Maintaining and updating an app is an ongoing investment, essential for keeping your app relevant, functional, and competitive. The cost of keeping an app running in the UK can vary based on several factors:

1. Hosting and Server Costs: These costs depend on the type of server you choose, and the number of active users your app has. Cloud-based solutions offer scalability and flexibility, with costs typically based on usage.
2. Maintenance and Updates: Regular updates are essential for fixing bugs, improving performance, adding new features, and ensuring compatibility with the latest operating systems and devices.
3. Marketing and Promotion: To attract and retain users, you'll need to invest in marketing and promotional activities, such as app store optimisation, advertising, and social media campaigns.
4. Customer Support: Providing prompt and effective customer support is crucial for a positive user experience.
5. Licensing and Fees: You may need to pay ongoing fees for third-party services, APIs, libraries, or software licenses used in your app.
6. Monitoring and Analytics: Tracking app performance and user behaviour is essential for making informed decisions and identifying areas for improvement. The more advanced tools come with a subscription fee.

Generally, the cost of maintaining an app can range from 10% to 20% of the original development cost annually. The actual cost can vary depending on your app's specific needs and your own capabilities for some of the above tasks.

There are several ways a free app can generate revenue, and many successful apps use a combination of these strategies:

1. In-app advertising: Displaying ads within the app is a common way to monetise free apps.
2. In-app purchases: Offering additional features, content, or virtual goods for purchase within the app can be a lucrative revenue stream.
3. Freemium model: Provide a basic version of the app for free, while offering a premium version with additional features or content for a fee.
4. Subscription model: Offer recurring subscriptions for access to exclusive content, features, or services within the app.
5. Sponsorships and partnerships: Collaborate with brands or businesses to promote their products or services within your app. This could involve sponsored content, branded features, or affiliate marketing.  

At Foresight Mobile, we can help you explore the most suitable monetisation strategies for your app, ensuring it generates revenue while providing value to your users.

The key to success with a free app is to attract a large and engaged user base. By providing a high-quality app with compelling features and content, you can increase the chances of users opting for in-app purchases, subscribing to premium features, or interacting with ads.

The cost of building an app in the UK can vary widely depending on several factors, including:

• Complexity: Simple apps with basic features will naturally cost less than complex apps with advanced functionality, integrations, and complex designs.
• Features: The number and type of features you want to include in your app will significantly impact the development cost.
• Design: Custom UI/UX design and intricate animations can add to the overall cost.
• Development Team: The hourly rates of developers and designers can differ depending on their experience and location.

At Foresight Mobile, we understand that every project has a unique budget. That's why we offer tailored solutions to ensure your app development stays within your financial constraints. We work closely with you to understand your specific needs and priorities, providing transparent cost estimates and flexible payment options.

We can also leverage our EU-wide network of skilled developers to find the most cost-effective talent for your project without compromising on quality.

Foresight Mobile can assist you with publishing your app to the multitude of Android stores worldwide. These include manufacturer app stores such as the Samsung Galaxy Store, Amazon App Store, Huawei AppGallery and Xiaomi GetApps. We can also help you distribute through China-specific stores if required.

The official IDE used for native Android development is Android Studio, which is a free version of IntelliJ and specifically tailored for Android developers.

The development time for an app can vary significantly depending upon a number of factors. A simple app with basic functionality might take 2-4 months, with more complex apps taking up to 6 months to complete.

We monitor your app’s performance through a combination of custom analytics dashboards, performance monitoring and crash monitoring. This enables us to proactively identify and resolve potential problems before they impact user experience.

By closely tracking vital performance metrics like app crashes, load times, and user engagement, we can identify and resolve potential problems before they impact user experience. We also monitor customer reviews and feedback, as well as conduct regular quality assurance tests with our internal test team. This comprehensive approach ensures that your app delivers a smooth and reliable service.

Modern Android apps are written in Kotlin, which has replaced Java as the main development language for native Android applications. Kotlin is a modern, open-source, statically-typed programming language that is designed to be concise, safe, and interoperable. It is designed to be compatible with existing Java code, which means Java apps can be incrementally updated to Kotlin if required.

The cost of building a native Android app can vary greatly depending on the complexity and features of the app. Generally speaking, the cost of developing a basic native Android app can range from £20,000 to £30,000, while more complex apps can cost upwards of £80,000. At foresight we use the latest Jetpack Compose technologies to reduce development time and complexity.

Android developers pay a one-time fee of $25 to publish an app on Google Play, which compares favourably to Apple at $99 / year. Submitting an app is straightforward, and we're here to help you create an eye-catching store listing with marketing copy and screenshots.

We will typically use a platform such as Firebase to ensure that your app is stable and performant. Firebase is very low-cost during development, and scales automatically as your user numbers grow. There may be other services to consider like content management systems, but most of our apps cost less than £100 / month to run.