Strategies and tips for preventing users to uninstall your mobile app.

Getting new customers to download your app is only one part of making your app a globe conquering success. The really big apps specialize in longevity. If you want your app to become a global brand, it’s all about staying power.

It’s difficult to keep users satisfied beyond that initial app install, and it can be even more difficult to get meaningful exposure in the first place against larger companies that offer a lot of apps that tend to get space on those Top Ten lists.

Why app gets uninstalled and solution to prevent it?

There are currently 1000 apps being created and added to app stores every day. With the continuous creation of apps, how long does a user actually keep an app for and what are their reasons for uninstalling?

Memory Usage / Network Problem / Freezing / Delayed loading

This may be a major reason for uninstalling an app:

• If the application process is ongoing in the background which tends to consume much power which is disliked by the users.
• If an app is large size and consumes too much space, users quickly ignore and reject the application.
• Network usage is also one of the sensitive reasons for uninstalling an application. If your app is not getting proper network range, users don’t get satisfied.
• Error-prone apps, crashing at every instance, freeing now and then becomes repulsive for the mobile users. It tests their limits and nobody wants to waste time on that.

Solution:

• Test apps, identify the root cause of freezing, and make it a top priority to release a bug-fix.
• Use app analytics platform like “http://retention.ai/” to have a deep analysis of performance glitches.

Excessive Notifications

• Too much of anything is bad for the health! It has been surveyed that 71% of mobile users have deleted any app because of this reason. People get annoyed with too much of pop up notifications.

Solution:

• Give the option of setting and customizing notifications in the app like:
  • Disabling notifications – few or all notifications.
  • Setting notification frequency.
  • Settings for notification alert tone, display etc.

Poor user interface & user experience

• The bad user experience or poor designing of the user interface has led many deletions over the past few years. Unreadable icons, crappy types, complex functionality lead to uninstalling them.

Solution:

• Use standard GUI controls like proper fonts, color, contrast, scroll bars etc.
• Localize your application for giving user more personalized feel and experience.
• Provide simple setup information and instructions for using the app so user feels comfortable.
• Design the app to target multiple devices having different screen size and that can work in both landscape and portrait mode.
• Provide searching and filter feature in your app so user can find relevant information quickly.
• Limit the app with fewer pages and less navigation so user does not have go here and there for performing actions.

Reckless Ads

• Be it video ads or full screen ads, they add delay to the users. Ads are an essential part of free application development but a consciously contracted, non-intrusive and informative advertisement distracts the user in operating the app.

Solution:

• Limit the number of ads been displayed while operating the app.
• If possible show ads only on few less important screens of app and those screens which are more important or useful should be ad-free.
• Checking the Click Through Rates (CTR), layout, format, size, the proper on-screen position of the ad makes it less vulnerable to deletion.

Privacy Matters

• If the application is asking too many permission, it can irritate the user in accessing his personal data and may result in deleting an app.

Solution:

• The application must assure about the privacy, should not ask about unnecessary access permission. Stop asking for more access than is strictly necessary for the app to function properly.

Compulsory Social log-ins

• Due to security concerns user hesitate to use their social login credentials as it involves accessing private and confidential data of the mobile. If user is forced to compulsory use their social login to access the app then they might uninstall the app due to security concern.

Solution:

• Instead of forcing user to compulsory use the social login, give them the choice to either use social login or inbuilt login feature like email / mobile number / username and password to access the app.

Complex Registration Process

• First impression always matter. In most of app, especially m-Commerce apps user must first register to access the app. No matter how useful the app is, user will avoid using the app and uninstall it if the registration screen is too long and complex where user has to type in or select lots of information in order to access the application. The mobile screen size is limited and typing lots of information with mobile keyboard is annoying.

Solution:

• Keep the registration screen simpler, asking less details like Name, Email, Phone number and password. A user can fill this type of registration screen quickly and easily.

Asking for ratings

• Apps that are intrusively pushing for good ratings tend to be uninstalled. Frequent prompts for rating mobile apps are disturbing, even more, when they are served up on app start-up after having previously used the app once or twice.

Solution:

• Don’t ask for rating forcefully in popup or alert screen; instead keep the rating screen in menu section / settings section / help section from where user can rate the app if they want to.
• Don’t ask for rating if the user has already rated the application previously.