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How Long Does It Take to Build an App?

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App making is a serious business. With the demand for mobile apps increasing everyday, getting into app development is a lucrative business opportunity. However, app making is a relatively slow process.

‘How long does it take to make an app?’ is a question that is asked almost everyday. In this blog, you will learn how long app making is and all that is needed to be done to create an app. You will also learn how you can reduce your app’s development time significantly.

How Long Does App Development Take?

To simplify, app development time is varied. There are countless apps on various app stores. The staggering number of apps are usually dominated by complex, poorly designed and clunkily developed apps. However, the app store also contains apps that are designed to wow you and these apps are intuitive, easy to use, and fun to play around with.

The development times for both kinds of apps vary. The bad ones are the ones that are designed and developed in a rushed manner. Apps designed within a few weeks, or a month are usually like that. On the other hand, apps that wow you are designed with care. These apps follow proper app development protocols, use standard industry tools and are made to be better than industry standards. Such apps can take any time from 4 to 9 months to make. Apps may seem simple icons on your screen but their development is as challenging and as rewarding as you can imagine.

The App Development Timeline

Let us now understand the app development timeline.

Writing a Brief for Your App Development Project

Time Taken: 1-2 Weeks

Your app development process begins with writing a brief. The brief of your app will include everything concerning your app development project. It discusses the purpose of the app, the various features it will include, the budget, and the time you will take to develop the app.

The brief is also meant to be a roadmap for the app you will end up creating. A genuine word of advice is that your brief should be developed well. A good app development brief will simplify the processes that will follow it. The better your brief, the better your final product.

If you are in an app development business, the brief will also act as the ‘brochure’ for the people who want you to develop their app.

Researching the App Idea and Finding the MVP

Time Taken: 3-4 Weeks

This is one of the most excruciating parts of app development. It is time consuming and extremely important. The research process for your app begins when you’re writing a brief. However, it continues on after the brief has been approved. It is only after you research your app that a final verdict is reached on whether the app should be made or not.

What does one research?

There are a lot of things that must be researched before approving an app. Here’s a concise list:

• The Market for Your App
• The Potential User Base
• How the App Will be Used
• A Simple Prototype
• The MVP

App Prototype: An app prototype does not mean that you create a complete app. An app prototype will be based around the most important features of your app.

MVP: MVP stands for minimum viable product. A product MVP is the app you will create with most basic features. It is the most basic version of your app. The MVP version of your app must include all the features that are essential for your future user base. For eg, if Instagram is an MVP app it will only give you the ability to upload pictures and follow people.

It is in the research process that it must be decided whether your app is good enough for the market or not. Once the research process is complete and the app is approved, you can move on to making an app.

App UI and Design Sprints

Time Taken: 6-12 Weeks

Here is where a chunk of your time will be taken. Designing an app’s UI also involves testing it. Each potential design and its test sprint can take upto two weeks at a time. This is the time to add specific features and get them tested by potential users. You can take user feedback and insights on what you need and what you don’t need. Not having a design sprint is a major red flag in your app dev cycle. Always do design sprints for you and your customers.

Development Time and Rapid Prototyping

Time Taken: 6-12 Weeks

Rapid prototyping is done alongside development. This combined with design sprints makes up the majority of your app development time. Designing and developing multiple versions of your app and testing them is the only way to ensure that the app you make is actually good. Making quick prototypes and iterations of your app is a good way to ensure that you reach your final app faster.

Once this phase is completed, you can officially send your app to the play stores. After that it will take upto two weeks for your app to finally be approved and deployed.

How to Build an App Faster

This is a question that the entire app development industry has been trying to answer for the past decade. Appy Pie, however, provides a worthy solution.

Appy Pie AppMakr can help you drastically reduce the time taken to prototype and develop your app. Infact, once you’ve mastered our no-code app building software, you can reduce the process of professional app development to a few days. Our free app development course can help you do that.

Appy Pie has been around for the greater part of the decade. It is a fact that most app developers are moving towards codeless development. And Appy Pie stands at the frontier for no-code app development. Our goal is to help businesses and individuals make app development easier. The bad part is that app development is becoming more expensive as each day passes. However, Appy Pie AppMakr can help you make great apps quickly and easily. You can check out our blog on how to create an app.

Conclusion

App development times are slowly increasing as more complex apps are being required. It is a good time to move towards simplifying app development to reduce the time required for it. Infact, this is made worse by the fact that older apps require constant maintenance.

The question of ‘How long does it take’ has a varying answer that keeps increasing with each passing day. It is the perfect time to try and incorporate no code app builders as an alternative way for app development.