People use Amazon for shopping, Uber for booking cabs, and a number of other mainstream apps for performing specific tasks. Each of these mainstream apps serve their utility reasonably well. Users rarely go out of their way to look for alternatives to Facebook, Uber, or Amazon. Each major space has room for two or three primary apps.

This crystallization of the upper echelons of the app world causes users to recede in passivity. Discovery was a driving force behind the rise of mobile apps in the early years of the smartphone era. Now, in 2021, discovery is virtually non-existent. People already have all the apps they need and don’t go out of their way to download something new.

What is app fatigue?

App fatigue is a situation where people no longer actively look for mobile apps on app stores. This situation arises when a common set of apps corner the entire app market and retain users with consistent performance updates and new features. Since users are delivered solid experiences consistently, they don’t venture out looking for other mobile apps.

The numbers backup the growing problem of app fatigue,

Source: Enterprise Monkey

If 51% smartphone users don’t download an app over the period of a month, app companies have many reasons to worry. Rise is user acquisition costs can also partly be attributed to app fatigue and a general satisfaction with mainstream apps.

Does growing app fatigue mean companies must stop launching apps?

The solution is not to give up finding app success entirely. New apps still manage to break through and become part of the mainstream. It is vital for app companies to find solutions to the problem of fatigue and create their own traction.

How to deal with app fatigue?

There are many ways to tackle the saturation in the app market. App development is more common now than it has ever been. Users can create a mobile app using the AppMySite free app maker in minutes. Dealing with app fatigue should thus be a more ubiquitous goal.

#1 – Make an app when you have a viable community of regular engagers

A lot of companies launch an app even before they have a community of customers and website visitors. This is a classic marketing mistake that plagues the app world at large.

App marketing is very tedious. It takes for every channel of app promotion to deliver in terms of app downloads. It is unfeasible for a small app startup for instance to wait for six months to rank well for a particular keyword on the Google Play and Apple App Store.

A simple solution to this problem is converting regular website visitors into app users. This can help companies get their app off the ground during the early stages after launch.

Many app companies don’t actually fail because of a poor app. Despite having a decent app, they fail because their burn rate is too high to survive many months with low app downloads.

Leveraging your community of website visitors into becoming app users helps companies get the engagement they need to survive. This also reduces the burden on the app marketing team to immediately get downloads.

How does this solve the problem of app fatigue? Even fatigued users will download your app if they belong to your community of followers. You can trump the problem of app fatigue and saturation by leveraging your community of excited visitors.

It is thus vital to only launch an app when you have a viable community of followers and visitors. Never walk blindly into launching your app. Build your own demand before jumping into starting an app.

#2 – Upgrade technologically

One of the main reasons for app fatigue is that users in general feel all apps offer the same functionality.

If every app is the same, most users would choose mainstream apps because they consistency in performance and service

The best way to set your app apart is upgrading technologically. This means adding cutting edge features that very few apps in the market offer.

There are a whole host of technological innovations people have been demanding for years. The integration of augmented reality with ecommerce apps is a good place to start. Innovations like these can trump app fatigue because people always value advancement in features and functionality.

#3 – Mobile traffic

This strategy of tackling app fatigue is not exactly for every app company out there. Someone launching a WooCommerce app naturally needs a more efficient solution. Working on mobile traffic is a great solution in such a case.

Developing a solid mobile website can have a sizable knock-on effect on app downloads.

Data from Appsflyer shows that roughly 10% of app downloads are preceded by a visit to the app’s official website. It is a safe bet to assume that most of this web traffic happens on smartphones.

Making this strategy work naturally means creating traffic magnets. It is thus important for app companies to work on various schemes to get web traffic consistently. These schemes include SEO, social media, email marketing, and more.

App companies have to make sure they promote their apps on their websites effectively. It is crucial to make every website visitor understand the benefits of downloading the app.

Companies can also consider providing reward points or any special offers to users who do go on to download the app. The bottom line is giving fatigued users every reason to look beyond app saturation and download the app.

In conclusion

Thanks to tools like AppMySite, anyone can turn a WordPress website to app for Android and iOS platforms. App development is thus easy and straightforward.

The real challenge is overcoming the obstacles of mobile app marketing. App fatigue is one of the major roadblocks in promoting mobile apps. This piece provides an introduction to app fatigue and how companies must deal with it.