Mobile app on boarding, how to lower the barrier?

The on boarding flow in your app begins when your potential user launches your app for the first time and has to be convinced about the app’s benefits and eventually why he or she should sign up for it. This is the process in which you want to convert your potential user (visitor) into a engaged and active user that repeatingly will use your app.

It will be even better if you can convert your visitor into a user that is referring to your app (ambassador) or a paying user (customer)! To accomplish this the first impression of your app should be impressive from a visual perspective and it should explain what is in it for them.

The on boarding flow of well known apps

Here is how IFTTT does the on boarding in their app. It shows multiple slides explaining you why you should want to use it and what the app is all about. Before you decide to sign up you have a clear impression of what to expect.

If you want to see how other well known apps take care of the on boarding process you can check out the User on board site or the UX Archive.

Many apps, even well known ones, require you to sign up on the first page with little to no explanation what the app is about. That may work well for the Facebook app that almost everybody is familiar with but it is not going to work for your app.

Onboarding patterns

To lower the boarding barrier there are multiple well known patterns that you can chose or combine. Some of these patterns are listed here:

The Introduction approach shows a couple of slides and often require the user to sign up but some apps choose to show the content of the app right away. A Tutorial or a Tour approach show the real app, pointing out some example cases.

A Joy ride approach allows to use the app right away highlighting from time to time features that are new to the user. It is great way of showing what the app is all about but if your app is complex it also may be a little bit overwhelming if you do not this carefully.

A Social sign up allows the user to perform a quick sign up using his Twitter or Facebook account for example. This may be required for the user in order to be able to continue the app but it will lower the barrier if you first show what the app is about and only ask to sign up when needed to proceed.

Late sign up is a concept that is often seen in e-Commerce (and some times in m-Commerce) solutions. Only if you want to check out you have to sign up.

Anothering interesting concept is Continuous on boarding (LinkedIn for example is doing this). We want the barrier to be as low as possible but we also want user profiles to be as large as possible. The concept can be very powerful because it comes with benefits from both worlds. It lowers the barrier (by asking only for the minimum amount of credentials) and it eventually will result in rich user profiles, by encouraging the user to complete his or her profile later.

A known user is more valuable than an unknown one

Probably the best on boarding flow does not require any sign up or login, so you should ask yourself do really want your users to sign up? On the other hand it also true that a known user is more valuable than an anonymous one. In fact we are talking about users versus visitors here. And users eventually become customers while visitors probably never will.

A social sign up has multiple benefits. Not just for the user but also for us, developers. Avoid a lengthy registration process with many fields. The chance that the user will sign up increases and, with the appropriate permissions, you have instantly access to various information of that user, for example an avatar and a name of the user, which is great for personalization options.

Offering a social login could lead to 50% more sign ups. After all, a sign up is only one or two clicks away!

Use Fabric to allow the user of your app to sign up with Twitter or a phone number

There are services that will take away most of the hassle that comes with the implementation of these kind of features, such as the Fabric SDK, which is free to use. The SDK has features for signing up with Twitter but also for a sign up using your phone number, just like WhatsApp is doing.

Conclusion

It is important to keep the on boarding barrier as low as possible and also to make clear from the beginning what is in the app that your user can benefit from.

You can experiment with the different types of on boarding and see what works for your app by obtaining metrics about the conversion and learn from them. And once they are on board (activation) you can focus on optimizing the rest of the flow. Will they keep using the app? (retention) What about referrals and revenue?

As you can see, although intended for SaaS in particular, Dave McClure's start up or pirate metrics can be applied to mobile apps as well. AARRR!

Get the book!

My new book that I am currently working on, together with Arvi Krishnaswamy, is -amongst other things- about the lean startup methodology applied to mobile app development. In this book you can read more about topics such as on boarding, obtaining (actionable) metrics and split testing.

It also comes with some real world examples for both Android and iOS developers. Expect the book to arrive by the end of this year!

Further reading

• 1. User onboard, onboarding flows of well known apps described
• 2. UX Archive, onboarding flows
• 3. Fabric, sign up with Twitter
• 4. Digits, sign up with your phone number
• 5. AARRR! or: Pirate metrics

App of the rings: Neyya, Android SDK and BLE

My great friend Wim Wepster gave me this interesting Neyya ring. Fortunately it did not come with a proposal. Instead it was a great opportunity to explore Bluetooth and alternative wearables, such as this ring.

Neyya is a ring that can send gestures such as taps and swipes to a mobile or another device that is supporting BLE. You can use it for presentations or games, although you can just use your mouse, watch or phone for that as well. So I wondered how it works and what could be an interesting use case for it.

Neyya comes with an iOS and Android app but also with an Android SDK. I was having some troubles with it as it was not able to detect my Neyya ring at all. For the time being (as there must be a more elegant solution for it) I have fixed this by modifying the NeyyaBaseService class within the NeyyaAndroidSDK project.

I removed the check to determine whether the Bluetooth device is a Neyya ring or not from the onLeScan method.

 private BluetoothAdapter.LeScanCallback mLeScanCallback =
   new BluetoothAdapter.LeScanCallback() {
     @Override
     public void onLeScan(final BluetoothDevice device, int rssi,
       byte[] scanRecord) {
         String deviceAddress = 
           device.getAddress().substring(0, 13);

         // if (neyyaMacSeries.equals(deviceAddress)) {
              NeyyaDevice neyyaDevice = new NeyyaDevice(
               device.getName(), device.getAddress());
              if (!mNeyyaDevices.contains(neyyaDevice)) {
                   logd("Device found - " + device.getAddress()+ 
                    " Name - " + device.getName());
                   mNeyyaDevices.add(neyyaDevice);
                   broadcastDevices();
              }
         //}
     }
  };

I did the same thing for the isNeyyaDevice method, like this.

public boolean isNeyyaDevice(NeyyaDevice device) {
  String deviceAddress = 
    device.getAddress().substring(0, 13);

  /* if (!neyyaMacSeries.equals(deviceAddress)) {
       logd("Not a neyya device");
       broadcastError(ERROR_NOT_NEYYA);
       mCurrentStatus = STATE_DISCONNECTED;
       broadcastState();
       return false;
     }
   */
    return true;
  }

Okay, I have to be more careful which Bluetooth device I pick from the list of available devices but at least I am able to continue my journey. Let's connect to the device.

Great! but what is it that we are trying to solve here?

The supported gestures are taps, double and triple taps, swipe left, right, up and down. Now, what problem could this ring solve other than the things that come with the Neyya app already, such as capturing a picture, turning the volume of a device up and down and moving to the next or previous song?

One of the problems that the Neyya ring could help me with is something that most people will recognize. Your best ideas come up when you are not able to write them down immediately, for example while taking a shower or driving a car. In such cases it would be great to just rub your ring to create an audio note. That is easy to implement.

To create a prototype I have modified the ConnectActivity class a little. First in the onReceive method of the BroadCastReceiver implementation I do call a new method actOnGesture

 ...
 else if (MyService.BROADCAST_GESTURE.equals(action)) {
   int gesture = intent.getIntExtra(MyService.DATA_GESTURE, 0);
   showData(Gesture.parseGesture(gesture));

   actOnGesture(gesture);
 ...

That method goes like this

    private String actOnGesture(int gesture){
        Gesture.parseGesture(gesture);
        switch (gesture) {
            case Gesture.SWIPE_UP:
                stopRecorder();
                return "SWIPE_UP";
            case Gesture.DOUBLE_TAP:
                startRecorder();
                return "DOUBLE_TAP";
        }
        return "";
    }

To start recording we will create a MediaRecorder instance and create an output file for it in the m4a format. in the stopRecorder method we will stop the recording.

   private static String mFileName = null;
   private MediaRecorder mRecorder = null;

   private void startRecorder() {
        if (mRecorder!=null){
            return;
        } 
        String timeStamp = "/" + System.currentTimeMillis() +
          ".m4a";
        mFileName = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().
          getAbsolutePath();
        mFileName += timeStamp;
        mRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
        mRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
        mRecorder.setOutputFormat(
         MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.MPEG_4);
        mRecorder.setOutputFile(mFileName);
        mRecorder.setAudioEncoder(.
         MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AAC);
        mRecorder.setAudioSamplingRate(16000);
        mRecorder.setAudioChannels(1);
        mRecorder.setAudioEncodingBitRate(16);

        try {
          mRecorder.prepare();
        } 
        catch (IOException e) {           
        }
        mRecorder.start();
    }

    private void stopRecorder() {
        if (mRecorder==null){
            return;
        }  
        mRecorder.stop();
        mRecorder.release();
        mRecorder = null;
    }

Do not forget to add the right permissions to the AndroidManifest.xml file before you test the app.

  <uses-permission 
    android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />
  <uses-permission 
    android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />
  <uses-permission 
    android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
  <uses-permission 
    android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>

As soon as the app is running and the ring is connected, double tap on it to start recording and swipe up to stop the recording. You can use an app, such as the Astro app, to locate and play the audio file that you have recorded.

Conclusion

Later I will release the code of this POC on GitHub. I need to work out the concept a little bit more. Anyway, I am not fully convinced yet whether the Neyya ring is a useful wearable device or not, but by examing the code I have learned something about Android and Bluetooth and I do have a memo recorder that I can use just anywhere now.

Do not forget to take your phone with you as well, wherever you go. Wait for my first shower-voice-memos to arrive ;) Of course you can use the ring plus app as a spy tool if you want or find other purposes for it. My precious...

Further reading

• Neyya
• Android SDK
• Bluetooth developer
• Create a Bluetooth Scanner With Android's Bluetooth API

Apps on the big screen part II; tvOS app development for real

Earlier I wrote about apps on the big screen, apps for Apple TV and for Android TV. Earlier I have been so lucky to receive one of the Apple TV developers kits so I had some time to play with it. Is it the larger screen or are the many new options that could become available with it causing all the fun? Anyway, I am having a great time creating apps for the new platform.

I had to buy an USB-C to USB-A cable to connect the Apple TV to my Mac book, because Apple informed me that using iTunes on a Mac is the only way to update the Apple TV. That cable did not come with my developers kit so it took some time to get one, as an USB-C cable is not yet in my otherwise large cable collection.

Hello TV!

So I connected the two devices only to find out that iTunes was not able to connect to the server. So, no update yet. But it was fun to find out that I was able to deploy directly from xCode to the TV.

It is not really different from running an app on your iPhone but I was surprised because I thought I had to use the TestFlight app for that and so far I had seen my early creations on the simulator only.

Get up to speed

There is no need to dive into TVML right away. You can use existing Objective-C or Swift code or code snippets and get up to speed with tvOS real quickly. The downside is that currently not all frameworks that exists for iOS are available for tvOS (yet). For some of them that makes sense as Apple TV development comes with some known limitations.

One of them is the lack of any option for local persistency. All application data needs to be stored in the (i)cloud. What makes less sense is that, for example, the Event Kit framework is missing for tvOS. I am sure there will be a workaround for this but these kind of things do not make the life of a tvOS developer very easy.

Parse & tvOS

Using SDKs from third parties in your tvOS project can be an issue as well. For my app I want to store data in the cloud using Parse. I cannot use iCloud because I want to share the app with Apple TV and with Android TV users.

Unfortunately Parse cannot be used, basically because the SDK supports caching and other local persistancy features. It is not going to work and you have to wait until the guys at Parse release a tvOS specific version of their SDK or you can try to use the Parse Rest API and do some things yourself.

Conclusion

Since I am a huge fan of Parse I really miss their SDK for tvOS. On GitHub you can find a Parse REST API approach for tvOS. It is written in Swift and although minimalistic it looks like an interesting start to make my tv app work with Parse anyway.

I still have not totally grokked tvOS yet and how to work around existing limitations but I am doing some great research on the topic. In the mean time you can check out some interesting resources on the topic. There are some nice examples available here. Or check this site or this one.

Or watch this video or this one.

Further reading

• 1. TvOS tutorial (Madeupbypeople)
• 2. Understanding tvOS
• 3. Coding for Apple TV: tvOS Programming Tutorial Overview
• 4. How to build an Apple TV App Tutorial for tvOS
• 5. Parse SDK iOS/tvOS issues on Github
• 6. A Parse REST API approach for tvOS

Your app can open doors: Host Card Emulation

Your app can open doors or make payments or do other cool stuff. Host Card Emulation (HCE) is a technology that emulates a payment or access card on a mobile device using an app. Many Android devices that offer Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality already support NFC card emulation.

A card could be emulated by a separate chip in the device, called a Secure Element (SE). Android 4.4 introduces an additional method of card emulation that does not necessarily involve a Secure Element, called host based card emulation. This allows any Android application to emulate a card and talk directly to the NFC reader.

Using Host Card Emulation you can, for example, pay, travel or check into a hotel, but you need an phone running on Android 4.4 or above.

Any app on an Android 4.4 (or above) device can emulate an NFC smart card, letting users tap to initiate transactions with an app of their choice. Apps can also act as readers for HCE cards and other NFC-based transactions.

Playing with NFC tags is fun, but HCE is even more fun...

Get started

To get started with HCE for Android you can download the card emulator and the card reader examples from GitHub (Or you can use the New, Import sample option from the File menu within Android Studio -for OSX- for that). I have installed the emulator app on an Samsung Note 3. On a second device, a Nexus 5 to be precise, I have installed the card reader app.

After enabling NFC on both devices I am able to read the 'loyality card' that exists on the Note 3 device with the reader app on the Nexus 5 using NFC. That does work great, however I have not been able to do the same with a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini (emulator app) and the Nexus 5 (reader app). For some reason, that I have not figured out yet, the examples do not work with the combination of these (and perhaps a few other) devices.

For a Windows 10 example you might want to check this link.

Secure element

A Secure Element (SE) securely stores card data and does some cryptographic processing.

During a payment transaction it emulates a card to authorize a transaction. The Secure Element could either be embedded in the phone or embedded in the SIM card.

Pay

Google wallet & Android Pay

Android Pay or Google wallet do not (yet) use a device based Secure Element. It uses Host card emulation (HCE) instead. The card emulation and the Secure Element are separated into different areas. It can also be implemented with a Secure Element chip, but this is not yet required.

Android Pay works for KitKat users and higher (Android 4.4+)

Samsung Pay

Samsung Pay works only for a small number of Samsung devices. It is built into Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5, and S6 Edge+. Samsung Pay uses (embedded) secure elements (and it supports HCE).

Since it uses both NFC and magnetic secure transmission (MST) to transmit payment information the service probably will work on more POS as is the case for Android Pay.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay uses a device based Secure Element and does not use HCE. It uses the Secure Element chip on the iPhone as part of the token-generation process and also to store fingerprint data.

I have not seen Apple Pay in action yet. I guess the most nearby opportunity will be in London, where you can use Apple Pay to travel by bus, tram, railway or underground.

Apple Pay works on iOS 8 and above. The functionality is available on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ only.

Windows 10 & NFC HCE

Microsoft supports HCE NFC payments in Windows 10 (mobile). You can check out the Windows 10 HCE Tap to Pay demo on YouTube.

Conclusion

HCE is interesting technology and available for Android & Windows. Apple is doing things differently and, as it seems to be, in a better and a more secure way.

Since both Android and iOS do have their own audience, Android Pay and Apple Pay could perfectly exist next to each other. And then there is Samsung Pay, which probably will become a huge competitor for Android Pay.

And what about us, developers? Well, we have some new challenges and things to figure out...

Further reading

• 1. Android card emulation example on GitHub
• 2. Android card reader example on GitHub
• 3. NFC + HCE Your phone in an interactive world (YouTube)
• 4. Write an NFC HCE app with Windows 10 for mobile
• 5. Apple pay, an attempt to demistify
• 6. Android pay, Google wallet & Samsung pay
• 7. Mobile wallets, Apple Pay vs Samsung Pay vs Android Pay
• 8. Why Samsung Pay is way better than Apple Pay and Android Pay