6 Things To Consider While Optimizing Apps For Content

The top app development companies have to consider the consumer’s desire for new content. One of the focus areas is news. Everyone reads the news on their mobile devices. If the device or the app from which people obtain a news story isn’t working that well, the user may find alternative ways to access news.

Google realized this and has optimized the display of news stories on their mobile browser and devices with AMP. Publishers can use AMP to distribute their content more quickly on mobile devices than via traditional methods. This way, their news stories are easily accessible by mobile users, making it a better choice. App developers can optimize their apps similarly. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Add A News Feed To The App

Adding a news feed is one way to optimize apps for content. A news feed provides access to the latest news from reliable sources. Users can easily view the latest headlines. If the news feed is linked, users can go to the website and view the whole story. The app development companies create apps with similar features.

App developers can select the sources for the news feed. They could also allow users to select sources from a list. An option could be added that involves manually entering a source for the news feed. This would instantly optimize the app for news.

Every time the user opened the app, the latest headlines would appear at the top of the app. These would be updated on a regular basis. A news feed would make the app more useful to the user, and they would use the app more often if they obtained good information from the app.

2. Offer In-App Purchases for Content

Another option is to add content for purchase within the app. This includes subscriptions for articles and news stories. The app could also offer stories as a reward for completing tasks. This is ideal for gaming apps. Most gaming apps offer amateurish rewards. The app development companies could make the game more mature by including more interesting rewards, such as interesting stories or side-plots.

There could also be excerpts from interesting magazines or reference books. Historical text is always worth reading.

An app that includes more content is generally more interesting. If content is available for purchase in an app, it becomes a source of content, and users are likely to go to the app for content instead of to traditional sources. Soon, apps could be the primary source of entertainment, news, and gaming.

3. Display Topic-Oriented Content and Blogs

A sports game app could display popular sports clips such as the top plays of the week or famous moments from the history of the sport. Gamers could upload their video game footage into the online community, and the app could display the most popular videos on the home screen of the app. The app development companies could use similar ideas to make the app more content-driven. Users would open the app to see the latest videos. Another idea is to display the latest photos taken by users. This is a good idea for photo apps.

Maintaining a blog for the app is another way to promote content or use content as a means to attract users. The blog could feature interesting articles, pictures, and videos. The topics would be related to the app. When users are bored with the app, or if the user doesn’t want to update the app, they could read the blog and post comments.

4. Sharing Options Built Into Apps

Most apps have social media buttons for sharing. These include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are other ways to share things as well, such as by email, text messages, and Bluetooth. To send information via these methods, the app development companies would have to build in sharing options. These would allow users to easily copy web addresses from the web browser and send them to contacts via email or text message. A window displaying all the apps that are available for sending information would appear and users could select an app to use.

5. NFC Sharing Options

Android phones have a sharing feature that utilizes NFC. It’s called Android Beam and it is used to transfer files from one phone to another phone. This can be useful for lots of apps, especially camera apps. Users can share photos with each other when they meet, or they can share game codes. It’s also a great way to give and receive shopping lists. On the content side, users can share scanned text and articles. For example, users can photograph pages from a book or magazine and share them via NFC.

One requirement for NFC sharing is that the file must be in external storage. The app development companies would need to program the following steps:

• Ask for Permission
• Name the NFC Feature
• Name the Android Beam Transfer
• Compatibility Test for File Transfer
• Name the Files to Send
• Create a Callback Technique that Delivers Files

6. File Sharing Coding

Another way to share content is by setting up file sharing within the app. This involves using a content URI. Content URIs are generated by the FileProvider. The FileProvider is part of the v4 Support Library. The advantage of this is that information from one app can be accessed and used by another app. To do this, the app developer would have to do the following:

• Specify the FileProvider
• Specify Sharable Directories

To specify the FileProvider for an app, make an entry in the manifest. This will specify the authority required to generate content URIs. It will also identify the XML file, which will provide the directories that are shareable by the app. When specifying the authority for an app, use a value with the following text ‘fileprovider’ attached to it. The <provider /> element will reveal the directory to share. Use an attribute for the name and path of the file; the extension .xml isn’t included.

The next step is specifying directories. To do this, create a file called ‘filepaths.xml’ in the res/xml/ subdirectory. Add an XML element for each directory. This will allow the app’s internal storage to share the directories.

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Kenneth Evans is a Content Marketing Strategist for Top App Development Companies, a research platform for the world’s top app development companies. He has contributed to various blogging platforms and forums.