Consumption of quarantined applications grows: the most downloaded and the advancement of web apps

How would we go through this quarantine without screens? Among them, the smartphone and, What would these days be without applications?

According to a study carried out by the App Annie platform, during the week From March 14 to 21, 62 million mobile video conferencing apps were downloaded worldwide. This represents an increase of over 45% according to data from the previous week. Compared to 2019, analyzing the same week, the increase is over 90%.

During the first quarter of 2020, on Google Play, India and Brazil were the two largest markets for app downloads. In iOS, China and the United States were the two largest markets in this sense, as well as the main drivers of growth in downloads quarter by quarter.

The most downloaded categories

“Games” (the biggest driver of growth), “Tools” and “Entertainment” were the most downloaded categories on Google Play. Also, according to the study, changes in consumer behavior are being reflected in a Strong growth of categories that, before, were not as downloaded as “Health” and “Training”, “Education” and “Business”.

These three categories grew 40%, 35% and 30% respectively. In addition, videoconferencing tools and collaborative work such as Zoom, Hangouts Meet and Teams have had strong adoption.

In the case of iOS, the categories of “Games”, “Entertainment” and “Social” had the highest growth in paid apps. Growth in this category is driven by Disney + and Twitch. There is also an increase in the popularity of Discord, the chat app for gamer, popular in France, Spain and Germany.

As of March 31, Zoom is one of the top ranked daily iPhone downloads in 141 markets. During the week of March 15, downloads from Houseparty worldwide they grew 735 times from the previous week.

Mobile games are all the rage today and downloads grew 15% in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period last year. In the first 3 months of the year, 13 billion mobile games were already downloaded.

Do we really want so many apps? Until when are we going to continue downloading new apps from the stores? Will Web Progresive Apps (WPA) grow in this indecipherable new decade?

“It is true that WPAs are very practical and versatile (since one works for all platforms), but they become uncomfortable for applications that require constant use. The user is more comfortable (and mostly chooses) to use apps for social networks, games, finances. But if for example the application is for a particular use, how can it be a state procedure, ask for a turn, register in a contest. There it is infinitely more comfortable to enter a website ”, he points out Infobae Manu López, independent mobile developer.

Within the service economy, the app development group grows, even in the context of the global crisis unleashed by the pandemic. “I think companies are realizing that the end consumers for this type of business are not bad customers. Adobe, for example, changed its purchasing system, which was business-oriented (by price and by the type of license it gave you) to a subscription system. Because today audiovisual material is no longer only made by large companies, but youtubers who make millions of videos per day and are private, “he explains.

For his part, Lautaro Paskevicius, co-founder and CTO of the Parsii app, a computer engineering student and co-director of entrepreneurs at the Austral University student club, tells Infobae: “There is an app economy. And it is very competitive. Today, almost half of the population has a smartphone. Currently, 52.03% of internet traffic comes from a mobile device“

Regarding the advancement of PWAs, he says: “For users, it implies less space occupied on the cell phone, less data used and a faster loading experience, relative to a native app. For companies, these factors can lead to higher user retention, more activity per session and fewer bounces, especially compared to a website opened from the browser. “

For now, he explains that developing a PWA depends on the type of application you are looking for. Generally speaking, in applications that are mainly based on text and multimedia content, such as blogs, forums, e-commerce, there will be no obstacles to becoming PWAs, he explains. However, Paskevicius clarifies that an additional and important limitation is that in iOS the use of Push notifications for PWAs.

Google has a mechanism to be able to publish PWAs in the Play Store through a TWA (Trusted Web Activity). “It allows development teams to have their web apps present in the Play Store without rework. On iOS, at least not yet, there is no similar possibility ”, ends.