Android and iOS platforms. This assists in maintaining rapport with the app.

A user would never want to have an app that contains slow functionality and also delays in fixing a problem.

6. Update with the Latest Technology

Every person wants to have the latest technology on their phones. Don’t you? The scenario repeats with your customer.

Your app must be updated based on the latest technological parameters. With the mobile app tech stack guide, you can have details on the latest technology for your app maintenance.

The changing tech landscape produces the need to keep the app updated with the current technology uses.

To ensure that your application succeeds, you need to eliminate unnecessary functions and features. You also need to free up space to make room for new updates.

7. Keep a Regular Check on Legal Compliance

Don’t you want your app to comply with the legal practices? Hence, to have this, you need to have a regular check on the regulations and policies related to the law.

Update your app based on the current law practices. The laws and regulations that govern mobile apps may change over time.

Regular maintenance of the app can assist you in keeping up with the latest regulatory requirements. It also helps to protect your app from getting banned or restricted.

Thus, mobile app PCI compliance helps in mitigating the risk of legal issues in your app.

8. Ensuring Long-Term Sustainability

You have developed your app to sustain for the next hundreds of years to come. Right? So, to ensure this kind of durability of the app, you need a proper maintenance plan for your app.

Regular maintenance of the app is useful and can contribute to the app’s long-term viability. They also ensure that the app continues to meet the objectives of the business. Regular maintenance of the app enables you to create an effective user base and also remain a valuable asset to your business.

9. Follow the New Trends

People are social creatures, and to remain in society, they need to be trendy. This also applies to your app.

Being in trend is not tough; all you need to do is keep track of the current social environment and market. What’s going on in the market will have an impact on your app now or then.

Here, it develops a need to update and maintain your app based on the new trends in the market. One of the significant benefits of adding new features to the app is to adopt recent changes and fix bugs.

10. Analyzing the App

Don’t you think updating the app can provide you with an insight into the current status of your app? Yes, true. And with this insight, you can modify the app to best practices that can attract your users’ attention.

For maintenance, insightful app analytics is essential. A mobile app development company can help you do that very easily.

Yes, the developers have detailed insights into the current market trends and can modify your app accordingly.

You can update the app for two reasons: one for practical purposes, including functions and corrections. The other is for strategic purposes, comprised of marketing and trends.

Now, that you got a clear picture of the reasons to maintain an app. It’s time for the procedure. The next section follows the same.

Stepwise Guidelines to Maintain an App

What’s the process to maintain an app?

Your curiosity will end here. The step-by-step app maintenance process is explained below. Let’s learn to not miss any step.

Step 1: Conduct Regular Updates

The foremost step is to conduct regular updates. This step is useful in identifying bugs, glitches, or performance issues that may arise post-launch.

Here you can identify and resolve the issues in the first step. It can automatically lead to gaining users’ trust.

Step 2: Performance Monitoring

The performance monitoring measures are effective in monitoring time after providing real-time application data. It is useful to gauge application performance by recognizing issues.

You can implement a performance monitoring tool that will identify the gap between the standard performance and the actual output.

Step 3: Bug Fixes

Fixing bugs is the third step, where developers can track and fix bugs as soon as they identify them. This step is done under the procedure to maintain an app that increases performance and app security.

Avoidance of this measure can create problems such as crashes and slow performance that can impact user experience. Implementation of corrective software maintenance can be determined as bug fixing.

Step 4: Security Maintenance

In this phase, you should implement mobile app security patches and updates to protect user data which can result in preventing data breaches and avoiding information leaks.

Adoption of robust technological measures can be identical to ensuring app success. Support and maintenance experts play an important role in keeping systems running efficiently and smoothly.

Step 5: Database Management

Effective database management systems and design are useful in enhancing user experience. This system helps users to administer and manage data within the database.

The important role of the database is to store a large amount of data that strengthens websites and web applications.

Step 6: User Interface and User Experience

The third step is to enhance the user interface and experience by improving UI/UX design. Under this phase, you should evaluate the market demand to navigate the features within an app.

The interface of an app should be kept modern and fresh based on the design trends to attract and retain potential users.

Step 7: Third-Party Services and Integration

During the app maintenance process, it is useful to check with the third-party services and application integration. A seamless integration with the third party is important.

You can check this process when you input different data and see whether the API and third-party services ensure a correct response.

Step 8: Customer Support

Here, under this step, it is vital to test the effectiveness of customer support present in an app. Customer support is the medium to address users’ queries, thus it should be accurate.

If you implement AI in customer support, ensure that it works properly to identify what exactly the user is asking of the app. Enabling proper customer support enables an increase in user experience.

Step 9: Schedule Maintenance

This is the last step, where you should schedule your next process of app maintenance. Deciding the next app maintenance cycle is an essential step to ensure that the app works properly.

Here you can check the legal compliance with the app platforms before deciding the next date of your app maintenance process.

After deciding on the stepwise process to maintain an app, it is essential to know the actual cost it takes in the complete process.

What’s the Cost to Maintain an App?

After learning about the complete process of app maintenance, you might be wondering about the mobile app maintenance cost.

Aren’t you?

Well, deciding the right app maintenance cost can be pathetic if you remain unaware of the effective measure to calculate it.

The cost estimation to maintain the app can be from $20,000 to $50,000 per annum. However, there are certain factors that you should consider before deciding on it.

These factors can be studied below in brief.

• Complexity and Size: A highly complex app requires a high cost to be invested. The vast size of the app will demand an implementation of more cost and vice-versa.
• Update Frequency: The cost depends on how frequently you update the app. If the app is updated regularly, the amount to be spent is likewise high.
• Security: Apps that contain sensitive user data should be handled wisely and robust security measures need to be implemented accordingly.
• Monitoring and Support: Regular monitoring requires cost to be invested in it. An app with a customer-centric model needed a high cost to ensure user support.
• Geographical Location: Some apps remain limited to a specific location. Here you can hire app developers to know the type of location your app should be preferred and developed.

After understanding the diversified factors that can impact the overall cost, now, it’s time to look for a team to implement the process of app maintenance.

How Can Nimble AppGenie Help in App Maintenance?

Well, as you head to select a team, it is essential to look for a team that has enough experience, can save your overall cost, and enables you to understand the app’s needs.

Connect with Nimble AppGenie, an effective app maintenance service provider. We understand your demand and the need to maintain the app. Thus, we are committed to providing topmost services.

Maintenance of an app isn’t rocket science, although it can become a burden if you keep piling it up. Avoidance can cause app failure.

Conclusion

App maintenance is an important step that is useful to implement for certain reasons. These can include providing app security, ensuring user satisfaction, adding new features, increasing scalability, and enhancing brand reputation.

The process of app maintenance begins with regular updates, performance monitoring, bug fixes, security maintenance, database management, customer support, and schedule maintenance.

If you want to identify the cost of maintaining an app, certain factors need to be considered including complexity, frequency updates, security, maintenance and support, etc. Other than this, you need a team that can maintain your app.

FAQs

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma, CTO, Nimble AppGenie, is a tech enthusiast with more than a decade of experience in delivering high-value solutions that allow a brand to penetrate the market easily. With a strong hold on mobile app development, he is actively working to help businesses identify the potential of digital transformation by sharing insightful statistics, guides & blogs.