Reasons and Solutions for a Broken App Discovery

March 10, 2015

Reasons and Solutions for a Broken App Discovery

To our surprise, there are more than 85 percent of apps that rarely show at the top list of the app store. This reveals the challenge involved in app discovery and making one’s app stand out in a crowded app store marketplace.

The app stores are getting smarter with more and more app marketing strategies every day. And as such, deciding which apps to download at the start and which apps to leave will always be a challenge.

There is a lot of difference among the income of most of the app developers. If a handful of mobile app developers are raking in millions, then what is the reason that the other developers are not even able to make a living from their apps?

Let’s look at the challenges on which the developers need to struggle a lot in order to remain in the top list in the app store.

Challenges to the Current State of App Discovery

Too many competitors

This is the most challenging part for survival with millions of players in the app market. There is an ever-growing craze for apps. In fact, there are over 1.2 million apps available in both the Android and iOS app stores. This makes many apps go completely unnoticed. Many developers strive for a 5 star review, but then after getting a 5-star, their competitors comes with a lot of 1 star reviews. This makes the 5-star app stay behind the 1 star app with more ratings and reviews.

New apps buried in the app store categories

The app stores categorize all the apps, and whenever a user searches for a name of the app, the results are pretty good. But what about the newly launched apps? Are they coming in the search results or is there any way that can make the user search for the new apps on the app store?

There are millions of apps in the app stores. As a result, it can be very difficult to discover the new apps on a small screen of a smartphone. Some stores are trying to overcome this problem by making proper categories of apps that can surely help the user to find the best app for them.

Small advertising budgets

It is difficult for some of the developers to compete with the advertising budgets of big companies or big brands. This makes the small developers lag behind the visibility of the big apps with better visibility in the app store due to their mobile marketing efforts.

More apps, and less demand

Mobile app users are demanding less, but at the same time, there are more apps in the app store. The number of apps is increasing daily on the app store, but not all the apps match user demands. This is a huge hurdle when it comes to staying ahead in the app store.

Encouraging activation and use

Even if developers are able to get their apps downloaded and installed on the user’s mobile phones, it is not a given that the app that is downloaded is used by the user. This is the next big challenge which every developer is facing on the app store.

Solutions to the Current State of App Discovery

Now, the question arises of how we can overcome the above challenges, and establish a presence in the top list of apps in the app store. Here are a few ways we can overcome these factors:

App Store Optimization (ASO)

There are many apps on the app store that remain completely undiscovered for many days or weeks. The user searches for an app and is overwhelmed with dozens – if not hundreds – of results, but still not all the apps are visible to the user on the mobile screen.

In order to come up on the first page of Google search, the developers make use of keywords or SEO in order to make the websites discovered in the Google search. The same technique can also be used while developing the apps.

Personalized app recommendations

Facebook has a new section in its mobile version called “Find Apps.” This loads recommended apps based on the interests and hobbies of the user. This is one of the steps taken by Facebook in order to make the undiscovered apps visible on the user screen.

Many apps have already benefitted from this technique, and app stores can also follow the same techniques to make the app search visibility better in the future.

Encouraging reviews and recommendations

Mobile app ratings and reviews are a great way to encourage the user to download and install the app to their smartphone device. Users trust reviews from people who are using the apps from days or months or years. The apps have also been discovered from the word of mouth. The friends and family can recommend good apps among them. This is one of the best methods to discover the undiscovered apps on the app store.

Making search visual

There are ways available that can make the user to see the apps while someone types in the search bar. This is known as the visual search. This way the user can browse without even typing. This is one of the great methods to overcome the challenges of app discovery.

The developers can overcome the challenge of app discovery on the app store itself. The developers need to make sure that they have included recommendations and reviews on their apps to encourage the users to take the plunge and download the app.



App discovery problems can be solved if proper measures are taken by the developers. This is not a big challenge nowadays as, fortunately, developers are getting smarter about their mobile app marketing efforts. They are not only making their apps discoverable, but they are increasing the number of downloads and installs by the users as well.

Go on and make the search for your app visible on the app store. Users are looking for great apps for their mobile phones and there are a number of developers with great apps on the app store.

About the Author

Chirag Leuva is a CEO at Yudiz Solutions, a mobile game development company. He has been in this industry for six years and likes to share everything related to mobile applications. He enjoys pushing the limits of user interaction and finding ways to create awesome reusable components for the mobile environment.

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