7 Mistakes Only the Best Custom iOS App Development Company Can Prevent

As ever, custom iOS app development is in high demand. But if your app is built by the wrong hands, your users will know.

After the new iOS 18 release, consumers expect a more polished and advanced app experience than ever. To meet those standards, watch out for the seven development mistakes that’ll leave your project dead in the water.

But Why Choose Custom iOS App Development?

If you’re wondering whether developing a native iOS app is worth it, let’s put your mind at ease.

With a global market share of 28.3%, iOS is the second largest mobile operating system out there. But even though it’s not number one, its users spend $37.2 billion more on apps annually than Android users.

Here are some of the benefits that have made iPhone apps so popular –

• Apple Ecosystem – Apple’s suite of products and services integrate seamlessly with one another. That means your users can access your iOS app no matter what Apple device they’re using.
• Cutting-Edge Security – End-to-end encryption and multifactor authentication keep iOS users’ data safe. What’s more, users can only download apps from Apple’s dedicated App Store, all of which meet rigorous guidelines.
• Excellent User Experience – Thanks to Apple’s high standards, users know they can expect polished apps from the App Store. This consistently good user experience (UX) makes them more willing to give new apps a try.
• Global Market – The App Store is offered in 175 countries and regions, so iOS apps reach a loyal worldwide userbase. With custom iOS app development, that could be your app, too.

Advantages of Custom App Development

It’s clear that iOS apps are a good idea, but one question remains: why custom development over off-the-shelf app builders?

While pre-made apps may be cheaper to produce, they won’t give you the long-term advantages that custom apps do. Here are just a few of them –

• Customization – Off-the-shelf apps come with limitations and branding that make total customization impossible. Meanwhile, custom app development gives you the creative freedom to fully express your brand identity across design, features, and UX.
• Compatibility – If you want an app that plays nice with your existing software, you need custom development. Tailor-made integration with your inventory management, payment processing, and other applications reduces unnecessary manual tasks.
• Ownership – Off-the-shelf apps are rarely truly yours. Even if you don’t owe the vendor a share of your revenue, your app’s lifespan still hinges on their business. Custom apps, on the other hand, are yours through and through.
• Revenue Opportunities – Endless revenue streams open up to you when you’re in control. Ads, subscription services, and in-app purchases are all on the table, with no third-party restrictions.

All the above benefits make custom-built iOS apps a winning combo for your bottom line.

💡 Want to learn more? Dive deeper into custom mobile app development and its positive impacts, from brand credibility to ongoing support.

7 Common iOS Development Mistakes That’ll Kill Your App

As much as custom iOS app development is worth the investment, common missteps kill thousands of projects a year. So, when embarking on a software development journey, make sure your team knows what it’s doing.

Just one of these seven mistakes could turn your good idea into a disaster.

1) Providing Too Little Feedback

“Feedback,” such as a responsive chime or a button changing color, shows users that the system has processed their actions. Similarly, “confirmation” is a clear message telling users that a task is complete.

Too little feedback and confirmation creates a confusing, unreliable user experience. That’s why a good app –

• Responds to user interactions with immediate, consistent, and intuitive feedback
• Conveys confirmation messages in unambiguous language that won’t mislead the user
• Provides cues for how to exit a confirmation screen or undo an action, if possible

2) Creating an Unintuitive Layout

Nothing says “poor quality” like an app that’s painful to navigate. Cluttering the user interface with buttons, prompts, and features is a surefire way to tank conversion rates. And that’s simply because users won’t know where to go.

The key to a user-friendly layout is to –

• Keep the design consistent, conforming to users’ expectations
• Display only information relevant to the user’s current actions
• Use elements such as icons and drop-down menus to make navigational elements unobtrusive until users need them

Above all, you want your custom iOS app development team to be up to date on the latest UI/UX design trends.

🔥 Hot tip! Many business owners think they can cut corners on design if they’re going for custom business application development. But if you develop an app that doesn’t make sense to your own employees, you’re only making their jobs harder!

3) Draining Users’ Battery

A key component of app development is respecting the limits of common devices. If your app isn’t optimized to preserve battery life, users won’t put up with it for long.

To mitigate this, a good development team will –

• Keep sensor use, network requests, and background activity to a minimum, reducing the number of resources required
• Optimize algorithms and cut down on excess code
• Use Xcode’s Instruments app or iOS devices’ energy logging feature to measure energy usage while the app is running

4) Testing Only with Simulators

Simulators can’t account for the diverse range of iOS devices consumers will be using. Device age, battery capacity, iOS version, performance, screen size, and other factors affect the look and feel of your app.

So, to assess an app’s actual performance, any development team worth its salt tests on real devices. This can be done with Apple’s TestFlight service or with Xcode’s device pairing function.

5) Neglecting Security

Users need to know they can trust your app to handle their data safely. For that, you need a custom iOS development team that prioritizes the following –

• Authentication – Biometric and multifactor authentication have become the norm for modern tech. But at the very least, you’ll need strong password regulations to protect users’ accounts.
• Data Encryption – Sensitive user data must be stored safely using encryption algorithms such as 256-bit AES.
• Secure Coding Practices – Creating insecure code increases the risk of cross-site scripting, injection attacks, and data breaches. This is prevented by validating and sanitizing user input and choosing secure APIs.

6) Making Technical Mistakes

Developing a top-tier iOS app requires more than basic programming knowledge – you’re looking for developers who know their stuff.

That means your team won’t make rookie mistakes like these.

• Not Defining Hardcoded Values – Undefined hardcoded values are meaningless strings of digits to everyone except the person who wrote them. It’s a guessing game that only breeds bugs. So, it’s good practice to define constants with symbolic names.
• Misunderstanding Concurrency – Concurrency uses multithreading to run multiple tasks at the same time. But without careful synchronization, bugs like deadlocks and race conditions appear.
• Mishandling Asynchronous Code – Asynchronous functions, when mishandled, can produce bugs that are difficult to trace and reproduce. It’s necessary to implement proper error handling mechanisms and flatten the code so bugs can be identified.

Fewer mistakes mean fewer bugs, a smoother user experience, and happier customers.

🔥 Hot tip! If you want to outsource custom development, you need a team that will do it right. Perform a thorough background check on custom iOS app development services and browse their portfolio for similar past projects.

7) Bloating the App with Libraries

Open-source third-party libraries are a good shortcut when developing commercial apps on a time crunch. But importing a library brings all its code into your app. This not only increases the size of your app, affecting performance and download speed, but also introduces security risks.

So, your developers will have a few things to consider –

• Whether each library is necessary and trustworthy
• How many resources it’ll consume
• How heavily your code will depend on it

So, Where Can You Find the Best Custom iOS App Development Services?

If you’re looking for custom iOS app development from a team that knows quality, you’re in the right place. At DPL, we have the expertise to make your app the best it can be, through innovation and rigorous testing.

Let us know what you need by filling out the form below. We can’t wait to build the next big hit with you.