According to Precedence Research, the global mobile app market size reached a record $289.17 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow up to $1,103.48 billion by 2034, with a CAGR of 21.55%. This means that competition in this niche is becoming more intense, so developers have to perfect every detail to make their solutions popular. Below, we, as a company specializing in mobile development, will share our insights on how to make a popular app.
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1. It Solves a Real Problem or Pain Point
If an app doesn't solve a pain point for its target audience, it's useless. This is a simple rule that we prioritize when starting work on any mobile project. And yes, popular apps don't just appear because someone wanted to "make another food ordering app." They appear because users find their current services inconvenient to use, or because they don't have a solution to their problem at all.
For example, for one of our clients, we developed a logistics solution to replace the rather popular but difficult-to-use SuperDispatch. We also provided end-to-end automation of the client's regular business processes, thereby ensuring a fairly quick return on investment of 1 year. The company's overhead costs were also reduced by 19.5%, and the speed of task execution by 41%.
In general, we always start with problem interviews, analyzing negative reviews from competitors, and building a customer journey. This allows us not just to create another app but to offer its audience a digital tool that they want to use every day.
2. Simple, Intuitive UX and UI
There is no need to make users think about how to use your app – they just want to act to solve the problem for which they downloaded your app as soon as possible. For example, we understand that good UX is invisible UX. It doesn’t require instructions, doesn’t bother with complex menus, and doesn’t force switching between screens for each new operation.
That is why to achieve intuitive UX design, our designers always work in tandem with analysts and developers to organize UX workshops with the client, build interactive prototypes, conduct A/B testing of layouts, and also take into account the accessibility for different categories of users (including those with disabilities).
3. Performance Is Seamless
All popular apps have great performance and load speed: new content loads instantly, scrolling doesn't slow down, and operations are performed quickly even during internet connection failures. That's why in WEZOM, every feature of the first app versions undergoes stress/long-term testing, profiling, optimization, as well as data caching and fallbacks for offline operation. This allows us to reduce failures at the stage of first acquaintance with the application and reduce the load on the support service.
Indeed, due to the increased competition in the mobile software sector, even a 2-3 second delay can be a reason to delete the app. And given that entire regions (in particular, some countries in Africa and Southeast Asia) can suffer from poor internet connection, we can conclude that the implementation of the above practices is guaranteed to increase user retention rates.
4. Retention Features Are Built In
Retaining users starts with small things: smart push notifications, built-in email newsletters, in-game features, and everything else that motivates the user to come back. For example, at WEZOM, we adapt mobile app retention mechanics to the specifics of the niche: our mobile solutions for e-commerce, fitness, and education include everything from personalized reminders to challenges and in-app discounts.
Generally speaking, end users should not feel like it’s “just another app on their smartphones” – they should want to come back automatically. And since downloading an app doesn’t mean leaving it on the smartphone for a long time, you will have to provide these reasons for return in advance.
Let’s consider an example: you are working on a mobile fitness app. By implementing days without skipping and integrating the corresponding notifications, users will increase their sense of responsibility and desire to maintain their streak. As a result, this will have a positive effect on the duration of daily use – and this is exactly what you need.
5. User Reviews Drive Visibility
Positive user feedback is the foundation for your app’s growth in the App Store and Google Play. In particular, WEZOM implements and optimizes the flow for receiving reviews, from disclosure via push notification strategy to automatic reminders after a certain interaction. We also analyze bad reviews and quickly install patches to prevent such problems from recurring.
In general, the best option is to think through the scenario of the rating request: this can be the ability to leave a rating ONLY after a positive experience, providing users with the opportunity to write a review directly in the application, as well as automatic tracking of negative experiences for internal support. In the latter case, it is important to think about what you will do with negative feedback – these can be prompt fixes, follow-up, and reaction through updates. Ultimately, this affects not only the impression of a particular user but also app store optimization (ASO).
6. Social Sharing and Referral Loops
Apps become popular when they are willingly shared with friends, so you should have the appropriate mechanics and semantics of viral loops. For example, our mobile development teams can implement referral codes with bonuses for both parties, “invite a friend” widgets, and other social sharing features. All this often brings 20-30% growth in the user base simply through word of mouth.
Speaking of specific examples, we recently implemented a mobile application for preparing school graduates for entrance exams, within which we introduced a rating system with in-app tokens. As a result, this mobile application attracted thousands of students and teachers in just the first week after launch.
7. Analytics Drive Smart Updates
An app grows only if the data determines the tactics of its further development. Actually, for this purpose, we integrate Amplitude, Firebase, or Mixpanel – they provide a complete understanding of what, how, and when the user does. Each feature goes through A/B tests and loyalty and retention analysis – all this makes it possible to build a roadmap based not on persons, but on numbers.
Also, for effective UI analysis, some development teams create heat maps and feature flags – they help them determine which functionality should be left untouched and which elements need further optimization.
8. Clear Onboarding Experience
The first 1-3 minutes of interaction with your mobile software are critical, so any chain of actions should be optimized (ideally, you need to achieve the formula “each action requires no more than three clicks”). That’s why top mobile app traits often include social login, progressive onboarding, previews of completed actions, screencasts instead of text, and other techniques to accelerate progress. The ultimate goal is to bring the user benefit from interacting with the application in the first seconds.
Using the example of a financial literacy application, you can exclude the registration form from the interface until the user completes 1-2 steps. In this case, you will be able to increase the conversion to registration by 10-30% even without in-depth research, which of the app monetization models is better to choose in the end.
9. Available on the Right Platforms
Often, the best decision is not to immediately create code for iOS, Android, and PWA, but to start with the platform where the maximum percentage of the audience is concentrated.
In particular, we first conduct an audit – if we need maximum coverage, we rely on PWA or cross-platform, while if native integration is required, we use the native stack; if the budget is limited, we resort to PWA or React Native development, while if native capabilities are mandatory, we choose Flutter, Kotlin, or Swift. Ultimately, for niche B2B cases, even a Telegram bot can be more effective than full-fledged mobile software.
10. Frequent, Value-Driven Updates
Teams working on popular products fix bugs and implement new features at least once a month – in our experience, planned work on secondary forms, screenshots, and push texts consistently leads to growth in user retention and the app’s positions.
That's why we always build a roadmap before the start of development, which includes regular patches, releases with new features, as well as documentation and UI updates.
Bonus: Learn from These Popular Apps
So, to better understand what makes an app popular, let's look at how exactly they are implemented in the best mobile products.
Duolingo
Duolingo is a pioneer in the mobile edtech software segment, which can be considered a role model in applying user acquisition and retention mechanics. Here, onboarding takes place in a dialogue format, without pressure on users. They immediately begin to complete simple tasks so that in 1-2 minutes, they can evaluate their progress. Gamification is present everywhere: streaks, experience points, levels, chests, competitions with other users, and much more that causes emotional attachment.
Push notifications in Duolingo are adapted to user behavior. If you often study in the morning, a reminder will come at this time. If you "skip days", you are gently motivated.
Calm
Calm is one of the most popular wellness applications, whose interface is almost invisible: it does not distract, but supports the main goal – to help the end user relax. As for the design, its visual part is made up of a soft color scheme, contains animations of nature, and a soothing voice.
Such an application has deep personalization: at the start, it specifies exactly what you want: to relieve stress, improve sleep, or cope with anxiety. There are also regular content updates and integrations with Apple Health and Google Fit so that users can check their data on breathing, heartbeat, and sleep hours.
Conclusion
Now, you know why apps go viral – indeed, creating a popular app means going through a difficult path from the idea to the release, as well as user feedback and updates. And here it is important not to guess how best to complete each stage, but to build a systematic work in all directions, including researching problems and needs of the audience, ensuring the convenience of the interface, achieving high performance even with a poor Internet connection, implementing retention, return scenarios, and recommendations, as well as performing regular analysis for continuous improvement.
If you want to follow all the above best practices for developing successful app features in your product, feel free to contact us.