After working hard for months developing an app, holding your breath through the review and preparing for the perfect launch, you can\u2019t wait to watch positive reviews stream in. Instead, you see users complaining about bugs or requesting a slight tweak in a feature and you want to fix the issue immediately before more users encounter the bug. What you need right now is an instant update that you can roll out quickly without having to go through the app store update process.<\/p>\n
Of course, you can simply go through the standard app update release process but developers have their reasons to evade that when possible. In the case of iOS apps, the review process of an updated version is just as rigorous as the app review<\/a>\u00a0and can take days. Developers often want to fix bugs and release updates faster than that and hence, need tools that can roll out updates faster.<\/p>\n In the case of Android apps, the review process is fairly quick but the fragmentation of Android devices is an issue. Open Signal\u2019s\u00a0Android Fragmentation Report<\/a>\u00a0shows 24,093 distinct Android devices seen in 2015<\/a>. No matter how much testing and beta testing is performed, screening for that many devices is easier said than done and some issues or bugs are likely to slip in. With the right tools, it is possible to fix only the affected devices instead of making a universal update.<\/p>\n Some of the common problems that you may need to fix from time to time are \u2013<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n –<\/b><\/strong>F<\/b>ix<\/b> Bugs<\/b><\/strong>\u2013 Undoubtedly the biggest chore that keeps developers busy post launch, fixing bugs is a continuous process.<\/p>\n –Update Configuration Data<\/b><\/strong>\u2013 Sometimes, you may wish to make changes in some variables in your app, such as update the difficulty level in a game, without having to wait for an app store review and approval.<\/p>\n –<\/em>Request or force app updates<\/strong>\u2013 Users who don\u2019t update the app need to be nudged from time to time. You may send out a message requesting them to update or force them to update by telling them that the app won\u2019t be supported otherwise.<\/p>\n –Modify Analytics<\/b><\/strong>\u2013 if you wish to start tracking a new variable you weren\u2019t tracking earlier or change where you send the analytics data, you can use specific tools.<\/p>\n –Feature flagging<\/b><\/strong>\u2013 You may wish to activate premium features on selected devices only, make a certain variable available to VIP users or randomly select one percent devices to run a particularly special feature.<\/p>\n If you wish to skip the app store review and get all these tasks taken care of instantly, there are tools or SDK’s for all of them<\/a>. Here\u2019s a list of all the tools that help app developers and marketers launch instant updates on their apps.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS only<\/p>\n Rollout<\/a> is a tool that allows you to override any existing code in your app to modify or update any feature in real-time. It lets you inject JavaScript code into your native app (also known as a patch), thus overriding the native Swift or Objective-C code. Once done, it can freely interact with your existing app code and make required updates. Rollout can run specific patches on specific versions of an app, which is a rare feature. It is perfect for fixing bugs or simple feature flagging. It can in fact also be used for A\/B testing.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS, Android, and Web<\/p>\n If you wish to make any changes in an app\u2019s UI, Apptimize<\/a> is a very helpful tool. What started as an A\/B testing tool for mobiles later morphed into an \u2018Instant update\u2019 functionality which enables a new version of the app on all devices. While not suitable for any logic changes, it has a great efficacy with UI updates. \u00a0A new update also supports feature flagging, though it requires that you modify your app code before submitting to the app store.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS, Android, and Web<\/p>\n Optimizely<\/a> started out as a split testing tool for the web with their mobile support coming out much later. You can use Optimizely for instant updates such as feature flagging, or code blocks. Optimizely also allows you to define live variables that can be updated from the Optimizely interface. That is why Optimizely calls itself \u2018A Complete solution for app experiments without the developer headaches\u2019.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS, Android, and Web<\/p>\n According to the official website, \u201cTaplytics<\/a> is a fully integrated mobile A\/B testing, push notifications, and analytics platform providing the tools you need to optimize your mobile app\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018Taplytics variables\u2019 are dynamic variables that allow you to change any of your app content or functionality dynamically from their website. It can help you make real time changes to images, copy, color or the look of the entire page. You can even optimize your push messages, create A\/B tests and use data intuitively to create a strategy for the future.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS, Android, and Web<\/p>\n Leanplum<\/a> offers \u2018custom variables\u2019 that help you dynamically change your app\u2019s messaging, copy, analytics, and A\/B testing. \u00a0Its App Editor<\/a>\u00a0feature allows instant updates, variable editing and layout changes with minimal to no coding, allowing super fast iterations and instant results.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS and Android<\/p>\n Swrve<\/a> supports in-app campaigns, A\/B testing, analytics and optimization of push notifications. It even allows marketers to test updated features on a selected set of users before enabling it on all devices.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS and Android<\/p>\n LaunchKit’s<\/a> Cloud Config lets you alter settings and features in your app making quick and instant updates easy to carry out, thanks to its cloud capabilities. By just adding a Config variable and linking it to your app, the app will receive new data automatically, without having to modify your native code.<\/p>\n Platforms: Web, iOS (beta)<\/p>\n Having been named Gartner\u2019s Cool Vendor, Launch Darkly<\/a> helps manage feature flags with audit logging, flag statuses and custom roles. It can be used in multiple dev environments at enterprise scale. It helps release updates to selected groups allowing you to control risk to customer impact.<\/p>\n Platforms: \u00a0Web, iOS, and Android<\/p>\n Marketers who want an effective tag management tool need look no further. Google Tag Manager <\/a>(GTM) allows you to add and update tags for site analytics, conversion tracking and remarketing. It supports all Google as well as third-party tags.<\/p>\n Platforms: iOS and Android<\/p>\n If you are looking for an analytics management tool for better and more efficient tracking, mParticle<\/a> is the solution. It helps you collect data from apps, the web, and even third-party tools and connects the data to all your marketing and analytics systems.<\/p>\n App marketers have a tough job trying to keep their apps consistent in engaging users and bring in revenue. When app store review and approval takes far longer than a marketer can wait, instant app updates need a quick solution. With the aforementioned tools at your disposal, you never have to worry about delays in app updates anymore. Have you tried any of these? Do you recommend any others? Do share your experiences with us in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After working hard for months developing an app, holding your breath through the review and preparing for the perfect launch, you can\u2019t wait to watch positive reviews stream in. Instead, you see users complaining about bugs or requesting a slight tweak in a feature and you want to fix the issue immediately before more users … Continue reading 10 Dev Tools to Roll Out Instant App Updates<\/span> 1. Rollout.io<\/h2>\n
2. Apptimize<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
3.\u00a0Optimizely<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0(Mobile) <\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
4.\u00a0Taplytics<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
5.\u00a0Leanplum<\/b><\/strong><\/b><\/h2>\n
6.\u00a0Swrve<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
7.\u00a0LaunchKit Config<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
8.\u00a0Launch Darkly<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
9. Google Tag Manager for Mobile<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
10.\u00a0mParticle<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Wrapping Up<\/b><\/strong><\/h2>\n