Today the mobile world occupies a considerable part of our lives: we use mobile devices from early morning to late evening. Increasingly, browsing social media feeds, chatting, shopping, and other activities are done with phones or tablets.
Additionally, the mobile app’s popularity has increased significantly. Using an app is more manageable than searching for a specific website through a browser. Due to this, a growing number of businesses have started to develop their apps. Android solutions are prevalent because of the wide distribution of this operating system, variety of devices, platform’s perspectivity, and other factors.
By reading this article, we will discover how to transform your website into an Android app and how it will benefit your company.
Issues to Consider When Turning a Website Into an Android App
Because of the expansion of the mobile gadgets market, more people are moving from desktop computers to mobile devices. As a result, it is evaluated that mobile traffic in 2027 will come to 288 exabytes (EB) per month, which is impressive compared to 38 EBs registered in 2018. Consequently, most businesses are considering converting their websites into mobile apps to reach a broader audience.
You may have heard of various conversion services that can automatically convert website to android app. But to deploy your app quickly and get the desired result, you need to make some effort (or turn to a tech adviser for proficient help). Thus, some points should be taken into account before proceeding with the development.
Things to keep in mind while turning a website into an Android app
So let’s analyze these issues in greater depth:
- Development cost. As you design an app that would be qualitative and attractive to users, you ought to finance its design. However, having a website and an Android app increases your income considerably and pays off the investment.
- Various screen dimensions. Unlike desktop websites, which allow for multiple screen proportions and little difference in resolutions, Android apps must be built to fit various devices. The website has many different visual objects, which should look seamless on any device. Such balance allows your app to be maximum user-friendly and highly increases its popularity.
- Lower searchability. You should also remember that mobile apps are less searchable than websites. Whereas you can effectively promote an app using your already existing and popular website.
You are now warned about all the issues you may face while transforming a website into an app. However, this decision has many benefits which are entirely overlapping these points.
One more thing to consider: you’d better not trust fast conversion services, even though it seems like an easy fix. The main problem with such services is their functionality. They may transform your website into something that looks like an Android app, but users’ interaction with such software will be awful. Creating an excellent native app requires using ready-made APIs and completely rethinking UI/UX design.
Why Convert a Website Into an App
Developing an Android app is a superb method to boost your business. Let’s look at why such a conversion will bring you the maximum benefit.
Main reasons to convert website into Android app
Broader Outreach. Due to the comprehensive variety of manufacturers, Android OS gadgets are the most common worldwide. Accordingly, building an app for this platform will cover a broader audience, which means higher revenues.
Faster Deployment. When we talk about an app for Google Play, it may be deployed in just a few days. Conversely, an iOS app release may take a month or more, which means longer app delivery for your audience.
More customization options. Android apps may be customized at any moment when it is necessary. Android is an open-source OS, so you may, for instance, integrate third-party APIs or do any other customization.
Better scalability. After Google Play, the identical app may be released for Blackberry, Symbian, or Ubuntu platforms. Consequently, you can expand users’ audience, and they may be potential clients.
Those are the primary casualties of converting a website into an Android app. Now let’s consider the usefulness of this decision.
Advantages of the Android App
Android app, in comparison with other mobile solutions, has several advantages, such as:
Android app’s benefits
- A new level of interaction. The app helps you to engage customers using push or in-app notifications.
- Integration with a platform. An Android app can quickly integrate with other apps providing a better user experience.
- User-friendly interface. Mobile apps are more convenient since they conform to user-familiar logic. Thus, it is handier to fulfill everyday actions with the app than with the website.
- Using multi-touch. Native apps, regardless of platform, support using gestures such as swipes. Their use makes the interaction with the application even more pleasant.
- Increased personalization. Unlike websites, apps may be customized for each user individually. Users may change the interface or save some personal information for further use.
- Offline access. One of the website’s disadvantages compared to an app is the necessity for good quality internet connection. Native apps may provide access to their main features without a network connection.
- Using all device capabilities. Mobile devices are highly personalized, so they may be used for high interaction with users. For example, the software remembers which apps users often open, so the system can remind them to use the app again. Also, native apps use the phone’s hardware for a more convenient experience.
All these points are significant edges of turning your website into an Android app. In addition, you may considerably expand your client base, which means firm growth and prosperity. So now, let’s figure out how a website can be converted into an app.
Steps for Transforming Your Website Into an Android App
As we already discussed, using transforming services is not the best decision. Instead, you should contact a professional software vendor to get an excellent Android app. Then, the developers pass through the following steps to produce a flawless app for you:
Steps of converting a website into an Android app
- Defining the project scope. First, you should decide on the functionality of a forthcoming app. For example, some features are worthwhile in the web version, and others should be created additionally for an app. The best way to decide about your app’s “shape” will be turning to an experienced vendor who can provide you with a feature list, a solution’s proper architecture, and determine the general idea of migration to Android.
- Project cost estimating. At the initial stage, you can use the mobile app development cost calculator to determine the approximate cost of the project using. After the application’s functionality is fully approved, you will receive a detailed estimate for your product.
- UI/UX designing. Before the developers start their work, UI/UX designers should create appropriate app designs according to the demands of the particular operating system and the business’s corporate style.
- App building. Programmers make your perfect app at this stage. As a rule, developers use Kotlin and Java languages, Android Studio, and other specialized tools such as RESTful APIs, database development, and pagination.
- Quality assurance. Testing takes place during development, before deployment, and after the release of the application in the store. For mobile apps, the following methods are usually used: usability testing, load testing, functional testing, etc.
- Deploying. Finally, a ready Android app is deployed to the Play Market and available for users. After the release, it is necessary to fix possible bugs and work on improvements after collecting the first feedback.
Thus, converting a website into an Android app needs a qualified development team to make it valuable and convenient for clients.
Final Thoughts
Converting a website into an app may seem similar to creating an app from scratch but in this case, you already have a particular idea about the future product. Although your development team still has to do serious work to implement the concept. Whereas the efforts are justified: with a high-quality Android application, you can retain users, attract new ones, and significantly “pump” your business.
Yuliya Melnik is a technical writer at Cleveroad. It is a web and mobile app development company in Ukraine. She is passionate about innovative technologies that make the world a better place and loves creating content that evokes vivid emotions.
