5 Mobile App Development Trends to Watch in 2022

The best mobile app developers keep a keen eye on the latest development trends — it's the easiest way to gain a competitive advantage. Staying on top of the latest trends helps development teams to create applications that consumers actually want to use.

As a leader in real-time spatial audio technology, we're constantly monitoring for major advancements in mobile app development. They're often defined by demand. For instance, in 2020, many mobile apps helped people cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by connecting them virtually. The number of downloads for Zoom, Google’s Meet, Microsoft’s Teams, and other video conferencing mobile apps went through the roof.

Let’s get right into the top mobile app development trends to watch in 2022 as you build next-generation apps...

The Top Mobile App Development Trends in 2022

In 2021, the pandemic is still here — it makes sense that videoconferencing, remote education, virtual events, and social audio apps are dominating the mobile landscape... and will continue to into 2022.

One of the pillars of many of these mobile apps is audio, and High Fidelity’s Local Spatializer provides an easy and quick way to integrate high quality, immersive audio within many of these apps. But before we get into that, let’s discuss other mobile app development trends.

1. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

ML/AI continue to rank among the top mobile app development trends with popular apps like Replika, Cortana, and Google Assistant.

FaceApp rose in popularity last year. You probably remember your friends posting photos of what they would look like when they were younger or older, right?

Apple also released some amazing new developments in its machine learning model framework (Core ML 3 Framework) to help iOS developers embed AI into apps.

Here are some general examples of AI features that can be implemented into a mobile app:

• Image recognition
• Face detection
• Text and image classification
• Sentiment recognition and classification
• Speech recognition
• Predictive maintenance

Artificial intelligence can make apps smarter, and ultimately improve the performance at every level. AI will change the way apps are built from the backend development process to the frontend user experience.

2. Integrations With Wearables

According to Statista, the number of wearable connected devices is expected to reach 929 million this year.

Consider the worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Medical devices that track the level of oxygen in the blood got a significant boost in development. More and more people are using smartwatches, health and fitness accessories, etc. Having sensors on your wrist all the time opens up many opportunities for app developers to explore.

Recently, Apple unveiled that Apple Watch apps will no longer even require an iOS app, making it an independent digital device.

3. Chatbots

Chatbots are capable of learning, collecting data, and solving user-issues — without involving a human being. It’s one more step to the world’s digitization and automation… and we live in an economy of instant gratification.

More than 50 percent of buyers want more do-it-yourself (DIY) custom service tools to expedite making an online purchase. The perfect way to extend that sort of customer relationship management? Chatbots.

Also, incorporating chatbots in a website can help companies save a lot of money usually spent on customer care agents. Juniper Research estimates that chatbots will save $8 billion for businesses by 2022. 

Gartner projects that by 2022, 70 percent of white-collar workers will interact with conversational platforms daily.

4. Voice Search Optimization

It seems that the future of web development relies more on the voice and audio than text. Gartner research suggests that 32 percent of users prefer using hands-free technology — it eliminates the hassle of having to type search questions, and allows for multitasking.

More than 420 million voice assistants have been sold. 2022 will see an increase in the use of voice commands for smart and IoT devices — and not only will these devices be able to obey commands, but also offer personalized AI-based experiences and recognize different voices.

Brands that adopt voice search in their mobile apps will grow digital commerce revenue by 30 percent.

5. Spatial Audio

The trend of spatial audio has really taken off in the past year: Apple, Sony, Google — every major company is employing it in their products, and more and more apps are supporting it.

Most recently, the social audio app Clubhouse integrated spatial audio with High Fidelity's Local Spatializer.

Spatial audio means that the sounds and voices come from different directions in the mobile app, so that you can actually understand when multiple people are talking at the same time. It mimics the feeling and sound of a real life gathering. And it doesn't only help create more immersive conversations — research has shown it actually helps reduce cognitive load and improve speech intelligibility, too.

Related reading: What is Spatial Audio?

What’s a huge component in so many mobile apps? Audio. The backbone of good communication. Having seamless, natural conversations on apps with colleagues, friends, and family has never been more important, too. 

There's great opportunity here, then: So many social audio apps, videoconferencing software, and virtual events platforms have been developed in the past year... and unfortunately, we all know about the dreaded Zoom fatigue. What if you didn’t have the awkward “No, you go… No, you…” interactions when accidentally talking over one another, and instead mobile apps had spatial audio that sounded crystal clear?

This is where integrating High Fidelity’s real-time Local Spatializer comes in — it’s a no brainer to stay on top of development trends.

Get Started with High Fidelity’s Spatial Audio in Your Mobile App

These mobile apps that connect us to others will only continue to utilize audio — it simply makes sense to integrate the highest quality spatial audio sooner rather than later.

It should be quick and easy for developers to incorporate spatial audio into their mobile applications, and that’s High Fidelity’s goal with our Local Spatializer. For instance, you could build an app that incorporates voice chat like Clubhouse in a couple of hours. You have full developer control over user positioning, loudness, room attenuation, and other aspects of the audio environment. It's also self-contained code, so there are no third-party dependencies or libraries, and is highly optimized for both x86 and ARM processors.

Empower more human conversations on your native app and don't settle for subpar audio.