Top Ideas & Benefits of Location-Based Applications: Why Do You Need to Know All?

Almost all mobile devices in today’s world have applications integrated with the internet. Most of the applications use your device location to furnish you with the information you require, whether weather updates, eCommerce applications, food ordering apps, banking apps, etc. Due to the electrifying development in mobile technology, mobile apps’ embedded location has become more common within the past decade.

Since the advent of the GPS (global positioning system), when the US Defense department launched the prototype spacecraft in 1978, we have witnessed a revolutionizing shift in computer technology modernization and rapid uptake of GPS technology by mobile applications within the past decade. As a result, location-based applications are becoming more common every day.

We will first understand the importance of location-based applications backed by the. Then this article will discuss the top ideas for the applications that can use the location-based system as their core feature to enhance their respective scope. In the final section of this reading, you will get an overview of how you can build a location-based application.

Location-Based Applications — Get an Understanding:

Location-based services (LBS) were once predicted as a killer feature in mobile applications. Still, despite every negative hypothesis, the use of LBS extends beyond the imagination so far. Location-based mobile applications are the ones that use your device location to provide you with the respective services. Location-based applications have countless benefits for both individuals and business organizations. Let’s understand the importance and benefits of why you need to have location-based applications for individuals.

1. Individual Benefits of Location-based Apps:

Location-based applications are very beneficial for people individually like they can have social communication based on their location. Besides that, location-based searching is another advantage that will help people.

a. Accessible communication with the help of location-based apps:

Location activation can have customized job opportunities from the hiring managers or employers nearby. The applications like communication apps, social media apps, job-seeking platforms like LinkedIn, etc., need to have your device location enabled. The social platforms, dating apps, and communication apps also required an active location of the user to have the best match for similar or nearby profiles.

b. Customized Searching Based on Your Location:

Most internet users prefer to use mobile apps to search based on their current locations. If you want to order food when you feel hungry, you wish to have your meal as soon as possible. That’s why you would like to order food from your nearby restaurant that delivers quickly. Also, if you want to do some shopping or want to buy any gift for someone or any accessory you wish to grab in a hurry, you will prefer a nearby shopping center.

Similarly, if you or anyone in your surroundings needs medical assistance in an emergency, you would look for a hospital within your fastest reach. Similar circumstances may force the mobile app and internet users to search results following their real-time location. That’s why location-based applications are being used by most users worldwide.

2. Benefits Location-based Applications for Business:

All businesses can have multiple benefits by the app feature of location activation. The preceding section will discuss the dynamic professional benefits of location-based applications for various business types.

a. Fast and On-time Services Delivery:

Location-based applications will help businesses to win their customers’ trust. Business organizations can deliver their services to their respective customers on time. For example, location tracking of customers will help the eCommerce business deliver the products timely. Also, the service provider companies like an internet service provider, e.g., OPTIX, can assist in clearing the customer complaints by sending the respective locations’ riders to the client’s home to make any device repair or installation. Or the food delivery services like Food Panda can assign their nearby riders to deliver the order to the customer so that their customer satisfaction graph may amplify vertically. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg since there is lots more to discover within this domain.

b. Employee Location Tracking for Time Management:

The attendance applications that use the users’ location are much helpful for the businesses to track their employees’ locations. Especially if your marketing team is working outdoor or your riders are on their way to deliver your products or services to the client, you can track their location to ensure on-time customer convenience.

c. Location Customized Marketing Notifications:

Suppose your business sells beauty products, office accessories, or anything that people need, or you are a service provider company. You have an application that has location-based users registered. In that case, it will be so beneficial for your marketing team to send them marketing notifications. If your customers are located in Pakistan, India, the USA, Germany, etc., you can send them customized notifications to market your product as per their national festivals, events, etc.

d. Personalized Promotional Digital Advertisement Based on Location:

One of the great business benefits of location-based applications is that you can advertise your products or promote your services to the customers based on their locations. If you are a clothing brand, you can advertise to target the respective native people at the time of local festivals. In Muslim countries, you can target customers on the occasions of Eid. On Christmas, Easter, Holi, Diwali, etc., you can target the customers by native digital advertising on social media as per their respective geographical locations.

Top Ideas for Location-Based Applications:

Now we have understood the benefits of having location-based applications for individual and business use. Now it is crucial to know what kind of apps are the ones that can embed location within them. We will discuss a few top ideas about location-based applications that you can either develop yourself or get developed by a professional software development company.

1. E-commerce applications

The top business sector that has grown beyond the imagination, especially during COVID-19, is the E-Commerce domain. Due to lock down and restrictions like social distancing, people worldwide preferred online shopping even for their daily goods. Sellers can deliver the products to the customers quickly with the help of location-based applications. It is ideal to have a location-based e-commerce application as it will be so handy for both the customers to find the things from nearby buyers and the businesses to target the local customers as per their needs.

2. Healthcare Applications

The healthcare applications like HumWell, etc., will use the user’s location to provide them with information about nearby hospitals, pharmacies, medical facilities, etc. The geolocation feature also helps mobile users find any help in a medical emergency. Similarly, fitness applications allow people to track their health activities like jogging, walking, cycling, etc.

3. Booking, Travel, and Navigation Applications

The travel and tourism industry would have immense utilization of location-based coordinates. When you book or hail a ride, the service provider looks for the nearest ride available to your existing location. Location-based applications also help you to navigate to the destination which you input. Similarly, indoor navigation is also one of the critical features of the location-based application that guides each step and turn-by-turn. When you are in a big building, a huge mall, or a large university campus, indoor navigation becomes your helping hand to reach where you want.

4. On-demand Services

A location-based system is the foundation of all the applications that provide on-demand services to the users. Apps like food delivering apps, taxi and ride-hailing apps, items delivery rider apps require the customer’s location to deliver the order. The on-demand applications serve as the faithful partner in our lives to provide us ease and facilitate us with numerous services.

5. IoT-Based Applications

IoT-based applications are using the location-based system to help facilitate the accuracy of the output of integrated devices. In the applications, the feature of geolocation activation assists in enhancing the performance of IoT-based applications. These devices are also crucial for security purposes, like you can check if your house door is locked or not and security alarm devices if you confront any security threat. You can also check that your refrigerator is on, your electronic devices are correctly off when you are not at your home, etc.

How to develop a location-based application?

The use of location-based applications is increasing day by day. The report of LBMA (Location Based Marketing Association) has concluded that more than 95% of the companies are utilizing location-based services to enhance their business scope. The trend of usage of the location-based application has risen about 18% between 2018 to 2020. In the preceding section, let’s briefly discuss the primary keys to developing a location-based application.

1. Research and Requirements Compilation:

Research is the key to developing any software application, whether a mobile app or a web-based app. First, you need to conduct comprehensive research to gather what kinds of location-based apps are being used by the global companies and which features and international standards these apps possess.

2. Document and Analyze Requirements Feasibility:

In this step, you list down all the functional and non-functional requirements for your application. Put all the requirements you have gathered by your research in a detailed document. You can use this document to analyze the feasibility of the requirements.

• Functional Requirements:

The app’s functional requirements include hosting an application site for the app’s server, optimizing the application, fluent application processing, associated licenses (as per need), storage capacity analysis, DNS record, data storage, functions’ performance, and expected output.

• Non-functional Requirements:

The non-functional requirements of the application include scalability, efficiency, portability, reliability, reusability of the application modules, performance, maintainability, and, most importantly, application security.

3. Align the Technical Skilled Professionals:

After finalizing the requirements, you need to align the technical experts who can put your imagination of developing location-based applications into reality. The software professionals required for any application development include UI/UX designer, one or more software application developers based on the application modules’ functional complexity and technical requirements, system engineer, QA engineer, etc.

4. Wireframing and Designing of the Application:

Design thinking methodology is the main kick-start of any application. When you have detailed and documented requirements and the required technical expertise, then wireframe and UI design will give life to those requirements.

5. Development of the Location-Based Application:

The UI design will help the application developers give insight into the application they have to develop. The development phase consists of two consecutive yet parallel phases, i.e., front-end development and backend development.

• Frontend Development:

Front-end development is also called client-side development. All the visible components in a mobile or web application like age layout design, buttons, slider and images, all CTAs, etc., constitute the front-end of the applications. Whatever design the UI/UX designer has created will be converted into a coding output called front-end development.

• Backend Development:

Backend development is also called server-side development of the application. It constitutes all the backend components of an application like backend logics development, API creation, server and cloud integration, database management, etc.

6. QA Testing and Bug Fixing of the Application:

Software testing is a crucial phase that determines the application’s reliability and conforms to whether the application is ready to deploy and launch. The main aim of the QA engineer is to dig into the functionalities of the application from both functional and non-functional perspectives. Every functionality is tested from all possible dimensions that users would get a smooth and flawless application to use. Whatever bugs or issues arise during this phase, the developers fix them from the programming end, either frontend or backend.

7. Launch and Deployment of the Application:

After the quality assurance testing and the fixing of the bugs and issues detected by the QA engineer, the application is ready to deploy and launch. The application deployment method includes the configuration and installation of any specific location. The deployment is done via an application manager or software management system. The whole application code is pushed to a particular URL on a server from where users download and install the application.

Bottom Line: Get your Applications Built with CodeLabs:

Location-based applications are becoming more and more popular with time. And we discussed above how location-based applications are helpful for personalized and business use. There are countless ideas for location-based applications, and you can get more benefits from these types of applications. This article has also discussed developing a location-based application from a top-to-bottom standard software development approach.

However, you can get your applications developed by CodeLabs, where experienced professional engineers take in-depth insights into all the development phases. If you’re looking for a professional software development company, contact us today without further delay!

Originally published at: https://codelabs.inc/ on February 22, 2022.