Dive Brief:
- Consumers value time savings and convenience in the app experience, and these features are key for driving long-term engagement, according to a survey of 4,000 consumers in the U.S. and UK released last month by Yodel Mobile, an app marketing agency.
- Consumers cite “it saves me time” as the top reason why they continue using an app, selected by 38% of consumers, the survey found. The next-highest ranked reason was “it makes something easier or more convenient” at 36%, tied with “it’s enjoyable or entertaining.”
- Significantly fewer respondents were interested in the novelty of regular feature additions. Only 18% of consumers cited “new and fresh content” as a reason for continued engagement, and 14% cited “new products and features.”
Dive Insight:
Consumers are more likely to turn to apps that offer helpful and practical features, rather than those that emphasize unique functionality or personalization.
“The apps that achieve sustained engagement rarely do so because of a single standout feature,” Rishan Weerakoon, strategic growth director at Yodel Mobile, said in the report. “They succeed by consistently solving a genuine problem, removing friction and making something in a user’s life easier, faster or more enjoyable.”
When asked to explain the features that make an app feel worth keeping in their own words, 4 in 5 of usable responses focused on apps making their lives better or fitting naturally into their routines, according to Yodel Mobile.
The most common themes in the open text responses included “overall value,” “regular/frequent use” and “useful/serves a purpose.”
Less than 1% of responses cited personalization or fresh content and unique functionality, but that doesn’t mean those elements aren’t important, according to Yodel Mobile. These features can still be important, provided they contribute to the app offering a valuable experience for users.
Other research has also found useful features are key to app longevity. Consumers are more likely to keep retail apps that save time, make shopping easier and deliver value past an initial transaction, an August Adobe study found.
Notably, the Yodel Mobile report found that most consumers don’t appreciate notifications meant to encourage more app use. Half of consumers say notifications designed to bring them back to an app are annoying, and fewer than 1 in 5 say they find these notifications useful, according to the Yodel Mobile study.
