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You have an idea to create a GPS application from scratch or enhance an existing app with GPS-based technologies. The arising question is how to build a successful location-based app. Market research, tech stack, features, testing, vendors, time frames, budget, launch — the scope of decisions to make is really extensive. The challenge lies not just in creating a multi-level app core with many useful features, but in making a robust and highly demanded mobile application within your budget dealing with a reliable tech partner. How do you finally start eating this elephant?
The first thing you should know about GPS applications is that they have the chance to bring you good income by providing new business opportunities, upgrading customer experience, and widening your target audience. Navigation technologies are on the rise because of the simplicity of concept and a broad spectrum of usage, from delivering pizza to location tracking in the ocean and in space. There is no need to pattern your business ideas after existing mobile apps. GPS is far from being just a standard solution for daily life demands but a stage for innovations. Look at the owners of the “No Place Like Home” brand, who created GPS shoes that will guide a person home after three heel clicks.
The development of GPS tracking applications can be a real challenge, but understanding the sequence of steps and having a reliable tech partner at your hand will turn your idea into an in-demand application that can reach the top of the market. Below are the exact steps for how to create a location-based app.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is an advanced tool for processing navigation, exact locations, and timing signals for users anywhere in the world. This technology lets us synchronize people, objects, and services at one point.
GPS is a tracking unit operating on a satellite basis. It works in all weather conditions, 24/7, and subscription fees are needed. GPS signals were initially used as secret U.S. military units and later had been transformed into daily instruments available to everyone. Its promotion in the last ten years has been due to a rapid jump in IT, commoditization, and miniaturization of gadgets supplying robust wireless solutions. Demand and availability pushed innovators and companies to create products and services to surround people with tech amenities, increasing productivity and saving their resources like time and money.
The global GPS app market has a sky-high potential—its size has reached almost $1 billion in 2021, and its projected horizon is $1,5 billion by 2025. The main trends in mobile app development drive the navigation platforms to grow due to in-demand cloud technologies, telecommunications, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, etc.
Each industry has its window of possibilities in the GPS technology field. You can see this on real projects that started with just an idea like you have today.
On-demand services like taxis and deliveries ride high nowadays. Taxi mobile applications require specific features like linking passengers and nearby drivers, providing real-time location tracking, smart maps, and travel duration. Delivery applications need options for ordering food at the moment, seeing a courier’s location on a map, checking delivery times, etc. Uber, Uber Eats, and Zomato are the biggest players in this field. For example, Uber Eats’ revenue exceeded $5 billion in 2021, with nearly 70 million users. Here you can learn more on how to build a GPS app even better than Uber.
GPS capacities are widely used in public transportation and fleet management, for instance, Onfleet, Geotab, and Moovit. Navigation services have evolved from basic features showing just locations and routes to easy-to-use apps with weather and traffic alerts, route optimizations during traffic jams, location sharing, multiple stops, etc. Now if you’re wondering how to create a location-based app with millions of users, the companies below know how to do this:
Large retail stores like IKEA, Target, and Walmart use geo-tracking mobile applications to extend their in-store bases. Their clients can find the nearest store and choose delivery service or convenient pickup. Providing accurate indoor and outdoor positioning and full designation for clients is the key to raising sales.
Booking apps have reached 50 million downloads in 2021. Here are the examples of successful travel applications:
The geolocation feature is widely used on construction sites. For instance, the HubStaff app may prevent rework by checking time and progress with GPS location tracking and use geofencing to create job sites and improve productivity on the site.
Geo-based augmented reality may be implemented to help with 3D visualizations of entire buildings and separate components on a construction site.
Many people spend their entire days on mobile devices. eCommerce successfully uses this ability to raise sales. Retailers can make relevant offers and deliver demanded services. AliExpress, eBay, and Amazon are the leaders here. At the beginning of 2021, Amazon reached $109 billion with 1.9 million sellers.
Social media like Instagram and Facebook actively integrate GPS features like geotags for posts, showing advertising to relevant audiences, finding and adding friends, etc.
Wellness companies are fans of geolocation applications too, for example, Nike+, Strava, Runtastic, Runkeeper, and MyFitnessPal. They track your real-time route and speed and help you connect with other runners in your area. You can share your achievements on social media. MyFitnessPal has grown to 200 million users and earned $128 million in 2021.
If your company creates games, implementing a GPS system will add aliveness and social interaction and will league players together. Pokémon Go is an example of wild success with almost $800 million in revenue. Real-time social interaction was a winning factor.
IoT is an innovative sector which uses navigation in smartwatches, fitness wearables, pet care apps like Pet Scout, luggage locator apps like LugLoc, etc.
The GPS tracking applications industry is much wider than just traditional Google Maps. This type of technology may be used for non-commercial purposes like tracking for law enforcement, social impact, public safety, and disaster relief, healthcare robotics, etc. Here are some nonprofit GPS projects:
The question is how to create a location-based app that would be highly efficient, user-engaging, and in-demand on the market. Developing a GPS tracking application is a chain of connected processes. Hiring the right development team will lead your project to a well-packaged mobile product with a powerful tech stack and high audience engagement. Below, you can see the steps of how to build a GPS-based app.
Start from the market exploration—analyze competitors, their approaches, business strategies, provided services, and used technologies. Having a core idea is great but not enough for a strong release. Applying to business analysts will give an understanding of the demands and tasks needed to be put into action, help sharpen the vision of software products, and set its growth vectors on the market.
A technology stack combines OS, frameworks, libraries, programming languages, and other tools necessary to develop an application. The choice of Android or iOS depends on many factors like:
Android and iOS are rival operating systems, each with its advantages and disadvantages. When choosing a tech stack, you need primarily to take into account the product itself, its specifics, purposes, and target audience.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will be the first real introduction to your project. Its features are basic but enough to provide functionality and meet the needs of the target audience. The MVP development stage is optional, but it is reasonable to implement it as it provides many advantages for businesses. Below are some of the goals of an MVP:
QA is intended to check whether an app’s features are responsive and meet specifications, test its performance under a particular workload, verify compatibility with various operating systems and devices, check how user-friendly and intuitive an app is in usage, pass through security borders, etc. Testing of GPS tracking applications is a complicated process because of many factors affecting navigation accuracy—from travel speed to how cloudy the sky is. After all types of testing the team gets a report with QA results including a list of bugs and recommendations for app improvement.
After testing an app with a global positioning system from different sides and getting the recommendations, your team will need to modify functions, eliminate bugs, make the app more intuitive, etc. The scope depends on the results obtained in the previous stage.
When your GPS tracking app is polished, it’s time to release it in mobile app stores like the Google Play Market and/or Apple’s App Store. You may release a beta mode if more tests are planning to be run.
Location-based apps require periodic updates as SDKs map changes and mobile OS updates may break some functionalities. Continuous updating of features will let you stay on the wave of tech and market needs in the future.
Many companies have already implemented geolocation features into businesses and successfully reap its benefits. If you still have questions about GPS app development, contact NIX.
The main problem to tackle is how to create a location-based app and not fall at the finish line. Statistics show that only 77% of users who install an app will not use it again after the first month. Thus, you have just one chance to impress the crowd with your idea and functionality of the location-based app. An enormous number of ideas fail due to errors in reaching, delivering, executing, and packaging the product when other companies like Waze make giant leaps forward.
Waze is a geolocation application launched in 2008 as “LinQmap”, which raised $55 million in funding. In 2013 Google purchased Waze for $1.1 billion. So the main question is how to create a location-based app, reach your audience, and give an impressive performance. To achieve metrics like Waze, deeper challenges must be solved.
Nearly 57% of people are comfortable disclosing their geolocation while 31% of users require complete privacy when sharing data. That is why it’s crucial for app developers to stay transparent with users about the purposes of data processing, rules of its usage, and storage. Explain why getting a user’s permission is required. Offering additional value as an exchange for GPS information is a way to hit privacy objections.
Personal data must be secure. This crucial task may be provided by a combination of advanced security protocols and the implementation of security testing measures in your location-based app.
Low app engagement is a common issue in mobile development. Gamification, real-time communication, sharing information via social media, personalization, relevant notifications, and rewards increase users’ engagement quickly and organically. For instance:
Background mode for location tracking will complement the app’s technology and functionality, mainly if your GPS platform relies on local notifications. Voice integration with Google Assistant or Siri will be an advantage for the geolocation app.
Battery consumption of mobile devices while using geolocation applications is quite high if not optimized. This issue may be solved by batching geo requests, turning off unnecessary updates, controlling GPS accuracy, etc.
Accurate location displaying is decisive in location-based app development. Distort of routes may include wavy lines instead of straight lines, crossing buildings or water areas in the wrong points, etc. These violations must be technically foreseen, for instance, by using the Fused Location Provider API from Google, and also by specifying how often geodata will be updated. Apple implements this feature automatically.
It’s needed to pick to pieces all the vulnerabilities in third-party entries like frameworks and libraries. The challenge of location-based app development is to reveal security holes and neutralize the trouble spots. Secure communication in transit is provided by encrypting and installing an SSL certificate from a trusted authority. Sensitive data should be encrypted with advanced cryptographic algorithms to secure data storage.
As you see, building a navigation app consists of not just following and implementing tech requirements but also considering a wide range of deeper issues and challenges for ensuring the competitive edge results.
The more core features, complements, and additions an app calls for, the higher location-based app development will cost. Here are the items which may influence the overall cost of GPS app development.
The expenses will significantly rely on if you need to empower an existing app or create an app from scratch.
The more functions a geolocation app has, the more expensive it will be. A GPS app may consist of push notifications, audio and video streaming, payment gateways, online and offline modes, external device connections, third-party integrations, advanced analytics, chat, ads, etc.
The geolocation app development rate on Android and iOS platforms are in the same range of expenses. Android commonly needs to be compatible with a wider range of devices, operating systems, and versions than iOS. Thus, Android may have higher expenses due to the wider scope of tasks.
UI/UX design may differ in cost depending on the complexity of the UI kit, visual hierarchy, the number of screens, if there will be modern graphic elements or animations, etc.
GPS application development from scratch requires a team with up to 10 people usually with the following roles: business analyst, project manager, UI/UX designer, app developers for Android and iOS platforms, back-end and front-end developers, QA engineers, etc. The bigger the team, the more the budget. The hourly rate of app development services also depends on the team’s location and experience.
You have two options—create an in-house team or outsource app development. Choosing to build your own team always leads to additional expenses like buying equipment, rent payments, time-consuming hiring processes, and onsite employee management. You can’t avoid these significant expenses, especially if you’re a permanently growing company.
If you decide to go with outsourcing, pay attention to the team’s experience, relevant portfolio, recognitions, certificates, composition, legal practices, and pricing for services. Outsourcing development to an experienced software provider gives a wide range of edges to your business:
Considering all the items above, you will get the final location-based app development budget. Here you can learn more about how much it costs to make an app.
It may seem that GPS application development is an overwhelming task, but with a proficient tech partner close by, your idea will be transformed into a set of accurate tech goals, fixed time frames, and a transparent budget.
NIX knows how to create a location-based app with the help of a skilled pool of talent.We have high expertise in Uber-like app development. Real-time data and smart map features were implemented into a multifunctional taxi app. We also developed an app for online food delivery service, where the client was one of the largest online food ordering and delivery marketplaces in Europe. The NIX team created a high load & real-time location tracker, and many other projects. Our experience and expertise let us affirm that we know how to create highly-efficient GPS apps.
GPS connects people, objects, and services at the same point at the same time. The high demand makes geolocation a budding technology—billion-dollar revenue is not an empty promise, but a reality. Following the steps described above you will set goals and, piece by piece, the GPS app elephant will be eaten. GPS is a stage for innovative solutions to bring your business to a substantially new level. NIX can be your reliable tech partner because we know how to transform ideas into real products.
If you want to figure out how to build a GPS app, start by working on the requirements for it. You have a lot to choose from since GPS applications can have many valuable features enhancing the user navigation experience. The most common options are as follows:
These features are needed to create a successful and user-friendly navigation app.
There are several popular GPS mobile apps available today. Let’s list the most famous examples.
These are the most popular navigation GPS apps today. Of course, the list may change over time as new players are constantly entering the market.
If you’re looking for how to create a location-based app, you should analyze a couple of crucial technical requirements, without which you won’t succeed. Let’s discuss them in order.
Developers use various programming languages and frameworks to build GPS navigation apps. Let’s list the options most commonly used today:
Surely, this list could be continued, but these are the most relevant technologies for creating GPS applications.
It’s not enough to create a navigation application—you need to be able to monetize it afterwards. So the next question is regarding how to make a GPS app profitable.
We propose considering several simple and working monetization strategies:
Building even a basic GPS app without any programming knowledge will be tricky and pretty challenging if you’re not ready to hire professionals. It’s not impossible, though, and here are a few options to consider:
The above free solutions are suitable for building a base for your app, but they won’t give you many customization options. Therefore, your GPS application won’t be able to compete successfully in the market. Of course, the most effective way to create a navigation app is to hire experienced developers. The main thing for you is to have a clear understanding of the requirements for your project, and the rest is up to experts who know how to build a GPS application and will be able to bring your idea to life.
With a vast background in business analysis, Roman is keen on identifying actual business challenges, defining tailored software requirements, and navigating IT projects to market success.
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