There is no doubt that the technique to consume digital media is changing. Rather than accessing the Social Networks and Websites from weighty computers, you can now access them anywhere, anytime by small Smartphones. A report from ComScore in 2016 claims that more than half of the global users access Internet through Mobile devices and the are growing up continuously and nearly 90 percent of that growth directly attributable to the wordpress mobile apps.
The above chart demonstrate that mobile now represents 65 percent of the digital media time and mobile apps taking over that usage. The desktop system has dropped 12 points since 2013 and has been receded to 35% of digital media time spent.
Basically, both terms are referred to the utilization of web designs which are in the position to self-adapt to any device in order to be seen.
Mobile responsive website came into this world when users realized that is functioning poor on mobile devices and shed many potential customers.
As compared to Mobile apps, the directly installed on your mobile devices through a store such as Android Marketplace and Apple App Store and many others, instead of rendered inside a browser like Firefox, Chrome or Safari, etc. The app has an ability to pull the data in various format such as JSON, XML, or Text from the Source site, parse them and show to the customers even they have no internet connection.
It depends all on your final decision. There are several options available in the market to build your website mobile friendly. If your target is to offer your website to the widest possible audience, and you have only a small amount of money to invest then Mobile Responsive option is suitable for you. But, if you want to engage your audience more on your site instead of just read and exit, then I personally think you should go with native apps.
Creating a mobile app is not an easy job for every user as it involves effort, cost and other development and marketing process.
So, if you want to create an app for your website from scratch, you have to spend a lot of time and if you don’t have development skills, then you must have to hire a developer which may charge hundreds of dollars.
There are several options available in the market that save your efforts, time and cost. In this article, I personally collect and examine few WordPress plugins and tools that have an ability to convert your WordPress into an awesome mobile application.
So, let’s look at these tools which you can use to convert your WordPress within a couple of minutes, which may cost you less than $50 which is a great deal.
Universal is template that everyone can use to create their own application. It has an ability to pull the content around the web such as WordPress, Social network, Live TV, Google Map, RSS, and WebView content and combine them in a one customizable mobile application. It also supports Notifications, Admob ads and In App Purchases and support iOS as well. The complete source is available in only $19.
BlogPress is another stunning WordPress app that developed using Android Studio. Using Android Native Libraries and JSON Data feed, this app provides a professional layout for your WordPress. This app is uses Android Material Design and Support up to Android Nougat and have three different Variant of listings. Users of this app can browse authors and their posts, search their content, and view embedded content such as Twitter, YouTube Videos, Facebook Profiles Batches and all HTML5 content that WordPress can support. There are several other awesome options waiting for you to discover at available at $25.
It is an eCommerce Android application which allows you to show WooCommerce products, payments and sales to their customers. This app is directly connected with your WooCommerce store api, and with the help of that your customers can see their sales, details order statistics and many other features at one place. The whole code is available at only $20.
The WordPress News app is fully customizable and available for both Android and iOS. It features Splash Screen, Change Article font size, Sliding menu, and much more available at only $20.
It is an official WooCommerce app for iOS. Users of this app can pull all of the product in one catalog, and browse a particular one; view the number of orders and search by customer name; and manage up to four stores. It is convenient, but need some improvement because of feature limitations.
Wp2android is also an option available in the market for free. It turns your WordPress site into App (Android, iOS and Windows Phone). It’s based on PhoneGap / Cordova environment and using WebView technology. It available both Free and Pro version, but Pro version goes so expensive.
Mobile traffic is the inevitable trend around the globe. Apart from providing a responsive website to your customers, having a mobile app is also much important. It is the next phase to move into a growing market.
Finally, do you have any plan to develop a mobile application for your WordPress and how you are going to do? Let’s share with us in the comment below.