Developing a Super App – The Complete Guide

In our innovation-driven digital era, our everyday life mainly revolves around smartphone apps. We have apps for everything in our life. There are so many apps for different functional needs managing them often becomes difficult. Well, this is why the concept of a super app has become so powerful and popular recently. Let’s explain more.

What about having one travel app that allows you to book tickets, order food from local restaurants, book guides in the local museum and guide you to explore the city with a real-time virtual guide? Awesome, No? Yes, that’s exactly what a super app is all about. The super app is about offering multiple services through one single app.

Who are the app developers near me who can build a super app of my choice? If you are thinking of a similar line, this guiding article on super app development may be helpful for you.

Begin with in-depth research

You must first understand that every type of regular app can be turned into a super app. This is why doing market research is so crucial for such app projects. To begin with, you must understand the user characteristics such as preferences, gender, age, interests, etc.

Secondly, always explore the scope of partnering with other leading apps in the market. There are several leading apps with global audiences; by partnering with them, you can get great exposure for your app. Lastly, figure out the competition in your respective super app category and find effective ways to stand out.

Pick the right operating system.

Now you need to choose the operating system platform most of your user audience uses. You can opt for native iOS and native Android or build a cross-platform app targeting both platforms. You can also opt to develop the web app.

• Native development: Native development for a single OS platform can be expensive and time-consuming, but it ensures optimum performance and user experience.
• Cross-Platform development: By using cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter, you can share maximum code across iOS and Android without compromising on the native user interface.
• Web app development: You can simply build a mobile website or a Progressive Web App (PWA) with several app-like UX attributes while working as websites at the core.

Choose the preferred features for the super app.

Since you are building a super app to bring together multiple features p, choosing the right set of features is extremely important. Here below, we mention the key features of a super app. 

• Social media login: Social media integration can help users log in effortlessly to any app.
• Multilingual support: You must ensure multilingual support when targeting several regions or countries.
• Integrated mobile payment: The app should integrate payment solutions ranging from mobile wallets, QR code transactions, bank transfers, credit or debit cards, etc.
• Scheduling: Since booking or order is a common feature of many super apps, scheduling the orders or bookings can be crucial. 

Choosing the right monetization avenue

Super apps offering features of several standalone apps can take a good amount of development budget; hence, monetization is extremely important in the beginning. Here we explain some monetization methods.

• Free and in-app purchases: You can offer most of your services for free and can decide to monetize other features through in-app purchases.
• Freemium: You can keep the essential app for free while making the same app’s advanced version chargeable.
• Subscription: Some super apps take a regular subscription fee from their users. You can charge monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly subscription fees and roll out a free 7-day plan for first-timers.
• In-app ads: A super app selling ad space can also generate revenue from the app.
• Peer-to-peer: In apps for peer-to-peer marketplaces, there can be additional features for payments, transactions, GPS navigation, food ordering, etc. From the proceeds of the transactions between buyers and sellers, you can get a commission.

Choosing the right technology stack

Since super apps need multiple features and functionalities, they need a more extensive and powerful tech stack addressing different development requirements. The standard technologies for super app development include Javascript, HTML5, CSS, Flutter, React Native, Google Cloud, Bootstrap, etc.

For super app coding and QA testing, common languages include Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, C#, Python, and a few others. Some other development frameworks commonly used for super app projects include ReactJS, Redux, Ruby on Rails, ReactJs, and others.

Development and Quality Assurance

After you finish the goal, monetization model features, and target user audience research, you must start developing the app by following a minimum viable product (MVP) approach. You should prioritize the most elementary app features and keep other features and value additions in the pipeline. You can add or make changes based on user feedback through subsequent updates.

It is always advisable to go for a fully-fledged design cycle involving wireframing, mock-up, and dynamic prototyping. While the wireframe design will give you a brief and rough idea about the look and feel of the app, in the mock-up stage, you have a fuller and more complete design. Finally, at the end of dynamic prototyping, you have a design ready to allow interaction for evaluation.

Lastly, emphasize app testing and ensure the app goes through several user testing phases involving actual users in different contexts. With rigorous testing, you can ultimately give final assurance of the project’s success.

Final Note

Super apps hold the future for smartphone apps in general. In the years to come, these apps involving multifaceted functional capabilities will replace the vast majority of single-service apps and help the app market to consolidate. So, it is the right time to jump on the super app bandwagon.