Step-by-Step Guide To Develop A Highly Responsive Location-Based App

Ankit Patel
February 28, 2020
4 min read

Location based apps have opened new scope for the established businesses and new start-ups to carry out their businesses even more efficiently and reach a number of customers.

The geolocation trend has densely ensconced in the market of the mobile application. Geolocation is intensifying through almost every social media channel. It is being used by people for updating their current location status on social media, locating the nearby places to dine and for various other purposes. From Instagram to Snapchat, from Uber to TripAdvisor, location-based apps have changed the lives of millions of people.

What is a location-based app and what things you need to consider before developing one?

From searching for nearby restaurants and taxies to looking directions to a particular place on Google maps and hailing a cab via Uber through the mobile devices, location-based apps have gained immense popularity and have turned out to be the backbone for numerous thriving businesses.

Location based apps are very much useful for both the entrepreneurs and the users and the serves them in the following manner:

Using this app, users can know where he is and if required can share his present location with others
App is capable of measuring the distance between the objects
Some of the apps have the Geo-location feature that builds optimum routes between two points.

Top geolocation apps

Hundreds of geolocation applications emerge every year, where a few of them failed to grab the attention while others are making incredible business cases. Below are topmost geolocation apps that are highly popular on App Store and Play Store:

Navigation tool – Google Maps
Transportation – Uber
Social network – Instagram
Chat – Snapchat
Dating – Tinder
Travel – TripAdvisor
Fitness tracking – Runtastic
GPS tracker – Family Locator
Game – Pokémon GO

Things to Consider Before Developing Location-based App

If you want to create a geolocation app for your business, then you should consider below stated things for developing a seamless and effectual location-based mobile app.

Explore the Market
Explore the market for understanding your users, to know their problems and evaluate how their problems could be solved by your app. Without performing enough research, your product may appeal uninteresting to your customers.
Also, go through existing location-based apps and know their success as well as failure factors. From this, you can get an idea on which features to add and how to enhance the capability and user-experience.
Find the App Development Company
The company experience, the number of similar successful apps developed and with which industries the company has worked, etc. are the factors to consider while finding a perfect app development company.
Tech Stack
Location-based app development begins considering which framework and languages to use to make the app highly responsive, interactive and functional.
Below are a few tools that are used for location based app development :

HTML5 geolocation API

Google Places API
Google Maps API
Google Maps SDK
Core Location API
Apple MapKit

Android

Android.location package
Google Maps Directions API
Google Maps API
Google Distance Matrix API
Google Location Services API
Mapbox
Yandex Maps
MapView class
Open Street Map

Estimate Costs
For developing an app you will have to make some financial investment. The development cost varies for every company. Hire the developers and choose the app features that fit your budget.

Guide For Developing Location-Based Apps

Now when you have gained basic knowledge on what location-based app is and what things to consider before developing one, now it’s time to throw light on how to develop a flourishing location-based app similar to the popular and most used apps mentioned above.

Prototyping
The term prototype means a draft version permitting you to have a glimpse of the app and feel it. Through prototypes, you can gather user feedback and make alterations in the initial development stages instead of spotting and making the required changes after the completion of the app. You can opt for a prototype offering low fidelity that would involve a concept’s rough representation through something which is as easy as paper drawings.
Design
The UI/UX design needs to be innovative, clean and must be capable of complementing the functionalities of the app, enabling the user to operate the app easily. A high-quality UI/UX design will help in making the app user-friendly and exciting and take it a long way.
Focus on Functionality
The location based app features that need to be present for great functionality of the app are:
- Map view
- Detection of user’s location
- Route mapping
- Find places near me
Other features can be added on the basis of your app’s purpose and its different categories. Make sure you keep a minimum number of features in the first version. Later on you can add more features as per app’s popularity. First build an MVP as it is considered as a low risk tactic for verifying your concept.
App Development
In this development stage various app versions are developed like web, Android, iOS version, etc. so that every app features function perfectly; hence it is considered as the most important and time-consuming and has to be done with complete precision. For making the location-based app development process predictive and manageable, it would be wise to make use of agile development methodologies.
Integrate Geolocation
While building a location-based app, you should make use of mapping services and location simultaneously. This can be done using various ways like GPS, Assisted GPS, Cell ID or Wi-Fi.
Data Safety
Abiding by the safety regulations, you must get your app developed. On ignoring the safety feature, your app may remain unused. Make sure that you obey the safety regulations of every country in which you would want to launch your app.
Testing
Testing spots the errors and hidden as well as apparent bugs. It guarantees that your app doesn’t fail while functioning. Bug-ridden and inaccurate apps will surely frustrate the users, and they will lose trust in your app and switch to your competitor’s app. For sure, gaining their trust back will become difficult for you; hence the app should be strictly tested so that it is error-free and smooth.
App Release
In the app release phase, your app is launched on the websites, App Store and Play Store enabling the users to use it.
Marketing
To make your app noticeable you need to market for it. Social media channels are the best online marketing platform through which you can advertise for your app. Start marketing for your app from the day the idea has been initiated so that when it is launched, more users come to know about it and wait eagerly to download and use it.

Final Thoughts

Developing a location-based app is a good idea as it opens plenty of opportunities for established businesses and new start-ups. As people from all over the world are using smartphones, it is certain that there will be high demand for location-based apps in the future.

About: Ankit Patel

Ankit Patel is the Project Delivery Head at XongoLab Technologies LLP and PeppyOcean, leading mobile app development companies specializing in custom software & mobile app solutions. Passionate about technology and innovation, he enjoys writing about mobile & software development, business, and marketing. His articles have been featured on renowned publications, including YourStory, E27, Datafloq, JaxEnter, TechTarget, Adobe, DesignWebKit, InstantShift, Business Magazine, Simple Programmer, and many others.

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